Subaru Impreza WCR 1999 model

For this project I will replicate in as much detail as possible the subaru impreza rally car from 1999. Famously used by Colin Mcrae. The final outcome of this project will be a detail render of the car in a dynamic, action pose. Using a dramatic camera angle and dust, snow, wind or motion blur etc I want to add action and drama to the final render. Below are some images that have inspired me to complete this project.




I have found loads of reference images that I will study and use as reference when modeling the car. I will model each panel of the car seperatly, eg. the bonet, the roof, the doors, boot etc. I will start with the bonnet. I have found an imported the image planes which I will model from.


I will start from the front of the car and work my way to the rear, im going to sketch out the basic mesh for each panel and then revisit each panel to add more detail. Aslong as I keep the edges of each panel consistant and lined up with the previous panel it should work out nicely.






The basic mesh of the bonnet has been created so I will move onto the side wheel arch.


Ok the arch panel will still need quite a bit of work but the basic shape I am hapy with. By extruding the edges closest to the door panel from the arch panel I can create the basic shape for the door. This will keep the panels lined up nicely.


I have then extruded from the door edge to create the beginnings of the rear panel, which is quite a big one which runs along the roof edges to create the outline for the doors windows.


Its getting there, I will work on the boot and lower bumper section next.


The basic panel mesh of the car is pretty much in place now. Next on the list are the spoiler and the glass sections of the car, windscreen etc.


The glass sections are in place but will need some tweaking later to ensure they are lined up perfectly. Ok now that the main pieces are in place I will assign a car shader to the car panels so as I move about the viewport I can keep a track on how the shine from the viewports 'light' is being picked up. The key I find to a good car model render is how the reflections are picked up by each panel. As each panel is a seperate object but act as one 'car body' object the panels need to reflect consistently and equally.




I forgot to demonstrate how I modelled the front bumbper so il quickly go over this 'panel'. This section was the most challenging piece so far to create, due to all the curved and straight shapes.


Some of the topology still needs tweaking but as you can see the shape is there.
I am now working on the more 'detailled' sections that could be forgotton about. In particular the rubber lining that lines the connecting panels around the windscreen and the windows on the doors. Even tho these parts might not be greatly visible in a final render, I feel it would be noticeable if it wasnt there.

The small rear window does have a thicker black edging, but this will be done through textures at a later stage. You can see this in the below reference image

I have modeled the windscreen wipers and mirrored the panels I am happy with. I am going to concentrate on the grill section near the front bumper. Model the wheel and its alloy and model some of the interior that will be seen from the camera angle I choose to render from. So I will also start to think about the composition of the final render. I have started sketching out the roll cage and I will continue to define it. As you can see from the renders so far its getting there and starting to take shape.

# Quick note about the shader, it appears very flakey in the renders, and this shader will be edited quite a lot later. It is being used purely for its reflective properties as a point of reference at the moment.

I have started work on the wheel, I have also added a light to my scene with shadows turned on so I can start to get a more realistic output when I render/ preview the model. This helps as I have started adding different shaders to the car and I can now see more realistic results. The model still needs work, and this can be seen in the renders below but its getting there. Its definitely looking like a Subaru Impreza...which is good!

I have been adding some detail to the underside of the chassis. As well as adding some detail to the grill placed within the front bumper. As I will place the car in a dramatic pose the under side may be visible. I have also edited the bonnet and added the air intake holes to the bonnet scoop.

I have added a few mud flaps and door handles. The mud flaps will be fun to play with later when it comes to texturing, making them really muddy and dirty.

I have added a texture to the badge, This may be edited again if need be, but for now I am happy with it. I have used a simple blinn as the shaders base. I may create a layered texture and incorporate a glossy coat. So the badge looks more realistic keeping its design but with a glossy, reflective outer.

Quick edit to this section, I have checked with detailed reference images and the badge sits on a tiny stand with an outer casing which is also the same colour as the car paint. I have attached a render and the refrence image to show this below.

