Here is a car model i’m working on when i have time. It’s been a work in progress for some time, and mostly for self-development. I hope someone will give me constructive critique on this one… Interior will come when i get the time to do some more. For the time being, external details are my focus.
Thanks in advance.
-c-
looks like its made out of plastic
Hmmm… I’m not too good with nodes yet… need to practice more…
just make it more glossy. and also add more light so we can see the weels. enough light to see the debth in the ties
also dont tilt the camera 
Wheels aren’t done yet… but they are coming, actually looking at them right now. So they will be different… I’m modelling the S4 original rims… 9 spokes…
a start for glossy paint node stuff is to mix a diffuse and glossy (both with low roughness) using fresnel with <2 IOR as “fac” input 
Thanks, i’ll try that…
New update… Updated the paint-job, making new rims and tyres. Does anyone have tips or a link to a tutorial on how to model a realistic good looking tire? Mine looks … dodgy… 
You really should set more realistic parameters for your cameras. Picking a preset would be a good start as right now it looks like you’re working on an ortho view.
Okay, i’ll try using something more in line with the standards… I’ve used the really wide aspect because i wanted a nice background for my 2-screen monitor setup. I also used something like 90 mm lens.
-c-
I’ve updated the camerasettings for something more realistic. Using panasonic hvx200 settings, since i have that camera standing on my shelf here…
Btw… Is it okay for me to have this thread here on focused critique? It’s still a work in progress, but i’m really serious about honing my skills, so i really want that kind of critique on my model… What do you think?
I tried changing the paint-color to what my original car is… dark green metallic… And fixed some details on the rims and tires… Also did some work on the brake-discs… but you can hardly see those right now anyways… I’ll add calipers and springs later…I also changed the background a little to fit the car-color…
Much more professional! I’m not a fan of the olive green though :no:
Hehe, thanks… i’m sorry about the olive green though… That’s the color on my car… I’ve had to split up the materials on some of the different parts, so it would be a pain to change the color now i think. It’s because of the metallic flakes, the voronoi… It has different sizes for the frames, doorhandles, the stripes and the rest… I used the ‘generated’ UV option, and to be able to change it on those respective parts, i had to separate the materials for those parts… Is there a way to instanciate parts of a nodetree? That way i could instanciate the main shader, and just have separate UV mapping settings for the textures…?
Going by how the headlights look I guess that you didn’t model them at all and just slapped an image with some shading. I’d try modelling the visible parts of the headlight so they don’t look like the sticker of a toy car.
In older cars I usually go with a texture for the inner face of the glass as a displacement map. For example:
For some reason I think that the proportions of your car are off. I’d look for its blueprints online and tweak it with them as a background in ortho view.
You forgot the bumper grid too.
I had the blueprints in the background when modelling it, and i kept to the lines properly. And i have modeled the insides of the light as well, with a second glass just behind the main glass to have that bumpy-glass feeling… I didn’t make the bumper-grid, but at the time, that was mostly because i didn’t like how it looked, so i’m planning on doing that for later, when i have figured out how i want it.
Actually, the light inside the headlights are also meshlights, 3 on each side… Also a weak orange light inside the blinkers…
-c-
I don’t really know what to say then. Maybe looking online for a better glass shader and doing some testing with an HDR background would help.
The bumper looks way better with the grid, IMHO.
It’s definitely improving with each iteration. It looks like you’re using an HDRI image for lighting, which is definitely a key element to realism. Think about a more dramatic viewing angle, perhaps lowering the camera to more wheel height and looking up at the car slightly from - for example - a placement nearer the front driver-side wheel. In this sense you’re original render has the most dynamic composition.
In a render like this, tires can actually be pulled off almost entirely with bump and/or displacement mapping rather than geometry. Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses!
I’ve done updates to the bumper, and kinda went with the original look. The only difference would be the indentation for the licenceplate. Otherwise fairly original. I also searched google for pictures, and figured what did look a bit off. Eparadrapo, you were right, there was something strange going on, and i think i’ve found out what it was… The hood was a bit too high at the front, and the roof was also a bit too high close to the doors… It made the whole car look a lot more ‘boxy’… Well, here’s the image… I’ve also tried updating the green color. There were two different greens around 1995/1995, the olive-green and also one more bluish-green. I like that latter color better i think… Allright, let me hear what you guys think…
And… i don’t know if it became better or not, but i tried tweaking the glass on the headlights…
Much better and looks awesome!
Did you test the HDRI (or a plain world setup) to try bringing light to the headlights? Just a quick test without your box would tell you a lot to tweak your light sources or if you need to fake something. A neutral HDRI matching your scene is great to enhance dark areas and bring some random reflections to make your model more vibrant.
Dunno if you’re doing any compositing but at first I wasn’t doing any for my renders and some tweaking can make a huge difference. Play around with the compositor as it will pay off, guaranteed.
