Personal Project: My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011-PART III-More 3D Color variations

A Candy Paint in Magenta done using Cebas Final Render 3.0 for the renderer.

Here we see My Bubble Kar in Dark Moss Green Metallic Paint

Candy Apple Red! BAM!

A Dark Espresso or Mocha Metallic Paint, that rolled real dark as it falls on the back shapes. This was to emulate an old Candy Apple red technique where they would shoot black paint in the body folds to appear even deeper in the shadows.

I even did one in Bubble Car in basic primer grey to get the lighting down for a flat paint set up as well

Here is the Bubble Car is Suede paint, or a flattened black popular in the current Hot Rod culture.

Personal Project

My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011
Part III- More Color 3D Renders

This is my third post covering my personal project on My Bubble Car that was started back while I was still at Art Center in Pasadena CA. back in 1989 during my thirst term in Transportation Design 1. You can view the original design from that era here.

Today I am posting a few added color variations that I did back in 2007 on the project. I had a double use for the tests. I was setting up a base scene for a car render in the various colors so that when a job came in, like Mitsubishi did, I was ready to light and render a car fast in any color that they would want.

One thing I did was to meet with a fellow A.C.C.D. grad who specialized in Automotive Photography, and Jerry Garns was very helpful to our whole team of myself, Goutam Mitra, and Dean Fowler on a Honda pitch. we eventually won.

One thing I knew, and was reinforced even more, is that the car color requires a new light rig for every color as each paint scheme reacts very different to light. Lighter colors will wash out with the bright lights needed for a black sleek render, and a darker lighting scheme for a bright paint is too dim for a dark car paint as well.

Also as a Hot Rod and custom car enthusiast, I had to do a suede paint, or flattened black look in there too, I was inspired by a friend I do 3D design work for, Coby Gewertz in the Movie Poster world, who dubbed the Bubble Car, the future Model-T, ...the next T-bucket. It needs some Von Dutch pinstripes though IMAO.

I plan to revisit the design in the next few months if I have some downtime, to continue the design, as I have not touched it in over 4 years, and I am way past due, but I have been busy, so it can wait if needed.

PART I: here

PART II: here

Cheers, THOM

My Art Center Senior Show from the Fall Trimester of 1991

 Here is the longview on my Senior Show FA 1991 from Art Center in Pasadena CA.

 My show was next to class mate Paul Kirley, and a few classmates were there assisting when I took this pic. I graduated with Doug as well, but Darren was in a grad program[ I believe] and had already graduated.

 

 My CALTY[ California-Toyota-Design Lab] project form my 7th term.

 A shot of the wall with my Alfa Romeo and Calty flanking the sides.

 Here is my Bubble Car as well as my Telescope Product design I teamed on with Aaron Kahleberg as well as my Motorized Speed skates!

My Art Center Senior Show from the Fall Trimester of 1991

Upon graduation from Transportation Design at ACCD, we get the opportunity to do a Senior show in the main Project Room that we work our clay models up in during the year.

Since our calss was just five folks, we each got a full wall, and the 5th got the center of the room. What you see above is my full wall with four, fifth scale car models I designed and built in school, the Telescope Product Design Model, My Theme Park Vehicle "Sunset", and my Motorized Speedskate project. 

I put up over 100 pieces on the walls as well as 12 sketch books.

We also get to interview with automotive and transportation companies even if we are going in another filed, as I was intent on Entertainment Design since I transferred in 85'. It was a fun process.

I have nine posts for my time at Art Center here is a quick link to them all.

Cheers, THOM

Personal Project: My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011-PART III -3rd Term Marker and Chalk Rendering 1989

From my final Presentation for Freeman Thomas' class done in Vis Comm taught by Andy Ogden back in the fall of 1989.

An additional view for the the velum marker renders I did of My Bubble Car design at Art Center in 89'.

This was actually done 4th term after the project was done as a paint and marker on Tracing exercise.

Done on Canson as an alternate technique for My Bubble Kar back in the 80's.

 I still have the Tape drawing [ 3-view I did back then[ and it is a bit beat up, but you can see it as it looked in 89' here.

Personal Project

My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011
Part III- 3rd Term Old School
Marker, Prisma, and Chalk Rendering on Velum, 
and Tape Drawing.

