Undersea Explorer
And I think this is finally complete. Verne is off to explore the strange wonders and worlds under the sea.
Undersea WIP3
Almost done. Just need to add the character. I think I'm going to do some sketches to see what he shapes up like. Once the pilot is painted in place I want to do a few paint touch-ups to the rest of the image to integrate it better.
Undersea WIP2
An update to the undersea backdrop. Introducing a little more color in the foreground. This should help give extra depth and interest to the ship that will eventually be traveling these waters. The plan as of now is to composite the final image in four main layers. The main background, the ship, the character piloting the ship, and the volcano in the foreground. I really want to try to "paint" the character by hand so it doesn't look so 3D and robotic, hence the composite approach to this.
And here's the original one again for reference. I quite like the softness and blur of the original.. I'll have to reintroduce some of that.
The Generic Car Project
This was an interesting project just completed. Assignment was to design and build a generic car with equal parts luxury & sportiness. Car would then be featured in mock commercials shown to focus groups. One commercial would feature a classical, the other a rock soundtrack. People were asked whether or not the music swayed their opinion about the product. Did the classical music convince you this was a luxury vehicle? Did the rock music make you think it was a sport vehicle? The findings of that study were then presented at a music marketing conference.
We couldn't use an existing model since people may have had preconceived ideas about actual models or manufacturers that would sway their opinions. So we started sketching some rough ideas. I decided on a crossover vehicle: Part sedan, part SUV, all generic.
Once I settled on an overall shape I did a few variations to refine my concept. We went over all of our sketches and narrowed it down to 3 choices. Each of the choices had design characteristics that reminded me of different manufacturers so internally we referred to them as the Jeep, Mazda & Chrysler.
The Jeep was thought to be too rugged and masculine, the Mazda too curvy and modern, and the Chrysler design seemed to be mediocre, mundane & generic in all the right amounts.
After about a week of modeling the "Chrysler" began to take shape. It evolved a bit from the concept because it was looking too retro. I still don't know if that was an accident or subconsciously I wanted it to evolve that way since it's what I like. That acorn looking badge is supposed to be a shield with motion lines coming from it. An attempt to say luxury and sporty. A few more hours of tweaking the textures and scene and the first luxury, sporty, generic, utility, retro, almost looks like a hearse, crossover, mediocre mobile rolled off the line.
Ship WIP2
Update to the Jules Verne inspired ship. Mostly interior stuffs. That robot guy is just a placeholder to help establish proportions. I eventually picture him looking like a cross between Vincent Price with mutton chop sideburns and Doctor Who's third incarnation Jon Pertwee. Maybe even a cartoony style?
