Here's a pretty unusual corner of the Willys Jeep hobby. Elements including literature collecting, drawing, photography and model building are involved in the creation of a three-dimensional computer model which can be rendered as photo-realistic graphics.
Gaurav Nawani is a graphic artist at IronCode Software of India, whose 3D models include a Willys CJ-3B which he remembers from his youth: "Kaludandu on the altitude marker is the original name of my hometown. It means the valley of fog, due to excessive fog during rainy season.The state of Uttranchal is one of the most beautiful parts in our country. I just found out that the actual height from sea level is about 5600 ft. so that was a mistake on my part. The markings on the Jeep are just imaginary."
Click any of the renderings here to see a larger version (120K JPEG) which shows an impressive realism but may include some details which are giveaways that what you are seeing is a virtual Jeep rather than the real thing.
Gaurav says the Willys is "one of my favourite machines. I had seen a lot of it during my childhood days, especially on trips back to my hometown. Willy was a reliable machine and was so much a part of the hills. This is a work in progress I do in my spare time, in appreciation of the legend of the machine."
He adds, "I had been to CJ3B.info while I was scouting for references when I was modeling the Jeep."
He works on the Linux platform, and referring to the software used, he says, "All the modeling was done in Blender, an excellent open source 3D modelling package. The external raytracer used in some of the images is Yafray, a high quality open source raytracer." This software allows one 3D model to be rendered in views from different angles.
Gaurav's website has 3D modelling tutorials including one called Modelling a Car, based on the Toyota Celica, which covers steps from collecting reference material, to rendering the final output. The introduction says, "Modelling a complete car first time is quite complex. This tutorial was done for Blender, but I think it can easily be applied to other modeling packages.
"First thing prior to starting modelling is to get blueprints and any other references (photographs) for the model under way. Since most of the cars have a symmetric body, we can just model a single half of the car and upon completion can mirror and join the meshes to get the full mesh."
Surface details can then be laid over the three-dimensional mesh. It's fun to see this technology, similar to what car manufacturers use to visualize future models, being used here to recreate a classic Jeep.
Thanks to Gaurav Nawani for the images from his website Burans Arts, and to Jean-Louis Martin. -- Derek Redmond
See Steve Marks' earlier Virtual Tonka Toy Jeeps.
Return to the Toy Jeeps Pages.
Also on CJ3B.info, see Jeeps in India.
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