How to Model a Car - Ferrari 308 with Fusion 360 Forms - Part 1

In this video we get started modeling our Ferrari 308 in Fusion 360 by creating the hood and midline of the car. To get started download the fusion file below which has the blueprints already laid out.
a360.co/3G8hZg8

[@venusiancreative1774]

Great introductory video. I've been interested in using the Form function in Fusion360 for making cars and this definitely helps.

[@ianmcleod8898]

I found the content in using forms spot on. This will indeed help me to scuplt more cars and trucks

[@sitoko335]

With so many tutorials for basic Fusion stuff, I'm glad I found your channel and I hope you stay true to a more advanced niche. Maybe in an direction similar to "name notimportant" but in your own way of course.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Thanks Simon. Name Notimportant had a great style for explaining things. It is sad he didn't produce many videos. If there is something you would like to see please let me know. I have another rim design series I am planning to do to replicate a production rim. I also have some Blender content i want to do but the focus is Fusion for right now.

[@Dsk001]

I wanted to say thank you for these form videos. I haven't seen anyone else go onto this topic and tool as you have. And when you moved those lines up on the hood and the curve was all messed up i was like yes that's exactly what happens to me and i can never seem to recover from that and you switching to box view made a light bulb go off in my mind

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

That is great to hear Dsk! If at least one person has that "ah ha" moment it is worth it! It is critical to get into box view and I would strongly suggest spending most of your time modeling in Box View. That is how it will work/look in other programs when doing Low Poly modeling so it will be a good transition. If you get stuck don't hesitate to ask questions! The series goes through the entire body and a little bit of surface work but it is still a challenge.

[@Dsk001]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I'm just trying to catch up and watch all your videos. I have already watched all the wrx videos, and following the series of mastering forms

[@TheVintageWagen]

I just started your tutorial. Thanks for your great work! :)

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

You're very welcome!

[@stephanlux]

hello, thanks for the videos. Currently I am working on a steam locomotive and your videos helped a lot!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

That is great! Don't hesitate to ask questions even if they don't apply to that specific video.

[@vincent.borreux]

thanks a lot for these videos !!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Glad you like them! The Porsche 911 series is the most current one with the body being in a single 6.5hr video. I took a slightly different approach to that care than the 308 so be sure to check out both and see which workflow is best for you! Always more than one way!

[@thermoist]

Really awesome tutorial and channel you have here, starting out with this one and excited to learn forms! Was having some issues until I remembered I was using perspective view instead of ortho, which made things 10x easier. Just putting it out there in case anyone else has the same issue/forgetfulness as me haha

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Great to hear! and yeah Perspective can really mess with you! I generally model in Perspective with Ortho so when i go to standard views it is ortho and makes it much easier. Thanks for the comment/reminder!!

[@brycefrazier1526]

Your videos have taught me a lot about fusion, but one thing I’m not sure if you’ve covered or not, how would I go about finding blueprints? Most of all the pictures I find are perspective. Is it possible to use plans with perspective and convert them?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Bryce, there are a few sites dedicated to blueprints. Generally I do a google search first. Sometimes you can find free images depending on the vehicle. In most cases it will link you to one of several blueprint sites. Some blueprints are better than others so just pay close attention to them. Find one that has all the details and views you need.

[@JuanAdam12]

Can you address (or comment on) the correct selection filters to use so that when you pull the edges up at 8:36 you get the edges that run the width of the car/plane, versus just a vertex that only pulls on a corner of a face? I've had to play around with "select through" settings and am still not sure if I've got something toggled on/off that you don't. (I hope that makes sense.)

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Of course! So a few things to note. There are essentially 3 different times the selection manager stuff (Priorities and filters) changes. 1. If you change the settings while just modeling but no tools/dialogs are active. 2. If you have a tool/dialog active. (behaves a little different specifically with Edit Model) 3. If you have capture history turned off. There are two main "directions" you can box select. 1. From Top Left to Bottom right: This will select anything completely inside of the box. So if you only box select over some edges but not an entire face you get only those edges. If you box select over an entire face you will get the face AND its edges. This doesn't work for vertices EXCEPT if you are in edit model and toggle the selection mode to only vertex. 2. From Bottom Right to Top Left: This will select anything the box touches. So if you box select an entire edge but only touch a few faces, all the faces will be select BUT not their edges that were not intersecting with your box. This is true if you have the freeform selection tool rather than box. The extent of the selection matters. The Selection Filter "Select Through" is the one you want to make sure is on. Note that it might be on when just modeling but off with Edit Model is active, so check it in both places. For whatever reason you can toggle it off for Edit model and on for everything else. With Select Through on and box drag from Top Left to Bottom Right you should get only edges you completely encompass with your selection box. As for the spot on the video, because we are modeling from the side of faces I am basically box selecting the edges so i dont have to rotate then go back to a side view then rotate and back etc. So if you box select from a side view then rotate, you would see the edges normal to your view(you could only see the vertex if you were able) should all be selected. For me I generally use Select Through all the time and leave the Edit Form Filter set to "All" which is ALT + F.

