affinity designer Mk1 Golf GTI, v2 Progress (AD)

[VectorVonDoom]

This is going to be another Mk1 Golf GTI but from the front this time and a standard series 2 in Mars Red, unless I change my mind. The car is going to be what I think of as straight vector so no blurs just gradients and blend modes, but it’s still going to be fairly realistic. Also as with the first Golf the background might use blurs but perhaps not, we'll see.

This time I thought I’d post a few progress shots together with some notes. I’m not sure how long it's going to take.

Anyway stage 1 was blocking in areas either flat or with gradients (some of which are only temp. ones). The body gradient is a best guess/averaging, you can’t always see an obvious gradient but you can see if it’s generally lighter or darker. As last time the body colour uses a single global swatch, so all the highlights and shadows are done with blend modes (somewhere between white and black, not reds, obviously). So if I want to change the body colour it's easy peasy. 

[VectorVonDoom]

Progress 2.

The bumper, splitter, badges, mirrors, aerial and indicators are done. Well when I say done they might still have some finishing touches to be added but are basically there.

The way I decided to do the indicators was use rounded rectangles with a diagonal gradient and a blend mode of overlay. Then I added dark bits underneath and added a few lighter gradient squares. 

[VectorVonDoom]

Progress 3

Where I got to over the weekend, sort of.  I added some tread to the tyres, not finished but look ok and added the tow hook. I completed most of the grille. As it's meant to be realistic you also have to add any bits you can see behind the grille. I started on the headlights too which is tedious so also made a small start on the interior and some of the shut lines when I was bored of those.

 

[MattP]

Very much looking forward to seeing this!!!!

[VectorVonDoom]

Progress 4

I've been doing bits all over, I've still not finished the headlights but will do eventually.  Unless I'm missing something if you want them to look realistic however you do them it's a long winded job. Fortunately in this instance you can do one and just modify it a bit for the other side.

Did a bit more of the interior, but plenty missing and nothing is finished. I also just started blocking in the wipers.

I added a few temporary bonnet reflections to see how it's going to look and it's starting to look like a car, not sure what car but a car. Some of the shut lines are so large on a Mk1 Golf that you can see bits in there so in quite a few places a simple shut line won't do, so I've started adding details.

After all those things are done then there's still a chunk of little touches to add.

I'm thinking about trying the background without blurs too. Not sure it will look any good and it's lots of work but it's no fun if it's too easy or even works every time.

 

[EZeemering]

So impressive! 

 

Do you take requests?

[VectorVonDoom]

I'm not sure, I guess you could try and see if it interests me. But I'm not interested in anything more modern, well I might be persuaded if it was a commission but not sure.

I've not progressed much more, just done a bit more of the interior and the headlights as I've another one I need to finish. But will get back to this properly over the weekend.

[EZeemering]

28 minutes ago, VectorVonDoom said:

I'm not sure, I guess you could try and see if it interests me.

 

How can you not be interested in the (imo) best looking race car ever build  

[VectorVonDoom]

Are you sure you've not seen better looking lol. I did think about doing an Audi Quattro S1.

By the time of that Quattro 90 (don't know when it started happening) it's just a pretend body over a race chassis. But it's an easy one for anyone to do as a vector image as there's not a whole lot of detail in the body. No headlamps, no grille, no obvious shut lines etc, the decals would be the hardest part but you could just do the main ones.

My list of good looking race cars would include things that probably run in classic touring cars.  Like someone wants me to do their BMW 3.0 CSL for them sometime.

[VectorVonDoom]

Have done some more including finally finishing the headlights. Have more details to do in the shut lines, the main body highlights and shadows and finish the wipers and interior, nothing much. The background's not going to be anything like this and was starting on it today, still not sure it will work.

[MEB]

Hi VectorVonDoom,

Nice work and details - the headlights are very well done. As you noted the background perspective distortion doesn't match lens and perspective distortion of the car leading to a strange result. I would use a very simple background (without a defined horizon line) as if it was drawn against a white (or colour) seamless paper as it's done in some studio shots.

[VectorVonDoom]

Thanks. It's going to be a country road scene as the background, or at least I'm going to try. I'm trying to do that without any blurs too but haven't done much yet so no idea how it will turn out.

[VectorVonDoom]

I haven't had time to do much but have basically finished the car itself, yeah I know I'm slow.  Ignore the background. I've carried on with the real background but still not sure about it and might change to something else.

 

 

[Ros]

You are insanely good.

 

I like the fact that, despite the result being so amazingly real, you manage to keep the amount of layers to a reasonable number. If I tried to achieve something remotely similar, I would probably generate tons of collateral crap in the process.

 

 

[VectorVonDoom]

Not sure about that but thanks.

It's still quite a lot of layers but if you want it to be anything like realistic it's always going to be.

[AffinityJules]

How on earth do you keep track of all the paths/curves?

Looks like Spaghetti Junction from my point of view.

[VectorVonDoom]

Just split it in to enough groups, although I didn't have too many in this one, 20 main ones and a chunk of sub-groups. It looks more of a mess than it is because of the sub-objects or however you term them, so overlapping paths, although this one is quite neat. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to work out where in the group you need a new object to be but it's not bad. Selections can be a pain sometimes though.