VEHICLE & PROP DESIGN - PROJECT 1

25.8.21 - 8.10.21  (week 1 - week 7)

Sajiya Mir (0340836)

VEHICLE & PROP DESIGN

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Project 1: Pre-Production

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Instructions

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Project 1

Week 3: 

This week we compiled references images and created a mood board for our project 1 vehicles. We were required to design a land, water, and air vehicle. Each vehicle had to serve a certain purpose and fit into a narrative. We were allowed to use the same existing narrative for our character design module, which led me to create medieval-era vehicles.

Week 4: 

Once our ideas and mood boards were approved by Mr. Kannan we proceeded to draw out 10 thumbnail sketches for our vehicles. As my concept for a land vehicle was to build a house on a wagon, I experimented with several approaches. For the air vehicle, I wanted to create a shape inspired by Turkish lanterns as that is where my character was from.

Fig.1.0 Land vehicle thumbnail sketches 

Fig.1.1 Air vehicle thumbnail sketches 

Week 5: 

Mr. Kannan provided feedback, and he suggested that I focus more on the functions of my vehicle so that I know if it is propelled by a motor or carried by an animal. This would assist in the ongoing development of my design. Because my character has a nomadic lifestyle, I decided on an animal, specifically a yak, for my land design. From there, I sketched out numerous designs for the houses and wagon. I did the same thing with my air and water vehicles before developing them; I chose to figure out how they would work.

Fig.1.2 Land Vehicle Silhoutee Sketches 

Fig.1.3 Water Vehicle Silhoutee Sketches 

Fig.1.4 Water Vehicle Silhoutee Sketches 

Week 6: 

This week, I refined my ideas for each vehicle. I chose a few concepts and experimented with combining them to develop new vehicle designs based on Mr. Kannan's suggestions. Mr. Kannan also advised me to keep the human scale in mind when designing.

Fig.1.5 Air Vehicle Rough Value Sketches 

While researching, I came across Yurt, which is a Mongolian-style hut; because this would fit my story, I wanted to somehow include the yurt design into my land vehicle. I also decided against the buildings on top of the animal and instead went with the wagon being pulled.

Fig.1.6 Land Vehicle Rough Value Sketches 

Marine animals provided some design inspiration for my water vehicles. I attempted making vehicles out of images of seashells or fish skeletons. As a result, number one shape is taken from a seashell, and number two is a fish skeleton.

Fig.1.7 Water Vehicle Rough Value Sketches 

Week 7: 

I chose one design from each vehicle and, as demonstrated in Mr. Kannan's class, I added value and line weight to my designs.

Fig.1.8  Air Vehicle breakdown draft 1

Fig.1.9  Land Vehicle breakdown draft 1

Fig.2.0  Water Vehicle breakdown draft 1

Week 8: 

After receiving the final feedback from Mr. Kannan, I fixed the parts that needed to be fixed and completed Project 1.

Final Outcome

Fig.2.1 Land Vehicle Project 1- PDF

Fig.2.2 Air Vehicle Project 1 - PDF

Fig.2.3 Water Vehicle Project 1 - PDF

Fig.2.4 Project 1 FINAL - Presentation

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Feedback 

[Week 3]:

• You can try to add the animals you just need to make it cohesive with the vehicle. Maybe try adding clothes or costumes to them.  
• Figure out the functionality for all the tree vehicles, who will use it, and why. 

[Week 4]:

• Look at mortal engines designed for inspiration the land vehicles look very rigid, understand their purpose, them and their functions. It can be either animals or engines. 
• Also, look at steampunk for inspiration. 

[Week 5]:

• Numbers 1,3,4 and 7 are good to try to combine them for the air vehicles. 
• Rember to consider the scale of the person when designing. 
• For the land, vehicles start with numbers 2 and 3. 
• For water vehicle numbers 3,4, and 5 are interesting. 

[Week 6]:

• Maybe try out a kite design for the air vehicle, I like numbers 2 and 4 so see what you can do to make it more interesting. 
• Put an overlay of gradient and play around with the colors. 
• For the yak maybe add 3 yaks instead of one. I don't really like the circular shape of the wagon base so go for square. The canopy design is nice. 
• Put a floor on the drawing to help with the perspective. 
• Go with the number 1 for the water vehicle. 

[Week 7]:

• Try to do a 3/4 view of the air and the water vehicle.
• For the air vehicle try different colors overlays, but the base is there. 
• for the land vehicle think about the little details you want to add as accessories for project 2. 
• The water vehicle is good, it's interesting. 

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Reflection

Experience: This was my first attempt after a long time to draw a vehicle. Initially, I never wanted to try it because cars have so many parts and details, so it's a bit daunting but attempting to create three types of vehicles for my narrative was more fun than I thought it would be. While drawing in 3/4 view remains challenging for me, Mr. Kannan's technique using Zbrush blocks and the exercises did help me improve.

Observation: I had no idea how much work to develop a vehicle design; we had so many processes to merge certain designs while disregarding others. During the development process, I produced vehicles that were significantly different from what I had initially intended. While there is still work that can be done, I am pleased with how my vehicles turned out.

Findings: Through my research, I found that so many ideas have already been done; when I had an idea for a vehicle, I researched about it only to find out that it had already been designed. So the key to my designs was to see how I could make them unique or learn from other designs to develop something new.