Modelling - Truck (Daniel & Matthew)

Gathering information on a truck model used on a Hong Kong construction site was made easy by www.volvotrucks.com. We decided to model the new Volvo FMX truck, the Volvo website has every feature both external and internal strongly document in detail with images to suit.

The picture below was taken from the Volvo Trucks website and is of the Volvo FMX Sleeper Cab:

As the trucks cabin was slightly larger than the crane and excavator we decided to split the modelling of the Volvo FMX truck into two. One member would model all the internal components (Dashboard, steering wheel, seats, center console & pedals) and another member would model the external components (Floor, walls, ceiling, overhead compartment, mirrors & back cabin area)

For myself personally (Daniel), I hadn't used 3DS Max to model in quite some time, and had already prepared myself for a slow start with teething issues in getting use to the interface, the commands and modifiers. I too began by modelling the chair for the Volvo FMX in 3DS Max. The video below documents me modelling the chair and center console, I chose to start here to get better my understanding of the space as these were the largest space fillers inside the cabin.

In this video I converted most geometry’s into editable poly and used modifiers such as chamfer, bevel & extrude to manipulate them to suit the Volvo FMX Truck.

Next I had to finalise the center console & handbreak. In this video you will also see Mathew and I liasing with one another Via Facebook Messenger. Again most of the geometry manipulation involved similar modifiers and techniques.

In Part 3 I worked on creating the dashboard along with the features of the FMX Truck. The Boolean tool was used to create a recess into the dashboard. The boolean modifier is very useful as it cuts a nominated object/gemetry into another surface (Geometry A subtracts from Geometry B)

I had minor issues in the next part of my modelling which you can see in the next video of me using the boolean modifier to create a compartment in the middle of the dashboard. The issue I had was with subtracting a geometry which has a lot of edges (due to already being modified with chamfer) as the geometry would then have a lot of edges on the face that its subtracted from. This at the time didn't pose as a problem, it was only later down the track I realised it would make manipulating the base geometry far more difficult. I believe a simple solution to this would be to try restrict the use of the boolean modifier to only simple straight edged geometry if you plan to further manipulate the base geometry in my case the bash board.

The final stage of my modelling was to fine tune the dashboard with the remaining features such a air conditioning vents and the location of the speedometer and engine gauges as well as modelling the pedals. I then brought all the individual components of my model together and in their correct position for the first time. Seeing it all fit together was great! The final step was to gather all the required materials which I found on http://www.vray-materials.de/all_materials.php.

Matthew - The task was to create the exterior part of the cabin, after revisiting 3Ds Max it took a while to get into a swing of things using the correct tools and modifiers to manipulate an object. There was difficulty while creating the cabin to scale as it must show a realistic feel when exported into the unreal engine. Although it was a tedious task these were the process and methods use to create the truck.


Truck cabin - Base parameters of the cabin

In this video is the creation of the dashboard measured to scale as it is the central part of the truck cabin. The methods to achieve the dashboard was by creating a box to the correct size and making an editable ploy, then re-positioning the vertices and edges for the body of the dashboard and beveling the center console. Planes were made to create an outline of the cabin for the collaboration with Daniel so that he is able to start working on the first part of the cabin.

Truck cabin - Roof compartments

There was some difficulty in this detail manipulating the object making the compartments have depth. There was much needed help through the use of YouTube tutorials, it refreshed my memory in substracting an object from another object to create depth (boolean and compound objects).

Truck cabin - Side panel compartments and cabin bed

Here, editable ploys, editable mesh and boolean was a useful tool joining vertices to create the inserts of the side panel and the minor details to suit the Volvo FMX Truck.

Truck cabin - Curtain

The side curtain was a tricky task, as it was needed to refer to a YouTube tutorial (simple curtain model in 3ds). The curtain can be seen beside the driver and passenger seat therefore realism should be a factor.

Truck cabin - Rear panel

This detail had an odd shape in the central area of the panel, the line tool had to recreate the shape of the design, extruded, boolean, then inset in the wall of the panel. For most parts of the modelling chamfer creates a smooth edge around certain objects.


Truck cabin - Door panel

There was major detailing and problems in making the door panel. It took a lot of time in creating the shape of the door to fit into the dashboard, roof and the side of the wind shield as it is close to the vision of the driver. There was a discovery that a cloned object cannot be booleaned to a compounded object multi times, as it was thought to be a flaw in the 3DS Max system but a recreated object can be subtracted to the same object switching from editable ploy to compound object. Other then that there was a lot of depth in the door detail to make it realistic.


Truck cabin - Detailing and texturing

The details of the cabin such as the front sun guard, rear panel bottom detail with buttons, the smooth roof edges, depth and buttons on the cabin roof compartments, the truck sun visor, roof latch and hatch, and then the side mirrors of the truck. Textures were applied to be re-process in unreal engine which creates the finishing touch of the model. There was a problem found in having mirrored objects in 3DS Max when importing it into Unreal Engine 4 as the object is flip on the y-axis, were it was fixed.