'Dad's Old Car' (3D, Proton Saga 1985)

The image that inspired this project - my Dad circa 1990. I was yet to be born, and I am fascinated by this young man who would grow to be my father.

"The newest car I ever owned" - my dad's old Proton Saga. I have very vague old memories of this car. Perhaps not even my own memories, but a memory of it being there, nonetheless. Let's immortalise it.

A stock photo of Druridge Bay, Northumberland, England - a few miles from where I was born. A short drive in the car, somewhere that I still visit regularly.

The first attempts at getting the basic shell right - this was difficult as I didn't have access to exact blueprints, and so had to use reference photos instead.

An early wireframe.

An early clay render of the car, as I began to add detail to the front.

I started testing out the model with different HDRIs as I developed it, partly to get a feel for what angles worked best, and to see what needed to be done in terms of realism/detail. I really thought the dynamic lighting brought out the shape of the car.

Here we can see my early tests at sand particles - I loved the idea of placing my car on the beach.

I realised the mesh was quite messy - I began the painful task of polishing things up a bit.

And here is the result of that polishing!

Before (too wide, messy mesh)

After! (better proportions, clean lines)

Beginning on the interior

The main body of the car uses this rather insane node tree... This covers every scratch and dirt mark on the car (defined by edge/downward facing)

The procedural scratches and dirt really changed everything about the realism of the car.

I couldn't have been happier with how this turned out.

The whole model feels rough and used now.

The boombox was modelled with scratches, decals (handmade in adobe illustrator / photoshop), and appropriate materials.

I quickly modelled an '80s boombox/tape deck, based on the one my Father owned.

Detail time!

Fleshing out the interior...

Looking good!

Placing the car in my final sandy beach scene - Background dunes and grass would be added soon.

One of my favourite images of the car. Almost 100% finished here. Notice the wipers/marks on the windscreen.

Cloth simulations were used for placing the socks + shirt into the scene

Clay Render of the final model.

The final image! I wanted to get a 'retro' look so I added some chromatic aberration and glare in Blender's compositor.