Work So Far

The track in now well on its way, our new objective is to have all the modelling done by the end of the christmas break 6 weeks from now. new screens have been put up to show the track as it currently is and we'll hopefully have some new shots showing off the pit complex and starting grid by the end of the week.

Alex

Trip to Donington

We've finally got a date to go up to Donington park for some mandatory field work, hopefully it should give us all the information we need to build the original buildings and get a feel for the lay of the land surrounding the track to try to predict where the new section will run.

I managed to find all of the planning permission forms for phase one of the reconstruction which give us all the details of the new buildings, granstands, track and safety peices.

Hopefully i should have some screenshots of the new track up soon and likewise jon should have some sceenshots of the buildings.

Alex

Some pretty exciting news.....

So I'm doing my compositing work trying to get the electronics network to play fair and just as I'm about to lose my temper my phone rings. It was a representative for Donington, confirming that we are aloud to recreate their track and use it for our project.

Whats more they seem very enthusiastic about lending any help they can and have offered to send us a portfolio of 3d images which they have put together in preparation for the new expansions. "This is great news" I'm thinking "cant wait to tell Alex".

While we were on a good roll I asked if it was ok for us to pay a visit and have a look around the track, another positive result . Then the big news came, the voice on the other end of the phone asked if they could use our images for their website, I said yes. All the details are being emailed to me as I type this.

This new development has given us new life and inspiration for the project and we are both very excited, especially hearing how serious this could be it will hopefully increase the effort and quality put into the project.

woop woop
Jon

Presentation Marks

For our presentation we received a 65% which isn't quite the first (70%) we'd hoped for but its still a good mark and gives us a lot more faith in our ideas and abilities.

Positive Reactions

Yesterday Alex and Myself did our proposal presentation for the project. Not to gloat but it went really well.

Steve Kelly and Gareth Howells were the two lecturers marking us and I feel that they were pleased with the presentation. No doors were left open and all the questions were answered confidently. We kept to the time limit and no details were left out regardless of how surprisingly nervous we were. That's the easy part out the way anyway.

The deadline for the completion of models is creeping up but I don't think there are any risks of us not hitting those deadlines.

Donington have been contacted and we are just waiting for a reply to find out if we are allowed to slap a Donington sticker on the front of our project.


Jon

An Update!

Hello, Okay so we were denied the use of any of the current F1 teams liveries so we have to fall back to our original idea of creating our own design which does limit our projects authenticity but makes everything far more flexible. 

A gallery has been added to the blog via Picasa which is accessible by clicking the slideshow on the right of the blog. This shows the development of the car from its earliest stages back in April to its current state. The modelling for the car is now done and it is fully animatable (spinning wheels, steering wheel and tyre direction changes etc), it also has one or two bits currently in the works such as red hot brake discs, heat ripples in the air from the exhaust and the shaking and rattling of parts of the car at high speeds. Hopefully all of these pieces will be completed in a few weeks time.

We have also drawn up a timescale guide for the project which sees the completion of the track in 9 weeks time along with a fully textured car including its driver so that we can start the animating process before christmas with a small low quality animatic available in the new year. 

We are currently still waiting on a reply from Donington Park and have had to delay the modelling of the track untill we have a definate response, although we are still looking into copyright law to try and find out if we actually need permission to recreate the track, but thats another story. 

Alex

So....

Alex has been working since march modelling his own rendition of a Formula 1 car, and I must say it is impressive. Having things like the brake disks modelled really demonstrates a high level of detail which is worthy of being a final year project. Emails have been sent out to various Formula 1 teams to see if they would allow or in fact like us to include their name in the project. 

Preparation for our power-point presentation to put forward our ideas and what progress we have made thus far. This will also give us a chance to explain the reason for making this video, and expressing the changes that will have to be made to the Donington race track in order to accommodate the high speed of the cars and the increase in spectators.

While browsing the Donington website we found detailed plans for everything including grand stand, the pits and even the toilets, so completing the models of the track will be much easier than previously thought.

Keeping all this in mind we are looking forward to getting stuck into this project and seeing the final product and we hope you are too.

Final Year Project Blog

Welcome to our blog, we shall be keeping this up to date with our progress on this project which is for our final year project at the University of Kent.

The Project.
We aim to produce a 5 to 10 minute animated demonstration of the 2010 F1 British Grand Prix. The video will show the new improvements to the facilities and grandstands as well as the entirely new buildings and extensions of the track due for construction in 2009.

The track will be demonstrated with a flying lap from two formula one cars to show its overtaking spots, flat out areas and tight hairpins.

This project will be made by Alex Dovey and Jonathan Wall

Our deadline for the completed video will be 7th April 2009