Changes a-foot for 2018

Hi everyone,

It is with an optimistic heart that I announce that for 2018, the stylepixelstudios brand will be no longer.

While I will still be very much continuing my design adventures into the new year, I decided that the stylepixelstudios brand was not really reflective of my work, or the way I went about work. I am a one man band and to brand myself as a ‘studio’ probably seemed a bit off putting. Further, the matching of style and pixel with studios seemed a bit weird, given my work generally encompassed work in the motorsport area (primarily Formula 1).

For 2018, I will carry with me a new identity and new push to provide awesome designs and pieces of work, not necessarily in the motorsport field (although this will always inspire me). I am still working out the kinks in the name, but it will most likely follow the ‘Adam Falconer Design’ template. While this may be a bit boring, my main aim to to ensure that designs are all linked back consistently to myself, especially on social media. Having stylepixelstudios , Adam, Adam Falconer and other social media names made sources of designs quite confusing.

The stylepixelstudios brand will be no longer for 2018.

The new logo design will come in early 2018. With this, I hope to provide a renewed push to provide awesome designs. I will also renew my push to publish a website, and may be a store come Christmas 2018.

In any case, whatever 2017 has brought you, and for whatever 2018 has in store, I wish you all the best for the year ahead!

 

Ferraris and Race Reviews

HI everyone,

So, unsurprisingly for me, but perhaps surprisingly for others, I haven’t updated this blog in just over 6 months. Whoah nelly! I can assure you all that I have actually been doing stuff in that time, believe me!

Anywaym, here’s all the stuff I’ve been doing:

Race review

So I embarked on a revision of my large Race Review project.

For those who don’t know what this is (which is most likely a lot of you), my idea was to have a printed book with a review of every Formula 1 race during the season. This idea has come up every year, but I have mainly developed the idea and developed the background work to make it easier for me to update a race review for all 20 races.

The most complete version I had looked a bit like this for last year’s Australian Grand Prix:

Neat huh!

But I wasn’t satisfied with the info page. For one, I was using my pixel art side view cars which didn’t translate very well on to higher resolutions. I was also a bit sceptical about the qualifying percentage gap graphic at the top right, and I felt it was a bit cluttered and confusing. I decided to redesign the layout a bit an ended up with the following:

So a couple of points on the redesign:

1. I am still not decided on what I want to do for the front cover. In this version I attempted a collection of cars and drivers based on the fact that it was the first race of the season, and I wanted to feature more than 1 driver on the cover as there was a lot of things going on in the race – Ricciardo’s home race being so lacklustre, the late call up for Giovinazzi, Vettel’s win, Bottas’ performance, etc. I think for the final I’ll leave it to 1 or two drivers as 5 is a lot of work!
2. I have gotten rid of thew world map and circuit location on the first page.
3. I have added tyre selections for all sessions!
4. I have replaced the top right qualifying performance with an overview of fastest laps throughout the weekend.
5. I have used placeholder car images, and am hopign to replace them with actual images of the 2017 cars.
6. Not sure what t do with that open area to the right of the race results.

I’ll probably continue work on these and may have an updated one for a Grand Prix down the track!

Ferrari SF70H Side View

In my work on the above Race Review, I wanted to develop some really schmick side views of the cars for use in the practice/quali/race/podium sections. I also had idea of having a section in the book with all the teams and their cars and some words about each. Together with my earlier work on trying tomap and understand the 2017 Bodywork regulations, I set about developing a side view drawing of the Ferrari SF70H:

And some close up shots here:

The exact specification of this SF70H is more in line with the laucnh spec of the car. I am hoping that I will be able to update the car with updates based on each race, pending updates at all.

I am also hoping to do every other car across the field, yes, hoping!

That’s it from me really for this update. Not much has actually been finsihed but a couple of cool things have been done. I am planning on continueing work on the above, but also maybe doing some cool Disneyland stuff too. Who knows! Hopefully it won’t take me so long to update the blog next time!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stylepixelstudios/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stylepixelstudios/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stylepixstudios

Email: adam@stylepixelstudios.com.au

 

Happy 2017! F1 Pixels are done, and other stuff!

Hi all, happy 2017!

