51 Chevy Pickup, COMPLETED! (For real this time!)

@MonkeyT , it's looking good.

Depending on the look you are trying to achieve, some suggestions:
  • To me, the truck materials look soft. I think it could use some fresnel reflections and bump map.
  • Maybe subtle bump where paint peels off and/or where rust is pitted.
  • Maybe try converting the truck materials to PBR (if not already?)
 
I honestly considered the bird poop conundrum and decided against it. I'll justify that with "there being no nearby trees, it would have to be a flyby pooping." For me, this is similar to how a heavily weathered and rusted 70 year old farm truck actually has no dents on the body whatsoever. Let's just call it idealism.

Jeez! Windshield wipers! There IS more work to do!

The original truck design seems to have had no turn signals, but this lights inside the grill bars are common and may have operated that way, and it seems most rebuilds use them for that purpose. I've seen images with tail lights haphazardly mounted on the rear fenders, the side of the bed or on the bumper, which seems to imply they weren't part of the original design, but were required quickly just a few years later. Windshield wipers, however, seem to universally have a common mounting point - though I can't find a single photo of an old or junked truck that doesn't have relatively modern windshield wipers. I may actually have to read things instead of looking at photos to learn the truth.

I'm inclined to add the wipers, repair (but muss up) the glass unless I can find some good historical wiper examples. Maybe find a way to subtly imply some tire ruts on the ground, to raise uncertainty about whether the truck is homeless and forgotten.
 
@MonkeyT , it's looking good.

Depending on the look you are trying to achieve, some suggestions:
  • To me, the truck materials look soft. I think it could use some fresnel reflections and bump map.
  • Maybe subtle bump where paint peels off and/or where rust is pitted.
  • Maybe try converting the truck materials to PBR (if not already?)

I originally started with the default rust material, and literally cloned the turbulence node from it at a larger scale, using that to subtly darken all the colors in a similarly random fashion without disrupting the original colorization much. there is a slight bump from the original rust turbulence mixed with noise applied overall, to get some bump on the rust, but less on the worn metal. That bump could be made stronger.

I haven't considered creating the textures in PBR, but then I definitely have a LOT to learn about PBR. Sounds like a decent experiment.
 
From now on, PBR is probably where I'll start with new textures. A bit more work is needed, but I see lots of possibilities. Thanks for the push. Off to find more reference pictures.

PBR Texture Comparison.jpg
 
Like seemingly everyone else here, I, too, like the old cars much more than what is seen on today's streets (somehow they stopped building interesting looking cars somewhere in the mid-seventies). And I like your execution.

Just one thing I really don't like, even if it is physically accurate (it doesn't look so in my eyes), is the blueish color of the chevrolet-sign. And somehow it looks a bit too shiny. So I hope you'll get more out of it with the right materials and new textures. Good luck.
 
Like seemingly everyone else here, I, too, like the old cars much more than what is seen on today's streets (somehow they stopped building interesting looking cars somewhere in the mid-seventies). And I like your execution.

Just one thing I really don't like, even if it is physically accurate (it doesn't look so in my eyes), is the blueish color of the chevrolet-sign. And somehow it looks a bit too shiny. So I hope you'll get more out of it with the right materials and new textures. Good luck.

Yeah, I haven't found a good color photo of an old one. They seem to have been colored using either poured acrylic or bakelite, which does very weird things as it ages. I was going for a vibrant blue that had a white, dusty glaze formed atop it. The original rusted chrome material I was using didn't provide enough contrast to see what it was until I went very bright. The new PBR-based rusted chrome (though I'm still not quite done with it) is showing off those sharp edges better. I think I can go darker now. Thanks.
 
BTW The bottom pic in the double renders above looks much better than the other. Nice job on everything!
Thanks! That's the PBR based texture instead of the default Material node. The math is pretty much the same, but using PBR's more complex selection of reflection/shinyness options helped me sharpen it up a lot.
 
I was thinking of a painting I did when I was about 14, of an abandoned pickup in a field, and a cool photo of a 51 Chevy pickup crossed my path, so I embarked on a new project to work on modeling. I couldn't find any straight profile images to work from, so for reference, I located a good one-piece STL model (a free download). Comparing it to the photos, the curves are pretty accurate.

My version is still very incomplete, but it is created entirely using Cheetah3D's shapes, distortion modifiers and as little polygon handwork as I can manage (no splines yet). I'm very happy with the body shapes (there are lots of perspective view photos available to check against ) The front fenders were pretty challenging to plot out (and the wheel wells haven't been cut out yet) but the vent on the side was murder (it's curved vertically but with different amounts of curvature as you move upward, the surface is curved horizontally from front to back, so the vents are vertically twisted and sheared to keep the blades straight and aligned).

I also spent a good while working on the rust texture on Sunday. I've kept many files, the work files (with the modifiers and such needed to distort the shapes are still in place), and two finish files with shapes converted to polygons and assembled in place. I also have one version using the rust textures and another using showroom textures.

Suggestions are welcome.

I have only a rough strategy of how to use particles to make the model appear to be lost in the tall grass ( I could photoshop it, but I want to get as close as possible to a complete 3D render first ). Cutting out the doors and hood will also be fun.

I really do love working with this program.

View attachment 36071View attachment 36070
reference model:
View attachment 36072
Superb!
 
From now on, PBR is probably where I'll start with new textures. A bit more work is needed, but I see lots of possibilities. Thanks for the push. Off to find more reference pictures.
Going to PBR really made a difference. I thinking it may be the fresnel which is helping most.
A couple of miles from my home is an old pickup which looks very similar to your illustration. It's kept in an old barn which has no doors, so it is easily seen from the road.
 
THIS IS IT. I'm sending it out to be printed on a 10"x14" metal plate this evening.

Last round of changes made:
I sharpened up the rusted Chrome PBR texture.
I worked on the dark green grass to make it blend into the HDR easier (twisted the shape, no square polygons, and more density to better imply the shadow under the truck.)
Tweaked the tires to make the wheel slightly more visible.
Finished the modeling of the bed of the truck, all of which is obscured from this angle.
Fixed the windshield and added the wipers because I found no good photos of original antique wipers.
Built a deeper blue material for the hood's Chevy emblem.
and the final change: I manually added the flare on the very front edge of the hood.

Entirely modeled and rendered in Cheetah3D. No retouching, except the signature I'll add before shipping it out for printing. (It's a gift for my Mom's birthday.)

Thanks to everyone for their support and suggestions.

51 Chevy Outdoors - Jun5_FINAL_sm.jpg
 

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I thought your posts looked good many posts ago.
I'm Amazed you improved on something I thought was already good.
Thanks for sharing. I learned a lot of good ideas from your posts.

Jeanny
 
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