Extended Practice: Vehicle Study & Final Designs

Before getting started on designing the cars, I did a small study of several makes and shapes to see which ones I preferred and which ones I wanted to develop into final designs. I really like the Beetle Bug model of cars, so I did some research into their form and thought they would be unique to draw as well as animate as they are so round and curvy. I then did a small study on trucks because in my third animation, there is a collision between a car and a truck so I wanted to see how I could illustrate one. There are so many different types of trucks that there is no 'iconic' one. I think as long as I keep the height large, especially alongside the ratio of the car, then my message will be put across. My final study was of an ambulance. I really didn't want to use the neon yellow and dark green appearance of ambulances, simply because they would not go with the aesthetic of the rest of the animation. I therefore looked at ambulances all over the world, Ireland, Japan, America, etc and found that aside from the UK, ambulances look quite similar elsewhere, with a white main colour and then red as the highlight. 

Looking at collections of photos of cars really helped me with my drawings because I am not a car person at all and have no idea on what make is what. Therefore I felt confident going into photoshop to design some assets.

Quick sketches/fine liner drawings

Pencil crayon drawings

Before going straight into Photoshop, I decided to sketch some of the images I put together to see if I could come up with my own cars. Since I don't sketch all the time as I mainly go straight into digital mode, I found this really refreshing. It has given me confidence for when I animate and if I need to do a scene digitally but hand drawn (not in After Effects), then I will be able to do so. This was a small task to brainstorm a few ideas before I refined them next!

I tried to keep the designs simple so that I could animate them and make them look 3D throughout the animation. I mainly wanted the audience to recognise the type of vehicle they are which I think I have done rather well, and combined with some audio, this will increase the realism. I am not entirely sure about the colour choices on the top left and right cars, just because in some of the animations, the scene is set at night so I will obviously have to tone the colours down in order for them to fit in with the scene. So far however, I really like how they look.