I know I am a bit late on the 2017 front, it now being the 20th day already. Just over 5% of the year is already gone, so I best be too it and let you know what I have been doing since my last blog update that was way back in October 2016.

Truth is, I have been a bit slack! Oops.

Formula 1 2016 Pixels – Force India VJM09

The Force India VJM09 pixels have been completed!

The VJM09 was a very good car to come out of the Force India stable, with the performance of the car given the team size and budget really outdoing itself. The car steadily got better throughout the 2016 season, battling and beating the rival Williams team on many occasians, and even snagging a couple of podiums in the hands of Sergio Perez.

The car featured a novel nosecone design that utilised slots in the nose to allow air to travel through the nose and to the underside of the car. Many teams have reverted to the short stub nose designs, making Force India standing out of the crowd.

Realistic version – Force India VJM09

Black Outline version – Force India VJM09

Detailed shots of the Force India VJM09

Formula 1 2016 Pixels – Williams FW38

The Williams FW38 pixels have been completed!

 

In some ways, the Williams FW38 was a bit of a disappointment. After the team were fighting for podiums and at times wins in 2014, other more well budgeted teams got better, leaving Willims at times best of the rest. Even then, they were often challenged by the likes of Force India and Scuderia Toro Rosso. Citing that upgrades were not working as well as they had planned, the performance of the car dwindled slightly over the season as attention started to move to 2017.

The livery, however, was better then ever!

Realistic version – Williams FW38

Black Outline version – Williams FW38

Detailed shots of the Williams FW38

Formula 1 2016 Pixels – Sauber C35

The Sauber C35 pixels have been completed!

The C35 was largely a slight continuation from the 2015 C34 car. The car did not set the field on fire with its performance, generally being regarded as one of the slowest of the field. The Saubers were often faster than the Manors, but at times were beaten. During the year, the Sauber team were helped out with the arrival of an investor that helped to prop the budget of the team leading in to 2017.

The team was saved from last place in the standings thanks a decent drive from Felipe Nasr in a much rain effected Brazilian GP, with the 9th place putting them above Manor in the standings.

Realistic version – Sauber C35

Black Outline version – Sauber C35

Detailed shots of the Sauber C35

So that’s it! The 2016 line of formula 1 cars have all been pixellated! New for 2016 as well was the introduction of the Black Outline versions, which I think look pretty ace!

Ashamedly it took me 10 month to finish these off in and around other work!

For 2017, I am not sure if I will do pixel version of the cars, or revert to a cleaner version that I can use for Race Reviews, which is also still a bit up in the air!

Gig it Forward logo design

I was contacted mid-late last year to develop a logo design for a start up musical charity organisation called Gig it Forward. Gig it Forward allow less well known (perhaps read hobbyists) musicians and entertainers perform shows at various venues, and half of he pay goes to charity!

The logo was developed closely with the client after a number of concepts were provided for review after an initial brief and research.

The logo is supposed to feel fresh and alive, and portray the kind of energy musical and entertainment shows can provide. It is also supposed to convey a sense of good feelings and warmth, given the charity aspect of the organisation.

The logo shows a microphone, and the microphone lead makes up the wording. The heart reinforces the idea of the charity aspect of the organisation.

These guys are currently operating out of Adelaide, South Australia, but they have a Facebook page! Go check it out!!

Disneyland map (for my wife!)

My wife and I love Disneyland. I have been 5 times and my wife possibly 9 – not bad for folk from Australia! This is actually the reason this blog post is so late, as we were there only a week ago!

For Christmas this year I developed a map of Disneyland to hang up on the wall.It is a top down look with consistent colours showing the various rides, attractions and buildings of the area.

Here it is hanging on our wall, all printed (excuse the mess!)

The print measures to about 850mm x 600mm (about 35″ x 23″). It’s really great to see this everyday!

Future

This year there are a number of things I want to do. Without going into any real specifics, here is a list dump of things I want to have a look at this year:

• Competing the Sunbury International Circuit revisions
• More map work (perhaps disneyland related)
• Improve sketching skills
• Improve rendering skills
• Formula 1 race reviews
• Get into some animation work
• Create awesome artworks
• Create an online store (yes, that’s right!)

