Progress: Street Runner

I don't mean to hold you captive as an audience, but things haven't gone quite as I expected with the Great Balzini. I ran into some technical problems that I haven't quite figured out the solution to yet. But rest assured, that is still on my list of things to do. In the mean time, I've been spending my break from school working on a project that I have been working on for the past year....

Well, at least for the past year in my head. While I was still working for Pride Mobility, I came up with the idea of a computerized three-wheeled electric vehicle. I have struggled to get a design out and on to paper, but I finally figured it out. I have started many times on the modeling, but never got much farther than a very blobular exterior form. However, I've been working for the past week on the following model. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my latest creation: The Street Runner.

This rendering right here is what we call the "clay model," even though it really is made of pixels, not clay. It is the modeling to the point right before it goes in for materials. There is one uniform shader on it to show general surface structure.

Here is a shot without the canopy. Yes, I did put all the details down in the interior. There are even gas and brake pedals.

Here is a shot of the wireframe model. When I get a chance, maybe I'll explain how I model things using this method. It's much too complicated to explain in a few words. Let me just say that there has been a lot of cleanup work on this model in order for all of the surfaces to look good and get the highlight just right.

It is my hope to finish this before the next semester starts up. I need to assign materials to the surfaces and then I am on to rigging. There is a certain mechanical system I have dreamed up (don't worry, it's totally impractical and not cost effective) for the suspension and steering and I have to program that into the model to make it a cinch to animate. We'll see how it all turns out in the end.