Vehicle and Props Design / Exercise & Projects

23/9/2025 - 23/12/2025/ Week 1 - Week 14

GUAN YAXIN / 0370687

Digital Matte Painting / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

LECTURES&PROCESS

In the first week of class, mr.kannan briefly introduced the course content of this semester, and taught us how to organize the design ideas about vehicles and props, collect references and quickly organize them into emotional editions.

In the second week, the teacher began the formal teaching of the course content. First of all, mr.kannan teaches us how to design vehicles quickly, that is, using silhouette. Draw the silhouette quickly, and then roughly determine the structure of the vehicle according to the silhouette, which can design different vehicles more efficiently. Mr.kannan reminds us that the first thing we have to do is to find references and make emotional boards, which can help us to straighten out our ideas more clearly and define the direction of design. According to the teacher's suggestion, I drew some simple sketches. I drew two vehicles with different designs by combining the shape of ladybug and mouse, and drew similar small vehicles with reference to scooter and balance car. It's novel for me to get into contact with vehicle design for the first time, and I don't have any good ideas for the time being, so I decided to continue to look for references and organize the emotional version.

Mr.kannan continued his teaching and explained how to design vehicles. He suggested that students can refer to living things, study their structures and motion modes, and combine them with vehicle design. This is also one of the ideas of mechanical design, that is, bionic design, because human beings can't imagine and design things they have never seen before, and many objects with clear structure and function are actually realized by studying animals. After studying this lesson, I continued to think about my own design ideas. At the same time, according to the requirements of the exercise we want to draw, I drew a line drawing of the vehicle with reference to the picture.

In this class, the teacher still explains how to design the vehicle. With the preliminary preparation, I'm going to draw more drafts as alternatives, and then choose the final design. However, because I have other courses to finish, my progress is slow, and I just drew some exercises. This time I drew a sketch of an airplane. In the process of drawing, my efficiency is not very high, because my drawing skills are not very good, so it is difficult to draw a complete straight line quickly without tools, and it needs to be revised repeatedly. At the same time, according to the teacher's previous teaching content, I also drew some silhouettes, which can help me better complete the later project.

Mr.kannan reminds us that vehicle design should be comprehensive, that is, we should design corresponding characters and build a reasonable world view. Of course, these should not be too complicated, because the main design is vehicles and props. According to his prompt, I drew some characters and prepared to design vehicles and props associated with them. When I gave feedback to my teacher, he reminded me to speed up and improve efficiency, and continue to update the progress of project 1.

According to the figure scheme I drew, I continued to improve the figure design, and designed the small vehicle according to the settings. Combining the reference I found before, I positioned the theme of the world view as "Cyberpunk". But in fact, I don't fully fit this type. To be precise, I want to design a vehicle with light sci-fi elements, so I set the time period in the near future. Although people can't predict the future, in some literary and artistic works, the future is usually gradually becoming cyberized. According to my idea, I drew four different vehicle designs and showed how the characters drove them. However, after the completion, I felt a little uneasy, because the design of the main body was a vehicle, but I drew a complete figure. Is this a bit presumptuous?

The teacher explained the students' homework in class, pointed out the shortcomings that need to be improved, and provided some suggestions. At the same time, he also stressed the need for clear character design, so that vehicles and props can be better designed. At this time, I understand that there is not much mistake in the direction I drew before, and I should continue to provide more designs. According to another character scheme drawn before, I am going to draw some corresponding vehicle and prop designs.

Combined with mr.kannan's advice to the students, I continued to draw some drafts of vehicles. There is nothing new in this week's class, and the teacher still gives some feedback to the students' homework. When explaining my homework, he reminded me that I should be clear about the design of a vehicle, because I have too many drafts and the details are not very clear. At the same time, our design can't be too simple, and we can't design lighter small vehicles, such as skateboards and balance cars.

Mr.kannan said that the scheme of motorcycle/electric vehicle I designed is feasible, and what we should continue to do is to clarify the structure and improve the design.

This week, I will draw all the required exercises. Some time ago, I drew a car and an airplane, which are land carriers and air carriers respectively. Now I need to draw a new type, that is, water carriers. I choose a photo of a boat as a reference to draw. At the same time, we have to do line drawing exercises from different angles, and for vehicle drawing exercises, we have to give different color schemes. In this process, I accelerated my speed, and I felt that painting seemed a little easier. Through some reference, I also successfully completed this exercise. The next step is the practice of materials. In the project we need to complete, we should probably make clear the materials of vehicles. According to some photos and materials, I drew 12 different material balls. At the same time, I drew some silhouettes. For my project one, according to mr.kannan's suggestion, I drew several versions of the scheme with relatively clear structure.

The teacher suggested that I continue to design on the basis of one version, but after my own drawing and evaluation of my own ability, I may not be able to show all the details of this version in the future. So I looked for other references and made a new plan. I also updated the design scheme of the characters. Because I like rabbits, I also adopted rabbit elements in the design, which is displayed on the windshield of electric vehicles. According to the requirements, I also provided different color schemes. This is the final clear design. After giving feedback to mr.kannan, he said that my design was feasible, but the perspective was problematic. He suggested that I could continue to improve it in the subsequent project two.

