3D Model and Showroom Plans

Making skins for vehicles in games is cool and all, but I have lately had interest in designing my own original vehicles all skinned up. Actually, I have wanted to develop my own models and my own showrooms. It was a dream for a long time to develop my own showroom for vehicles for games. As I started getting better with Blender, I am having more realistic visions of developing the sort of showrooms I want to develop. Allow me the opportunity to express myself. Okay? Good! Let me begin...

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3D Model and Showroom Plans

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I feel the need to develop even more original content. So I want to share plans I have in regards to various 3D models and showroom plans. Take a look:

3D Plans: Models.

My main areas of concentration for 3D modeling include vehicles and characters.

Vehicle Plans
On the vehicle front, I am starting to gain a new sort of direction towards how to model vehicles. The main concentration lies in low-polygon vehicles. I want to make low polygon a quality thing. This could even evolve into trying to refine them for other projects. This is actually a plan of mine of late. As I am starting to better use Blender, I feel I could master some techniques to at least attempt high-quality vehicles.

Previously, I noted that I had no interest in high-quality 3D vehicle models. I've learned some techniques that make me think otherwise in recent times. One of the most important things I am coming around to is that I do not need to put everything into one single mesh. In fact, some high-quality designs are a combination of separated objects. So a headlight assembly could be the main casing and all the individual lights that make up that headlight case. You also could independently work on a certain object of a full model. The one thing I always fear is that I may make a lot of changes that somehow will require me to do extra merging so that the model remains as complete topology-wise. It seems like a daunting task to make a high-quality vehicle. However, part of me says it is doable without stressing too much over certain details.

I also previously did not have interest in re-creating actual vehicles. That has changed... to an extent. I am not seriously considering completely accurate models. At the same time, though, I don't want to make any models of actual vehicles that seem overly cheap. I need to be careful on this front because some legal clearances have to be granted to make 3D products of actually-licensed vehicles available and can be used. I am not sure if I want to develop such vehicles for free for game mods, or if I want to offer vehicles for rendering. I still prefer doing original designs, but I am somewhat open to modeling actual vehicles.


Character Plans
I have not yet attempted any original characters. On one end, I have thought more along the lines of avatar-type models. I am talking about mostly humanoid models that you could freely customize as opposed to some completely original characters. I have not yet found any true inspiration to make this happen. However, I do have some ideas by following a bunch of different videos. No concrete plans have been considered as of yet. If and when I do get around to developing characters, expect a mix of freely-customizable characters and original characters.


Other 3D Models?
I have considered locations as 3D model projects. Namely, I have thought of things like buildings, some light scenery, and some light terrain. I also want to develop things like motor racing tracks. For race tracks, I am slowly looking at trying to develop in the mindset of Assetto Corsa. Assetto Corsa prefers you measure things in meters. So to that end, I will have to learn to put things into meters for measurement.

3D Plans: Showrooms.

No 3D model(s) will ever be worth showcasing if you lack a proper way to market them. So as I make skins for games like Assetto Corsa and Automobilista among others, I feel I have to develop a showroom to nicely showcase my 3D models. A showroom doesn't have to a "room." It can, in fact, be an outdoor scene stylish enough for showcasing work. One idea i seem to like is that Blender can handle HDRI images. For the uninitiated, an HDRI image contains color information within the image that can serve as the lighting and color for any given scene. Usually, some of these HDRI images can be pretty big files. I tend to like decently-sized images that won't beat up my PC in trying to render. Blender rendering through HDRI images is only done in Cycles Rendering. I will need to practice Cycles Rendering to be able to come up with great renders.

While showrooms suggest indoor scenes, showrooms can really be indoor or outdoor scenes. While I don't want the showrooms to be the focal point of my work, I do want them to serve as stylish 3D locales for which to display my work. I am gathering ideas for which to think about what kind(s) of showrooms I want to make. Because Cycles Renders allow you to develop a vast amount of ideas, I want to be able to make the best renders I can make regardless of my PC's power to create them masterfully. In fact, I dream of making certain render scenes that would be great for Assetto Corsa, since the majority of my renders are for Assetto Corsa. I have used custom showrooms for vehicles in rFactor. So I have a general idea of the importance of making quality showrooms for any set of vehicles for almost any racing/driving game.

Other than vehicles, I want to make some stylish showrooms for characters and other things. Imagine stylish scenes for which a character can be showcased. For example, imagine a stylish young lady at a stylish restaurant on a date night. Certain props or game assets can also be stylishly shown off in some kind of showroom. I haven't yet thought of any interesting showroom concepts to make these visions happen.


Now you know about some of my 3D plans. We'll see what materializes from my work in the future.





Thank all of you who love and support my work! I hope I can keep bringing the awesome that I can provide. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Basic Voxel Vehicle Pack

After several years putting it off and in not deciding what to do, I recently have FINALLY offered my voxel vehicles to the Internet public! This blog post describes what all I have done with these voxel vehicles I created. You will be able to purchase my voxel vehicles towards the end of this post. So stick around for more information!

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My Basic Voxel Vehicle Pack

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This is an opportunity for me to share with you my voxel vehicles. More information is included in this post, so read on if you are interested in my voxel vehicles.

What You Should Know.

My voxel vehicle creations were as of 2014 producing them with MagicaVoxel. I shared my voxel models across social media showcasing my work. I long planned to use my voxel models to develop a racing game. That game, however, never materialized. So the models I created have basically remained on my PC to never be available to the public. Despite a good amount of demand by some people who reached out to me, I was never fully ready to share my voxel models. That is until I finally decided in September 2019 to consider joing Envato. On October 1, I joined Envato. My first upload to any Envato product was made on October 7. My package was approved to 3DOcean for my voxel vehicle pack. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that my voxel vehicle pack is LIVE!

In my original upload to 3DOcean, I decided to keep the vehicles as static models. I had planned for some time to make the voxel models ready for animation. That will probably come in either an update or as a separate package. To keep polygon counts low, I filled up the invisible portions of the voxel models with voxels. Most of my models originally came with visible interiors if you remove the glass windshields and doors. Everything is low-polygon for the sake of game development. That was the original intent of my models.

The reworked voxel vehicles can be imported into programs like Blender or in game engines like Godot Game Engine. If you want to further use models for various applications, you are on your own to take my models and import them into other programs. So you will need to use a program like Blender to export my models into Unity3D if you want to use Unity with my voxel vehicle models. The Basic Voxel Vehicle Pack is available in three different formats: COLLADA DAE, OBJ, and the native MagicaVoxel VOX. Use the native VOX to freely edit the voxel models in their raw form.

Want to Get My Voxel Vehicles?

My voxel vehicle pack is available on Envato's 3DOcean. Purchase the Regular License if you want to feature my voxel vehicles in a free game or in certain media projects. Purchase an Extended License if you plan on using my voxel vehicle models in a paid game. Click on the image or link below to get started:


^ Click on the image or click on the following link to buy my voxel vehicle pack: Basic Voxel Vehicle Pack (Envato, 3DOcean)!

