Cyclecar : GN Jap

The Cyclecar GN Jap

A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s.

Understanding the GN Jap : what can I learn from it ?

The first step of the project consists of gathering the reference of the model and analysed them. It was essential for me to get as much detail as possible, in order to understand the proportion of the vehicles, how the pieces assembles. It is also an important step for planifying the work and identifying the problematic parts.
But more important, in a learning process, I can evaluate what is already accessible for me, what is new and will require new skills. What I was looking for was a model that I like, wich would require strictness and planification for  modeling the complex part as the motor in Maya. I wanted to improve my workflow for texturing and shading, using Substance painter.
Of course, the final result isn't perfect, but I feel like I've made a lot of progress with this work, and I will try to relate my experience with this entry. I hope you will enjoy it.

Following work : the modeling !

Step 2 : modeling

From blocking to refining the shapes and adding details.

The idea of this steps is really simple : managing my energy, not going immediately into details (wich is always really tempting). First of all, doing the blocking steps are essentials in order to get correct proportion of the cyclecar. I'm not used to see this kind of vehicles, and some shapes are really tricky to get correctly, like the alternate concave and convex shapes of the hull. Blocking is a good opportunity to make quick correction and get a good feeling about the model, his shape and is weight.
The motor being a complex part, I chose to take care of it as a separate feature, always looking at proportion using reference phography, and checking regularly if it fits the rest of the vehicle.
Step by step, modeling is about refining the shapes and adding details little by little.

Quick comment

I was expecting to become crazy on this motor ... but I guess it was ok, thanks to the reference. Some part could be really better though, and I think this is one of my next step of improvement : I didn't take much care about the ironsmith (screws, stuff), vaguely understanding how the pieces assembles and interacts. And I think I should have consider doing some of them  as normal in substance painter, in order to lighten the number of polygons.

Modeling is done. Up next : the UVs.

Step 3 : The UVs

The UVs

My objectives here was to organize my UVs, regrouping the shells by different materials (bare metal, brass, wood, etc) in order to make my life easier in substance painter. Not really optimized in term of layout, but I wanted to make the texel density homogeneous, avoiding deformation as much as possible. I guess there is a lot of room for improvement here. The idea is to make all necessary preparation in order to get a clean work in substance painter.

Step 4 : Texture and shading

For starter, baking the different pass are essential to make your life easier. I used the IDs map for masking different part of the motorcycle. The other passes like ambient occlusion, curvature and world space normal are useful for adding detail like dust for example.
I worked from general to detail, starting by blocking the differents materials with basic color, and adding detail by projecting some textures, and then adding the imperfection.
Yet, this is a step I need to work more in order to master it. The result is clumsy, but I feel like I've made a lot of progress in understanding the process of texturing. I hope my next projects will get better based on the feedbacks on this work. Upcoming is the lookdev, seeing the result of this work rendered with arnold.

Step 5 : the final result

In order to play with the vintage look of the vehicle, I chosed a paved road for the environement, adding some minerals element.
I hope you liked this project.
It was a challenging one for me. Lots of progress needs to be done, but I feel like I've learned a lot about managing a more complex project.