We've come a long way in a very short time. In this chapter, you have learned how to create a car from some photos and some blueprints taken from the Internet. You've achieved a low-polygon sporty automobile for your games using only simple tricks and techniques. I'm afraid this is as far as you can go using these shortcut methods. To get any further in terms of realism, you now need to either export your model to Blender and learn how to create UV maps for your texture, or gradually add in more detail piece by piece. Once you have a detailed model, you can apply non-photo materials and render it for greater realism.
Of course, for a really stunning vehicle you also need to model the interior and the occupant, but those are a topic for another book. Who knows, now you've caught the SketchUp bug, maybe you'll end up writing it.
In this chapter, you learned how to:
- Model from orthographic 2D drawings
- Create a quick approximate form by intersecting three views
- Start refining the model by moving geometry one axis at a time
- Apply photo textures to your orthographic views for automatic projection onto your car model
- Layer up photos to get rid of camera depth of field
- Fill in the texturing gaps with Blend layers
...and lots more. In the end you were left with a car. You showed it to your mom, and this time she said...
"You did that? I don't believe it!"
Your feeling of self-worth was restored and you both lived happily ever after. The End.