Standard Vehicle – Damaged version
MK4 Golf – 1999-2005
Due to my scene requiring two versions of the same vehicle, I’ve collected a variety of images displaying the standard version of the vehicle I aim to replicate and modify in my own style. However I will still require the standard vehicle as I will be displaying this alongside my version to display my own interpretation of the theme ‘Order and Chaos’ which I managed to link to ‘Restoration’ through the use of mind mapping and word association previously. One image in the mood board below stands out in particular, which is a blueprint of the vehicle itself and will allow me to easily model the base shape of the vehicle. I could also theoretically use this as a stencil of sorts to create my own blueprint of my own version which I will be creating. The main thing I like about this particular moodboard is the various angles of the vehicle which I can use to easily look closer to add finer details to my model to improve the final outcome, however there is also a blueprint which is going to be used to model the base shape of my vehicle which will significantly improve the production time for my project.
MK4 GOLF – 1999-2005 – primary source
The images below display photographs taken of my vehicle upon purchase which is the main vehicle I’m basing my project around. I don’t particularly like the angles taken of each side of the vehicle as it felt quite awkward taking them outside someones house while buying the car however there are some aspects which I could use as reference. The images are however a huge benefit as when I bought the vehicle, it already came with some body parts of the r32 performance version of this particular car which gives me further reference for when modelling but at this point it’s more about getting some first hand primary research for my project. I will be collecting further images of my vehicle which I like as this will be extremely useful to add finer details to my final product, so therefor this particular set of research is going to be the most effective in my opinion.
Restored & Modified Vehicle
Front Bumpers
For this mood board, I collected a huge variety of pictures of the possible front bumpers I could use as a reference when sketching and blocking out ideas. For example I could potentially merge various details from each image below to create my own type of front bumper. The majority of the images are based around the Volkswagen body shape however there are some displaying the Audi A3 with some non-standard body kits created by other companies which could potentially fit rather well on the base vehicle I’m using due to the similarity in their shapes, which I think could result in a very strange and unique style. I like the images below as there is such a huge variety of front bumpers from various vehicles which I can use as reference to change the shape of my vehicle to give it a more unique style through the use of sketching and photobashing.
Rear bumpers
The mood board below displays various images of rear bumpers from a variety of cars including the Volkswagen Golf I’m aiming to replicate. However I’ve decided to collect images from other cars due to the Volkswagen bumpers appearing rather dull and boring, there are however some interesting rear bumper designs created by external sources specifically for the Volkswagen Golf which I could also potentially use as reference when producing ideas for the rear bumper of my car. This research will be incredibly useful for the development of my ideas whilst producing sketches and photo bashes of the car I’m aiming to create as I can mix and match various aspects of the bumpers I find visually appealing.
Spoilers
To further adapt on the body style I’m aiming to create, I’ve collected a variety of images displaying various styles of spoilers. Some of these include rally/race spoilers and generic sports spoilers seen on the majority of sports vehicles on the streets. I like the various types of spoilers collected as they give me a better visual understanding for when it comes to producing my own vehicle and can use them to influence the design of my own models through the use of sketching, photobashing and blocking out. I don’t particularly like the images as they are rather similar in most places however there is not a huge variant of this particular component out there which limits the style of spoiler I could produce however I could in theory create my own design using sketching and photobashing to make my idea far more unique.
hood scoops
To increase the amount of detail for my vehicle, I’ve decided to collect research based around hood scoops which are a very simple way of giving your vehicle a sporty/racing appearance. Some of the images display rather over the top designs in my opinion as the car I’m modelling wouldn’t necessarily use one of these, however there are some subtle variants of the hood scoop which could potentially look good on my vehicle of choice which I will further explore through the use of photobashing. I like this moodboard in particular due to the huge variety of this component from various vehicles which wouldn’t necessarily fit the type of vehicle I aim to produce however would be quite interesting to see what this would look like integrated into my final product.
As I wasn’t entirely sure what the purpose of the hood scoop was, I decided to collect further research to find out for myself what they’re intended for. Below is a screenshot from Wikipedia which tells you the difference between the 3 different types of hood scoop, however they are all essentially used for one function which is to increase the air intake to allow cooler, denser air in the engine compartment to increase power.
wide body kits
Below are some images I’ve collected using pinterest displaying various wide body kit extensions, this is a modification which is relatively common within the car enthusiast community purely for visual appearance however, this is a modification which could be potentially useful for rally drivers as this improves the overall grip of the vehicle as well as allowing more space for bigger tyres, better brakes etc. In my opinion I really like the overall look of the modification and will further test to see whether this would be a viable option for the model I’m attempting to create, if not I will just stick with the standard wheel arches.
