...on cars, zombies and procrastination.

Finally...

2009-11-16T23:43:00.000-08:00

This will probably be the final post in this blog... As I stand now, I hope I pass this unit and that Mike Mills has mercy on me for all the work I've put into this... Here's some high-res images of the model.

As for last feelings? There'd be alot of things I'd do if I did this model again.

Alot of the surfacing felt fat and if I had sharpened up my edges and cut vents/slits and some shuntlines into my surfacing before i cut/mutilated them they would've come up alot better. Another thing I should've done is cast the wings as well as the head in fiberglass so that I could've built a much better armature for the wing attachment so that the undercarriage would be more visable (which was a huge feature of my design but wasn't so visible in my final model due to the wooden armature holding the wings up). Alot more RPs should've been done, especially of details, vents, instruments, interface and a figurine of a rider should've been put onto the model to show scale and to contemporise it (and given that the scale of the model is exactly what an action man figurine would be, this wouldn't have been hard).

However, I'm quite happy with how it went and hope that this passes my transport and that Nite-owl now has a sweet ride that can catch the baddies and look the part. In the meantime, fare-thee-well all!

finally… and no malfunctioning internet to stop me…

2009-11-14T13:03:00.001-08:00

Here’s the pics of my completed model… it was fun and oh-so-VERY expensive but I’m just VERY glad it’s done…

turned out better than I thought too..

Passing out in weird places…

2009-11-11T07:18:00.001-08:00

Woke up on Thursday morning at 2am on the bed in clayroom clothes for no apparent reason feeling strangely familiar… except… I’M DONE!!!

Unfortunately, this means also that I needed pictures of my model and unfortunately I got attacked by 5-year-olds over the weekend and fell over and broke my camera phone so I am reduced to using the monochromatic goodness of a Nokia 1110… that and I left my camera at home when the model was due…

Still, I plan to rock up to the clayroom early tomorrow morning to photograph the models… I still have the key… =P

Bits and Pieces

2009-11-09T05:54:00.001-08:00

36 hours until the due date and all is quiet on the western front… except for in the clay modelling studio where there’s a party going on and everybody’s getting drunk…

…except replace “party” with “all-nighter modelling” and replace “getting drunk” with “getting stressed at not finishing on time and inhaling bog and paint fumes”… ARGH!

In the meantime, the paint fumes are inhaled for a reason… except of course, getting high…

black = “move along, nothing to see here…”

In the meantime, mockups are happening on the main body…

Hooray for completion.. ack!

Update: T-72 hours and counting…

2009-11-07T07:48:00.001-08:00

So… ummm… yeh… things REALLY needed a move on…

On the downside, I had HEAPS of work to do, I still have to do my RP parts, i still have to do my lasercuts and I still need to finalise the front of my model as it didn’t have enough visual mass on it…

On the upside, ALL of my exams are finished and I have 4 days of uninterrupted time to complete my model… ok, maybe not uninterrupted… I still need to eat, sleep, do my business, call GF and other assorted things… but finally I can work undistracted on my model… hooray!

Here’s some pics of my model right now… Needs more sketch-overs and possibly quick PS sketches to work out colour and finish…

moment of no return

2009-11-07T07:39:00.001-08:00

… oh the indignity of having your head chopped off!

Having done that though, it was time to put clay over the foam and actually do some modelling of the front half of the model… unfortunately I did this too late in the project to do any meaningful sketch-styling…

In the meantime, the cast was fiberglassed and things were going along relatively nicely…

More pics coming of stuff… eventually…

Pics of the redesigned design?

2009-10-26T21:24:00.001-07:00

I guess I owe the blog a couple of pics after I re-did the surfacing on the wings and the head thingy. It’s now a lot more aggressive and has a lot more visual drama.. Hope it’s better…

Casting the Head thingy

2009-10-26T21:21:00.001-07:00

Finally got enough guts (and finances) to cast the head surface-y thing…

...now that I've figured out how to do high-res...

2009-10-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Could be alot worse, but I figured Windows Live Writer didn't do high-res that well...

turns out I was right... Here's some good-quality pics of my model.

Hooray! Photoshops!!!

2009-10-06T06:36:00.001-07:00

Finally finished both renders… and it’s only 3am.. =P

Note to Mike: if you want higher-res images, I’d be happy to send them to you via email.

…HUZZAH!

2009-09-26T19:11:00.001-07:00

…at last, the model is symmetrical, although ignore the bit of armature that’s sticking out the bottom showing how COMPLETELY out of whack the actual armature under the clay actually is…

But still, all the important stuff is on the centreline, right down to the air intakes… Side view?

