Wolfi's American Workshop

[Wolfi]

Welp, last update on the progress for a longer while.
I got to a point where I'm quite happy with how the truck turned out. It's finally time to enjoy driving it
Concentrated on the smaller details, fixed a few weird issues, added a few missing bits and here she is:
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With new bumper, proper non-led foglights and fancy-shaped towing hooks
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Front badge got some love as well, with better texture and a lot more detail.
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Last, but not least, the side badges have arrived
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[ChiliBeef]

@Wolfi I didn't realize you were allowed to post porn on this forum. I'll definitely have to get my hands on one of these models.

[Wolfi]

Thanks

I guess I'm one of the few woofies who can get away with it.
Probably because no one really comes here to see them xD

Anyways, I've looked at multiple cabover mods for ATS and noticed, they all share a similar fate - lack of cabs. Vast majority of cabover mods only offer the largest cab. I realized my tiny Ford mod shared the same fate. So I took the cab and smallified it
Yup - it's properly sized 88" sleeper.
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I'm considering going for the 64" Day cab as well, but it might be a bit of a tougher cookie to make, so I'm not sure if I'll go for it.

[SmokeyWolf]

That looks awesome!

[ChiliBeef]

@Wolfi seems to have attracted yet another furry to this congregation of the Ford. I think it's the blue. Of the truck, not your fursona. Although, I can see why the truck has the traditional Ford blue color scheme to it.

I do agree that there's hardly a lot of CoEs. I just have my Freightliner Argosy, KW K100-E and a Peterbilt 352. I'll definitely have to see about getting this model, although I am leaning more towards a Ford CLT 8000 that seems as scarce as hen's teeth.

Question: How do you do the mesh for the radiator grille and exhaust heat shielding? Do you create an actual mesh object? Or, use an overlay transparent mesh texture on top of a plane to keep the poly count low?

[Wolfi]

Thanks :3

The models really depend on their size. The grill mesh is fully modeled, because it's a rather large, in your face model and when you look close to it, it does have a bit of depth, however, the "indent" around the outer edge is done via normalmaps. I think it still looks neat without adding too much to polycount. The heatshields around the exhausts are done via a texture, IRL they would be thin enough, so that you wouldn't really notice their thickness through the cutouts, in this kind of situation a simple texture seems to do good enough job.

[ChiliBeef]

@Wolfi Hmm, I might have to rethink doing my radiator grilles, then. I did have one that was fully modeled but was afraid that it would affect performance because it would have a lot of vertices and a reflective nature. I don't know if a reflective object (like chrome) would affect performance, honestly. So, I went with a transparent texture with normal maps on a plane, instead.

[Wolfi]

It's about finding a balance really. If you can make a texture+normalmap detail and it looks good in your eyes, then go with it.
For a flat grid - like the CL9000 grill, normalmaps won't work as they look best with rounded edges. But that's just my opinion, there may be people who will prove me wrong.
At the same time, the cab is fairly low poly, so I can afford spending some extra vertices on the grill and steel keep the overall polycount in a reasonable limit.

[ChiliBeef]

Oh yeah, how do you do the paintwork for the Ford? Do you create an AO map along with a corresponding normal map? Or, just use an empty paint file and darken it just a bit? Since you've mentioned before about having OCD and making sure things are just right, I figured you were the man to ask. (My OCD also causes me to spend more time on my first mod than is probably healthy. ) It's the one thing that I know I'm going to have to figure out, so I'd prefer to ask someone who knows what they're doing.

It's about finding a balance really. If you can make a texture+normalmap detail and it looks good in your eyes, then go with it.
For a flat grid - like the CL9000 grill, normalmaps won't work as they look best with rounded edges.
At the same time, the cab is fairly low poly, so I can afford spending some extra vertices on the grill and steel keep the overall polycount in a reasonable limit.

*snerk* "steel keep', I like that. And, actually, it is spelled "grille". I used to make the exact same mistake until I learned that "grill" is a verb (like, "I'm going to grill something".). The English language can be so fickle, I swear.

And, currently I'm doing a flat plane for my initial grille mesh because the amount of detail would probably be way too much if modeled.
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Apologies, I do not want to thread-jack. Just wanting to pick your brain!

[Ruward]

Almost European