1950s isometric cars
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8041
Printed Date: 06 September 2025 at 6:03am
Topic: 1950s isometric cars
Posted By: The Mozack
Subject: 1950s isometric cars
Date Posted: 14 March 2009 at 11:54am
Burned out and needed to do something new to do before I continue. I just came across a rusting version of this car and had to recreate it. Two hours on, and this is what it looks like. Cookies to the first person who figures out what car I'm referring to. |
Replies:
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 14 March 2009 at 10:32pm
 Moved on the back. Might hit a few snags with non-isometric lines. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 15 March 2009 at 12:33am
 The body is nearly done. Will move on to colors, detailing, and other parts. |
Posted By: Keeper-of-Styx
Date Posted: 15 March 2009 at 12:50am
| Looking nice so far. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 15 March 2009 at 3:20am
 Bullocks. The car is not to scale. Just skewed the car -27 degrees for inspection, and found out the profile of the car is too short and chubby. The car will have to be elongated some more. |
Posted By: kostik92
Date Posted: 15 March 2009 at 4:02am
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I like it too... ------------- http://spele.naudina.lv/index.php?ref=kostik92 - http://spele.naudina.lv/index.php?ref=kostik92 |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 15 March 2009 at 8:31am
 Finally. The body should be roughly done. On to the details and colors. |
Posted By: Quake
Date Posted: 15 March 2009 at 8:44am
| You're sure one for perfection :P |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 16 March 2009 at 2:57am
 Final color scheme should be determined now. Next up will be final bits of detailing and adjustments, followed by shading. |
Posted By: Exquisious
Date Posted: 16 March 2009 at 6:53am
| Very nice. Keep it up, I like it. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 16 March 2009 at 11:33am
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I need reflections and shading. Might need help for that. |
Posted By: Exquisious
Date Posted: 16 March 2009 at 11:44am
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I find that usually that is the hardest part of the piece. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 16 March 2009 at 1:10pm
 At this point of time I can assume that the car has a shade of green dark enough to generate some clear reflections, but white and light grey are naturally poor reflective colours, so very little needs to be done for the trim and roof. What I'm concerned though is the possible need to increase the colour count. I'm already using 7 black-to-white shades and just increased the number of green shades used from 4 to 6. I hadn't even started with the interior which already has two shades of red, or proper shading (based on references, relections may be darker on shaded surfaces, requiring another shift of colours in these areas). For a single object like this, having over 16 colours may be a bit excessive. C&C is always welcomed here, FYI. I like some improvements on what I'm doing. |
Posted By: Zaphod
Date Posted: 16 March 2009 at 8:49pm
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Austin A95? it looks like one, but a wee bit more boxy.
looks very good so far, reflections will definately add some life to it though. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 16 March 2009 at 10:55pm
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Nearly there. The A95 and updated A105 are the basis of this car. I have been smoothing out the body though; guess it's not enough. You get a cookie. So, no comments on the reflection? This is the first time I'm placing glossy reflections, and I'll be damned if I didn't screw up somewhere. |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 17 March 2009 at 1:18am
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This is getting quite cool! My suggestions: You can easily get the non perfect lines (on the front part of the car for example) a bit better by aaing using the green colors from the car. The front part looks really awesome, there is an amazing amount of detail in it. In the rest of the car there is not. I am not sure how you could improve it, but maybe you can think of something :) The roof color can be slightly more cream color. Just as in the original. The cars look that nice and polished due to their extreme shinyness. You can only acchieve that look with a lot of contrast, and your car now lacks some for sure in my opinion!  But yes, reflections are hard... :( EDIT: I am not sure if this is very helpful, because it was quite hard to edit your perfect lines a bit loosely and quickly. But I hope you can get some ideas out of this:  It should probably be even more black than thisone. Merge wheel colors with car colors, and maybe start with a not so bright green. Use the referrences :D EDIT2 I just read you do not want to go over 16 colors.. This is very possible for sure! 1 background, 6 green, 1 black, 4 white, 2 interrior, yellow, orange. It is very doable, so go for it! ------------- |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 17 March 2009 at 3:55am
That's what I'm talking about! Kudos points for the massive input. I'll get cracking. At this point, I've already opted for a darker shade of green to allow better contrast of reflections (probably needs to be even darker), but it looks a distance from being the final product, and this is what it looks like before I received your output. Also, I have an idea of using semi-transparent colours for the shadows and the windscreen; figure that should be an afterthought for now. Maybe some seriuz C&C from Pixelation would also be productive. |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 17 March 2009 at 7:12am
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I am the color guy, I had to wait with commenting until you started on colors ;) Also, there is not much to improve on your design ;) EDIT: Your new car was more edit friendly. 15 colors for you.   