If you want to catch me anywhere, feel free to get to me on one of the below! Happy to receive anything!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stylepixelstudios/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stylepixelstudios/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stylepixstudios

Email: adam@stylepixelstudios.com.au

‘Til next time!

Pixels and posters

Greetings friends!

It has been almost 2 months since my previous blog post, so apologies for that. I published my 2017 Formula 1 renderings on my Behance profiles, and subsequently posted it to Reddit, where it got some decent feedback and good attention (but not a lot of upvotes! oh well!). Since then I have been experimenting with a couple of things, but overall (let’s be honest) I’ve basically been throwing my time away, up until a couple of weeks back!

Formula 1 Team Posters

Ever since I developed the most recent version of the Race Review posters (see below):

I have had a real hankering to develop some race specific posters (kind of like promotional posters for each of the races, but have not been satisfied with the end result. I toyed with the idea of doing some simple minimal-esque designs using my Race Review work for Australia and Spain:

 

Now, I really liked these, but they were missing something. I tried to play aroud with things and nothing was really working for the effort that I could put in, so I dropped that idea for the time being.

With my 2017 formula 1 renderings, I chanced on another idea, and developed posters for the teams themselves!

The posters are fairly simple in nature, showing the 2017 rendering for each car with a nice blakc border. For some reason I really like the black outline, it makes the car stand out more and gives it a bit more prominence on the poster. In each team poster I tried to utilise a but of each team’s livery for the background. I have also included driver info as well. The plan would be to redo each driver helmet as well (like in the Williams poster) but I felt at this stage it would be just as easier to represent the helmets with images rather than completely redo at this stage.

McLaren MP4-31 Pixels AND Scuderia Toro Rosso STR11 Pixels!

One of the outstanding projects of mine for this year is the 2016 Formula 1 grid pixels. I have made it my goal to finish up the 2016 grid, having completed 6 cars up to this point, so only 5 more to go!

Now, make that 3, with the Mclaren MP4-31 and Scuderia Toro Rosso STR11 complete!

Realistic version – McLaren MP4-31

Black Outline version – McLaren MP4-31

McLaren MP4-31 Close Ups    

The Mclaren team has had a much more successful 2016 season, with the Honda engine imprving in both power and reliability. The car, in the hands of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, have been more regular in scoring points this season, and have made the final Q3 Qualifying ession a number of times. This is in stark contrst to their 2015 season, where the engine was both underpowered and unreliable, causing the car to have so little pace and performance that getting out of Q1 was usually the target.

Realistic version – STR STR11

Black Outline version – STR STR11

STR STR11 Close Ups

Scuderia Toro Rosso has always had a strong car aerdynamically, but have recently been hampered by engine performancedue to the Renault engine they ran in 2015. In 2016, due to the issues the Red Bull company had with Renault’s performance, the team elected to run with 2015 spec Ferrari engines. While the car itself has been praised for its design, many believe the engine has fallen back from the main 2016 engines a they have received upgrades.

Here is the Mclaren and STR cars with the rest of the grid so far:

Future plans!

I have a couple of ideas for the immediate future, but the most important is a commission I recieved for a charity log which I am excited to get into. Further to that I will finish the 2016 Formula 1 pixel grid before year is out.

I have ideas for non racing related projects, including some map work. I have also discovered a FIA backed method for calculating run off areas better, so I may do an update to the Sunbury International Circuit! Stay tuned!

Wings, Cars and Elevation!

Formula 1 Ferrari Front Wings

A little over 8 friggin’ years ago, I developed the below piece of work showing variations to the design of a Formula 1 front wing. The idea was to take an example wing, vary the design a number of times to demonstrate the variation in design of Formula 1 front wings at the time. This has been taken from my old DeviantArt account (http://stylepixelstudios.deviantart.com/)

I quote liked this excercise, but with the sheer complexity of the front wings employed in modern times, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to replicate the same feat. I therefore decided to try and replicate historical front wings as a matter of comparison between the years. I would try and create a graphic of each front wing used each year, from the same perspective, in order for each wing to be comparable instantly.

I took the 2016 wing as the baseline, and have purposely not included any sponsor or brand markings as I wanted the form of the wing to stand out.