If you use my voxel vehicles in any project (personal or commercial), please let me know! I want to see how you plan on utilizing my voxel models. Please help support me and my work any way you can. Purchasing this package is one such way of showing your support... if you don't mind. I would appreciate your support.





That is all for this post! I hope you found it interesting. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Project Rhiannon Update 2

My Godot racing project, Project Rhiannon, lives on! I recently went from trying to make modular voxel land to making polygon land. This was inspired by Gran Turismo 5's Course Maker feature. Seven environments make up GT5's collection of environments. To practice designing levels, I did some box modeling in Wings3D. I tried to closely follow some of the design nature of custom tracks in Gran Turismo 5 in trying to design modular assets for a race track. What I practiced mostly was simple modeling of such a course, rather than build a proper course. Here is a look at what I've come up with:


^ Instead of voxel land, I tried polygon tracks. I haven't yet found out how not to make things extremely shiny in Godot.

For some reason, I wanted to make some kind of non-tarmac course initially. I then decided to build an entire tarmac course in Wings3D and then scale it greatly in Godot to be used. I did not include a pit road, so this track isn't COMPLETELY practical. I wanted to make the road have subdivisions and loop cuts to allow for the possibility of making individual elevation changes to pieces of the track geometry. I am also learning that you do not have to model objects into the main model themselves. You build the track first followed by adding whatever objects you like. This can even help in the case where not rendering objects can help in the frame rate department as well as in reducing draw calls.

I still have a lot to learn, but I feel I can possibly make a proper track that I can eventually implement into racing games. It is a slow process that will eventually pay off into something amazing.

Driving Model.

While I am still using my voxel model cars for my test car, I am slowly wanting to develop my own proper 3D vehicles to use as my testing vehicles. I still have somewhat of a "to do" list to enhance my driving model. The driving model in Godot does not really allow for meticulous driving models. That is, unless you are incredibly adept at coding/logic for a proper model. The basics of the Godot Game Engine for vehicles are the commands of engine force (acceleration), brake (braking), and steering. I was looking to try to find some alternative methods to utilize these features. Everyone who has designed their own driving model through Godot GDScript has made his/her/their own spin on the vehicle model. These methods have been expressed in various games, and no one model is perfect. A driving model is only as perfect as the one(s) who deem it as perfect.

Engine Force
I allowed for more interesting acceleration by dividing the vehicle's Engine Force by a number less than 1. What would happen in this instance is that the car gets off from its starting position and go fast- almost like a drag racer. What I want to do is set a base speed that increases incrementally. So I want to properly simulate going from a standing start to properly accelerating away. I also want to develop a speedometer to know just how fast I am going as well as a tachometer to simulate the RPM range.

Braking
However, I have been struggling a bit to properly slow down the vehicle. The brakes work fine with my models. What I want to do is make the braking power more efficient. If I wanted to be more advanced, I would want to simulate brake balance. So a car with strong front brake balance could have some understeer dialed in. A car with strong rear brake balance can induce some oversteer. Too much either way can upset a vehicle's handling behavior.

Steering
Steering can be a bit slow. When I decided to meddle with the steering values, the vehicle may not even turn or only turn so slowly. Once I reached a numerical value that gives me some semblance of control, I basically left it alone and not chance ruining the steering angles.


I still need to get around these issues in trying to develop a driving model I can be proud of.

Extra Insight.

I mentioned Gran Turismo 5 and its Course Maker. Gran Turismo 5 allows you to construct race tracks purely on a set number of parameters and features. The environments differ. While you do not have meticulous control of each environment, your track is given a set number of variables you can control. There are seven locations you can choose from in Gran Turismo 5:

• Toscana (Tarmac)
• Eifel (Circuit)
• Mt. Aso (Tarmac)
• Liège (Gravel)
• Alaska (Snow)
• Eifel (Kart)
• Tokyo Bay (Kart)

The tarmac environments are primarily designed to be run by almost any kind of car. The dirt environment of Liège is meant for gravel rally racing. The snow of Alaska is meant for racing on snow and ice. The kart environments are short courses suited mostly for go-karts. Each environment includes a number of different features unique to that environment. For example, the Toscana environment features mostly a stroll along the Italian countryside in beautiful Toscana, complete with Italian Cypress trees. It also has fireworks going off at night.

If you have actually played with Gran Turismo 5, though, you know many of the environments appear very sparse. Almost like incomplete terrains. That is kind of like what my environment deal is like at present. Implementing some of my work will require some extra geometry edits as well as triangle tesselation. I do feel good about designing a practical course that could be implemented into games or certain other projects.

What I did was study how the roads for the environments were set up. I looked at differences in elevation, the placement of the road, grass, barriers, and things like that. Go back to the Toscana tarmac example for instance. You have a mostly wide road that has little edges on the side close to the rail fances. Down the way are usually either bushes or trees. These object placements do not have to be uniform all the way around the track, but you can put certain features in to make the environment a bit more entertaining and lively. I hope to learn from these in building my courses from scratch. Maybe if I learn certain algorithms to design procedural locations, I could create locations without having to do everything by hand.


Now you know a little more about my development of racing/driving games of late. I have yet to find a winning balance.





Now you have an update about my racing/driving game development. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Assetto Corsa Skinning

Skinning for Aseeto Corsa cars is something I've done lately in trying to learn how to mod cars for this game. I have used GIMP for my skinning of cars. The really nice thing about this game is that all cars have templates for them supplied by the developer, Kunos Simulazioni. Part of the process is in trying to learn how to properly put in my material. I will share with you some of the skins I made for Assetto Corsa and what I have learned.

First, here is a decent skin I created:


^ This is a 2016 Audi R8 LMS colored in my Moonlight Motorsports livery.

This skin was created by me after learning how to properly design liveries for cars using GIMP. Part of this involved some trial and error. Making a skin with GIMP is not really difficult; it is just not as efficient and intuitive as with Photoshop.

What are my recommendations? First off, save the PSD format template to GIMP's proprietary XCF format. If you try to save over the PSD in GIMP, you will lose the texture group information- and you don't want that. So try to save the PSD file into XCF before doing any painting in GIMP. Assetto Corsa uses the DDS format for textures. The recommended format is DXT1 for textures that do not use alpha channels. Use DXT5 format DDS for images that have transparency to them. Transparency options usually are reserved for things like windshield graphics and some car skins that are basically overlays to cars.

When you save a DDS file through GIMP, the car skin will appear light at first. It is as if gamma correction is provided when a skin is successfully loaded into the game or through some external viewer. Also, pay special attention to what layer is active in GIMP, because the active layer will be exported when you try to load the skin onto a car. So when you're done with all of the livery graphics, flatten the image so all visible layers are applied to the car. Make sure also to not have the wireframe layer active if a skin has a wireframe layer. What about the colors? The method I use is to darken the color lightness and add some saturation. Use the "Hue-Saturation" option from the Colors menu in GIMP. The settings I use are Lightness at -75 and about Saturation of 15. After doing this, the skin comes out properly when I upload the skins into Assetto Corsa.

