I thought it would be great to show other Speedhunters something unique and exclusive as an extra bonus to our Porsche feature month.
As some of you may be aware, I work on the Need for Speed Car team as the Senior Vehicle Concept Artist at our Downtown Vancouver Studio. The majority of my working day is taken up designing bodykits and cars and assisting with livery/vinyl direction. I’m going to explain the process in designing a unique bodykit for one of the key cars in our game. I think this is the first time we’ve showed the development process off outside of EA Blackbox.
During early production of Need for Speed: Undercover, we started looking at the cars our characters might drive and also which car would end up on the cover. It’s been a while since a Porsche has been featured on a Need for Speed cover, so we decided to use the iconic Porsche 911 for this game.
This called for a unique body kit for the 997 GT2. The brief was to create an ‘aggressive, but tasteful’ kit. Yes, those were the very words! As Senior Vehicle Concept Artist, it was my job to turn that ‘brief’ into something visual….
It was important not to destroy the classic lines of the 911 and it was vital that the kit would be fully integrated, as the real world trend continues to move away from wild bodykits. Its normally a quick turn-around of a day or so to concept out a kit, so it was a pleasant change to have the extra time to explore forms, which really paid dividends. I also wanted it to remain believable.
Porsche were also involved at an early stage, so it was time to get sketching with one of my favourite pieces of tech, my Wacom Cintiq tablet. I love this thing!
The early sketches show the investigation into the front forms. I had a pretty clear vision for the rear and the side, but the front needed more exploration. The rear was defined by a large carbon diffuser and large mesh grille, which would also house the licence plate. I also designed a new rear aerofoil, which is mounted on modified GT2 trunk. The wing supports have larger more extreme air intakes for the engine.
The Porsche 959 and Carrera GT influenced the side profile. As the brief required a wide-body kit, I integrated a larger rear fender air vent, similar to the Carrera GT, blending in to the shoulder of the main body, which often catches light along the door.
The front was more of a challenge. Research showed that we need an entire new front bumper, rather than a lip kit to give it a new identity. We needed something dramatic which would be unique to our product. As you can see, I concentrated on designs, which would work with the stock radiators and cooling.
In the end I went for a design, which was extreme, but believable, with cooling for radiators, intercooler and brakes and an integrated splitter and undercut for front end aerodynamics. The new bumper extends further forward than the stock one giving an aggressive (but tasteful!) look. We also incorporated the stock GT2/Turbo side lights and indicators for realism. The hood is a new design for Undercover, which is exclusive to mid/rear engine cars, inspired by GT1 and GT2 racecars.
Once I had settled on a design, it was off to Porsche Design Studio for approval. Thankfully, it was approved without any changes. Phew!
The car was then modeled by one of our car modelers, Angelo Borrillo. While this was happening, Concept Artist, Mike Hayes with the assistance of Carl Jarrett, James Lau and myself were looking at the livery and paintwork (I don’t want to use the term, vinyls, as its not really a vinyl!).
Mike explored a number of possibilities and we agreed early on that the focus would be on different material finishes while Carl concentrated on how this would appear in game.
We’ve noted a growing trend of Flat Black (sometimes called Satin, or ‘Murdered’) paintwork on modern cars, which had been inspired by Rat-Rods. There has been a slow transition of this finish from rat-roads to 60’s muscle and now modern day cars. I wanted to take this further, based off a number of cars we had seen at last years SEMA, where Flat Black was mixed with Gloss finish as this is a developing trend.
This car needed to stand out, so we investigated how different hues would work with the flat black. In the end we went for a deep red, which compliments the lines of the car while not being too vibrant. Gives it a classy look and suits the character that drives this Porsche.
By the time the livery was approved, the model was complete and we could see the finished result in-game.
So, hopefully this gives you a little more background on what I work on when I’m not Speedhunting, and how we designed this particular kit.
– Andy Blackmore
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Andy, I lovvvvvvvvvvvvve your sketches! Man, I would absolutely LOVVVVVVVE it if you did a drawing like that of my 1973 Corolla SR-5. I would hang it up in the garage above my car...!!!
Awesome job on the aero kit design! (i hate the term "murder" style though. reminds me of a bad rap video, like scraper bikes...)
Andy, Antonio and I would like to have our cars put into the next game.
email me.
wow i love what you did man! love the top left hand side "paintwork" and also the black and white one at the bottom... so jealous that you have a cintiq and my dream is to go to art center college of design to study transportation design...
imma go play prostreet now...
