Codemasters Vehicle Project - Getting Started

The roof top project is over and now we have a new brief, which is from Code Masters. It's an Vehicle project though your materials on your vehicle is very important. The brief is quite large because we have create a vehicle and then place it in a environment, as if it was part of a game. We also have been given shaders to use, so we have to make a cube map, bake lightning and get used to understanding these shaders, seems fun and awesome that were going to be learning some cool stuff!

  Introduction and learning outcomes

The task is to create a vehicle and simple scene. 

The Vehicle needs to be viewed from all sides, either by enabling a camera shot that orbits around the vehicle or positioning the vehicle on a turntable.  What is to be created is a ‘garage’ or ‘customization’ screen. This type of screen is generally supported with a UI with which the vehicle can be upgraded and viewed. Emphasis is on final presentation. All rendering must be in real-time. Blockers are removed and all necessary knowledge has been shared to enable a clear focus on the art.

The aim is to take a Nissan Micra 1983 model and customize it so that it depicts a car used in rallying. The simple scene will be a show stand, like those found within any exhibition center. The rationale for using these concepts is to show the versatility of making what appears to be the ‘ordinary’ into something ‘extra’ ordinary. 

Setup

Recommended Software

·         3ds Max 2013 64-bit running in direct x.

·         Photoshop.

·         Crazybump / Ndo2

Rationale

The first part of the model is intentionally simple and minimal in geometry. I selected this to demonstrate a smart choice in vehicle...  Still it has been a while modelling a vehicle so it be fun to get back into the practise. The next stage would then be my own personal design choice of variation body kits. I hoped to spend less time modelling unwrapping and more time to spend texturing and tweaking and editing the materials and real time shaders. This would allow me more time to work on presentation.

There are various cameras in the scene which are used for screenshots and animations. There is also a camera rig to generate cube maps.

Deliverable as a gamer, I would like a vehicle that is rendered realistically in an environment that supports and shows it off in its best light. 

The following table should clearly explain the expectations and requirements. Once you've nailed the

‘Must have’ criteria try to over deliver, and do something unexpected that’ll set yours apart.

Aims and objectives

Planning

I mainly need to think about what type of vehicle I will be modelling, with the given material it might use, texturing and the efficiency of the model. Then base this into a modeled and textured environment where I will need to understand how to construct the environment light map bake, cube map (reflective map) and then use of shaders.

To do this I will gather a collection of secondary and primary references to enable me to come to a design decision.

  Resource and Reference Gathering

This was initially the Micra I was going to model from. I just thought its reputation of a nippy shape and cool design with its open back, was a very unique design, though I felt the car with its rounded shapes would have provided some annoyance when modelling from the vehicle. I wanted more of a boxed car to model from.

So I gather more research of different vehicles other than Micra’s (top right). The middle three, foreign Polish vehicles, have a certain charm that I never saw before, their designs and shape being quite amazing. 

My main and chosen vehicle, The Micra 1983 or Nissan March (the Japanese name) I really find this shape very interesting and simple to attach other design elements to. It has already been modified and changed from its initial shape into various forms and this gives me a good direction to follow  because of the support references.