How to Approach Building a Number plate Depression
A lot of students get stuck trying to work out how to go about modelling the rear number plate depression, so I’m going to show you how I go about this
fig.1
Create this surface (A),
but don’t think about the depression initially, just concentrate on building a really nice surf
I built this surf across the XZ plane as an Apexless surf and then trimmed it on the XZ intersection
fig. 2
Rear View: Project to establish these COS.
We are going to trim the outer flange of the number plate depression from the rear panel . As this car has a hatch back it has a parting line “B”, which is a convenient place to divide the panel we want to detail from the rear end. If you don’t have a parting line on your model, then you only need to create the inner COS. You can trim divide the enclosed surface, as I have shown in fig. 4.
fig. 3
Before I trimmed the number plate area out,
I created the Bumper to Rear Panel blend “A”
Thhis trim edge is where I will build the depression surfs. from “B”
Surf. “C” is a simple Drafty Surf.
fig. 4
You will end up with the surrounding flange
and then you will need to create a surface for the actual number plate to sit on
Once you have the numberplate mounting surf. built and located
Start running deg. 3 , 1. curvs. from the number plate surf to the flange and then build Square or BiRail surfs to form the sides of the depression
Use the Surface Fillet Control to soften the corners.
fig. 4A
This is from an Audi andthe depression is rather complicated requiring extra surfs.
Most times I only need to create 5 surfs plus blends
fig. 5
fig. 6
I hope that I have shown how, what appears to be a complicated task can be made easier by isolating the area you need to develop within your model.
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