I agree BH, and his old 14, now serei's should be on it too.
Awesome sketches Andy, too bad the game is just a arcade
This is great work, and I understand that you need to create unique kits, but yeesh some of the kits I've seen in this series are very ugly. There are quite a few nice ones here too though!
Great post & nice kit. I agree with buttes re some previous NFS kIts being a little lairy. But time heals all wounds - some of the clothing I wore in the '80s frighten me now...
We are working on that one :>
You're sketches are incredibly good with this car. I'm really happy that you shared the creative process on this. I especially love your designs for the bonnet, rear bumper and fenders. Those are extremely well done.
Honestly though, I dont think the color scheme/livery does your design work justice. It looked absolutely incredible up to the rendering.
Keep up the great work on the designs!
Awesome post and indeed design. It's nice to have this little insight into the design process.
It looks like the NFS franchise has done some growing up visually since I last picked up a game.
That Wacom you use looks like a fun piece of kit, I've only recently started using a Bamboo One which is at the other end of the spectrum from yours.
Nice work Andy. Its a refreshing change to be see a short writeup on what goes on behind the scenes of a racing game. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye. When I started in the business I was pretty naive to the way games were put together and it was a big shock to see the shear amount of work involved in just producing one car that was deemed perfect and good to go for production, multiply that by hundreds and you've got yourself a whole lotta blood (virtual) sweat and tears poured into these titles. There's not a day goes by these days that I don't enjoy my work (ok well maybe if the day is spent bugfixing or something haha) so I'm very priviliged to be in this position.
Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to seeing what the next title in the NFS franchise brings
wow, a decent looking nfs bodykit.
thats really nice, almost like some modern day rauh welt mod..
your drawings look lovely as well
Hey, great job with this, I hope the other kits come along well enough, we, nfs fans, are tired to drive cars that wear "whale bodykits".
Great aero designs mate, but having been a true Porsche enthusiast I just can't agree with some of the chosen aesthetics and colours chosen. The lower lip ending in the middle like that looks sort of tacky. The front guard duct needs to kind of start shallower and go wider. The rear guards need to be PUMPED... Seriously widened. Those rims aren't nearly dished/wide enough! Plus it'll allow more air in
Lastly the colour scheme.. I do understand that the players this is subjected to enjoy rice, however satin black and gloss red? No. Maybe satin black and gloss black, replacing the red, or satin and carbon fibre replacing the red, something that doesn't scream 'kill me!'. Please, do it for people who respect the Porsche name.
Having seen the GT2 feature as the main cover car though, I will buy it. Good work buddy, you've got amazing skill!
Benny.
Hey, nice work, I hope there's going to be a lot more nice kits, I'm sick of kits that look like space ships on a car! Can't wait to play this one!
Adrian!
wow, that is really awesome. I have a bonus DVD from Carbon with some drawings of cars with bodykits, they look much better than the ones that were in game.
I like the split front on the bumper, it stands out and different. Perfect for a cover car. The other designs with a full lip isn't as exciting. I like the colours too, although I like the grey and black design. I do not agree with Benny, the kit is wide enough already.
nice work
I've worked on NFS a couple of years ago and seen Andy's work first hand and its awesome. However, the car team is small, so when they build the kits, they don't have much time to finish them off. Seems like its changing now though.
?????????? ?????, ??????????? ????? ?????? ??????! ?????? ????????? ?? ? ???? ?????, ??? ???????? ???? ??????????? Porsche ???? ????????? ??????. ? ?????? ?????? Porsche? ?????? ??-?? ???? ??? Porsche ??????? EA? ??? ??? ???? ????? ?????!
By Shady from Russia with love.
this is gonna be a great game, judging by the car list, and the amount of work that is poured into this!!
great job on the car, but the red is kinda tacky and non-fitting...other than that, great job on the car!!
but so help me, if they make some of them cars xbox exclusives(own a ps2), there will be....well, you get my point lol
Like some of the comments here, it's really a relief to see some 'tasteful' kits appear on the series finally. Its really really a nice one you've got there. But the same couldnt be said about the color choice. I understand beauty is in the eye of the beholder... so if you guys think it's cool..
Hey, I like the red, I think its a cool contrast with the Black.
I agree with most of the above posters... the past few NFS games have been really quite over the top and, i hate to say it, riced out... lol.. but this is a good indication that things are getting better!
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i *really* like the paint scheme in the top right of the pic with all the other schemes, the black w/ grey hood, with black fanciness on the hood as well, very awesome.
keep up the good work!
lots of comments so I'll briefly cover a couple
I assume most people want the latest and greatest cars.....