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Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 17 March 2009 at 9:45am
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Thanks for the examples on the colours. Certainly a glossy body should improve on the general appearance of the car. Meanwhile, the prospects of adding an aftermarket sunroof modification and boot rack is also under consideration, addressing the sparsity of the car's rear half. This should offer me options on what the final form should look like when I start work on the reflections. I'll also be looking into which lines to adjust for better curvatures.  BTW, I'll be away from working on this car for a day, urgent matter. Will be back after it's completed Thursday. EDIT: It just occurred to me I could use some of my model cars to study reflections on vehicle bodies. Perfect. |
Posted By: Metaru
Date Posted: 18 March 2009 at 1:38am
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imo, don't over do it with adding those accesories.
------------- I ate leel's babies |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 18 March 2009 at 2:27am
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I agree with met, I do not like the newly added stuff :( ------------- |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 18 March 2009 at 7:38am
| Ok, the rack will be left out. That's not a usual item to put on this part of the car anyway (as far as it appears in its native country). The sunroof is perfect though, but if there is still objections, removing it will not be much of a problem compared to the rack. |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 18 March 2009 at 8:57am
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I dislike the sun thing too. A lot.
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Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 18 March 2009 at 10:36am
| I know it's not standard on the stock model, but some C+C on how to improve it is welcomed. It is after all there for a purpose, but it's way too easy to be removed. |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 18 March 2009 at 11:55am
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Here is my CC: Recolor the sun thing with some creamy white, so it is distinguished as roof ;) ------------- |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 19 March 2009 at 2:27am
 Fair enough. Inverted the colours on the sunroof, among others. Brought the saturation of the green down a bit more and widen the contrast between the reflections of the white sky and darker ground. The roof to the back has been cut down for a more curvy profile, and interiors (which reference was hard to come by) and shadows on the underside are currently being dealt with. Might look at the hubcaps later. 17 colours currently. |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 19 March 2009 at 3:18am
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I was joking, meaning that you should make it just as white as the roof so it is completely invisible ;) However, this actually does seem to work :), it is not ruining your piece anymore! Step away from the one px thick lines, and make him shine! (thicker lines) Turn the white into a tad yellow, and blend the wheel ramp with the green ramp so you get to 16 colors. Success! ------------- |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 19 March 2009 at 3:30am
 Actually, I just found a stray green under the front door. Fixed that and the car is within the 16 colour limit now. Btw, by thicker lines, you mean the black outline? |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 19 March 2009 at 7:40am
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You have a point there. It might be a good idea to simply saturate the entire grayscale ramp towards the yellow/orange hue. What I end up is a sepia-like tone, which is more evident when the saturation increases. Decided to play a bit with it by decreasing the saturation as the gray becomes lighter, and moved the ramp towards yellow for the third version. First version (most saturated, yellow-orange hue):  Second version (mildly desaturated, yellow-orange hue):  Third version (desaturated, yellow hue):  |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 19 March 2009 at 10:53am
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Mostly the lines ON the motor cap are the ones I mean :)
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Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 19 March 2009 at 11:22am
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Motor cap? Care to point out its location? lol Personally, shifting the grays helps remove the sterile nature of the colours. Anyway, http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=8193.msg93053#msg93053 - someone from Pixelation finally brought up issue of "staircase" banding in this picture . I'm not exactly sure how to go about it at this point, because I had tried at least to eliminate as much of the rows of "fat pixels" as I could beforehand. Is AA really a surefire way to go about it, or are there better options? |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 21 March 2009 at 12:49am
 This contrast is of particular interest. The hues of the two lightest greens were moved slightly toward blue, and the rest yellow. Looks like it should fit in well with the grey tones. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 26 March 2009 at 10:27am
 Made colour changes and attempted AA on parts where banding is present.  I need pointers on what to do with the area circled in red. It's pretty tough to address this area due to colour constraints. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 01 April 2009 at 2:48am
| No comments? Maybe Pixelation could offer better input. |
Posted By: hsn2555
Date Posted: 01 April 2009 at 3:32am
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you've done a good job, about the circled areas, why don't you add some reflections ? add some sheens, make it shiny xD |
Posted By: vampireslug
Date Posted: 01 April 2009 at 3:38am
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The red circled area looks pretty tight to me but the ziz-zag looking thing in the drivers window, above the seat is distracting, I'm not too sure what it is. Also, and this is a very minor thing, the steering wheel seems to get sort of lost as thin as it is and lacking any highlights.
