Since I was a child, I've been attracted by little things.
I have painted aircrafts models, searched for fossils always on all fours, etc. My first vocation before being a computer graphic artist was to learn archeology, so you see… I think photography helped me a lot to maintain this taste for the "little world". I'm fond of depth-of-field blur, thus I like macrography, no wonder! I like all these little things and the hidden details you can not see otherwise.
Realism is also something I like. I've always tried to make my 3D works as realistic as possible, paying attention to every detail.
Before "Little metal car", I made "Little metal aircraft".
The latter was my first attempt to make a 3D image people would confuse with a real photo. These toys were bought when I was living in Madagascar. Back then I saw these toys everyday, raising my desire to reproduce them in every detail. It was also a way to make something quite different from the really clean 3D cars we're always seeing around.
My challenge was to make this car fully realistic, composited on a real photo, with as many pieces as the real model and by using 100% procedural materials. All work has been done with Maxon Cinema 4D and composited using Photoshop.
I started by taking photos of the model, of
a mythic Citroen 2 CV. Two photos were enough to place the points. The rest was done using my eyes. I started modeling in symmetry and used several methods. The first was point to point with a bridge tool to make large and specific shapes (ex. doors, mud flaps, windowpanes, bodywork). Another was to make the first polygon that I extruded and edited. Finally,
I also used and edited existing objects like cylinders and cubes to start wheels or headlights. I made as many pieces as the real model. Because I used this model for close-up views, the details were the most important thing. I also modeled non-visible objects for two reasons: first, my final scene idea wasn't clearly defined, so I could have the ability to use the model as I want. Second, it was also, to be honest, for fun, why not!
All pieces got their thickness modeled. The windshield is drilled like in real-life, by two nails which hold the windshield wipers. Weldings are also made. I used the HyperNURBS to smooth the shapes and was always comparing with the original model. Finally I needed to "kill" the symmetry and I edited each point. Modeling took me about five days, depending whether I needed sleep or not, (and I did).
