I really like what your on to here. I'd like to see more of a coke bottle shape to the sides of the body. With new technologies auto manufacturers are putting more and more contour into the body's shape. It also assist in the aerodynamics. What do you think?

Doc...looking good! I can't believe all of the time your pouring into this lol. But its all good.

It will need more Coke bottle to fit the square wheel and tire setup with 315/30/19s.

I agree. It definitely adds a bit of heritage feel without being exactly retro.

Yeah that's on the list of things to do. Right now I'm focusing on the overall shape before I start tweaking things. I'll post a snapshot of the polygon grid so you can get an idea of what this process looks like.

Well actually I'm using this as an educational process so I can do other things I'm working on. I always get a better understanding of how things work if I'm trying to actually create something rather than random generic tutorials.

I think I'm going to do the wheels next before I get much farther because much of the body shapes and sculpting will depend on the wheels being in position.

More progress. I've attached a snapshot of the non-rendered 3/4 view so you can see the polygon dot grid. The only technique I've figured out so far is to place the dots at the surface points and bridge them to create the polygons. And yes, I've placed each one of those dots myself.

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This is what it looks like rendered:
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I need to fix the hood placement; I made changes to the upper front based on what it looked like in 3D. I created the hood as a separate element so I could make two versions; one without the louver vent and one with.

The side view is starting to look pretty good.
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A lot of this 3D work I'm designing as I go since my 2D renderings weren't adequate. Wheels are next or at least the tires so I can use them as reference points for tweaking the body panels.

Does anybody know if the wheelbase/track of the Alpha platform is square, or is the front and rear track different?

Looking good , but for some reason it reminds me of a Mitsubishi Eclipse around the front part of the door.

I was watching you other thread as you fleshed out the ideas, and I have to say that the 3D model really brings your ideas to life. Something about the 2D illustrations didn't quite show what you were thinking in my opinion, but every bit of the model you post makes me like your design more and more!

Very cool!

The latest... created some wheels, and then mostly worked on the front which is coming along nicely. The front corners are an absolute pain in the butt to get to look right. They're still not right but I keep getting closer. I'll put flares on the wheel arches; what you see there is simply the shape cut out of the side of the body. I actually created wells inside the front wheel cutouts so any lighting effects would cast shadows in there just like it really would.

The wheels are just quick and easy shapes for placement. I'll do some proper ones along with brake rotors and calipers later. The wheels are placed with the same track front and rear so what you're looking at is a square setup.

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More progress. Started on the back.
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More work done on the front. Although you can't see it in this shot, the front brake ducts are in 3D; they actually go back and cut into the inner wheel well of the front wheels. I'll show that in a snapshot later on.
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Nothing easy about this... we need a Doc fan club. :first:

Starting working on lights in the front.
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This light configuration has an interesting coverage pattern. I created a "room" and put some boxes in the corners to get some perspective on how this car will look and you can see the headlight patterns on the floor and wall. The coverage is excellent in the front but the angled lights create sharp peaks out to the side which would have to be controlled with a bulb shield inside the light housings.
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This is a radiosity render; much better than the 3/4 front view I'd done in Illustrator. :)
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The front with all the lighting.
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