So in review, here is the skinning process:
• paint your livery onto a given car
• flatten the image
• darken the Lightness of the image and add some Saturation
• save the DDS file in DXT1 format, and also generate mipmaps

If you have Assetto Corsa, I recommend using "Content Manager" to preview skins for cars. The program updates skins in real time, so you can edit the skins as many times as you like to sample your skin before playing it in the game.


Now for the trial and error process. Consider the following:

Skinning Too Light.

^ This was a Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport appearing too bright.

With this effort, the colors appear faded, like badly worn jeans or other clothes. The colors are not rich enough and real enough for my tastes. Actually, I had previously added more saturation just to make sure the colors appear right. Even still, there was that sort of gamma correction that made the colors appear brighter than they should be. I didn't want that kind of gamma correction hampering the quality of my livery designs.

Skinning Too Dark.

^ This Mazda MX-5 Cup test car was colored darker than the original image.

There was a point where I sampled colors too dark. What I did was apply an all-black layer and gave it some opacity. This would darken my image without needing to apply Lightness or Saturation once I flattened the image. This worked well. However, it made some of my skins appear darker and less saturated than what they should be. So I then retired that method.

Lessons Learned.

Until I find a way around gamma correction, this is the method I use to try to apply proper color quality to my car skins in Assetto Corsa. The cars still come out beautifully once I import them into the game.





Happy new year, mates! Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Historically-Accurate Car Skins

I attempted historically-accurate GTR2 skins. It wasn't the period I initially hoped for, but I tried out some minimalist skins for the 1986 Volvo 240 Turbo. A GTR2 mod had someone convert "Volvo: The Game" cars into GTR2. So I took the opportunity to take templates for the cars and paint up some cars. My first attempt to try historic style cars was to be with "GT Legends" cars converted to GTR2, but I wanted to try the Volvo 240 Turbo because I was somewhat '80s nostalgic. I focused on computers and software, especially the likes of two companies as you'll see below:


^ 1986 Apple Volvo 240 Turbo


^ 1986 Microsoft Volvo 240 Turbo

I don't do period-specific style cars. Sure it offers authenticity and realism, but I am just not good at certain time-themed works. You can see more of my work by going to my "JohnMarineDesigns" page and going to the Game Mods page of my Portfolio. Or if you want to go there now, visit: JMDesigns - Game Mods.

What I really want to do in terms of historically-accurate liveries is work with the GT Legends cars. You amy see that work in the future from me.





Thank all of you for your support! Please continue to support my work if it interests you. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Pizza Hut Cup

Earlier in 2016, I made a skin for GTR2's Saleen Mustang SE Challenge. The motivation was to make another GTR2 video. The cars share the same Pizza Hut livery. There is a story behind making a one-off event, and this blog post details that storyline. As of yet, I haven't made any kind of video or anything on it. Rest assured I will be providing links to any video material or anything else I come up with in this blog post. As of the initial blog post, however, I am simply announcing the storyline.

Since this is my first post to this blog of 2017, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

DISCLAIMER:

This story and its contents are purely fiction. Any relation between this project's storyline, characters, or anything of that nature is purely coincidental.

Pizza Hut and its name, logos, and related marks are a registered trademark of Pizza Hut, Inc.

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Pizza Hut Cup

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Here is a look at the skin I created for the GTR2 mod:


^ from: (my Weebly site) - This is the Pizza Hut Cup car, a 2011 Porsche Cayman S. I originally had a Saleen Mustang SE to serve as my race car for the Pizza Hut Cup.

And here is the story...

Pizza Hut Cup: Story.

The main story of this race is that there is a race sponsored by Pizza Hut and promoted to run a special support race. A collection of 20 identically prepared and identical liveried cars will compete among each other. While the event is a racing event, there is one important caveat. Each of the drivers paid certain fees that went towards providing vouchers for individuals. The vouchers allow for individuals and families to be fed to a proper Pizza Hut meal. Those vouchers will be part of a raffle. The meals these vouchers pay for include the following:

• a large size pizza with any choice of toppings and crust
• the customer's choice of wings or breadsticks
• pasta
• a 2-liter bottle of soda

Racing hard while also providing delicious dinner is the premise behind this series and how it is catching on. I want this to be a rather interesting story of "paying it forward." Good food and doing good for others. Win-win, right?

Pizza Hut Cup: The Competition Car.

The car is a Porsche Cayman S race car. The car is nimble and makes fairly decent horsepower. Prior to recent times, the car I intended to have as the competition car for this series was a Saleen Mustang SE race car. I only went as far as designing the outer skin. And just like the Summer Speed Series deal I created for GTR2, the drivers featured are mostly generated or generic drivers. I have to have some kind of way to identify the drivers so it doesn't seem like a bunch of drones racing each other.

JUST SO YOU KNOW... I also created a skin for rFactor long ago to make a Pizza Hut car for that game. However, I haven't made a proper set of cars to make it unique for rFactor. I also used a different car. For rFactor, the Pizza Hut car I created is a Panoz Esperante GTS race car. If I make something for rFactor on this topic, I'll be sure to share my work with you all.