Formula 1 front wing – Ferrari SF16-H

I then set out to do my next wing – this time from the 2013 car, the F138. The 2013 F138 front wing was the most complex wing of the 1800mm wide era of front wings (from 2009 – 2013), with 5 years of development under the belts of the Ferrari aerodynamic team.

The issue I had now with this wing was that I had to fit the perspective in with what was established in the 2016 front wing. The result is below:

Formula 1 front wing – Ferrari F138

Further to this, I developed the very first Ferrari front wing from 2009 from the Ferrari F60. This was the first front wing from the new 1800mm width era with the neutral middle section. Comparing with the above, it’s quite a change!

Formula 1 front wing – Ferrari F60

I am hoping eventually to complete the set of front wings from the same angle to demonstrate the evolution of the Formula 1 front wing, whether it be from evolutionary change, or from a regulations refresh. The plan would be to show a 15 year history, starting in 2002, and producing a wing for every year up to 2016. This is what the matrix looks like now:

 

Formula 1 2017 Renderings with 2016 liveries

One of the projects that has been sitting on the sidelines for a bit is the design of an identity for a Formula 1 racing team, provisionally called Falcon or Falconer Racing Team. As part of this, I wanted to develop a really nice side view rendering for the 2017 Formula 1 aerodynamic regulations coming in, so I could develop some mock up liveries for the new (fictional) team.

After starting way back in May this year, I finally got my butt into gear and finished it up!

The car has designed with the expected 2017 Formula 1 aerodynamic regulations in mind, and features many of the changes that are known at the time. Included are the ‘chevron’ front wing, larger bargeboards, angled sidepod flow conditioners (which I have seen both included and not included in speculative renderings from others), and the angled rear wing.

In reality, this wasn’t an engineering study, so I have taken design traits from a number of existing cars

2017 Formula 1 Car – Front Detail

The front end of the car utilities a fairly uninspired nose cone,  but employs a front wing endplate that has featured on the Mercedes W07. The front wheel is taken largely off the Red Bull RB12.

2017 Formula 1 Car – Rear Detail

The rear of the car utilises a Mercedes W07 style rear wheel, with a variation of the interesting rear wing endplate that McLaren brought with them to the mid season Austria test

2017 Formula 1 Car – Mid Detail

The middle of the car utilises a Mercedes W07 style airbox (angled forward and quite large!) with fairly normal parts otherwise – the angled sidepod flow conditioner notwithstanding.

With this template, I can generate good looking liveries for the Falcon/Falconer Racing Team on a realistic rendering!

To demonstrate the ability of the template, I went and developed all 11 2016 Formula 1 team liveries on the 2017 car template:

Ferrari

Red Bull Racing

Renault

Mercedes

 

Sauber

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Williams

Haas

Manor

McLaren

With the template as well, I can generate fantasy liveries, which I may do in the future!

Sunbury International Circuit Elevation

Work continues, albiet slowly, on the Sunbury International Circuit. This time I have developed a 3D rendering of the elevation profile of the circuit:

This was developed after I came upon some very accurate elevation data for the area. This new data required me to review the exisiting elevation data for the circuit and make revisions based on what I found. Further to that, I always wanted to develop something like the above for the circuit, and finally had the chance with the accurate elevation data. The elevation above is magnified by 8x, so don’t get any ideas of really awesome elevation changes!

Work on the layout of the entire property, including exit/entry, parking, etc. continues!

Future Work

There is plenty happening, including Falcon/Falconer Racing Team Formula 1 identity design, and Australiair airline identity design. With the latter, I am still trying to piece together what type of airline I want it to be (low cost, middle ground, higher up). I am also always wanting to go back and do a pixel scene as well. Stay tuned!

If you want to catch me anywhere, feel free to get to me on one of the below! Happy to receive anything!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stylepixelstudios/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stylepixelstudios/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stylepixstudios

Email: adam@stylepixelstudios.com.au

Spanish Grand Prix F1 Weekend Race Review

The Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix has come and gone, and it played out to be one of the best races this year, if not for a number of years!

This was very much helped by the Mercedes drivers taking each other out at the 4th corner, when an overtaking attempt by Lewis Hamilton went astray after Nico Rosberg shut the door, forcing Hamilont on the grass, and lead to Hamilton losing control of his car, travelling into Rosberg and both cars in to the gravel.