This is my third post covering my personal project on My Bubble Car that was started back while I was still at Art Center in Pasadena CA. back in 1989. If you want to view the Bubble Car in it's current 2011 form, you can go here.

Above you will see some hand renders done on Vincent Velum, and Canson Paper for my 3rd term Vis-Comm class taught by the great ACCD Prof Andy Ogden. This class was instrumental in my design training and I was able to develop my technique for my Freeman Thomas Bubble Car project in this class as well.

I also had the privilege of getting some hands on training from the esteemed Craig Mullins in chalk technique just prior to this trimester back at Art Center, and that was used all over these drawings that are near 22 years old now. I developed a few design looks for the project and played on tracing, velum and Canson with different techniques as I learned more on rendering with markers.


You will also see the "Tape Drawing" which is a staple in Automotive Design work getting a good 3-view with  accurate proportions and a Human-Figure[95th percentile] in there to fit it all in correctly.

As a mini side note, my professor Andy Ogden asked during the critique time, what did the car sound like[ he knew I made noises A LOT] so I proceeded with a Jetson's Zoom noise, mixed with some Doppler effect and everyone laughed.

PART I: here

PART II here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Cyan Worlds URU PART VII Submarine

 The Online version of MYST's URU had a Bubble-Sub I designed for the Venalem Age that was proposed.

 The mini sub was a one man craft all heavy iron and riveted with a Steampunk Industrial flavor.

 The "Tail" has a rotating and adjustable vane on the huge prop so it pushed pulled and steered the Personal Transport I designed back in 2000.

 An overhead render of the Ball shaped mini-sub surfaced on the ocean.

 A ocean level shot of the surfaced Bubble-Submarine Personal vessel in the open sea.

 Here is a geometry shot showing the 3D model as built for the concept art presentation.
 

Cyan Worlds URU: Part VII
Venalem Age:Ink Harvesting Submarine

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Direction: Rand Miller
Project Date: Winter 2000

In this seventh Post on the Production Design work I did in the Winter of 2000 up in Spokane WA for Cyan Worlds, the makers of the popular Myst Video Game, I have posted the 3D renders I did for the Personal Submarine or "Bubble Sub", for the world Venalem that I designed.

Venalem was a world caught in a floating Iceberg and you can review the design here. The Bubble Sub was used to dive deep into the icy waters and cut the bulbs off at the base in order to create the ink needed to write the story.

I did the concept design a bit steampunk in theme, built out of heavy iron., with lots of bolts and rivets exposed. I added in some features like the variable vane propeller ball, that was ball joint hinged at a knuckle joint near the base, so it operated like a "Tail" to help steer the little personal watercraft design.


I always love submarine designs, as I did a few in 3D, and I also did a whole bunch of research in the Library way before the internet back in the early 90's to understand  "Neutral Buoyancy", since I wanted to build one someday, and since this one is a Bubble too, it follows that a bubble car and submarine are really a matched pair.

You can view PART I here.

You can view PART II here

You can view PART III here.

You can view PART IV here.

You can view PART V here.

You can view PART VI here. 

Cheers, THOM

Personal Project: My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011-PART II -3rd Term 5th Scale Model

  A shot of My Bubble Car Design Taken just under the bridge at ACCD back in the Fall Trimester of 1989

 A side-view taken at ground level of my Bubblecar design.

Here with a birdsyeye shot you really see the cutaway side of my Bubble Kar design I did back in the late 80's.

My 3rd Term Presentation was done as a tri-fold foam core wall that I basically just set up on a table and did the presentation for Freeman Thomas.

Here is the Bubble Car again  five terms later for my senior show in the fall of 1991 at my Graduation.

Personal Project

My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011
Part II- 3rd Term 5th Scale Model

This is my second post covering my personal project on My Bubble Car that was started back while I was still at Art Center in Pasadena CA. back in 1989. If you want to view the Bubble Car in it's current 2011 form, you can go here.

Above you will see shots taken back while I was still a student at Art Center, of the 5th scale model I built for the final design presentation for the class.