All in all, an amzing job IMO... I'm American so have never seen one of these but your rendering on it's own is really sweet. ------------- "The Earth starts to rumble, world powers fall. A 'warring for the heavens, a peaceful man stands tall...." - Mustaine. ©1992 Screen Gems/EMI |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 01 April 2009 at 4:21am
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Originally posted by hsn2555 you've done a good job, about the circled areas, why don't you add some reflections ? add some sheens, make it shiny xD The metallic parts use the same colour ramp as the car body colours (roof and trim); I'll risk creating awkward metallic appearances on the latter if I go for a different color ramp, or require more colours to distinguish the metallic parts. For now, I can assume the car is in a white-grey surrounding, explaining why they reflect in grey-white hues (instead of a blue-green if it's in a field with a clear blue sky). Originally posted by vampireslug The red circled area looks pretty tight to me but the ziz-zag looking thing in the drivers window, above the seat is distracting, I'm not too sure what it is. Also, and this is a very minor thing, the steering wheel seems to get sort of lost as thin as it is and lacking any highlights. That's probably the biggest obstacle here. There is very little room for correct this problem, and I'm constraint by the irregular colour differentials that hamper me from doing this with AA properly. If I can't resolve this soon, I'm partially reverting to the pre-debanding version. I need some lessons on AA after that. Thanks for pointing out the steering. Looks like the darkest shade of the reds (as a result of a widen contrast) is conflicting with the black. This can wait for now. I'm now working to redo the front grille and bumper to give it a more prevalent budge up front. This should also help address some of the banding over there. The roof to the back will probably be cut a bit more as well. (Image for reference)  |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 01 April 2009 at 5:44am
Here is the current grille of the car... ...and the newer version.  |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 02 April 2009 at 11:52am
The grille and bumpers are done. Made a few more adjustments and assembled the parts. A bit more work is needed before this is done. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 03 April 2009 at 11:54am
 The car as it currently is. Made modifications on the wheels (redoing the hubcabs and rims), and made outline adjustments. Also, three shades of red had to be added for the reflection of the front windscreen. This means there are now 19 colours counted. Shadows come next. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 04 April 2009 at 6:40am
 Safe to say it's nearly done, barring a few more adjustments and a final inspection. After that, it's on to alphas to produce semi-transparent shades. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 11 April 2009 at 12:20pm
 Looks ready. With three more colours for transparency shades, that brings the final colour count to 22. Took a little bit of time with an overhead view of the rear as well just to be thorough. Done it in a rush, so it's clearly less polished, but I have no intention of working on that further. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 11 April 2009 at 12:41pm
 Made a few more adjustments on colour use and the alpha channel. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 20 December 2009 at 12:32pm
In light of recent events, I've decided to create another European car of a similar era, this time a Swedish model. Because I'm only a few hours in, the car body design is still unfinished. The Westminster is being used as a comparison, although the size of this car can be assumed to be slightly smaller but uses the same tire size.
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Posted By: MyBuzz
Date Posted: 20 December 2009 at 12:59pm
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Mozack, compared to me you are incredibly good, keep up the good work! :)
------------- http://www.my-buzz.com |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 22 December 2009 at 12:14pm
 Finalized body profile. Moved on to shading and body reflection. |
Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 23 December 2009 at 7:34am
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the green car looks really square, when the photos tell me it's really curvy the front of the blue one looks skewed/squished ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 23 December 2009 at 12:39pm
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Originally posted by snader the green car looks really square, when the photos tell me it's really curvy the front of the blue one looks skewed/squished The green one is considered to be long done. But I agree, its blockiness has bugged me for months after completion. But if I want to fix this, major modifications will have to be done, which I find hard to do with time constraint, so the question of whether this one could be corrected is hard to see. What can be done for now, however, is to improve the design of the second one. Care to elaborate on the "skewed/squished" presentation? In the meantime, here's another update. Bumper has been redone, and the width of the wheels is still being hammered out.  |
Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 23 December 2009 at 9:21pm
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quick edit, just the hood. i think you're relying too much on boxes to build the car, and are thereby misjudging the difference in position the curves make. on the blue car, the right top corner is 3 pixels lower then the one in the top left (imagewise) when you draw a line from corner to corner. the rightbottom appears to be 1 too high. i'll make an edit of the blue when i get the time ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 24 December 2009 at 10:30am
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Originally posted by snader
quick edit, just the hood. The curve may need to be more angular. Reference images seem to indicate this part of the car does not possess such a smooth curve.