[@JuanAdam12]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign thank you very much (again) for detailed reply!

[@rbyt2010]

Thanks for the video. The Ferrari is fine - just need something that presents challenges and an opportunity to see how you address them with the tools. To wit: not sure I grok'd the difference in "shrinking an edge" and "moving just the vertex"

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Yeah that is a tough on Ron that comes from seat time. The general idea is really about the flow of edges to define the shape. Cars with the form tools in Fusion are a challenge. I will see if i can put together something more to the point of the hurdles faced but in general this is what i would say. 1. Try to stick with 4 sided polygons whenever possible! 2. Try to make the box display edges and vertices a nice smooth visual transition 3. Remember not all problems can be solved with Forms. for Number 3 in the later videos of the series I will talk about the challenge and when it is easier to use surface tools. In episode 12 we will use surface tools to make the side intake on the door of the ferrari and to cut out some geometry from the front. We "tried" this i think in episode 11 and show how it doesn't work, but how easy it is with surfacing tools. I will say that Fusion is an amazing tool at an amazing price. There are other tools out there that are very specific and have loads of tools. For example Alias Auto and Maya are great tools made for doing this type of work. Alias Auto on its own i think is like $15,000/year. So you pick and choose your battles ;)

[@rbyt2010]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign was thinking about when to use forms v. Surface. That would be a great topic. Also, your suggestion from the first series of working in-plane with the tools is a great simplifier!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

During this series I call out several times when "surfacing would be much easier" but push on. I will give it a little thought and see if i can't figure out a good concept to highlight the two. I have plans to do a 92-96 for bronco set of videos using surfacing tools instead of forms in the near future. But I will put some thoughts together on the topic. Thanks for the reply!

[@LukeMaximoBell1]

Your tutorials are great. I've just been stuck for a couple hours now. When I have a form and look at it from the side profile, so that it is flat and just a line, it's impossible for me to box select anything. I have to rotate the form slightly before it will let me box select. Any idea what could be causing this?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Are you in Edit Form currently, or just moving the model around? The only reason I could think that would keep you from selecting anything from the side would be if you have a canvas image in front of it(or plane or other geometry). The only other thing would be a selection filter in the Edit Form dialog. What happens if you change your selection method? Numpad 1 is box select, 2 is freeform select and 3 is paint. Do any of those methods have a different result?

[@laughsandwich3842]

where did you get the ferrari picture files from..sorry if you mentioned it and i didnt see

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

I can't recall exactly where they came from when I did this series. I remember it was from a site where the low res version was free but you had to login to get the higher res version or vector version. When I did this I looked for free blueprint and one that was under the creative commons. Most of the higher res versions were watermarked and I wouldn't be able to share them. I just did a quick search and don't see the same site popping up. I seem to remember findblueprints.com but not seeing the exact same one anymore.

[@joaquinrodriguezsosa9195]

Hi! When you finish the design can it be exported into a CFD program and be analised??? Thanks!

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Yes, absolutely. When you model something with Forms in Fusion 360 the result will be a true surface(if its open) or a solid(if its closed). So it can then be "meshed" in a CFD/FEA program and used down stream for analysis.

[@joaquinrodriguezsosa9195]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign oh thats great, thank you! I am using Inventor (Autodesk) but i'm not sure i can manage to follow your steps in order to create a Porsche model, in my case. It seems Inventor is slightly different to fusion 360. Nonetheless, your videos will be very useful.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

@@joaquinrodriguezsosa9195 Yeah a few of the forms tool are missing from Inventor and it has 1 or 2 that aren't in Fusion 360 for some reason.

[@briandagoatscalabrine2982]

Do you recommend I use fusion 360 in new to modeling?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Hi Brian, depends on what your goals are. If you are looking to design parts for 3d printing, manufacturing etc then Fusion 360 is a very good choice. If you are going the direction of video game/animation/VFX style modeling then you will need something else or in addition, like Blender. An idea of your goals/types of parts you want to make will inform the decision.

