Astonios Martinios

I have the great pleasure to participate in The Rookies award contest this year. I feel so proud to present this design entry, which I have been working on for 5 months. This design is very dear to my heart as it has wonderful stories behind, and I have the great honour to share it with you today :)

This is not only about a concept car design entry. It is about something much more comprehensive… it is about design thinking process!

I will present this entry this time in a unique way. Each phase will match a certain step in the design thinking process. This journey was compelling adventure rather than just another design entry.  

Based on the design thinking process, I will explain the journey of the evolution of this concept car as follows:

1. Define: is the process of what is the objective? which is to design an aesthetic concept car based on Aston Martin design outlines. That design has a luxurious sporty looking while retaining all the legacy of Aston Martin design signatures.

2. Understand: is the process of what are the tasks needed to be achieved? Firstly, is to design an aesthetic concept. Best way to achieve this beauty is following the minimalistic design concept “less is more”. Secondly, is to build the design based on the Aston Martin design signature and integrate not only the sporty looking, but also the luxurious appearance.

3. Ideate: is the process of how we can put these tasks together in action? This can be achieved by identify the design signature of Aston Martin (front, back and sides). I have chosen the Champagne colour as it is incredibly famous for Aston Martin, and it is one of the most decent and distinguished among other different colours. By integrating some more minimal inspirations from other cars (catwalk line and grill of Hyundai Le Fil Rogue concept car – Rims of the Porsche Taycan) this what made this concept having unique features that makes it a breath taking one. 

4. Design: is the process of action. The design journey has gone through few steps from just an idea into an actual new concept car 3D model. And here is the journey in a nutshell:

• I have used Autodesk Fusion 360 for modelling and rendering.

• Starting with the sculpt environment to create the body shell.

• Moving through the solid and surface environment to add more features and details.

• And finally moving to rendering environment to apply and modify shader material and render my entry images in a specially designed studios for more visual enhancement. 

5. Refine: is the iteration process of moving back and forth to uplift the design and adding more touch ups for more perfection. There is a short story behind this. Throughout my journey in design field, I used to publish my very first designs for community feedback, and my own learning purposes. During that I made few friends and got significant recognitions (Fusion 360 Autodesk Certified User – Autodesk platinum ambassador – launched a virtual collaborative team, the first of its kind, and was presented in Autodesk University 2020 – ranked 10th place internationally in Stanford school of design challenge of biomimetic face mask). 

Back to refine step, I had a friend of mine works as a design critique. I have sent him the initial renderings. He was very thorough in spotting all the subtle bit falls in my initial design. I was incredibly lucky to have all his support. I worked on his advices and altered the dimensions and defects. At the end, the results were unexpectedly stunning! Moreover, I have learnt a lot about automotive design basic principles.

Challenges

#1  Finding the colour

Finding the right degree of the champagne colour was quite challenging. I have used the Photopea open source photo-editing website to assist me finding the right colour code. I used one of the footage photos of a champagne Aston Martin and opened it in Photopea. 

I used the colour picker function to generate colour codes which I copied pasted them in the shader material. By adjusting parameters (flake colour 1 and 2, reflection colour, flake size, roughness and reflectivity) the results came very close to reality! 

#2 Tail lights challenge

One of his most remarkable advices was to make a more dynamic taillight. The advice was to create a hidden taillights to give indirect illumination. I have modified the tail lights and generated a pattern on a path of rectangular pieces to shatter the lights and give it more depth. 

The results were outstanding!

#3 Surfacing challenge

In the next video I will present how I could overcome one of the most difficult surfacing issue I have come across during the process of design. the video will show how I used simple tool (add point) in the sculpt environment to improve the surface highlighting in the front bumper.

Through this journey, I have also acquired more skills with surfacing and adjusting the shader materials for more enhanced visualisation.

Today - with all love to all cancer patients who are fighting for life and those who fell in this battle - I present this design; to keep the promise I gave one day to one of my patients.

Wide Body Kits

And being a doctor who is keen to tutor students, I am launching a YouTube channel soon to go through this journey in details.

Other projects

- Luxeige

I am also very proud to present another concept car I have designed, based on Lamborghini design signature. 

I have integrated the sharp looking of a Lambo and the muscly look of a Camaro in a minimalistic way. I have used Autodesk Fusion 360 to model and render this beautiful design. 

I have also used the same way to pick the right degree of the orange colour paint of the Hurracan.

I call it Luxeige!     

Design Biography

Thank you for watching 😊  and hope you like my design.