One of the real challenges was in trying to design the car skin. I can't seem to load the skins for the car using 3DSimEd, so I have to load GTR2 to get a general feel for what I am trying to design.


~~~ this space reserved for a video - check for updates ~~~





I hope you enjoyed my work here. Make sure to Subscribe and Follow this blog (and my others) if you enjoy my work. Also be sure to follow me on social media for more of the goodness I have to offer. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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My First SketchUp Model!

I completed my first SketchUp model! I made my latest 3D model based on my 3D skill and on how much I've learned so far trying to make models with SketchUp. This post is my opportunity to share with you my latest creation and second-ever 3D model I completed. So without further hesitation, take a look at my latest creation:


^ Here is my first model I created in SketchUp- a car.

I began creating this model by tracing the side profile of a Citroen C2 VTR 1.6. Then after that, I extruded the body and envisioned making the rest of the car. I used only a basic side silhouette to envision making the rest of the car. For the most part, I went with the strategy of modeling the half of the car. So I modeled the left side of the car to begin. Afterwards, I copied my entire creation and then tried to piece together the car. To say the least, the process of piecing together the car is a MUCH easier process in SketchUp than in Blender. All I had to do afterwards was flip the car along the red axis. Only other modification I made was modeling a muffler on the right side of the car from the back. Another simple process was to combine the geometry. By simply marking up all of the faces I wanted to have join the main body of the car, I just simply used the Intersect Faces option to apply the geometry of my muffler to the car. I could then easily erase some of the extra geometry to reduce unnecessary polygons.

This car was sort of a tricky one to me. My emphasis was mostly on low polygons, but I wanted to make the car a bit detailed without going overboard. It was all entirely made through materials. No textures of any kind were used, but I did use a few textures early on just to learn SketchUp. The final model didn't have any textures. I created this car within the course of one day. I actually worked on it all of this past Monday and then put on finishing touches this Tuesday. So this was a car that actually probably took maybe a total of 3-5 hours when it could have been made in one or two hours. There are no overly insane details I made with this model.

I hope to offer this model on TurboSquid, but no plans right now have been made to actually offer it. I actually want to test my creation before wanting to offering it online.





So do you like my work? Let me know what you think by commenting. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Voxel Vehicle Starter Kit

(UPDATED: April 23, 2016)

My first offering of voxel cars is with a package that went live on TurboSquid recently. I created a "Starter Kit" featuring four cars I designed myself including one tire model for games and media projects. I offered this to get my work exposed as well as get people started in their projects using some fine voxel models. While this package does not include any machines I've created previously, I do offer my own designs to help people get started and get a feel for my artistic style.

Here is a look at my work:


^ learn more here: Voxel Vehicle Starter Pack - I have finally offered my own voxel car designs to others.

Because this was my first TurboSquid product and because I want this to be a gateway to making more quality material, I am offering this for free. Each of the vehicles I have created are my own designs amd feature versions both with static wheels and with no wheels. The versions with no wheels can be used in programs like Blender in the creation of games and media projects. Since the no wheel versions (obviously) don't have wheels, I have included a tire that can be added to models. The tire model I created features a tire with an attached eight-spoke wheel all made of voxels. Just re-size the tires to fit into the wheel arches. It may look awkward with the rest of the vehicle, but you are at least fitting a nice set of wheels on the car. Of course, you could always make your own tires and wheels and affix them to the car in programs like Blender or something. You can set up the vehicle to have a basic rig setup or try more advanced rigs with suspension setups. No matter what, I have given a unique start to help fuel the dreams of those who love cars with my voxel vehicles.

You're welcome, world. :) For more information on this package, please visit: Voxel Vehicle Starter Pack (TurboSquid). Credit me if you use my work in your projects. Please?

To see more of my work, visit: JohnMarineDesigns on TurboSquid

LATEST UPDATE(S)/REVISION(S):

APR 23 2016 - edited a link, extra edits





If you loved this package, I hope to offer more material to you all in the future. If you liked this blog and/or this blog post, I hope to offer more blog material to you all. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Voxel Car Animating

Animated voxel cars? Recently, I experimented trying to rig my voxel model cars. It is very possible to animate even voxel cars. I will explain my work flow and thoughts in this blog post, and I even have plans to share with you all. Be sure to stay with me in this blog post to see all of my plans. I hope you get to enjoy this blog post and all it has to offer.

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Voxel Car Animating

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"Go where no one has gone before." To many people, these are excellent words to live by. My idea is nothing new. In fact, I can tell you animating voxel cars is not going to set the world ablaze or blow peoples' minds. People have inquired me about my voxel model cars. One of the reasons why I've put aside trying to offer my vehicles for download/sale is because I have been trying to find new ways to implement my machines. Also, I simply wasn't ready to try to offer my material for download/sale.

Previously, all of my voxel vehicles were all static models. This is good enough for making various scenes, but for taking certain cars further in their design and to open new possibilities, you have to make these creations to be worthy of animation. This is what has crossed my mind in trying to make my already interesting creations even more interesting. I considered the possibility of trying to animate my cars after seeing some videos on how to rig cars in Blender 3D. While I know my voxel model cars won't blow away people with their design, I can still use my creativity to design the most interesting-looking cars. And most importantly, I can take my creations and animate them. This will make it good for applications ranging from animations to game assets.

It is time I set the mood by offering many different views on making my voxel cars in better detail than I have previously. Gain my perspective by reading further.

The Inspiration.

I have seen games use voxel vehicles as well as voxel model vehicles for games. When I designed my own voxel model cars, I am influenced mostly by the Gran Turismo series because I had intended on maybe developing a racing game. I started making voxel model cars once I started to follow the work of another voxel artist. This allowed me to come up with my own voxel model cars. As far as variety is concerned in the types of cars, I am mostly influenced by other game series with a variety of cars- such as the Grand Theft Auto series. But in terms of voxel cars in a voxel environment, my biggest inspiration is "3D Pixel Racing." Even though "3D Pixel Racing" wasn't as well-received by gaming fans because of its lackluster game play, I trust that I could be able to make voxel model cars with perhaps another game developer to exceed certain other independent (indie) racing games.

The Experiment.

So at one point, I began to wonder how exactly you rig a car in Blender. I have never attempted to a rig a car prior to taking part in this experiment. I decided to play along with a two-part video series to take car models and make them drivable. The experiment worked as I took on a different kind of modeling method. The animation process began with me taking one of my voxel model cars and doubling the scale of it. I even began to model wheels separately and then import them with my model car. Doing so meant I had to remove the static wheels for a more friendly design for putting on proper wheels in Blender. My more enhanced wheel models were imported into Blender and resized to fit the wheel arches of my voxel cars. This was a snapshot of one of my first attempts to learn how to animate a car in Blender:


^ from: (my MagicaVoxel gallery in my Facebook profile) - Rudimentary as it looks, this was my first attempt to not only learn how to rig a car in Blender, but also to learn how to design my cars to be better made for animating.

