Some quick questions regarding lesson 7

3:20 PM, Saturday December 16th 2023

Hey, I recently started lesson 7 and while I don't feel as overwhelmed as I was scared that I will be, there is a number of specific questions I've got to ask.

  1. Non of the demos cover it , however I found that the easiest way for me to fit my orthographic breakdowns into a box, is to put it in the middle, instead of the side. This is how Uncomfortable did it in the computer mouse demo in lessons 6. Is it ok if this is how I do all my vehicles, or should I avoid using an easier, but perhaps not as useful for this exercise method?

  2. In the demos, Uncomfortable finds the perfect circle for wheels in orthographic view, usually by using a tool designed for that. Can I also use a ruler to measure that first perfect square for the circle, or do I have to eyeball it?

  3. Intro video and demo for 1967 Shelby Mustang Demo uses photoshop to break down the reference. Is this something I can do digitally too, or should I avoid digital even for this process?

  4. I use The Crew: Motorfest to get most of my references. It's a video game with extremely convincing models of 600+ licensed cars, planes, boats, motorbikes, etc. The reason I use models from that game specifically, is because I recently bough I and I've been playing it a lot in the last few weeks, but I feel like there might be a better game to get references from. Forza uses slightly more detailed model, but The Crew already has more tiny parts and screw for me to ever need, so I'm not necessarily asking what game has the most faithful and realistic vehicle models, but does anyone know what game might have even better options to display and analyze cars in 3D?

Thanks for any responses.

1 users agree
1:57 PM, Sunday December 17th 2023
  1. That's fine, as it's simply another application of the same concept. Technically you could even do two orthographic plans for that same pair of dimensions, one for the middle and one for the side, if you felt it was beneficial.

  2. Yes, the orthographic plan is not really restricted in terms of how you can approach it and what tools you can use for it.

  3. Same as point 2.

  4. I don't have any suggestions for this, but do make sure that whatever for you're using for references ultimately provides you with a high resolution image to work from. Screenshots tend to be limited in that capacity (although if you're playing in 4k that's plenty - just don't use screenshots from something 1080p. 1440p can be okay but of course you'd want the car to take up all that space. For this reason it's generally safer to work with high resolution photography when possible as it doesn't risk losing information in the translation - though you can certainly combine different sources of reference.

11:10 PM, Sunday December 17th 2023

Perfect, thanks a lot :D

3:36 AM, Saturday February 3rd 2024

Ah, thanks, that answers my questions about orthographic plans too. I wasn't sure if photoshop was okay (but was sure hoping!).

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
The Science of Deciding What You Should Draw

The Science of Deciding What You Should Draw

Right from when students hit the 50% rule early on in Lesson 0, they ask the same question - "What am I supposed to draw?"

It's not magic. We're made to think that when someone just whips off interesting things to draw, that they're gifted in a way that we are not. The problem isn't that we don't have ideas - it's that the ideas we have are so vague, they feel like nothing at all. In this course, we're going to look at how we can explore, pursue, and develop those fuzzy notions into something more concrete.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.