Now I have to do some more sketchovers but in the meantime, here’s more pics of my model.

Partially clayed up other side

What the “bad” side now looks like

Front on, showing chines beside the beak.

Back on, showing rear wheel and wing armature.

More Armature Updates

2009-09-23T19:28:00.001-07:00

Last week I raised the armature up and tilted it forwards slightly. However, that also put the armature off kilter a bit and this week I had to get squares out and drill some new holes to compensate. I also found out that the left wing is a bit in and so I’ll have to shift that out a little… Still good I say.

That and Mike likes my design (I think…). Good signs. Now, onto some more sketchovers and photoshops! ack!

More pics of the armature

2009-09-18T20:24:00.001-07:00

This week, the bike gained a pair of wings… took all day in the workshop though but it was worth it…

…and finally, the sketchovers!

2009-09-18T14:12:00.001-07:00

…and apparently they’re also in order… from oldest to newest I might add…

Through these sketches I tried to develop the form of the wings as well as the surfacing of the body so I can start working on my model in earnest. Weirdly enough it was quite helpful.

More clay armature pics…

2009-09-09T00:34:00.001-07:00

They’re a bit more finished and they have some draft feature lines taped onto them... see what happens… =)

Long time between drinks…

2009-08-31T05:14:00.001-07:00

After a computer reformat and lotsa time in the workshop I have nothing to show for it…

well…

nothing except a bunch of pics and an armature in the claymodelling studio… fun!

Now, shots of the armature without clay. Notice the ridiculous toe-in on the front wheels… fun!

These are preliminary pics of the clayed-up armature.

Final Concept Rendering

2009-08-12T01:20:00.001-07:00

Yeh, this took way too long but still…

Kinda befitting a comic book hero to have his car rendered in art photoshop style… hooray! More info on the car later

…PACKAGE DRAWING!!! ack!

2009-08-11T22:22:00.001-07:00

That took way too long and rendering hasn’t even started and it’s 3:15pm… but on the bright side…

UPDATE: Here’s one with a gridline so we actually know how big the attack tricycle actually is… =)

Concepts are ack!!!

2009-08-04T23:41:00.001-07:00

hey there whoever’s reading this…

These are my concepts. The descriptors are below.

Concept 1 consists of an attack tri-wheel that stows away in Archimedes (Nite Owl’s ship). The design features wings that the weapons stow away in and FLIR (forward-looking infra-red) instead of an actual windscreen so that nite-owl has perfect visibility in the dark.

The design is based on a raptor about to strike.

Concept 2 consists of an attack bike that is smaller than the above concept. Although it lacks the shelter of the previous design, it’s more mobile and carries many of the similar features.

However, the FLIR is less integrated and a 2-wheeler is inherently unstable.

Concept 3 consists of a tank/car device that stows weapons, FLIR and other assorted stuff within it. The upshot with a car-like design is that a partner can come along for the ride. The downside is that it can’t be carried around in Archie and isn’t as mobile.

More sketches and concept developments

2009-08-04T18:36:00.001-07:00

Here’s some stuff I’ve done so far… ack!!!

Couple of more mood boards for the road…

2009-08-04T10:59:00.001-07:00

… and at 4am on a Wednesday morning at that! =P

Anywho… =)

The first one is on military, stealth, weapons systems and whatnot…

Second one is on birds of prey and especially owls…

Kinda obvious when designing a ride for nite-owl…

Now for a few hours of shut-eye… ack!

Sketches: Update 1

2009-08-03T02:36:00.001-07:00

Hey there whoever is looking at this blog…

It’s been interesting working with this project and it’s actually quite a reassuring restriction that the character I’m designing this car for doesn’t live in the real world.

It’s also really cool designing a crime-fighting vehicle to catch the bad people… I have recurring memories of watching batman movies with extravagant cars and spaceships and other forms of transportation. Makes me realise how much fun a movie prop designer can have or even the applications of ID on movies, games… even cartoons.

Here’s a bunch of sketches I’ve done so far 1 and a half weeks in…

Mood boards… or… ACK! I shouldn’t have left it this late!!

2009-07-28T17:39:00.001-07:00

Yeh it happens… =( but here are mood boards…

First board is key shots about who Nite Owl is in comics, film and various other whatnot and stuff he uses.

Second one is on ID stuff I found quite cool…

Next is some funky spaceships I found…

…and finally, some stuff from nature that was quite cool…

Now for some sketching… argh!!!!