Getting better at something means you take more chances and try to sample various other things. Same applies to my efforts to design my old cars and trying to make them better ready for animating. I went with my rudimentary car because I had envisioned making better-looking and more detailed versions of my voxel model cars. I didn't want to ruin any of my original cars trying to learn how to rig cars. That is, until I finally successfully was able to find a way to rig a vehicle. After that, I decided to try my hand at taking one of my existing cars and make it suitable for rigging (namely getting rid of the static wheels). This time rather than take an existing car and doubling its size, I decided to take one car at its original size and simply fit some wheels on them (after resizing the wheels). The end result is this more handsome looking effort:


^ from: (my MagicaVoxel gallery in my Facebook profile) - This experiment involved one of my original voxel model cars at its original size and fitted with my detailed voxel wheels.

Since I was using detailed wheels on a regular scale voxel car, the car does appear pretty awkward in its design, especially around the wheel arches. The more important thing in all of this is the ability to set up a proper model for which rigging is possible. I was fairly happy for the most part with mounting the wheels to the car. I became a good bit happy knowing I mounted a nice set of wheels to these cars. It got me to wonder how I can re-style these cars so they look a bit more handsome when equipped with these extra sets of wheels.

Now to explain my workflow.

The Workflow.

Let me share with you my workflow as well as different changes in methodology in creating my works.

I am still using MagicaVoxel to model my cars. All of the cars I've made and shared pictures of were made through MagicaVoxel. The latest version as of this post is 0.97.1. I have been using MagicaVoxel to make and edit my cars. In my time, I have shared about 15 of my regular cars as well as a few commercial vehicles and some race cars. So I've released maybe 20+ models in pictures. With so many vehicles, I had broader visions for voxel model machines I have created. One such thing I made mention to was the fact I started modeling tires and wheels to be separate items from the cars. What this allowed for was a number of options to make my already detailed voxel model cars even more detailed. MagicaVoxel only allows you to do so much, so enter the other programs I am using...

VoxelShop is what I use to take my MagicaVoxel designs and convert them to COLLADA format. Originally, I used VoxelShop to convert to a low-polygon format. This is good if you want to make good use of voxel models in a refined package. However, you can't refine the voxel model as much. So one thing I did was try saving in some of the other available formats you can export models to in COLLADA format. Models exported from VoxelShop in COLLADA format can be exported in one of four different COLLADA export settings. The one I found works best for further refinement of models is to save in Legacy format. The most important (at least to me) aspect of saving voxel models in COLLADA Legacy format is the ability to save voxel models in materials. I will explain later what makes this material aspect special later in this section. While models saved under the COLLADA Legacy format offer the most complete and comprehensive design, created models come in with some of the most triangles, a high number of verts, and the largest file size. So something like this may not be too suitable for trying to maintain efficient models.

Now for the final element of my experimental car rigging- Blender. Blender is a powerful program that can deliver amazing results in modeling and animation, granted you know how to use it. My voxel models made in MagicaVoxel and refined in VoxelShop are imported into Blender. This gives me an opportunity to try to further refine my voxel models. What some people may not know about my voxel model cars is that my cars actually have interiors to them. That is because I had intended making a lot of my cars have visible drivers and passengers animated with the cars. Recently, I began re-adding windows and windshields to my cars after trying to go for a non-window approach to my voxel cars. That means taking a certain car color and making the windows that color. Remember what I typed about the importance of saving COLLADA files with the Legacy option and the materials? Well in Blender, you can change the properties of any materials of any model. Every color of a model is its own material. Since the windows and windshield are their own material, I can take that color and make it transparent so you can see through the windows. I set the transparency of the windows in Blender to 0.5 for the best results. The use of colored materials also gave me the possibility of making glowing lights. If you were to combine both the use of transparent materials and materials that emit light, this means many more opportunities and options to design cars with. As I made stylish looking tires and wheels to my models, I imported my wheel designs and applied them to my modified cars. The wheels are resized and carefully mounted to the car.

Modeling/Animation Notes.

Let me share with you some of the different things I have noticed in my attemps to rig my voxel cars. Use these tidbits in case you want to rig your own voxel cars.

• The only real changes I make in MagicaVoxel to my cars is to simply remove the static wheels. The cars will look a bit awkward with fancy voxel tires and wheels, but the wheel arches aren't too bad for the cars to be fitted with the detailed wheels.

• The only thing I really needed to change is to change the orientation of car models in VoxelShop in importing to Blender. With cars facing in the front in MagicaVoxel, I have to use the Mirror Z feature in VoxelShop to flip the car models on the Z-Axis so they'd appear properly in Blender without needing to rotate them in Blender.

• Now that I think about it, I could only export the car bodies to COLLADA Legacy format only to allow for the opportunity to make the windows transparent. I could use the Optimal COLLADA settings for all items besides the car body.

• One problem with importing COLLADA Legacy format models in Blender is that the geometry of imported items is not centered. The models' geometry of COLLADA Legacy models are centered at the bottom as opposed to the center of the model's geometry. This can be easily changed in Blender by setting the origin to the geometry of the model (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + C, then select "Geometry to Origin").

• I import my voxel wheels by first mounting them on the left front side. Previously, I would mount the tires by duplicating the left-front tire and making three extra copies. When I got around to editing various settings to animate the tires, I simply just made that one tire followed by editing its settings. After I did all the editing and parenting, THEN I made duplicates of the tires to all four parts of the car. This just makes the process easier so I wan't have to individually edit each wheel and their settings. Don't forget to parent each of the wheels to the car body. When mounting tires on the right side of the car from the left side tires, rotate the tires by 180°.

• This is an important recommendation in Blender... do NOT use Ctrl + C to copy over wheels. Instead, use Shift + D to duplicate the wheels and mount them accordingly to the car. I stress this because using Ctrl + C to make copies of the wheels somehow makes extra copies of the car body. Duplicating will save you from having to delete the extra copies of your car's body.

• Trying to model for collision is a very tricky process, and I have not yet mastered trying to make a proper car with a sufficient collision system. Trying to give my cars a decent physics system is a success; making the system work properly would be a proper accomplishment. It is something I still need to work on.

And those are the notes I have to share with you on my editing.

Future Experiments.

The next things I want to try to experiment with my voxel model cars are as follows:

• animating cars using armatures/bones
• simulating lights and light systems
• adding visible drivers and passengers
• drivers and passenger animations with the cars
• improved driving and suspension dynamics

If I come up with something interesting, I'll chat about it here on "John's Creative Space." So stay tuned. Finally...

In Case You're Wondering...

Here are the two videos I have seen in learning how to rig cars in Blender. Take a look at them:


^ "Blender Tutorial: Basic Car Rigging | Part 1 - Drivers"


^ "Blender Tutorial: Basic Car Rigging | Part 2 - The Rig"

In the future (as I mentioned), I want to try to animate cars with armatures/bones as an alternative method to rig cars in Blender. These two videos are what I've used to try to animate cars.

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Voxel Car Announcement

