Studio 2: Rat Rod
Project Blog
For my studio 2 project, I am going to be texturing a retro 1948 Ford F-1 pickup truck and converting the frame into a rat rod. Classic cars hold a very special place in my heart and it always amazes me to see these discontinued mid 20th century frames and using time combined with the modern, car enthusiasts produce these classic works of art.
Breaking Down Rat Rods
a "Rat Rod" is a customized vehicle where the owner takes their weathered car body, usually pre WWII sedans or trucks, is then pieced together with originally cheaper parts to resemble their hotrod counterparts of the time. Moving into today, this practice is still done to classic models but is modified with more modern parts that usually make the car perform like more of a modern car, such as hydraulics, suspension, engine tuning, etc.
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Rat Rod Photos
For my model, I was able to find a really good model from Turbo Squid of a 1948 Ford F-1 pickup truck that I will be using for this project. I am going to start taking the wheel wells off of the truck and start dropping it so it gets closer to the rat rod feel. I'm going to put the rat rod into a scene of an old pump station with a shop garage attached to it.
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The reason I wanted to incorporate the garage into the scene with the truck is because vehicles of this era along with thousands if not millions of cars, these small garage/ pump stations were a vital role in keeping these cars alive not just for repairs, but also preservation of living fossils that most of the world has forgotten. These vehicles are the history of our worlds automobile, and represent the historical climb to where custom aesthetic on vehicles can keep dying breeds alive.
First Renders
UV Layout
Right now, I am in the process of cleaning the truck up so there isn't so much geometry and separating the UV layouts by what material is going to be placed on them. I am almost done with the layout and will take it into substance painter to bake some mesh maps for it. After I am done with those next steps for the truck I will be doing the same for the rest of the scene.
Camera Previsualization
Project Update
Hi everyone! Sorry for the long pause on the blog. I had to re activate my Mari license so I could recontinue texturing. I have brought the pickup truck into substance and bake mesh maps for my truck. I baked 250 maps! too many! I have imported them into Mari and started texturing the truck. I started with the cab of the truck and have a good starting base layer made procedurally. Now that I have a good jumping off point I can apply the same workflow to other areas of the truck and get it ready for a couple custom painting layers to start building a story on the vehicle. Below is a progress render of the truck cab. I am really happy with the beginning stages of the texturing process so far. Looking at this render though I noticed that I need to turn down a couple of my specular areas of the hood.
Texturing Update on Truck
Here is some progress on how the texturing is going with the truck. I am really happy with the result so far. I only have a couple more pieces with the truck and then I will be able to fully integrate it into my scene. I am currently running into an issue with the farm right now where only my truck cab is rendering and all of my other textures including my HDRI are not transferring properly. I need to check into that to see what the issue is but other than that I am making a pretty quick pace with finishing my truck and couldn't be happier with the progress. Below I wanted to include a quick screenshot of how my Mari graph is looking with all of my textures. One thing I wish I had plugged in with my Mari application that I know would speed up the process 10 fold with be the Mari extension pack. The pack incorporates a lot of substance painter esque features and implements them seamlessly into Mari's UI. A cool feature with it is a node called a radio node, which essentially bakes a custom mask and you can recall it anywhere in your node graph. They are like anchor points in substance painter.
Finalizing Look of Truck
Hi everyone! I wanted to share some more progress I have made on my studio project. I have been working nonstop to finish the truck so I can start comping it. I am really happy with the progress so far and am very proud of myself for how much I've learned using Mari these last couple of months. I am in the process of wrapping up texturing for a couple of the assets in my Garage scene and will be on my way to rendering out all of my cameras on the render farm.
Hi everyone! Here are the final renders from my last studio project at SCAD. I can't believe how fast four years went by, and how much I have learned about traditional and digital art. I am very proud of the portfolio I was able to accumulate from my classes and can't wait to see what I learn at my first job. I want to thank everyone that has believed in me through this journey of pursuing a career in art. I couldn't have done it without them.