Tutorial: Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren

Interested in 3D car modelling? This tutorial documents the development of a Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren.

Clicking any of the tutorial images links opens the image in a new window. Move through the tutorial images in that window while reading the main text.

by MARCO WEIß (modelling) & DANIELA GREULICH (documentation & screenshots)

Preparation

For reference I used a lot of photos from the web. To rebuild objects without a blueprint I usually use two computer screens—my main screen for work and a second screen to show the template pictures in different views.

Before I started with modelling I took the measurements of the original car and calculated their ratio to get the right proportions.

Modelling and techniques:

Subsurface divisions
Symmetry objects
Point to point modelling

Figure 1. [Click to enlarge]

Point to point modelling

See figure 1. Select the POINT TOOL (1) and LIVE SELECTION (2).

Select the polygon points with the mouse (3).

Right mouseclick and select CLONE (4).

Move the new Points in the required direction (5). Right mouseclick and select CREATE POLYGON (6).

To build a new polygon surface 4 points have to be connected. Select the points in the clockwise order shown in the screenshot. Start with (7) and finish the selection with (11). After the selection of the last point a new surface is created.

TIP: Don’t clone too many points with one selection, otherwise it gets too
confusing.

The top left image in figure 1 shows the object structure in Cinema 4D and the begin of the modelling with the bumper.

Settings of the Hypernurbs object:
Subdivision editor: 2
Subdivision renderer: 3

Figure 2. [Click to enlarge]

I always start with the modelling at the front and develop the bodywork step by step to the backend.

Figure 2 shows the bodywork in different stages of development. Working time so far: 11 hours.

Vehicle parts and construction

Figure 3. [Click to enlarge]

As you can see in figure 3, the bodywork exists of several single parts.

Just as a real car is made, I model the different parts of the bodywork and match them together.

I bend the edges of the components and line them up to get sharp and clear edge courses.

Figure 4. [Click to enlarge]

Figure 4 (top two images) Raw body work finished and windows fitted. Working time so far: 13 hours.

(bottom two images) Backlights finished. Working time so far: 14 hours

Wheels, Rims and exhaust finished. Frontlights concepted. Working time so far: 20 hours.

Last Steps: Mirrors, windshield wipers, interior, bottom and wheel panels.

Finished model without textures

All Textures and Materials are selfmade.

Figure 5. [Click to enlarge]

I start with texturing and lighting while modelling the several parts of the car. With textures and a raw lighting setup you are able to better see any bugs in the mesh, because very bug shows some “crooked” reflections on the surfaces.

Altogether I used 23 different Materials. Some standard C4D materials were used, such as for the mirrors and the tyres, but for all materials that required alpha channels, such as the windowframes, I made high res graphics in Corel.