We Meet Again

*4K resolution image available in WIP*

Concept of the project: We know Hot Wheels as toys that are played with by little kids and collected by adults. They've even appeared in video games like Forza and have been made into life-sized cars. But in the end, they are still just fantasies packaged as a toy. These two Hot Wheels, Twin Mill I (black) and Splitwire (red), have "grown-up" and become more suited for the teenage and adult audience. With this more realistic styling, the cars adopt a more clean and finished look but still retain some aspects of their true form, as that's what makes them the cars they are. In some ways, it is like when we all came back after the COVID shutdown, we were a little older, wiser, and things had changed, but there was much of who we were still there. Just like these cars.

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Work behind the project: I've been redesigning Hot Wheels for about a year now and so I thought I should do the same for this project but challenge myself to make the cars better than I have ever modeled in my one-year experience of 3D modeling.

While trying to work around the time constraint of only making progress on weekends due to school and my part-time job, I started with Twin Mill which although a Hot Wheel from 1969, I styled it with the 90s aesthetic in mind. I also decided to have it run on Japanese-looking engines rather than the traditional American engines, just to make it more unique. The redline on the tires was a tribute to that era of Hot Wheels when they used to come with redlined tires. After a few previews to get a sense of how the car looked in its entirety, I moved on to making the scene.

For the record, it was my first time making an entire 3D scene from scratch so it was a bit daunting. The scene is a slightly futuristic urban alley, but on the left side is 1990s retro and the right side 1960s retro. I admire the aesthetic of the time spanning between 1960-2010 so I wanted to show that in this alley. I created my own textures for the alley through Adobe Substance Painter which was a first for me. Also, the ads were old ads grabbed from the internet based on the time periods. Some appear in holograms, some on billboards. Tons of fonts were downloaded for the signs (even Chinese!). Some playing around with the wet asphalt eventually got the desired effect.

Lastly, was working on Splitwire. This Hot Wheel was more modern so the styling was based on more recent vehicles. Combining a BMW, a Hyundai, and two Ferraris seemed to look good. Also to give it a custom vibe, fender flares were added. To make the car more amazing I decided to try my hand at a raising spoiler which after some figuring out didn't come out too bad. And I wanted the car to be electric (EV).

Once the cars were finally imported into the scene, I needed to do multiple tests to see what was the best lighting in which the cars would be seen clearly but wouldn't look too unnatural. Then after an hour of waiting, I edited the render by not only enhancing it but also making the left side warmer and the right side cooler to go with the light scheme. Now I had a finished product.

I really enjoyed participating in this competition! It definitely gave me a lot of obstacles to overcome (including time) and pushed me to try things I likely would've gotten to much later or not at all. I wish everyone else the best of luck!