[@trunkerdixon]

This is great and i'll be following along as best i can this weekend, wife permitting! i have no interest in modelling a bottle or spoon thanks! T

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Understandable :) I don't know if i will get the last 4 videos up this weekend but I will try.

[@laurasierra2699]

Hello, I am having a big problem with tutorial :( i am doing everything, step by step.. when I look from the top, it looks the same but front view is not the same.. but in your video it looks the same top and front view.. like in the minute 10:50 i dont know what to do

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Laura, can you tell me what you mean by it doesn't look the same. Do you mean yours doesn't look like mine in the video? If you want to email me some pictures or join the discord it might help. [e-mail] if you want to email me the file/pics.

[@laurasierra2699]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign what is the discord name? could you please provide the link so i can join Thank you so much

[@leebooth5418]

hi can you try and make koenigsegg regera 2016 please how do you post videos on youtube what with obs or elgato

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Hi, I have 4 car series on this channel and they don't get that many views. I don't have plans to do any more full car series for awhile so sorry but I can't for some time. As for how you post videos on youtube i suppose that depends what specifically you are asking. I record with camtasia.

[@apple_yt7122]

How did you go to box display at 8:58?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

ALT + 1 is box display and ALT + 3 is smooth display. It is also in the selection area in the Edit Form Dialog.

[@apple_yt7122]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Thanks a lot👍

[@symboy4065]

Are the online sketch licensed?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

I can't recall exactly where they came from when I did this series. I remember it was from a site where the low res version was free but you had to login to get the higher res version or vector version. When i did this I looked for free blueprint and one that was under the creative commons. most of the higher res versions were watermarked and I wouldn't be able to share them. I just did a quick search and don't see the same site popping up. I seem to remember findblueprints.com but not seeing the exact same one anymore.

[@trulyhonestgaming]

Where did you find your prints.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Usually I just google "Free blueprints" and whatever the car is. there are sites where you can buy blueprints that are much higher res but unless you are trying to do a very detailed model some of the free low res ones are generally good enough. at least for learning.

[@spongesurf12]

I tried to comment and then my wifi died, anyway I tried another car modeling video and got stuck early on so I gave this one a try and also got stuck on the exact same step! I don't know if Fusion has changed as of 2024 or I'm an idiot (don't answer!) or what. When I create the first plane and specify dimensions, they still move around if I move my mouse. It fixes them if I hit Enter, but I don't get the options for symmetry and such. I think time to give up for now.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Go ahead and send me an email [e-mail] and ill try to help you out. I am not sure what is going on. Fusion did update where it now has a "ground to parent" by default behavior for adding a new component(which you can turn off). My guess is that when placing your first sketch entities or whatever you are doing, they aren't snapping to the origin. There is something called Persistent Constraints. These auto apply things like Horiz/Vert, or perpendicular. You can turn that off (and maybe you did by accident) or temporarily override them by holding ctrl on a win machine and i think cmd on a mac.

[@spongesurf12]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign email sent!

[@TomBRADLEYF]

can you do an f1 car?

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

I don't have any immediate plans to do another forms car but its certainly possible.

[@queenqueen9194]

Hi, how can I get the car lines. Please answer I have a school project I have to submitted in few days

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

do you mean the blueprints? What school project would require you to model an 80s Ferrari 308 :) Generally just do a web search for the car you want to model an "Blueprint" and something should come up. I believe I supplied these in the description of the video...

[@fatimahamad3375]

I have school project to make a car on fusion and I don’t really have the skills is it easy or hard

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

interesting school project. When you say "make a car" you will need to be a bit more specific. There are school competitions to make CO2 wooden cars. Remote control cars etc. It is not easy to do with Forms but I have probably 50hrs of content on this channel specifically for modeling cars with Fusion.

[@fatimahamad3375]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Autonomous vehicles we should design one in fusion and add like logos in it it should be related to expo 2020 in Dubai can you please help me I just in easy one not complicated I don’t really know anything about fusion

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

Fatima, sorry I can't help you with a school project, but this channel has loads of resources on how to model a car. If you have an assignment to model a car you must take the steps yourself. Happy to answer questions, but not do it for you.

[@fatimahamad3375]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I’ll ask you questions then 😅 I think it’s gonna be easy