I have modeled a helmet, to show people in the car, I will add more to the presence of a person if nessasary later.

Ok the car is looking there at the moment, Im pretty happy with the actual shape and look of the car so far. I will start to looking into texturing the different sections of the car. Having fun with making it look muddy and dirty as if its just being skidding around a tight hair pin and splashed though muddy puddles, scattered around a rally track.

Car in a raised position ( done to check out how the car could look in a more dramatic pose)

I started with the bumper, adding the STI decals and some dried dirt and dust. I am still undecided whether to texture the car with the yellow rally car subaru swooshes. I will texture the dirt first and if I decide to add the other decals later I can add them as a shader below the dirt shader within a layered shader.

I have added an hdri image to give myself some more realistic feedback when rendering. I have added dirt and mud splashes to the bonnet and the headlights.

Here I have added dirt to the orange side lights as well as adding some dusty dirt to the grill. Its hard to make out in this render ill add one later to show this more.

I have tried to add continuous dirt to the pins. The dirt that has splashed on the bonnet would also go over the pins, so I have tried to texture the pins with that in mind.

Ok here I have started to add dirt to the side door and the tyre tread on the wheels. I have also added built up and dried dirt to the mud flaps as they would capture quite a lot of the kicked up dirt from the wheels.

I have got rid of the hdri image for this render to get a better idea of were the dirt is hitting. I am pleased with the progress so far. In this render you can also pick up the collected dirt in the grill.

Added a bit more dirt around the headlight

I have also added a texture to the wing mirror as well as adding the subaru rally decals to the bonnet to see how they look. I think I will try and add the rally decals to the rest of the car. As they are quite iconic with this particular subaru model. I am having trouble sourcing hi res versions of the decals so I may have to make them myself.

I have added a texture to the spoiler

Reference image showing relevant decals

Side Decal

I have added the subaru 'swooshes' and the Pirelli decals to the bumper and the side door and rear panel.

Ok I think my car is now on its last lap!........ great! Im going to pick a pose and camera angle to render from, making sure that the camera angle and the position of the car looks dramatic. The cars position needs to express motion, any adjusting I do now will help later down the line when I import my render into photoshop. I have experimented with different camera angles and positions. I would like the car to be on the floor so I can add mud splashes. The result of the cars speed and impact.

I am going to work with the camera angle and the cars position above. I feel it shows motion and built up energy. I like the lighting so far but I will tweak it slightly.

I have tweaked the headlights by adding textures and playing with the shaders attributes. I have also added some roll cage detail to the cars structure.

I imported my final render into photoshop along with an ambient occlusion pass.

I started painting and adding a soil, dirty and muddy floor to the scene. Which would allow the car to kick up both dust and muddy splashes.

I then started to focus on adding detail and depth.

This process took a few hours but was enjoyable, trying to get the car to fit into a new environment. I was looking at chiaroscuro a lot during this process, framing the render with black and using the light of the headlights as the focal point to the scene. The mist helped to add drama and atmosphere.

Below is the final Render, I am very happy with it, as I have achieved everything I set out to do. I am pleased I managed to keep the realism in the final image. As I was concerned, when I digitally painted the background I would loose some realism, but if any thing it has helped the render achieve the atmosphere and drama that I originally set out to achieve. I hope you have enjoyed this blog and like the final result!

Bladerunner compositional animation

My aim for this project is to use my 3d model i created of the spinner, texture it and animate it. Then finally composite it in an original scene from the film. Trying to create as much realism as possible, as well as keeping a single still frame alive through out an animation. I have made a quick attempt at syncing the 3d model within a frame from the film below using photoshop.

Original Frame

Frame after i added my 3D model and tweaked the image

This is a quick attempt but i have just added lens flares to the spinner. I have also added flares to the lights on the right hand side, just to bring them back to life and refresh them. i have darkened the actual spinner and blurred some of the sharp edges.