Our teacher at the time was, Freeman Thomas, famous for more than one current automotive design including working on the PT Cruiser, The New VW Bug, and the Audi TT coupe. He allowed us as Transportation Design One students, to build a 5th scale model, which usually took place our 5th term, not our 3rd.

If I remember right,  he caught some flack for that, but as a designer we were able to get right into a dimensional design on our first car, so the connection started very early for those of us fortuneate to have him as a Professor.  Going from a 2D sketch to an actual 3D model sculpture connects the dots that no other method can do, and the sooner you build your designs the sooner you see your own disconnected sketching style, and "fakes" that are in the sketch[ foreshortening etc.], so you adjust your sketching style to be more realistic.

The original "Orbit" was a fluid driven chariot, with swing arms that would hold each wheel independently, and move independant from the main body so the car body itself was truly animated in form. At the time of design I build a rear engine[ Think VW type 1] with a fluid drive system that went to all four wheels.

I had seen many an "Egg" cars, or teardrop shaped cars, but I had never seen a fully round bubble [ until 2008 as there was one done out of France back in the late 50's]. The "Ball" was key to the design not only in the Cabin, but for the wheel-fenders themselves as I wanted the five main spheres to be the basis for the design.

For the final design I did a half, and half model showing the interior structure, with the frame that was inside the bodywork, as well as a full interior, as I had to build out the full interior since I used a lexan hemi-sphere for the windows on the finished side rather than a solid clay or foam model as most 5th scale designs are.

I will be posting close ups of those first renders done in Vis-Com 3rd term taught by Andy Ogden in days to follow, so enjoy the posting.

PART I: here

Cheers, THOM

Personal Project: My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011

 Here is a studio lit shot of My Bubble Car I designed, taken in 1989[ 4x5] of the final 1/2 cutaway model I did at Art Center for Freeman Thomas' studio design class called, Trans-One.[Transportation Design One]

 Back in 2005 I had developed the design quite a bit more, and the newer versions since about 2000, all are looking closer to my 3D Render you see today.

 I did some color and paint tests back in 2007 on the Bubblecar, here is a bright colorful pink.

 I loved the Honda root-beer color back in 2007, so I did a version of The Bubble Car in that too.

 A full chrome version as well, one of my favorites for my Bubble Kar.

 The original project I labeled as a 'VW-Orbit' [ non sponsored project], so in honor of that I did one in the VW New Bug Turbo Green.

 My Bubble Car Concept Design had to be done in RED!

 A clean White Bubble Mini Car.

 Yellow Bubble Car in homage to my favorite band Yello!

 Here is a Geometry shot showing the basic Model, still a Work In Progress[ WIP]

 An explode view showing the base parts including the "People-Pod" the base swing-arm cage, and the wheels with separate power on each.

 Here is an alternate view from below, the mini radial engines are an option I am looking at. I had electric at one time, but the 1989 was "fluid Driven, whit a single engine in the bubbles floor.

Personal Project: My Bubble Car Design 1989-2011

Personal Project

My Bubble Car Design

1989-2011

Every car designer has a look, or specific design they fell in love with early on in their career, and I am no different. My design happened to be my first transportation design, done in my first class project during my 3rd term at Art Center. My instructor was Freeman Thomas. I had left for almost 3 years and this class took place on my first Trimester back at ACCD, so I was very into this project to say the least.

 My Bubble Car is a design that is founded in a few simple designs of the past, namely the VW bug, the Model-T, and the Jeep. All three are very iconic designs IMAO, and I wanted a design that was very unique but also a "World Car", something that would have a timeless feel to it, rather that having a trend affixed like fins or going for a specific look[ hard edge or rounded etc.], I chose the most basic and simple shape I loved, the Sphere.

My basic challenge was to design a car around a perfect sphere so that the "pod" where the two people sat could Gyroptically be balanced[ I will fill you in in future posts on this]. There are many advantages to a perfect sphere as a base for design, and one is that all impact is forced to a single point is space so the shape is the strongest shape you can have, and being this is a micro, or mini car, I wanted it safe.




I plan to post quite a bit more along with the history and sketches I did decades back in the design, and I will also continue with the development. The dream is to build at least ONE!


I plan to post many added images over the next few weeks including all the early sketches I have from school to the most current design version I have done.

Cheers, THOM