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There have been people who have inquired me about my voxel model cars. One of the main reasons why I haven't offered my creations for download/sale is because I simply am not ready to release them online. I also have been trying to come up with new ideas to work on them and enhance them. I am simply not going to release anything right now, especially half-hearted efforts. I will offer my voxel cars for download and/or sale when I feel I have designed them to where they can be properly enjoyed and utilized for a number of applications. I never offered any of my voxel creations for sale or download. There are people who offer models without them being ready to be animated. I could offer my creations as they are and leave the dirty work to modelers. However, I sort of feel there is extra incentive in offering static and animated work to others. So I want to try to provide the best possible package to satisfy as many parties as possible.

Since you are reading this right now, allow me to announce my initial plans. I will make voxel cars as somewhat of a "Starter Pack." These will be a few basic models I will create to help you get started as well as give people the opportunity to use my creations. Most of all... my base package of voxel car models I will create will be offered for free. I plan to offer these creations on services like Turbo Squid and OpenGameArt.org. The package I will offer will include my voxel model cars both in static form and in a form with the static wheels removed. The versions with the static wheels removed will feature one set of wheels you can use to mount onto the car through Blender or some other 3D modeling software. If you think this all sounds good, there is a catch- you are going to have to do all of the animation and other advanced driving dynamics if you plan on making videos or games. I'm trusting that the ones I offer my creations to will do a much better job of utilizing the content fully than I [ever(?)] will.

What are my plans after releasing my base package of voxel model cars? I will simply try to re-work some of my existing voxel model cars while also making new models. I also will work to make more voxel tires and wheels for which they can modeled with other cars. In other words... I simply will try to build up my own portfolio of voxel model cars. I even have interest in perhaps making my own Blender animations featuring my voxel model cars. These will be for promotion purposes, not to mention simply making my own video content. Unlike my "Starter Pack" of voxel model cars, my existing creations will be offered for a fee. Machines of a certain category or group may be offered as bundle packages for a fee. This will only bring everything together and offer more options for the modeler.

All of these machines are different from any of my previous creations. So in other words, you'll be getting completely original models apart from my already existing

A Note About My Re-Working of Cars.

The cars I've already created will be re-worked and may appear much different. These are all in trying to get the cars to look a bit more presentable. Future posts on "John's Creative Space" will feature my models in new forms. So the re-worked cars may look a bit different from the old picture where I combined most of my voxel cars into one picture.


Most of what I wanted to discuss is now over.

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Special Message

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I would like to thank everyone who has supported my work for the longest. I'm glad you all have enjoyed my work. I am sorry I've taken so long to try to address the availability and offers of my voxel models. One thing I am sure of is that you probably won't regret me making my material available to all of you. Once again- thank you all who love my work.





As of this initial post, I have not yet made my "Starter Pack" available. Once I do great a set of vehicles to include into my package, I will let all of you know and let you be able to access my creations. You will then finally get to enjoy the various voxel cars I've created. For now, I thank you for reading this post on John's Creative Space! Take care and be well.

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Voxel Vehicle Design Study

Voxels offer only so much detail. I recently took a voxel car I modeled and decided to look for new details to test out. I wanted to try some sort of transparent window illusion with a visible interior. So what I did was take a muscle car I created and deleted all the windows. The interior of the car is all a silhouette- just like some old games that have had visible interiors with silhouette drivers. Since my car is a mini-spec model, some black parts are clearly visible in trying to offer somewhat of a silhouette appearance.

For reference, here was the original car before the editing:


^ from: (my MagicaVoxel gallery on Facebook) - Deleting the windows and adding a silhouette interior is a unique design study I conducted.

What does my edited car look like? Take a look:


^ from: (my MagicaVoxel gallery on Facebook) - Deleting the windows and adding a silhouette interior is a unique design study I conducted.

Part of my interest in designing such a silhouette interior comes from certain old racing games. The one that came to mind for me was SEGA Rally Championship. I just got rid of the windows and made the interior all black. For the driver in the car, that driver is represented with some tall piece inside. I even colored the driver so that it seems a bit realistic to see the driver in the car. For this design study, though, everything inside is a silhouette. This design method doesn't work for certain styled cars, but you tend to get the general idea of how windshields and windows are styled for a car.
Never be afraid to experiment with any of your work.

Bonus Comments: Why I Haven't Offered My Work Online...

A long time ago, I wanted to try to offer my 3D work for sale. The reason why I haven't offered anything is because I was trying to make the models for use with Unity3D. I haven't converted or worked on anything to be made functional through Unity3D. This also includes making certain models rigged for animation. I never got around to making models for animation either. So in case any of you are interested in my work, that is why things have been so slow in that department. I apologize for this.





One thing I will NOT apologize for, however, is offering great content for you to read and enjoy. I hope this blog post qualifies to you as "great content." Please Subscribe to my blog(s) if you enjoy my content. Have yourself an amazing day/night. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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My Voxel Vehicle Showcase

(UPDATED: October 10, 2019)

I used MagicaVoxel to make more cars than what I shown in a previous post. What I want to do for this blog post is share more of my vehicle creations with you all. This collection features a number of cars I created and want to share. Descriptions for each of the cars I've created lately will be provided in this blog post for your enjoyment. I hope you enjoy this blog post and my different creations.

Since this is my first released post for 2015 for "John's Creative Space," happy new year!

LATEST UPDATE(S)/REVISION(S)

OCT 10 2019 - added a new section, updated look of post

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Voxel Vehicle Showcase

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Before I continue, let me share with you a look at various voxel vehicles I created so far:


^ This picture represents many different vehicles I created, including some you may have already seen before.


This time, rather than some rather detailed look at each car, I figured I just share a picture and offer a brief description. I hope you enjoy this post of mine.

Family Sedan.

This is an American sedan I created. Power comes from either a 260hp normally-aspirated Inline-6 or a 350hp normally-aspirated V8 in top-level trim. A 5-speed automatic or a 6-speed manual are offered for this car. It is a fron-wheel drive car, but rear-wheel drive is also offered.

Supercar.

While not the best design, I challenged myself to come up with something exotic and interesting. So what I did was create this supercar. I have no real story or specifications on this car except... it is fast, and it is long. A turbo V10 engine with about 550 horsepower is the heart of this supercar. Top speed is about 195 mph.

Classic American Convertible.

I was inspired by seeing classic car auctions on TV to come up with a car like this. This is the first convertible car I've ever created with MagicaVoxel. The top is clearly down on this car. I think it is tougher to design more classic vehicles. I did my best regardless. A V8 engine powers this car with about 390 horsepower fed through a 4-speed automatic or a 4-speed manual.

European Hatchback.

The intent of this vehicle was in making a car that's boring. Nothing is "sexy" at all about this car. This car is more like someone's first car that just simply gets him/her around town and various other points. This front-wheel drive hatchback has a good 175 horsepower through a turbo inline 4 engine. It also comes in a turbo Inline-6 with 225 horsepower. Again- nothing special about this car to make it seriously appealing to most people.

Vintage European GT Sports Car.

I consider this my most complex model I've created because there were a number of cues that are much different from the more modern machines I created. Among others is the headlight design. I tried to offer the illusion of lights tucked away and hiding behind glass. It is not easy to try to come up with such a design, so I let the lights show as they do. The Jaguar XKE and the Datsun 240Z were inspirations to me in making this machine. This was the first right-hand drive car I created. So if I were to create scenes with this car, you would see the driver on the right hand side drive this car.