After many twists and turns, I finally came to the design of project two. The requirement this time is to design some props and continue to improve the design in project one. The design of props is based on my previous character design. I drew different kinds of props, and each kind has many different structural designs and color schemes. Combined with the previous vehicle design scheme, rabbit elements are used in the design of props, such as the decoration of helmets and the shape of small robots. At the same time, I drew different character designs, which I think is more reasonable than the previous design scheme. When I gave the teacher feedback again, he affirmed my design.

Because I design an electric car, I can't draw the internal design, so I can only start with the display screen. As before, I sorted out mood board and drew the design scheme. Mr.kannan selected one of them, and according to this version of the draft, combined with the materials I found myself, finally completed the design of the display screen. For the design props, I further improved and explained, such as drawing different angles, adding text explanations, etc., and finally realized a complete design scheme. For the perspective problems in previous vehicle painting, I decided to use 3d modeling as an aid (of course, we will also model according to the design scheme in the end) in association with the previous teacher's suggestion. When I gave the teacher feedback, he recognized my design of props, and also suggested that the appearance of vehicle design should be improved.

According to the requirements in final project, we should make clear and reasonable 3d modeling, so I continued to improve and modify the previous modeling. Mr.kannan said that my design is much better than before, and made some suggestions to make the whole look more beautiful. According to the teacher's suggestion, I have continuously improved the vehicle modeling, added many details, and changed some structures (such as making the links more natural, adding textures, etc.) to make the whole more reasonable. According to the color scheme, I colored and finally rendered the model. At the same time, I am going to draw an illustration, combining characters, props and so on to show the final effect.

This is the final design.

INTRODUCTION

Exercise

Project 1

Project 2

Final Project 

FEEDBACK

WEEK 1

General Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN introduced the course to us.

Specific Feedback :None

WEEK 2

General Feedback :None

Specific Feedback :None

WEEK 3

General Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN teaches students how to complete sky replacement exercises, light and shadow exercises and so on.

Specific Feedback : I finished the sky replacement exercise and the sketch of task 1 this week. The teacher reminded me that the sky replacement exercise was done well, but Task 1 needed to draw the mood board first, and then draw the draft.

WEEK 4

General Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN gave some suggestions to the students' homework and briefly explained the content about perspective.

Specific Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN reminds me that I can improve my sky replacement practice and choose the best version as the final display, and reminds me that film research only needs to determine one film as the main body.

WEEK 5

General Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN gave some suggestions to the students' homework and also explained some drawing skills.

Specific Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN affirmed my sketches.

WEEK 6

General Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN continued to explain his homework to the students.

Specific Feedback :The teacher listens to me. In the process of negotiation, I don't need to pursue realism excessively, but should pay more attention to the understanding of the picture.

WEEK 7

General Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN continued to give feedback to the students to explain the problems in the homework.

Specific Feedback :The teacher affirmed the drawing of my work and reminded me to increase efficiency and continue to complete the unfinished content.

WEEK 8

General Feedback :Mr. KANNAN VIJAYAN continued to give feedback to the students to explain the problems in the homework.

Specific Feedback :None

WEEK 9

General Feedback :None

Specific Feedback :None

WEEK 10

General Feedback :None

Specific Feedback :The teacher reminded me that the base plate and composition perspective in my work should be aligned correctly

WEEK 11

General Feedback :None

Specific Feedback :The teacher reminded me to continue changing the perspective issue in the center of the picture and adding some colors to make the atmosphere of the picture stronger.

WEEK 12

General Feedback :Mr. KANAN VIJAYAN continues to explain homework to his classmates

Specific Feedback :The teacher reminded me to change the perspective relationship in the picture

WEEK 13

General Feedback :Mr. KANAN VIJAYAN pointed out the problems in the picture for the students

Specific Feedback :Mr. KANAN VIJAYAN said that my visual completion is not high enough, and the texture arrangement should be more reasonable

WEEK 14

General Feedback :The teacher emphasized the importance of perspective and reminded the students to speed up and complete the final task

Specific Feedback :Mr. KANAN VIJAYAN said that I should use some auxiliary tools to complete the understanding of perspective, try to correct the perspective of the picture as reasonably as possible, and proceed with the final task of production

REFLECTION

Experience

In this semester's study, I came into contact with new knowledge, learned some problems that I had never considered, and exercised my comprehensive design ability with the patient teaching and help of teachers. This experience has made me gain some experience in environmental design, improved my thinking ability and perception ability, and consolidated my painting foundation to some extent.

Observation

Modeling is a difficult process for me, because I was exposed to the content related to modeling last semester. Before that, I didn't know the software related to it at all, just understanding the concept, and because I am relatively good at painting, I am more interested in painting, and I don't think I have extra energy to learn unfamiliar content, so my subjective initiative is not very strong. So I didn't spend a lot of time learning modeling (although I know it is also very helpful to my painting skills), but during this semester's study, I became more aware of its importance and my interest in it grew slowly. I think I should continue to study when I have time.

Findings

Environmental design is a test of people's painting skills and design skills, because this design is very comprehensive, and it needs to be designed in combination with many aspects, such as characters (preferences, personality characteristics, etc.), world outlook, perspective, structure, color matching, etc., and it is of a strong professional nature. Excellent environmental design can show strong rationality in all aspects, and the final picture is comfortable in tone, clear in details, strong in story sense, full of information and clear, which can bring a good visual experience to the audience.