For our 3rd project we will be using MagicaVoxel for the 3D models. We have 6 animators working with us, yet it's still good to know how to use the program. First I downloaded the program and then watched this YouTube tutorial. It was about making a tree yet I knew what I wanted to make.
I went in and re-created the car model from my Barnstorming remake.
I started off pretty much the same way I did with the original model. With the wheels. I made one, then duplicated it 3 times. This gave me the general dimensions of the car, placing the 4 wheels. From there, I made the 2 axles connect the front and back wheels, then have the drive shaft connect those 2. Then the base plate and the orange "wheel guard" thing. From this point I was already using quite a few tools. I used the circle tool to create the wheel shape, the paint tool to make the white hub caps and the "extend" tool to make the axles.
The next step was for the body of the car. I tried to get a similar looking red and began to draw it on. For this part I turned on the mirror option, so that I really only needed to create half the car. Since I was working with voxels and could pretty much draw on the textures, I decided to add some detail. The shape of the door and edges of the car's body are painted on in a darker red. I think it makes the car look a bit better, yet some could say it makes it look tacky.
Other features I added to the car that diverted from the original was:
- Spare wheel.
- Dimension to the car body.
- Bottom axles and driveshaft.
- Interior.
I made an interior to the car. It had a dashboard, steering wheel, pedals and seats. For this I needed to really know the camera tools. They were pretty easy to understand and actually much better in my opinion than other 3D model programs. Here, you just hold right mouse button to look around and scroll wheel to zoom in and out. While other programs like Maya require you to hold ALT to look and move around, MagicaVoxel is simple yet effective in its camera controls.