This opened the door for a new victor, and we had it in none other than newly promoted-to-Red-Bull-Racing Max Verstappen!

After a couple of weeks of turmoil, intrigue and suspense, Verstappen showed he was in fact really talented and super quick by holding off a persistent Kimi Raikkonen and taking his first Formula 1 victory after only 24 starts. In 2013 (3 years ago) Verstappen was racing karts!

To commemorate the occasion, and to relive a fantastic grand prix, I decided to develop the Race Review for the Spanish GP.

Click for larger!

Like usual, the Race Review contains all the weekends session information (Free Practice 1/2/3, Qualifying, and Race), as well as some neat infographical stuff, including qualifying gaps, race history/review and tyre strategies. The Race Review also includes my awesome pixel F1 cars!

The front image this week shows Max Verstappen as he goes down the final straight to win. Typically I;d like to feature the official/unofficial driver of the day from eahc GP, so long as there isn’t any special event that happens.

I am hoping to do all 21 Formula 1 races (2 of 5 down!) and release hard copies of them as a sort of coffee table book. Each sheet is the size of a landscape A3 sheet of paper, so big but not huge, good to get a lot of nice looking detail.

The only thing I am thinking of tinkering with is the qualifying percentage graphic – I think using the car graphics makes it a bit messy, especially with the bars showing where each car is, so this is something to work on.

Also, and finally, here is the ‘art piece’ for this Race Review:

Mercedes W07 pixels!

So I know in my last post I mentioned that I was going to some stuff away from the Formula 1 thing, and I am pretty sure that I said the same thing in the post before that. Well…I went back into it, but only really to finish up the Mercedes W07!

Realistic Version

Black Outline Version

The Mercedes W07 is the 7th car produced by the Mercedes works team, starting with the W01 in 2010 (which was developed from the Brawn BGP 001). This car is the successor to the very well performing W06, which itself was a successor to the very well performing W05.

The car is Mercedes’ challenger for the 2016 season, and it is proving as much a grid leader as its predecessors. In the hands of Nico Rosberg, the car has won every race so far, and the car has lead almost every single practice and qualifying session this year. Ferrari have come close, and Red Bull are a little but closer as well, however the car seems to be yet again the class leader this year.

The car, remarkably, has developed some very new ideas, including the serrated bargeboard, and the very large engine air intake above the driver’s head, the angle of which is deliberately angled forward. The car also sports some very aggressive sidepod designs at the front (which cannot be seen above), with the side impact structures peeking out of the sidepods.

Close ups of the Mercedes W07. Click to expand.

To ‘pixelise’ this car was one heck of a challenge. Mercedes really like to use airbrush effects on their cars, and the W07 is no exception. They used the effect on the nose cone (where the Petronas teal makes way for the Mercedes silver, with a bit of dark grey thrown in), on the sidepods (with the same Petronas teal and Mercedes silver with dark grey) and on the engine cover (where there is a broad dark grey that fades into the silver surrounding it). Together with the actual shading and highlighting, the car was incredibly hard to get right. All in all though, I think I managed to do a fairly decent job!

Here’s the Mercedes with the rest of the gang:

6 down and 5 to go! With the Mercedes, I think I will maybe do another Race Review and FINALLY spend some time on some other projects (yeah, I said that last time and the time before that!).

Enjoy!

Haas F1 VF-16 Pixels!

For my next trick, I will pull the Haas VF-16 pixel out of my files and place it in this here blog!

Realistic Version

Black Outline Version

The Haas VF-16 is the product from the newest Formula 1 team to enter the sport. The team is headed up by Gene Haas, of Haas Automation fame, a company that designs and develops CNC machines. In order to promote his CNC machines and company, Gene decided to enter into Formula 1 with a new team.

As they are a new team, there is not a lot of history of Haas in Formula 1. Haas’ racing experience comes from his NASCAR experience, where he started Haas CNC Racing in 2002, which eventually became Stewart-Haas Racing.

