Ford RS200 — Todd Seelig

1986 FORD RS200 Group b Rally Car low(er) res

I recently took a high poly, 3D Ford RS200 Rally Car that I modeled back in 2011 (located at the bottom of this page) and converted it into a dirtied up lower poly variant of the same car. For the new model, I reused the older car’s high poly geometry to generate physically-based rendered (PBR) textures which helped to retain the original model’s detail. Using 3DS Max and Substance Painter, I was able to reduce the polygon count of the car from over two million polys to about 112,00 while maintaining much of the high poly model’s integrity. I was even able to add additional detail to the engine and underside of the vehicle that previously did not exist on the old model.

It was easy to quickly generate renderings in both Arnold and I-Ray render engines which are respectively found in 3DS Max and Substance Painter. while working on the project, I found that one of the best ways of viewing the model was through Max's newly integrated viewport enhancements. With the latest release of 3DS Max 2021, Autodesk added new PBR and HDRI shaders which essentially allowed me to view the car fully rendered, in real time, much in the same way that a game engine would behave.

Also, for the first time, I experimented with a website called Sketchfab. Sketchfab lets you upload your model to their site while in turn allowing anyone to freely view and navigate your model in a real time 3D environment. Viewers of your model are able to make adjustments to the lighting, view various materials, geometry and even view the model in VR.

This is a low poly version of a Ford RS200 Rally Car that I modeled several years ago. Wherever possible, I used the high poly model to generate normals for the low poly version. - Ford RS200 - 3D model by toddseelig (@toddseelig) [fbb34f1]

Click on the Play Button to view the 3D model in real time

Outside looking in rendering with HDRI image

Underside of car. Substance Painter I-Ray

Textured UV's in Substance Painter. Unwrapped in 3DS Max

ford rS200 (high poly)

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m really into cars. Below is the original high poly model that I created back in. 2011 This car isn’t modeled after one particular example of a Ford RS200 yet it’s sort of a hodgepodge version based on photo’s I found scattered across the internet. The car and the environment were modeled lit and textured in 3DS Max and rendered using Mental Ray.