Headlight Bucket Renders (drftn280zxt envy)

[Gollum]

Ok, not sleeping pays off. It's past 4am and I've finished a rough 3d render of what I'm going for when I eventually get to body work on my car.

 

Here's the origonal bucket, somehow I screwed something up and didn't have a vertex I expected to have on the right edge (the knife edge sharp looking area), so there's some minor inconsistancies like that.

 

wireframe is always nice so you can see what's really going on

 

 

And MY version that I just mocked up in the last 20 minutes. I'm going for the dual circular headlight style like in drftn's scketches, but I'm going for a wider stance for the bucket all together. I haven't drawn up the headlights themselves yet, but all in due time. You'll also notice it's a bit shorter in length than the stock unit. I want to create a clean look once the bumper is removed. I hope to fill in the missing bumper with some FG and then get an air dam I can modify to kinda have a "smoothed mach 1" look. We'll see what I come up with in the coming weeks as I progress through this mess of idea creation.

 

So here's what I got so far.

 

So comments? Opinions? Flames? Bring them all, they're all welcome.

 

And I plan to have the whole car modeled/rendered in about month with stock/mine versions for every part.

[blueovalz]

I think it's neat what can be done in design and the tools available. In regards to the design, what was the motivation of the new design verses the old (originality, blending with custom body and hood, just something different, etc?). The OEM bucket appeared to blend well with the curve in the hood. The new design appears to break away from the OEM curve, and being so, how do you bring th two together (custom hood?). I like the squared off look though. Somehow it needs to integrate into the round light, otherwise I feel the "void" between the squared headlight opening, and the headlight will be too obvious.

[Gollum]

I see what you're saying completelly.

 

Honestly, I'm just trying to fix all my issues with the stock look of the car. I think the stock overhang in front of the wheels makes the front end look longer than it really is. In my mind the car looks very unbalanced. Taking off the bumper the car looks 10x better already, but that's just the first step to me.

 

I would plan on cutting the hood to match, and I'd have to reshape the nose a bit to fit the new line of the bucket for sure. I was also thinking I would design mini buckets for fog lights in the valance. In my mind I see a flush clear cover that's covering round fog lights set 4-6 inches behind the surface of the valance. Personally I think this will help the look I'm going for and still keep some of the OEM ideas, and maybe even accent some of them.

 

Wide body is a must for me, that's all there is to it. But i'm having trouble balancing functionality & looks when it comes to blending into the door.

 

I'm also working on rims, but they suck so far. I just can't get a mental image of what I want. Maybe it'll be easy when I can look at the car as a whole.

 

When I first stared dreaming about redesigning a ZX to be the car I want it to be, I wanted to chop the top, but but i'm really starting to stray from that idea. Beucase to do that (even if I had the skills) I'd have to lower the seat a good 3 inches for helmet clearence (might not be as bad as I think once the t-tops are removed from the design) and sitting that low in that car sucks. You can't see over the hood very well. When I sit in the car I really respect the designer's choices becuase it's the "feel" of the car that made me choose it over the S30 at the time.

 

As for the back, I'll be removing the bumper and making the whole back end more flush. Not 100% positive on what I'll do, but I think roud tail lights (something close to R33 skyline) will be used.

 

Mirrors will be a big issue for me. I want them to have good aerodynamics, but I still want them to have good visibility. The stock one's aren't great and I think I could really improve them.

 

I think that's close to all the basic ideas covered. Motor is still undecided, and the cage extent is also undecided. Origonally I wanted to go crazy insane nascar reinforcement but I've starting leaning more towards a 6 point that's as hidden as I can get it. I think my priorities have changed becuase I don't want this to be a track only car anymore. I want to retain the good nutral nature of the car. So it might end up seeing some track days, but nothing wheel to wheel I think. After all this body work I'll be too scared to ruin it. That's kinda the reason the car's goals have changed (that and I've decided a fully track ready ZX to my liking would weight 3000 pounds easy)

 

 

 

Man, that was a whole lot of typing for how little informaiton I feel I expressed. Thanks for the responce blueoval, It really means alot. I've loved the look of your car from day one here. Not 100% my style, but seriouslly sexy still. To me it looks like it has a bit of a daytona coupe in it, wich is one of the better looking cars of it's era to me.

 

EDIT: I realised that my side shot you couldn't see enough of the front end to get a good mental image of the relation to the stock valance and wheel well. So here's a better picture.

 

[blueovalz]

Here is what I consider the strong points on any Z (or ZX), and you can do what you wish with my thoughts. One point that makes the ZX look as nice as it does is the front end, in that it is not blunt or rounded. I am concerned that if the angles are decreased too rapidly on the front, you'll loose what I consider an important characteristic of these cars. If you want to shorten the overhang, then my suggestion is lower the fender/hood line (bring the wheels up toward the silhouette of the fender) line so that you can then shorten the overhang without the loss of the aggressive angles used on these cars. Or, you might actually move the front wheels forward a bit (like I did to increase caster, but it helped aesthetically as well), or a combination of both. All of this is easier said than done, but it keeps what I consider essential for the ZX look.

[Gollum]

Actually I've been looking at that since last night. I don't paticularly like the stub nose look of some S30s (the g nose comes to mind. I think they look cool for what they are, just not my taste) and that's kinda the look that emits from this first draw up.

 

I'm thinking I want to keep the bucket longer and move it farther back. I'm also toying with the idea of shrinking the height of the outsdie of the hood, to make the fenders look larger and more GT looking. I personally see that in the stock lines with the hood scoop the way it is. As you can see in my signature there's just enough of a height difference so the light shows the line i'm talking about. Accented I think this will work for me. It will allow a stock looking side porfile with an agressive look. My overall design leads toward elegant + exotic. I want this thing to look like a supercar that 'I' designed, not ferrari, nissan, jaguar, ect.