A few ideas I am going to bare in mind to add to the sequence would be to add atmosphere through gradual mist, flickering lights, an animated coca cola logo, more light glares possible blurring of the background and use of shadow as well as reflection caused by the spinners presence. In particular the spread of light caused by its placement in the scene. I will look into using 3d layers in after effects to try and achieve the effect that the moving light will have on the buildings in the scene.

Adding textures to the model

Another render from the same angle but with the spinner facing a different angle, in this shot I have added the lights as well as the lights blur as it dispenses into the sky. I have also used a hdri image to add reflections to the spinners shiny surface, in particular the windscreen. The image maybe to small to see this, il try and add more detail to show this.

Close up

Still needs quite a bit of work and research to try and get it to integrate with the image better i think. The next steps are to add more blur and light to the underside of the vehicle, just so there is some sign that light exists there a little hint should do.

AT-AT texturing and compositing

I have been modeling an AT-AT from the Star Wars films, and i decided to texture it and render the final 3d model and composite the render into a background. The aim was to try and achieve as much realism as possible. You can see the final image above. I kept a log of the different segments that i had textured and iv decided to log them in this blog for people to see the process that was involved in producing the image above.

Early models of the AT-AT before texturing.

I started from the foot upwards, from research i noticed the At-At models seen in the film were very dirty and oily looking. So i decided my at-at would look quite run down and dirty.

To texture the base of the foot a took the Uv's from Maya and imported them into photoshop. I also added a bump map to the foot to provide extra detail.

The foot

I added more dirt to the underside of the ankle section in the 2nd picture, as this is where i thought the dirt would gather on a real at -at.

I then began to create the texture for the arch section joining the ankle with the foot.

Added rust to the ankle section

Upper leg section

Some more detail, i added a bump map to the inner circle section of the upper leg to show possible wear caused by the spinning element resting above.

Leg without texture

Leg with texture

Upper body textures

Head before texture

At-At fully textured ready for compositing in photoshop

To achieve the image above, I re-painted over a still I found from the film for the base of the background. Then using the different options in photoshop I altered the colour and look of the 3d AT-AT so it fitted better in the scene. I also blurred the feet quite a bit and added snowy winds to the areas around the feet. This helped a lot bedding the 3d model into the painted background. Adding a very pale white wind and mist to the body of the at-at and its surroundings also helped it sit in the scene.

I hope you like the final result

Disney Characters

I am fascinated with Walt Disney films, and how the characters are designed, I know Disney used a system of circles and shapes to create the characters, allowing the animators to keep the design consistent frame after frame. When the characters are broken down into simple shapes they still poses a certain magic, appeal and personality. Out of pure interest I have found some old model sheets of some Disney characters.

One of the nine old men Marc Davis was responsible for desiging the charcater 'Tinkerbell' for the disney classic peter pan in 1953. The Figure drawing is beautiful in this rough sketch of Tinkerbell and the expressions are so expressive portraying the charcters personality. The original design of tinkerbell was inspired by a woman called Margaret kerry. Who Disney employed as a model so the animators could rotoscope her in certain positions which would eventually become some of tinker bells signature poses.

Horse Anatomy drawing project

To practice my drawing skills, a piece I will complete with emphasis on portraying motion. Using pencil and charcoal. It needs to be good as it will be a gift for someone. Im going to start laying down the foundations of the muscles, head etc using circles, then joining the circles to create a flowing line.

I have added some more shading, hair etc and general detail, maintaining the sketchy look I like

I have sketched out the muscles and added more definition as well as the maine, I like the expression on the face so far. The front right leg needs re-doing perhaps.

I have started to add some of the environment, mainly making the smokey dust the key feature as the horse is in motion. To create the dusty smokey effect I used a mix of pencil with gentle white charcoal. I have also added some soft shading to define the muscles around the front legs.