Mid-Engined Hatchback.

If you know your cars, you probably know what this car's inspiration is. Think of a mid-engined hatchback with rear-wheel drive. If you aren't as keen on cars, then let me introduce you to this car's primary inspiration- the Renault Clio V6. A standard Clio was taken from its usual front-engine, front-wheel drive layout and given a more powerful engine mounted midship and given rear-wheel drive. It is one of the most unique vehicles ever created. I tried to create my own interpretation of this car with this model. A turbo V6 with 240 horsepower is the heart of my model. A 5-speed automatic or 5-speed manual drives this car.

Luxury Supercar.

I actually had Aston Martin in mind in trying to design this car. It is a supercar that weighs about 3,800 lbs. and powered by a 480hp naturally-aspirated V12. There is also a supercharged V12 for this car that makes about 565hp. I didn't know exactly how to convey the Aston Martin look and feel in its design. So I modeled this car with certain cues I know of best. I had the Aston Martin DB9 in mind. However, this car's design also sort of takes on a character of another insane British sports car- the TVR Cerbera Speed 12. Only this machine is MUCH more docile than the Cerbera Speed 12.

Sporty British Roadster.

Here is another car with some obvious style cues as to what this car resembles. This is how most Caterhams look. Go back even further and you may remember the Lotus Super 7. Either way, this machine is based on the more-than-capable roadster. It is a fast and agile sports car with exceptionally light weight. It accelerates and handles well, but don't expect it to win drag races or go fast around high-speed courses.

1990s Japanese Sports Car.

This car is my interpretation of a generic Japanese sports car from the 1990s. I mostly had the Nissan 240SX or the Nissan 300ZX in mind. The tail lights are more from the late 1990s Subaru Impreza. Maybe I felt like wanting to make this car a JDM (Japanese Direct Market) machine, so my model is right-hand drive. It is a car powered by an turbo Inline-6 pumping around 240hp or even 276hp.

Electric City Car.

I actually wanted to create a microcar that was environmentally friendly when I eventually made that neon green subcompact. This car is a more proper electric city car. This car leisurely takes its time getting up to 60 mph. It is a front-engined, front-wheel drive microcar with a top speed of about 105 mph.


These cars I created were created through MagicaVoxel. Each one is different in terms of me trying different design elements. There are still many limitations in designing voxel model cars. Despite these limitations, I am doing my best to try to design these cars for fun. One of my hopes is to try to use these models for media projects or possible game projects I have in mind. You may see these models (and more) in the future. I hope you enjoy my work regardless.

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A Special Announcement!

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(section addedL October 10, 2019)

After years of not knowing what I want to do, I finally decided to rework my voxel vehicle models to where I now offer them for sale! Since joining Envato, you can buy my voxel vehicles through Envato's 3DOcean. It is part of a package called "Basic Voxel Vehicle Pack." It includes 19 of the 20 regular model voxel vehicles I have created. Use them for your media projects or your game projects. If you want to make commercial work with my voxel vehicles, buy an Extended License on 3DOcean.

To get started and to see my voxel vehicles, click on the image or link below:


^ Click on the image or click on the following link to buy my voxel vehicle pack: Basic Voxel Vehicle Pack (Envato, 3DOcean)!

I would like to thank everyone who found my voxel vehicle work interesting and entertaining.





Before I close this blog post, I just want to make note of something. Ever since I started sharing my voxel artwork online, I've become fairly connected to various other voxel artists and game developers. I want to say hello to any pixel artists and game developers who may be reading my blog posts and seeing my work. Thanks to you all for supporting and enjoying my work. I know I talk a lot about MagicaVoxel, but I also am fond of any supportive of Qubicle Constructor. After all, I began making voxel art with Qubicle Constructor before I started really dabbling with MagicaVoxel. I am also using another free program called VoxelShop primarily to convert my MagicaVoxel models to COLLADA to use as I am trying to learn Unity3D. I'm all over the map, basically!

I have many more models I've created that I may share in the future. That even includes some models I am making exclusively for game projects. Will those projects ever come to fruition? Maybe... or maybe not. It all depends on if I am able to be convinced enough to make something good enough to be featured. Until then, all I am doing is sharing my work with the world, and I hope you're enjoying my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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My Voxel Vehicles

Back at it with MagciaVoxel. This time, I want to share to share some more voxel assets I've created. It was a great accomplishment when I made my first car in MagicaVoxel. I later practiced making more automobiles. I actually took two of my models to make two different automobiles. Just recently, I created my first-ever motorcycle. What you are about to see are some of my vehicle assets. I hope you enjoy this blog post here on "John's Creative Space!"

About the Label: "Vehicles"

Blog posts under this label feature various vehicles I've created as part of my collection of artwork. These vehicles can include cars, trucks, motorcycles, watercraft, aircraft, and more.

--- My Vehicle Assets: Story ---

Let me bring you up to speed in my creation of automobiles using MagicaVoxel. That is what I intend to do with this section.

On Facebook and Twitter on November 21, 2014; I shared this picture:


^ I designed this voxel formula race car from scratch.

As a car lover, it was great I finally was able to create a car in MagicaVoxel. I didn't exactly design it to any proper specifications, but I did base my designs on a number of different formula racing machines. I was very pleased making this first car because I felt I was finally able to make something as complex as a car in something like MagicaVoxel.

I know I've made habits lately of continually talking about MagicaVoxel. However, I made some cars before in Qubicle Constructor before my MagicaVoxel work. Some of the cars I created in Qubicle were rather large. I didn't make too many in Qubicle. I was still pretty pleased making that formula race car in MagicaVoxel.

Influence From Another Designer.

I didn't feel too comfortable trying to adjust all of my models to my regular scale models. So I ended up wanting to design smaller-scale items. The models I wanted to create will almost exclusively compliment my mini models. This was a point where I began mostly making smaller-scale material. I would meet one of those driving forces (so to speak) from one MagicaVoxel user who basically got me attracted to wanting to make small scale assets for my media work.

This person I came across Twitter was a fellow named Mike Judge. No- not the Mike Judge of "Beavis and Butthead" fame, but the Mike Judge who is a Seattle-based software engineer. He creates a bunch of renders with MagicaVoxel as part of his "Mini Mike's Metro Minis" package. This consists of various scenes and renders primarily meant for use in creating scenes in cities and such. If you'd like to learn more about his Mini Mike's Metro Minis collection, please visit Mike Judge's MMMM (Mini Mike's Metro Minis) GitHub page.

There were moments when I took Mike's vehicles and studied them. I thought about perspective, design, and getting a feel for making realistic material for my mini-scale characters to use. I actually even studied Mike's mini models to make my own mini characters. The combination of the Mini Mike's Metro Minis assets as well as the vehicles got me to think- "how do I make vehicles to compliment my mini characters?"

The first thing I did was take one of Mike's vehicle models and study its design. Rather than take it and edit it to make my own model, I instead used it as a base for building my own car. So I basically took a huge amount of space and put in one of Mike's vehicles while also making a completely new car from scratch. I ended up creating a luxury SUV (which you will see later in this post) with give-or-take the same dimensions as the vehicle I used to base my designs on. Because this was a mini-scale item, it meant I had to work with fewer details. My main challenge was to make as much detail as possible using such confined space. I even tried a few tricks to try to get as much detail as possible to make my vehicles not only believable, but also useful for possible media projects.

