WIP Sci fi car
This is a project I have been doing for a few weeks, using a expired challenge to create a vehical in the style of syd mead.
Comments always welcome as long as there constructive
Comments always welcome as long as there constructive
Replies
Next up is sex apeal. This car has none. It looks futuristic yes but it doesn't look like a car I would want to drive. Try some softer curves, especially on your windshield and front fascia. I know it's a lot but I think you can spend more time before you model doing concept drawings and designs and taking a look at concept art from the automotive world.
For something like this, you might want to consider the process of designing a car; both in form and function.
Function first: one or more people have to get in and out of the car, see out of the car (can be cheese'd with cameras and displays), and driver the car. The car has to have some sort of powerplant, etc. For these, I'd make a low-poly person, a low-poly engine/batterypack/electric motor, and move them to the places where they go. If they don't fit, you're doing it wrong.
Also in function is what path cars are going. As a general trend, cars are looking to become more aerodynamic, and the wheelbase is getting bigger. You've got the wheelbase, but it must be producing apocalyptic levels of drag.
Secondly, consider form. This is purely about aiming your car at someone. Is it a new, bad ass people carrier aimed at dads who never truly grew up? Or a classy 2-door coupe that I would roll up to a monte carlo casino in? Is it a smooth GT coupe for cruising around the countryside? Etc etc etc.
The last bit of advice I can give is to look into Le Mans Prototype motorsport. They have unbelievable ways of cheesing things like you might consider straightforward, like 'needing a door' on their coupes.
Final car composite, at some point I will create a game version of this car thanks everyone for the crits along the way, most appreciated
Slang for cheating, faking, or skirting the rules. Being a sneaky bastard. Like if you put a point light in the middle of a room it'll make it look sort of kind of vaguely like simple Global Illumination.
The car looks much better, the nose and front wheel arches seem a lot more solid and grounded, and the front light works better with the rest of the car.
I made a quick draw-over:
You've still got a lot of ground clearance - and cars with low noses usually seem fast and 'grounded'. Check out this Lamborghini:
The bodywork wraps round and undernearh parts of the wheel. Not fantastic for off-road vehicles, but cool for fast cars.
From there you can throw some tunnels at the nose like I paintover'd, or run a single-piece, broad splitter like the Lamborghini above (the flat piece at the bottom of the bumper, 1cm above the ground).
At the back the same thing applies - you've got more than enough ground clearance, exploit it some more! The intake at the bottom ahead of the wheel could be made into a bigger styling cue, and is an easy solution to 'squaring off' the bodywork before it gets to the rear wheel.
One thing you can try is to keep the bodywork extra-low at the corners and raised up (like it is now) in the middle. As long as you run some strong, elegant lines down the sides of the middle you can get away with it (otherwise it'll look a bit 'weak') you can make it seem a bit sportier.
Maserati did this well with their Birdcage concept:
The other thing to consider is the grey areas at the bottom. They're actually used commonly to make a car seem like it's longer or wider.
For example, the Holden Statesman (above) uses them well down the sides and a bit on the front to appear longer and a bit wider than it actually is, which helps when the car is targeted at rich people (they like massive cars). It's a trick, that if learned to use well can be a life-saver if you need to exaggerate a shape or change it's 'presence'.
The background is good - lots of strong straight lines will help a curvy car 'pop' in a scene. To that end, I'd suggest adding in about the same amount of background detail again, but keep it much the same as the assets you've already got. The car shouldn't get crowded because the form is so different.
If you're taking it into a game engine, then the car paint shader is something you need to get right. You've got a fantastic shader for the render, but the design won't hold up in-game is the light doesn't work with the shape 100% well. Make it good at all costs (if it won't work with deferred rendering and the body needs to be drawn in forward rendering, take that hit). If you mean to drive it in-game, look at how a modern supercar or racecar behaves and moves based on input. It looks like it'd be a twitchy, lively thing to drive but with enough stability to be fun (and it should be forgiving if you mess up!).
30-50k triangles should be enough to carry it in-game, but don't budget yourself into a corner. Modern AA, a slight fisheye and many other post-processing effects can help take the edge off polygon edges in-game.
Anyway, in general it looks sweet. Take my advice with a grain of salt, because I'm a sucker for sexy, slinky designs.
The bodywork can be cleaner over the rear of the car and should flow towards the front. You need to smooth some areas of drag such as the lip above the windshield because it disrupts airflow. Imagine the body as an object who's sole purpose is to get through the air most effeciently while pushing the car towards the ground.
I did a quick paintover to show some idea of where you could go with this to make it a more functional design.
Great feedback thank you, I will take a look at the aspects you have commented on and edit them.
marq4porsche
Thank you for the feedback and the paintover is very useful.
Im going to post up some different angles so you can get a better sense of the overall look of the car.
Im interested to see what each idea you both posed about the changes of shape, I like both so I will probabky try both and post.
Thanks again guys