 

But as you can see, I'm still taking alot of the Z influence. But my hope is that ONLY Z guys & very knowledgable car guys will even know what it is. In fact, I'd rather even the casual Z owner not be able to reconise what it is.

 

I just hope I can get some more people posting in this thred I like what you mentioned and I know there are lots of great minds on this board, cause I've done my fair share of keyboard drooling on this site.

[Drftn280zxt]

Envious of my drawings ehh. Well personally I am not feeling your headlight bucket, entirely. I agree with Blueovalz that it does throw off the line and it doesn't really flow smoothly into the fender line. And you intentions are to widen the bucket. This is one thing I am slowly realizing will have to happen in order to both make the staggered lights work without interfering with one another and to compliment the widened fenders. So I like your widening idea but cutting back on the length of the bucket seems kinda taking a step back (to the S30 style bucket IMO).

 

I don't blame you for backing out of the chopping idea. I tried it once on a picture and realized heh! the 280zx does need material removed it needs some added and it needs to sit a lot lower. Hence the creation of sideskirts larger front valance, etc.

 

Yeah I wish I had 3D modeling skills but I unfortuanately don't at least not in the computer

 

Oh and if you want to give the headlight bucket a more aggresive look then I reccomend angling the inside line of the headlight bucket that follows the line on the hood. This adds to "attitude" of the car. Think about it, headlights on a car are its "eyes". Eyes on a person say a lot about them. Same goes for cars. What I am trying to say is, are your headlights conveying the message you want them to? Think it it more like this (the whole eye thing) versus I'll chop the headlight bucket because it looks better (wrong way to think of it IMO) For some reason (no offense guys) but the buckets always looked kinda "sleepy or drowsy" on the 280zx and adding this angle would make them "awake" and "a little angry". Of course this seems fitting for my ideas which are quite aggressive. This idea might not for you gollum, it all depends how aggressive you want to car to look. Mine has to me a menace, hence the aggressive headlights, that is message I want to convey, mean viscious, and more that just good looks, they mean business.

 

Oh by the way S30 guys I should have pics posted tomarrow night of what the S30 could look like like with my now "signature" aerokit, and headlights. and of course the widebody. I think you will like it. I have kept a lot of OE style to it but it looks really mean. I am kind of envious of it. It almost looks better on the S30, damnit, oh well, I guess I just made two sexy car options that are IMO to die for (not literally).

 

Sorry Gollum, couldn't resist. Great 3D modeling work. The side shot you showed, is your bucket on top of a picture, or on top of your progress of the 280zx in the 3D modeling program you're using?

[Gollum]

In order for noobs like me to render something half decent you need a sample picture(s) to work from. Ideal is side, front, back, and top. If they're not centered pictures it throws the whole thing off.

 

I don't have and direct angel shots like that and weather here has sucked latelly. So I used GT4 for my sample pictures

 

Gotta love photo mode.

 

Ok, I've already modded the bucket alot but now i'm working on the fender so I'll wait till i'm done with that to post more pics. I made it a bit longer and moved it farther back so the front clip will be how far I want it from the wheel well. My MAIN issue that lead me to shorten the bucket length is that to get the front look I wanted on the stock front end the lower valance would have to come WAY out (almost parallel to the hood & bucket) and then I don't like the look of the overhang. So I'm still trying to fiddle with it to make it look right. I agree with the initial impression "too round." I'm looking to correct that. I'm also going to make the bucket look a bit more agressive looking, not positive on how. (i've heeded your advice)

 

I'm down for agressive, wich is what i'm going for, just not the exact way you are drftn. I'm going for more of the exoitc superiority "gawdy" look that intimidates, not the "i'm gonna tear your ****n' head off look (that your look says to me, wich is awsome though). I'll still have a rear diffuser (love the look) but it'll be subdued a bit and hopefully blend in with the lines.

 

And honestly, 3D editing is SO easy compared to hand drawing (to me at least). I can' correct my mistakes and keep editing without having to start over.

[Drftn280zxt]

I guess that is something I should pick up on some day. Yeah you got the right message from my headlights, kinda fits with the engine plans and with everything else IMO. GT4 nice, I see you lowered the Z. I did the same thing in GT4. Great idea, my guess it that you took a pic of the TV, right? Can't wait to see the finished 3D model. I think I am going to check into Michaels tomarrow and see if they have a 280zx model car. I to would like to make a 3D model, but I don't know the computer stuff, but I can sculpt by hand so I think modifying a model car couldn't be to bad. You know assemble the body and add a bunch of some kind of material. Should work, I think.

[Gollum]

my guess it that you took a pic of the TV, right?

 

I'm not that motivate, and i'm too much a perfectionist so I'd have to get out a tripod, then warp the image in photoshop to adjust for the curvature of the screen and just work work work work work work. That's not me man.

 

I use GT4's "photo travel." Simply get in the car you want to shoot, then goto photo travel and choose a location. Then simply place the car, move camera, and clic. Review the photo and transfer the file to a USB drive. Easy as pie.

 

I don't know why so many reviews hate the photo mode and see it as pointless. I personlly think it's the games best improvement over GT3. I'm just made I couldn't get the camera 100% ontop of the car to get a top shot, so i've been doing without that dimension.

[260DET]

I like the blunter look, problem is to blend it all in with the existing components. Have a look here to see what I did with mine which are steel, just cut a bit off the front and welded in a new piece. Fibreglass bonnet was shortened to match.

BTW Gollum, that LH pic of your crunched s130 distresses me every time