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As the real world scene matures and moves away from 'quote - Rice', so does the game, hence the Porsche. As we replace and add kits and introduce new cars we are going for the more resolved mature look. However its a fine line as we have to balance new kits against brand new cars.... Car choices tend to be important with a car game
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The car in game is the same as the concept sheets, so not sure of your point Fasttasf. I made one subtle change to the depth of the main grille in the front bumper. Dont forget, a player does not have to add a bodykit on the car, but the majority do. Our data shows many players add bodykits/customisation and use Auto Sculpt, which makes the kits even more extreme, so you can see both sides of the argument
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Colours - It was a tough call between grey and red actually, but the decision was made to go with Red due to the character that is driving the car and the fact its on the cover.
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Thanks you for those who took the time to post constructive comments. Much appreciated.
Great work Andy! You've got some mad-skills!
Am glad to see the RWB flavor coming into game but I agree with Benny, the red just doesn't work for me - I understand it adds contrast but so could dry carbon fiber or a slightly lighter shade of gray. I feel the kit matches the porsche dna and is definitely a lot more mature in it's styling than any earlier versions of the game has ever had.
I think that if you were to provide users with bodykit options that genuinely enhanced the cars functions and stayed in respect with the OE styling then you are educating the player about what good style is (ie not rice). And if the player then decides to modify their own car, then they draw inspiration from the lessons learn't within the game. Just my two cents.
" Tuning " on Porsches is a very dangerous activity , specially for talented people who could lose their credibilty....
Andy , congratulations , your superb sketches give me ( for 5mns ) the desire to test NFS , which is the ultimate test at my oldfashion/delicate eyes !
The car came out a little different in the screenshots. Why? The flat black paint was supposed to show the body lines, which was clearly missing on the screenshots.
Stunning design!!! in-game model is not as crisp with some of the surfacing (front fender extension), but it has translated well into 3 dimensions. I am in a car studio and that doesn't always happen. Impressed dude. I ike the red, sorry!
I have to say that your drawngs are very good, but I personally think that this totaly fails the tasteful part. The 911 was never designed for such extreme bodykits, those were just applied at the gt1-models oder, realyer, on the 935s or the 959. I think that you should have studied the 959 a little more and tried to ut a little more of it in here, as exmample porsche didnt just wide out the quarterpanels, they also moved the rearlights to the outside and fitted the whole car's width to it.
See, I dont want to destroy your work, it fits perfectly to the, sorry but, ugly tuning of earlier NFS's (from U1 on) but not to the design from porsche. A good bodykit should look like being from the cars designer, it has to fit perfectly to the car, This one just doesnt, speccialy those way too big intakes in the front.
greetz,
Freak-DS
Morning all!
.
Freak, we are unable to change the position of the lights for a number
of reasons. In all honesty, I dont think I would have wanted to
anyway.
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Air intake; these were smaller on some earlier sketches but some very
'qualified' feedback advised these could be bigger, so was happy to
take on that feedback from the experts.
Sorry you don't like the kit, but I wouldnt change a thing.
Andy, I'm going back to school...nice job, really nice...now I have an indication of level!
Well I suggested that as it was the same in MW, I don't know where I noticed that, but ok, that's unnecessarely. But at first, I am quite happy that you didn't take my critic personal. That you won't change it is clear, because the 3D-Model is ready.
In case that I may ask, who gave you that feedback to enlarge the intakes? EA? Porsche? Both? If it'S from Porsche, I'd be very stunning. What I can say, although I (sorry) don'T really like this tuning-concept, the parts fit to each others. That's quite positive because some people cross e.g. a very flat rearbumper with a totaly screwed up frontbumper.
greetz,
the Porsche-Freak
I understand why you've chosen to go the way you have Andy, it does make sense. Either way I'll get it, as a Porsche is featured.
Don't let our comments stop you from posting more of this type of article in the future, it's really great to see how much work is put into it and the type of process involved. I await more!
Benny.
well.... thoso holes in spoiler should rip it off at high speed, and that is tottally not aero-dynamic other things looks like standart porshe with custom holes and grills everywhere... dude you got 4/10
Have you studied aerodynamics? thought not.
I have, albeit breifly and I follow race car technology now.
Cooling, and the channeling of air in and out of the car is part of Aerodynamics. I would agree, that the side of air intakes are set back a little further than we would in the real world, but its to make it dramatic as its for a game, but the concept is relevant and real-world.