Background Part 2: Shouldn’t have left this so late… ACK!!! =(

2009-07-28T09:06:00.001-07:00

What happens when final year project commitments conflict with transport… maybe it wasn’t such a good idea doing that and FYP at the same time… ack!! oh well…

In the meantime, a bit about my character, Nite Owl…

About the Character

The character of “Nite Owl” was said to have been based on DC’s Batman. Originally, the “Watchmen” idea was to have been applied to the mainstream DC comics characters, but DC didn’t like the idea of killing lots of their lead characters off or changing their universe that much so the comic was written as a stand-alone.

The hero “Nite Owl” has an alter-ego, the retired and rather impotent Daniel Dreiberg (who was apparently based on a mid-life blow-out Bruce Wayne). During his prime, he used a swathe of technology to battle crime but since the Keene act (an act of government banning costumed vigilantism) he retired and lives a relatively normal life until the events of the comic unfold.

Whilst he was in his prime though, he used owl-themed gadgets and transportation. Often these would be of advanced designs that incorporated cutting-edge technologies to fight crime and take down criminals in any form. Although not featured in the film, the comic depicts various experimental suits and transportation devices that he would’ve worked on after the events of watchmen as it was strongly hinted in the ending that he hadn’t fully retired after Veidt’s monster appeared in New York (or the destruction of major cities were blamed on Dr. Manhattan, depending on if you believe the comic or the movies) which means he might have worked on other more advanced transportation.

Dreiberg liked birds and had a strong passion for owls in his childhood. As such, he incorporated owl motifs into his designs and even his technology is owl-themed. He also values entertainment and leisure as well as practicality, which is displayed when he and the second Silk Spectre rescued people from a burning building and then makes them coffee and entertains them with recorded renditions of “You’re my Thrill” by Billie Holiday. All this makes quite a good background for design.

That and incorporating missile turrets, flame throwers and various other comic-book gadgetry into it could be fun I guess… and now for the mood boards… ACK!! =(

Background Part 1: Hooray for “market research”!

2009-07-27T09:47:00.001-07:00

The great thing about doing research on a comic book character is doing the market research, especially given the fact that I actually liked reading comic books…

Normally, this would present a problem as (unless I am a total marvel/DC geek… thankfully) the comic book universe upon which a character is based is so complex that it would take more than a few weeks to research and contemplate. Compounding this is the fact that there are often so many different iterations of characters (for example, ultimate spider-man, invincible spider-man, amazing spider-man, the list goes on) that it was difficult to actually define in more than 2 dimensions what sort of person the character is.

However, this wasn’t the case with a limited stand-alone graphic novel like Watchmen. There was one universe, several characters, all of which are portrayed in realistic fashion and none of them (except one who was re-arranged in a science experiment gone wrong) having superpowers. The characters are all three-dimensional, with their likes, personal life and even sexual identity described in detail.

About the World of Watchmen

To put the entire story in context, the graphic novel “Watchmen” is presented in an alternate 1985 where the only difference between it and the real timeline is the existence of costumed vigilantes known as super-heroes. It explores the impact that costumed vigilantism would have in the real world in realistic scenarios and takes world history down an alternate “what if” scenario.

Due to the intervention of Dr. Manhattan (the guy who got zapped in an experiment gone wrong and now exists as a quantum entity able to manipulate matter in a God-like manner and lives in quantum time… I don’t know what that means either but he’s the only dude with powers) the world has electric cars (due to him being able to synthesise critical battery components and work out stuff no normal human can work out) and “blimps” (due to his work on anti-gravity stuff) and America won the Vietnam War (due to his intervention). Interesting world to design for.

Here is Dr. Manhattan discussing electric cars with the first Nite Owl. And here’s the Jalopnik article about it…

So… designing electric cars anyone?

…and here it goes…

2009-07-26T06:39:00.001-07:00

Well… what do I write for the first blog? Ack!

it’s late, very late in fact and I don’t really know what I should do… what’s even worse is it’s a Sunday and I have to get mood boards and sketches up by Wednesday afternoon… I guess this could be rather bad…

This also means I have to pick a character/celebrity. ACK!!!

Okies, for those of us who aren’t initiated in transport design, apparently I have to design a transportation device for a celebrity or a character. Sounds easy? Probably not…

Just means i have to cry and flap my arms about until I find a character…

In the meantime, though, I shall pick… NITE OWL from the Watchmen… Archie could SERIOUSLY do with a stylish makeover…