dc chavez – the BLOG

As you may notice by the content of my blog, I do a lot of work with Hyundai and Rhys Millen Racing. There is always something fun and exciting to produce from the ground up. Combine that with my affinity for cars and racing, and every job is better than the last. Its also fun to know that I have been involved from day one, producing the original proposal on the program, designing the renderings of the car, shooting the teaser video and soon, heading up to PIkes Peak to watch this new car in action.

The car I speak of is the RMR Hyundai PM580. This vehicle is a purpose-built racecar designed to head up Pikes Peak Mountain faster than anyone has ever done before. Here is a video I shot of Rhys and his father Rod talking about the family history at Pikes Peak:

As you can see, the family has a history with the mountain- which hopefully the PM580 will add to, breaking the elusive 10 minute barrier.

I have done some renderings in the past for Rhys, building on top of existing images to propose a new design, a new racecar livery etc. This vehicle was a chance for me to start from literally the ground up and bring to life the design that Rhys had in his head. Here is the final product- days of work, 247 layers in a photoshop document and lots of coffee went into producing this monster.

RMR Hyundai Genesis PM580

Click here to read the rest!!!

So a couple of months ago my good friend Rhys Millen asked me to do a rendering of the new car that he was building for the 2009 SEMA Show. This car was going to be a mid-engine Genesis Coupe powered by the 4.6L Tau V8.  Rhys and Hyundai needed a rendering to service to the media to get the buzz going for the SEMA Show.  I have done a lot of work in the past for Hyundai Motor America and RMR, so they called me up to create an image that would do the car justice.

The main feature Rhys wanted to show was the new front bumper design.  It  was my task to take a cell phone image of the bumper he sent over and try and make it look like it was on the car.  Here is what I was sent:

New RMR Bumper

Next, I used a Genesis Press photo from photographer Morgan Segal and built upon that to create the rendering. Here was the original image:

© HMA / Morgan Segal

So from here, I had to clean up the lower valance so that I could recreate the entire front end of the car.  Here are the rest of the items I had to accomplish in the rendering:

• Lower the vehicle
• New HRE wheels/tires
• Create carbon fiber intake ducts behind the B-Pillar
• Add carbon a winglet
• Add carbon lip spoiler
• Fill in front radiator opening and smooth out
• Make paint look like new BASF 5 layer candy RMR custom color.

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me on this project.  :)

The first step was to clone out the entire front bumper so that I had a  clean slate to work with:

Rendering Process 1

From there I tinted the windows, designed the carbon inlet scoop and started painting in the inlet ducts on the front:

Rendering Process 2

From here I focused on the shading of the inlets as it would react to the lighting in the original photo- direct sun from the rear 3/4, casting a shadow to the front  left of the image. I started by creating a carbon winglet followed by putting the new HRE wheels on and then via a group of 24 layers, painted in shadows and highlights to make the front end look realistic.

Rendering Process 3

From there it was time to work on the carbon lip spoiler and fill in the area that was beneath the Hyundai Logo.  Lastly, I wanted to give the image a bit of a post-processing to add to the feel of the car.  Keep in mind, I skipped MANY MANY steps, but here is how it came out:

Rendering Process FINAL

Overall, the rendering was received very well and the car has been a success.  It was unveiled at the 2009 SEMA Show and was listed as “Must See Debut” by SEMA.

Here are some of the first photos off the show floor from Autoguide.com

Another fun project that turned out to be a success.    I love my job…