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The location of the air intakes are also as per the stock car, they are just bigger. I think you'd find similar square area on th Porsche Carrera GT, and other cars.
Just to make sure I'm not talking crap, I checked with a sucessful aerodynamist before I posted
Not one of the most constructive comments on here. I'll give it 3/10... LOL!
this porsce is juxt awesome...first time seen anything lyk it ...wooooowww....this is the best porshce i hav ever seen...n andy u r jux gr8 on duin tis...
don't forget with autosculpt and vinyl customization
#Featured#
These are great "don't forget with the autosculpt and vinyl customization!" Oh like they'll forget after two years of adding it! So I'm looking forward to this.
great drawings
Saw the commercial today. That thing looks bad asssss. Love the final shot of it pulling up straight with the FMIC tucked away in the bumper (commercial). Your sketch pages are phenomenal. Best job ever.
hey which programme do u use to make all these designs? They r incredibly awesome. Especially the body kit. But Don't u think that the "Flat Black" is a little bit not shiny enough? Maybe Met. Black would work on it.
Well, I just got the game (and finished it surprisingly!) The bodykit was stunning in the game, but when i bought a GT2, i didn't have the option to install the kit on the car! The only car that has the kit is Rose's. If you can help me by telling me how to get the kit (or the whole car) it would be a big help. Good job designing it dude. It's good to see a change in the kits.
Is it possible to make in game?
I finished the game twice now... Andy you're work it's AWSOME... But i was surprised when i saw after i bought GT2,that the body kit isn't in game... Can we add this bodykit some how...cuz it's a "godlike" body for GT2... I hope so...
i have completed the career 100% and i just dont understand what happened... that porsche with that badboy unique body kit is driven by a girl called rose not the player...andy or any1 ever reads this comment, please post a comment on how to get that body kit because i seen videos of that badboy unique body kit porsche driving around tri city.
i have seen videos of that badboy unique body kit porsche driving around tri city from what videos i seen on other websites. pleases help me an tell me how to get that kit
The kit is unique to Rose.
also, I just discovered that you can buy a model of the car. Need to track one down and correct the colour of the front air intakes and change the pink to red LOL!
http://maisto.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/need-for-speed-undercover-164-porsche-911-gt2-omg/
that model kit from Maisto looks nothing like the one in the game. it actually looks hideous.
Cmon Andy don't u feel kinda cheated that the car u worked so hard 2 design doesn't even get to be enjoyed by us nfs fans. I freakin LOVE the car dude favorite porshe I've seen in my life such a sick car man good work. I mean I think the kit's in the ps2 version but what about everyone else? Wouldn't YOU personally like to be able to pop in undercover and get to drive a car that u designed. there r even a lot of videos showing the main character driving the porsche, not some emo girl that doesn't deserve to be driving such a badass car, such as the trailer, commercial, and in-game pursuit movie ea made where the cops say "stand down I repeat stand down that's OUR man ur chasing? Hmmm, rose certainly wasn't undercover but look who ended up with ur Porsche Now march up to ea and tell them to include the car or at least the kit for ALL platforms for this upcoming patch.
What GameANIMAL964 says is true, Andy. EA surely is bulls**t
This car doesn't even available for the main hero to drive!
yow andy i just want you and that stupid ripoff EA to know that i got undercover the day it came out and was disapointed to learn that u cannot drive that porsche, which makes me feel that i got ripped off.and a personal message to EA...u gus hu made undercover are full of shit. if u make some videos of a game then plzz make sure that the game is giong to be something like it NOT SOME THING TOTALLY OPPISIT.i presonally thing that ea should go back to MOST WANTED and make a game similer to nfs most wanted....but with that gt2 andy disigned.
You can actually download a blueprint of that car with that awesome bodykit for PC at http://www.nfsnation.com just look at their showroom and look for the 911 GT2 that has that bodykit then download it. I saw two or three 911 GT2s that have the bodykit one is Rose's GT2
But, you have to download first their save editor at that website
Hope this will help
I have a 911 GT2 that has the body kit on PC. Although I removed the vinyls and changed the color and installed a carbon hood to look like a Gemballa. In my garage, instead of 911 GT2, it says 911 turbo.
At first glance, That bodykit made that 911 look like one of the Gemballa GTR Avalanche models (GTR600 or GTR650). I even thought that EA is going to add a Gemballa (I love Gemballas) because of that body kit.
The drawback is that once you downloaded it, you can't put two tone vinyls in that car anymore.