Rims
Below is a mood board displaying various types of alloys ranging from standard, standard/painted, diamond cut and standard rally style alloys. In my opinion the best looking alloys here would be the diamond cut variant as they have a cleaner luxurious appearance to them whereas the others are rather dull and boring, however I do also like the standard/painted alloys as some have a unique almost spider web style to them which stands out in my opinion. The choice of alloys depends on the type of vehicle I decide to make in the end however currently I am steering towards creating a rally version of the vehicle chosen as this would require the most alterations to the standard vehicle thus improving the overall development of the asset.
initial sketches (primary source)
While collecting research I thought of a variety of ideas for the components of my vehicle, mainly front and rear bumpers which could be potentially useful for when modelling the modified/restored version of the car I’m creating as I have further reference which are my own designs, I will however be further developing on these ideas and will definitely be producing a larger amount of sketches to increase the development of my ideas. I like these sketches as I have made use of the research collected above to influence a unique style of various components for the vehicle I will eventually produce.
Color Ideas (Primary source)
Below are images of various cars with different types of colors which I could use as reference to see which would best fit my type of vehicle. I like these images as they give me a clear indication on which car stands out best and which looks the nicest, however my favourite image is the Green vehicle shown in the final image as it’s bright and I think it would suit any type of vehicle. In my opinion, the majority of the other vehicles have a relatively boring colour except for the bright yellow car shown in the top left image which is another potential option which I will further explore during ideas generation. I can easily use this information to overlay colors over the particular vehicle I aim to produce in photoshop using an image of my own vehicle.
environment
road
Below is a mood board created using Pinterest displaying various road types which I could possibly use for the environment where I will be displaying my vehicle, There are two different types of road displayed which are just a plain road and also a muddy road in a forest which looks far better and will allow me to add more detail than using a plain road. However this will mean focusing on the production of foliage and trees for the environment as well as producing realistic grass for the scene. I like the images below as they have given me various ideas on which types of road I could use for my project such as a muddy road for if I decide to produce a rally style vehicle which would fit the particular type of environment, however would definitely prove to be a challenge due to lack of knowledge producing foliage and modelling environments in Unreal Engine 4.
environment/foliage – book
Below are images collected from various books which display various environments and foliage which I could potentially use as reference for when I’m creating foliage mainly however the environmental images could also be rather useful as I managed to find images of vehicles in the particular environments which I aim to set my scene in. Overall with these images I’m relatively happy with the choices however there are some which could be potentially useless such as the overgrowth on the bottom right image however I could still in theory use this to help create a realistic water material for my scene as I still plan to have the reflection of my vehicle in my scene.
Forest
Due to my main idea being focused around a forest road type of environment for the best visual aesthetic possible, I’ve collected various images of different forests and roads below which display normal roads and muddy track roads used for rally vehicles. I like the images as they have given me information about how I could potentially lay out the scene and also displays the type of trees typically used for this type of environment which I personally think could work really well in combination with lighting and post processing effects in Unreal Engine 4.
Modelling Styles
splines
When I first decided to model a vehicle for my project, I ran the idea past one of my tutors (Ashley Walton) who suggested that I look into spline modelling, therefor I have included a simple tutorial on how to model using splines in Maya. This is actually an incredibly useful style of modelling as it allows for smoother geometry in areas that could potentially end up rather blocky if I were to model them with basic geometry, because of this I will definitely be using this to test some of my ideas when I eventually start producing pieces of work. I like this particular piece of research due to the simplicity of the tutorial allowing me to easily understand the workflow of this particular modelling style however I’ve experimented with this and it doesn’t really work entirely well in my opinion.
Tree modelling
Due to the fact I have never found the time or even had the need to produce foliage or trees I have collected tutorials which show the process of creating both. Below is the tutorial which shows how to create a game ready tree, focused around Pine trees which could be very useful as I’m aiming to hopefully create a muddy forest road which will require realistic trees. Although this tutorial is limited to only Pine tree modelling, it still shows the basic fundamentals of producing realistic trees using Photoshop where they essentially just take pictures of branches/leaves and simply mask out opacity allowing the effect that the branches are modelled when altered in a certain way, therefor this will be extremely useful for the development of my project.
foliage
As stated above, I lack the knowledge on how to model foliage which gave me the idea to follow tutorials instead of blindly modelling the assets which will hopefully increase the quality of my final product. The tutorial below basically displays an extremely basic way of creating leaves which will be helpful as I aim to have various bushes in my scene which I could duplicate and place around a very simple branch web for the bush which could potentially look rather good in my opinion. I like this tutorial as it is one of the most simplistic tutorials on youtube which is for beginners allowing me to easily get into the workflow of producing foliage for if I decide to produce a forest/muddy road for my rally vehicle.
James' 2nd Year - Level 3 