The car was developed throughout 2015, utilising former Marussia facilities in England as a European base. Haas also has a close collaboration with the Ferrari F1 team, and have utilised a number of Ferrari components that are in line with the allowable parts contained within the technical regulations. The car uses a 2016 Ferrari power plant for 2016, and the car is driven by former Renault and Lotus F1 driver Romain Grosjean, and former Sauber and Ferrari reserve driver Esteban Gutierrez.

The car itself is quite simple in colour and logos; currently only Haas, Richard Mille (watches) and Alpinestar (apparel) appear on the car. Haas has stated that sponsorship is not a problem for the team at the moment, possibly concentrating on establishing the car and team or the future.The colour scheme was tweaked after the early season testing, with the current white (or very light grey) originally being a darker grey.

I quite liked developing this car in pixels given the simplicity and ease of development. I think the car looks great, the livery is a bit understated, and it is always nice to have a bit more brighter grid!

Here is the completed gang so far:

Last time I think I mentioned that I was going to do some other stuff away from the Formula 1 pixels, and I think I might take this time to do that. I have some ideas on some Disneyland related stuff, but I will likely have 10 more ideas between now and next week anyway, so who knows?

Enjoy!

1000 views in a month! Also, a bit of an update.

So the month of April for 2016 has past, and this humble blog has been going on for more than 3 years.

I first registered the blog on the 3rd of March, 2013. In the beginning, I posted a couple of things, including the branding of my own Stylepixelstudios logo, and soon got into my flagship project, the Sunbury International Circuit. However, like many things that start off from scratch, things started off…slowly.

For the entirety of 2013, this blog had a whopping 187 views from 116 visitors. In 2014, that number jumped up to 416 visitors from 252 visitors, so really 2014 wasn’t all that fantastic as well. Better, but still not super duper. In 2015 however, the totals had jumped way up to 3,145 views from 1501 visitors. From 2013 values, views jumped up by 1,600%!

In 2016, this was a trend I had hope would continue. Up until the end of April, I had 2,871 visits from 1,251 visits. However, in the month of April, I had my first month of over 1,000 visits!

The 1,000 visits was helped by a share on twitter at the start of the month, however this is a super achievement for me and am very happy to experience it.

To coincide with this occasion, I have made a bit of a side development on my pixel Formula 1 cars:

Yes, the only real addition is some black outlines and some detail lines for where bodywork can go on and off, but I think that the addition is remakrable. Have a look at the originals below:

The originals sort of have a but of realism, however I thought that perhaps the pixel style didn’t really add to the realism. I am now ad odds as to whether I continue the realism moving forward, or use the black outline for the race review project.

Anyway, here’s to many more 1,000 view months!

Renault RS.16 pixels!

The Renault RS pixels have been completed! Check out the cool matte finish of the very yellow Renault RS below:

The 2016 Renault RS.16

The Renault RS.16 is the first Renault branded Formula 1 car since 2010 (In 2011, Renault sold its remaining 25% stake in the team to Lotus Cars, causing the team to be branded Lotus Renault GP). The team decided very late in 2015 to buy back the Lotus F1 team  (car below) and move forward under the Renault name.

The 2015 Lotus F1 E23

The Renault company reviewed their participation in Formula 1 from mid to late 2015, and reviewed whether to stay in the sport as an power unit supplier, withdraw altogether or make an effort to become a fully fledged team again. Following from the backlash from Red Bull based on the performance of the Renault power unit, Renault decided against withdrawing, instead deciding to buy back the Lotus F1 team (reportedly for £1) and continuing as a car and power unit manufacturer.

Close ups of the Renault RS16. Click to expand.

The car is now powered, unsurprisingly, by a Renault RE16 power unit. Up until late 2015, the car was powered by a Mercedes power unit, and therefore the car has not been fully designed for the Renault power unit. The car is relatively unchanged from the Lotus F1 car, with many similar design features.

Hopefully for Renault the decision to be more involved in Formula 1 is successful or them. I know many people are happy for them to have brought back a bit of colour to the grid, which saw a particular bias towards darker colours in recent years. With the awesome yellow back on the grid, you can’t miss them, and the matte effect really brings something special. Hopefully their performance will catch up to their looks!

So far, I have completed 4/11 cars, and here they all are:

I wonder which I will do next! I am actually probably going to step away from the pixels for just a wee bit and tackle some other exciting stuff. Stay tuned!