This is not a tutorial. Rather, think of it as a public notebook documenting the process of creating a 3D model of a car in Blender. This is the first car I’ve modeled in Blender — actually, it is the first thing I’ve modeled in any software — so I’m not qualified to tutor anyone. I am learning as I go (which is always the most interesting way). I will undoubtedly do stupid things, so I am counting on you folks to set me straight. I will keep refining the process, just like the model, based on the feedback I receive.
It is quite possible that I am going about this the entirely wrong way, and will have to throw it all out start again, a little older and a little wiser.
My goal is to model my own car, a 2001 Saab 9-3 SE hatchback. In addition to the visual model, I would like to get enough of the physical properties together to import it into a racing sim and give it a proper drive. I am looking for an approach that allows me to build a model iteratively, just like agile development of source code. I should be able to get a usable (if very ugly) model quickly, then refine it using a simple, repeatable process.
I’ll use Blender for the modeling and GIMP for the texture work. Both are free, open source, and available for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux, making them available to just about everyone. I imagine that all of the concepts I use here also exist in other tools, but then I’ve been known to imagine all kinds of things.
