I began with the idea of merging a P-51 Mustang with a Ford Mustang, somehow, but decided to use the plane fuselage as a body for a hot rod. Unfortunately, a fighter plane is not a good scale for a hot rod, but a Messerschmitt was small enough to cheat the scale in relation to the wheels to make it look realistic. The plane's graphics also were colorful and interesting enough. I sketched many different perspectives and messed around with the proportion of the vehicle. I wanted the car to be coming out of a shop or garage like it was just finished and emerging into the sun.
At this point, I didn't know what media I would use to create the piece, so I decided to take advantage of Alias Autostudio 3-D modelling software to build a rough model to further investigate view angle, and lighting conditions.
In Alias, I test rendered many versions, moving lights and changing intensity and color. I wanted the garage interior to be very cool, so I used blue green lights inside and a warm sun exterior with a yellowish tint for the outside. I used colored ambient lights underneath the car to cast a simulated reflected light off of the driveway.
Detail was added once I was fairly satisfied with the setup. I wanted the entire vehicle to be visible, to I propped up an old white door against the back shelves behind the cockpit so that the outline of the car would read better. The thin diagonal streaks through the image are the edges of planes I created to cast leaflike shadows on the car and driveway.
I ported the rendered image over to Photoshop and began to paint in rest of the details and textures. The area to the right of the garage needed some suggestion of an environment and plant life. The plane had to be aged and the front wheels needed to be connected to the body. Using the rough Photoshop brushes to add texture and eliminate the sterility of the computer image was necessary.
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