A1//Lunar Roving Vehicle

Welcome to my Rookie Awards 2024 submission. I'm Till, a german 3D Artist and very fond of Lighting and Compositing, as well as Look Development. 

The animation is actually a bit rushed. I wanted to finish it in time for the Rookie Award but there are some things that I want to improve later. Nevertheless this Animation belongs to my entry.

The A1//Lunar Roving Vehicle 

Some months ago, I started this vehicle study to push my texturing skills and deepen my expertise in Substance Painter and using UDIMs in Redshift. The base car model is the Chaparral 2D from Jim Hall. Since I love the design of old racing cars, I decided to take this shape as a starting point and add details and textures. Being also a big fan of the Apollo missions, the goal was set.

I also spent a lot of time studying the surface of the moon, its grainy and dry texture, the rocks, and its reaction to light. Since there is no atmosphere on the moon, distant objects seem to be close to the camera. So taking a sky atmosphere and blurring out distant objects wasn’t an option. That’s the reason why my shots are mainly set at "night".

I started by gathering reference images from everywhere I could find good inspiration. Movies like Le Mans '66, First Man, and Ad Astra are a real treasure for good designs and cinematic looks.