Originally posted by snader i think you're relying too much on boxes to build the car, and are thereby misjudging the difference in position the curves make. (...) Since you were close to identifying the car, here's a reference image of the second. It's a Saab 93 (early split window model) (not to be confused with the more contemporary 9-3):  There's no denying I constructed the first car out of a rectangular block, but I can assure the second one was not created in the same manner. I can craft cars without the aid of skeletal bases, so I decided to move on to simply creating the body in one go. The problem is that while there are sufficient references, there is still the problem of approximating the appearance of a car in an isometric angle. Perhaps this is why both cars don't look all too right in the eyes of others. Fortunately, for the second car, there is one reference image that is fairly useful:  Originally posted by snader on the blue car, the right top corner is 3 pixels lower then the one in the top left (imagewise) when you draw a line from corner to corner. the rightbottom appears to be 1 too high. the center grille has a lot more room till the edge of the hood on the left (image left) side. The grille has been shifted one pixel to the left, but I have trouble understanding the former two comments. Is this regarding the seemingly inconsistent positions of the front fenders' outlines? |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 26 December 2009 at 1:04pm
 Progress is slow. Done a few corrections and adjustments to slightly improve the curved profile of the car. But I still can't make of snader's comment regarding the "corners" being a few pixels off, being it doesn't specify which part of the car is being referred to. Care to explain in detail? |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 28 December 2009 at 1:09pm
A new wheel is done (after several trial and errors), although I'm still doubtful of the rings that form the rims fitting properly to the tires. Should resume work on them after the front fascia is adjusted.
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Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 29 December 2009 at 12:36pm
 Additional modification as per comment on Pixelation. Also slimmed the front fascia by two pixels (which should enhance the front bumper curve), and increased the length of the car to accommodate adjustments. Hadn't started work on the rear bumper yet. The wheels, of course, are still unfinished. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 23 January 2010 at 12:18pm
 Made further adjustments on headlights (moved back on pixel). Also drafted the interior, based on a very scant number of interior shots from later model 93s. Looks like this will need some recolouring for a better transparency effect. And the rims look flat. Definitely need to adjust that too. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 25 January 2010 at 12:20am
 Minor adjustments to narrow down the front fascia and improve the appearance of the rims and hub caps. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 25 January 2010 at 1:28pm
 Major amendment to narrow width down by 2-3 pixels, which should emphasise the curvatures along of the length of the car better. Hopefully this will be the last major structural modification. Finally moving on to detailing. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 27 January 2010 at 5:34am
 Pretty sure the car looks much better than a month back. It certainly have that curvy appearance, although I still can't help wondering if I missed something. Anyway, the interior has been worked with. Also worked a bit on detailing and reflections, although I might be hitting a snag with colors for interiors against one of three reflected windows. EDIT:  Gave the car a bright red body color. Retained three shades of blue for the license plate and Saab marque over the radiator grille. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 27 January 2010 at 8:56am
 Looks close to completion. Anything else I have to do before I start work on transparency? |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 27 January 2010 at 1:39pm
 Transparency test. |
Posted By: Manupix
Date Posted: 27 January 2010 at 2:28pm
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Radical improves, almost ready to drive! I still see a little squarishness, summed it up here (pointing features in the photo that might be emphasized in the pixel) :  Additionally, the back fender could still be more rounded and/or plunging. Inside might be darker (through the open window at least), and the red seen through glass should be desaturated a good deal. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 28 January 2010 at 12:50pm
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Do keep in mind that IRL photos have perspective, while isometric has none. Curvatures and angle could be exaggerated if the photographer shoots the picture closer to the car. The position of the car in the pixel art is also higher than this photo, which results in the profile of the rear corner being less prevalent than the photo suggests. On the fender: That can be taken into account, although the extent to which the fender is set back in the pixel art may be lesser than what is implied in this photo. On reflections: Note that this photo's light source comes from the upper right corner; the pixel art's light source originates from the upper left corner (against an all-white surrounding). I still having trouble with vehicle reflections, so some assistance on this is appreciated. On rounded features: Justified, although the curves are less prevelant with the absent of perspective. The curve on the hood lid is fine as it is, but the reflect on the side and the lines within the wheelbase have been adjusted slightly to On the angle of the front fascia: This had been address earlier but way of the headlights and airvents below to the lights. The radiator grille is actually flat. On the distance of the corner: Justified, although the problem actually lies on the position of the fender indent, which is higher than usual. On the interior shade: Justified, although only the red shades are to be edited. The seat is actually white and red. I really can make the white part any darker without it looking more like gray. Here's what we end up with:  Take note that the problem with the corner hasn't been fully rectified. And the image prior:  |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 29 January 2010 at 12:26pm
 Figures it's enough with this one. It should be good to go. |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 06 March 2010 at 12:48pm
 As per follow up comments at Pixelation, the car has been refined to address banding issues still prevalent in parts of the car. |
Posted By: Robinhood
Date Posted: 06 March 2010 at 1:12pm
| Needs more shine on the top of the car, but other than that, I think its good to go too :) |
Posted By: The Mozack
Date Posted: 10 March 2010 at 10:43am
| This is a tough one; surely there has to be a proper way to pull this off. The lightest shade of red may be used, but the curvatures of the body may make this chore challenging. |