So what was the end result? Five cars I designed. Read the next section to get to know the five cars I created.

--- My Vehicle Assets: Five Voxel Cars of Mine ---

I created a luxury SUV for practice. Then, I made four other cars to expand my range of machines and even practice different designs. Check this out:


^ These are the five cars I've created since making my first car.

I felt so pleased making cars with MagicaVoxel. Even more so considering I can use these in possible media projects and renders. I chose to design items with realism. As a detail touch, I decided to make the side windows open so the driver and passenger(s) can be visible. Even after making these automobiles, I edited them little-by-little to make them even more appealing while also practicing my car-making skills. After designing these cars, I used some of Mike Judge's scenes to place my cars into for comparison with the other models in the area. I felt like I made some gorgeous machines that mini-scale voxel models can interact with and see. A missing detail from my cars is the gas cap. I decided to make everything one color for easy editing.

My Vehicle Models.

Let me introduce you to the cars I created. The machines will be featured from left to right based on the image I shown you of the five automobiles. They are noted by what they are. Here is my chance to show I am an amateur car salesman. :)

• Green Luxury SUV
The green SUV on the far left in my picture is an American luxury SUV. This machine was the first car besides my formula racing car that I created. It was created from scratch by taking cues from one of Mike Judge's vehicle models. Initially, it was a pastel blue SUV. I since changed it to a dark green SUV.

It is an SUV powered by a turbo V6 making about 280 horsepower. Visual cues were sort of taken from Land Rover and the Cadillac SRX. The interior has wood grain. It has only two rows of seating. The second row could be folded over for more storage space. A bit more space can be had by folding down both the second row and the front-row passenger seat. This SUV has four-wheel drive, but rear-wheel drive is also offered.


• Red Mid-Engine Sports Car
This is a peppy Italian sports car. I tried to design something smaller than my luxury SUV. What I ended up doing is create a machine that isn't as long. I wanted to give this car a unique touch design-wise. So what I did was create a scoop that would feed air into the mid-mounted engine. I got this idea from a car from "Ridge Racer Type 4." I gave this car side-scoops to feed the engine more air.

It looks more powerful than it really is. This is a mid-engined sports car that packs about 240 horsepower. This car is mainly a bargain sports car with tremendous performance. It would give the owner a quality sports car. Its exotic image will make any owner of this car feel like he/she spent lots of money to own a fabulous sports car.

• Pale Blue Pickup Truck
Believe it or not, this American truck was created using my red sports car! I thought about something my mom said when I shown her my voxel model cars. She questioned if I made a car or a truck. I then thought about its design and used the red sports car as a base to make this truck. It was actually the same length as the red sports car at first. But later, I decided to stretch out its length and make it a bit higher off the ground. The biggest influence in the design of this truck are the RAM Trucks. What was confusing to me was whether to make this a light duty truck or make it a full-size truck. I didn't want to make this a quad cab truck or anything.

This pickup truck makes about 300 horsepower, and it is primarily meant to be a road performance truck. It is possible, though, to make this a proper off-road truck. Four-wheel drive is standard for this pickup truck. The truck comes with gray seats with red details.


• Neon Green Subcompact
This is a Japanese subcompact car. I used the red sports car to create something more compact than that sports car. The car I created eventually used to be a light purple color. I actually wanted this to be an electric subcompact. I eventually just made this a simple subcompact with some flashy character. I tried to find a good neon color for it using MagicaVoxel's default palette.

This is a front-wheel drive subcompact that makes about 170 horsepower. Impressive fuel economy and nimble handling are its strongest points. This is a compact coupe with no second row to speak of. The passenger seat can be folded down for some extra space.

NOTE: The rear view of the subcompact actually is supposed to have the rear muffler on the RIGHT side.


• Dark Gray/Grey Luxury SUV
As its foreign contender to the American SUV market, this luxury SUV is the flagship SUV of a heralded British company. I took my American luxury SUV and simply... well, made it bigger. I wanted to make this British SUV as much a flagship machine as possible. I tried to make this SUV to be different from the other SUV despite the fact this machine is based on that green SUV. There is much more chrome to this SUV than with the green SUV. Even the side mirrors are chrome compared to the plastic side mirrors of the green SUV. I had even intended to make this a three-row SUV, but ultimately decided to keep it a two-row SUV. The biggest inspiration for this SUV is the Infiniti QX56, which is nowadays the Infiniti QX80. While I don't have proper names for each of the vehicles, this is the only one that I've named so far. I call it the "Amistad."

Seen more as a status symbol rather than a quality automobile, this is a British SUV that delivers elegance and status unlike any other automobile. People have praised it for providing so much elegance. Many others, however, simply call this an SUV that is just big and impractical. It is an SUV powered by either a normally-aspirated V8 with 355 horsepower or a supercharged V8 making 470 horsepower. Only four-wheel drive is offered, and it is not meant to be any kind of off-roader. It is strictly a road-going machine.

Are More in the Works?

Absolutely! I am trying to create as many different voxel cars as possible.

Uses for Voxel Cars.

I may simply use them for scenes and media projects. Part of me wants to develop a game featuring these cars. That was actually one plan of mine in making these cars.


Now you have an idea on the cars I created.

--- My Vehicle Assets: My First Motorcycle ---

I always wanted to make motorcycles in addition to my cars. The trouble I had was that I didn't know how to design a motorcycle. I wanted to make a model to suit my mini models but didn't know how exactly to make a realistic one. Remember I talked about Mini Mike's Metro Minis? Well, none of the vehicles he created was a motorcycle. So I was on my own to make my own motorcycle. I did a lot of practice by taking certain visual cues from Google Images results of sport bikes. Once I confidently could design a motorcycle, I designed one along with giving my mini-scale character a unique riding stance. The end result was this:


^ My first motorcycle made with MagicaVoxel.

I actually like sport bikes and sporty bikes more than I do scooters or cruisers. I tried to infuse as many different cues as possible to make my bike unique. I looked to the beautiful Ducati Desmosedici RR for inspiration for the headlights. I added some turn signals to the front. The yellow front suspension was added. I made this a bike with two swingarms. A lot of motorcycles have two swingarms, but some machines- such as the MV Augusta F4- have only one swingarm. This bike has two rear mufflers. One other thing I considered in designing my first motorcycle was the possibility of making this bike realistic in the ability to have a two-up riding style. For those not as educated on motorcycles, two-up is basically one rider taking the controls while another rider latches onto the main rider, thus making it possible to have two people riding one bike. I even lengthened the bike a little bit to make the two-up look realistic.

After I made this first motorcycle, I edited it and made a racing version of the bike. I may share that in a future post here on "John's Creative Space." Basically, I removed the side mirrors, the lights, replaced the tail light with a muffler design, and got rid of the main mufflers to the bike. And instead of a dark red, I painted it blue.

Testing the New Machines.

I later took my motorcycle designs and put them into Mike Judge's scenes to see how they would fit into a mini-scale scene. I took a scene for my regular-scale characters and tried to scatter the space with my motorcycle model. I was so pleased looking at it because I tried to make a scene where multiple bikes raced against each other. I tried fitting about sixteen of them in a racing setting, and it looked so cool!

--- Special Thanks... ---

I want to give special thanks to Mike Judge for inspiring me not only get into making mini-scale items, but also for being the real force behind me making the voxel vehicles presented in this blog post. If Mike Judge himself is reading this, thank you very much.

To learn more about Mike Judge and his work, visit:
• mikelovesrobots
• Mike Judge's MMMM (Mini Mike's Metro Minis) GitHub page


That concludes this blog post.





What do you think about my designs? You're free to comment. Thank you for reading!

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