Painting no. 6...

The paints keep coming! focusing in on assets...

Painting no. 7...

The paints keep coming! focusing in on assets...

Over-exposed

Playing about with over exposure in this one. Jack pointed out today that in the '24hrs in 19500 frames' that all the whites in some scenes seemed to blur into one shape and gave it a really glowing look. Most of the night scenes were like this due to the massive amount of artificial light being thrown everywhere. A really cool look.

A darker one...

Another paintover here. I'm liking the cool shadows on this one (took long enough to do), might be quite hard to achieve in unreal though, will have to see. This image is of the version with the wall and door that blocks the whole half off from the other. (as seen in one of my last posts)

Paint over

Another quick paintover. Just messing around with colours and lighting. The Idea of turning the lights out in the computer section to make all the lights stand out and glow is really starting to appeal to me. I'll keep doing these quick paints for this week whilst drawing up a proper asset list and planning my time...

Concept 2

So I've bashed out a second concept paintover. I really like the lighting in this one. It would be nice to create a difference in the lighting between the mechanic and computer sections of the garage. If I am to do this I may need to put a more solid barrier between them two rather than the mesh. Even though the mesh will create some cool shadows it might make everything look a bit messy and covered in squares of light, maybe making the surfaces harder to read.

Painting Over

So this is a concept paint over I've done of my garage. I rendered out my scene in Max using Mental Ray and used a combination of colour and texture overlays to give it some life. Professional racing garages like this are often absolutely spotless and kept in pristine conditions due to the extremely expensive equipment present and its' high standards. This can be a bit of a problem when creating interest in the scene. I have made the dirt in the garage very subtle because of this and this is the same when it comes to all of the objects scattered around. It's something that I'm going to have to pay close attention to when building my environment.

Wall?

I'm experimenting with my block out at the moment. It is hard to find variations but I'm considering adding a mesh wall and door to seperate the two areas more. Mind you I do like the open plan of the original...

24 hours in 19500 frames...

This video has been a massive inspiration for my FMP. I think it really captures the spirit of racing and all the things that go with it.

24 HOURS IN 19500 FRAMES from tim hahne on Vimeo.

Blocking out

So I've now completed my block out of my pit lane garage. The sort of layout I want to go for is to have a dual garage split into two sections, one to handle mechanics and the cars themselves, and the second half is reserved for technology and monitoring equipment.

I am happy with the structure of the area itself though I may explore different shaped areas and set-ups. One option would be to block off one area from the other with walls or sheets maybe, but I kind of like the open plan layout of this one.

Much experimentation is to come...

Scribbles

Thought I'd upload a few early scribbles done of my ideas. These were done a while ago, but I thought I'd start at the beginning...

Pit Lane Research

Some Internet research...

Pit Garage FMP Brief

Presentation In games is becoming more and more important, and with the increasing specifications of consoles and PCs, the integration of real time environments into menu systems and option screens becomes a possibility.

My task is to create a real time environment for presentation in a game engine. This environment will be a pit lane garage, located on the side of an international race track.

Attention to detail will be essential in creating a believable and functional environment. Things such as dirt, mess, and a used look will help this. Along with that, racing teams will only have a set amount of space allocated to them so makeshift solutions to storage and organisation will give it that extra sense of realism.

The garage should be styled on an existing pit lane area from a race track, although precision may be sacrificed for things such as artistic judgement and composition.

To go with this environment I am to make a car in accordance with the specs of current gen racing games. This car will have two variations.

• Stock – This variation will be the standard configuration of a car as if bought from the manufacturer.
• Racing Spec – This car will have been modified for racing at an International level. It will include such things as body kits, advertising vinyl and optimised interior.

Attention to detail will also be key in creating a realistic model, taking such things as, wear and tear , damage and make shift solutions to this into account.

Specifications

Tri count

Stock car – 20,000 tris
Racing Spec car – 30,000 tris

Texture Budget

Stock car – Exterior – 1x2048 (Diffuse,Bump,Spec)
Interior – 1x1024 (Diffuse,Bump,Spec)
Racing Spec car – Exterior – 1x2048 (Diffuse,Bump,Spec)
Interior – 1x1024 (Diffuse,Bump,Spec)
Car Wheels – 1x512 (Diffuse,Bump,Spec)
Car Lights – 1x512 (Diffuse,Bump,Spec)
Car Glass – 1x512 (Diffuse,Bump,Spec)

Environment – 80mb

Assets
- TV - Tyre - Storage Boxes
- Monitor Widescreen - Tyre with cover - Assorted Power tools
- Monitor Square - Tool Draws Small - Lighting Rig
- Laptop - Tool Draws Tall - Workspace Tabletop
- Keyboard and Mouse - Gas Cylinder Small - Computer chair
- Tower PC - Gas Cylinder Tall - Stool on wheels
- Processer Box - Assortment of hand tools -Team Banner
- Server cabinet - Assorted cans of Oil -Sponsor Banners
- Table - Boxes containing parts -Electrical Cables

Dynamic Effects
- Dynamic Lighting

- Animated Images on screens
- Pit lane ambient sound

- Light bloom from outside
- Radio chatter

- Interactive objects

Programs to be Used
3D Studio Max 2011 – Modelling
Adobe Photoshop – Texturing
Xnormal – Normal Map generation
UDK – Presentation of real time environment

Welcome, to The Pit...

Hello, and welcome to my new blog.

This blog is all about my Final Major Project. It will contain design documents, works in progress, design crits, research and all things pit lane-y.

I will be updating my progress frequently (around twice a week) so I can document my project in a place that everyone can gain access to.

There will be more to come soon...