The Community Car Project: an exercise in collaborative car making

[Overdrijf]

Would you like to get into car building, but is the sheer amount of things you'd need to know too big? Would you like to finally finish another build 8 years after your last one? Or are you going so smooth that you'd like to be challenged a bit by other people's ideas? Then this is the project for you. I'm looking for 8 adventurous souls, 7 not counting myself, to build a car together.

How does this work?

I have split the car making process into 8 steps. Each person does one step.

The 8 steps (longer descriptions further down) are:

1 Base shape (car1)
2 Other models/details
3 Paintjobs
4 Base performance
5 Engine and gearbox
6 Base dashboard image
7 Dashboard implementation and details
8 Text, quality control, wiki information, name

As a base rule you can check the work of others, but you cannot change it. If you notice the physical model of this bus is 12 centimeters long you can check with the base performance person whether that was intended, but if it was you can't go "that's stupid, I'm making it 20 meters". Similarly the paintjob person might ask if the model people are willing to change the polygons around to allow for certain paint patterns, but cannot dictate it. See it as an exercise in trust.

Not all steps are equal. Some are more work than others, some give more creative input than others, some require more technical skill than others. I'm hoping that within our community we'll be able to find someone excited about every job.

Because the passage of time is a thing and the car eventually needs to be done each person will in principle have a month to get their step done. Now, sure, you can't plan your summer vacation or your job's crunch time around a Stunts project, but the project is the most fun if everyone gets to see progress. If you don't have time for a big job, please don't sign up for a big job. Speaking of which...

How do I sign up?

You sign up by posting below, saying you'd like to join the project, and giving a top three of the steps you'd like to handle, ordered from first preference to third. (If you've become enthusiastic immediately but would like to do a little bit of thinking or ask for advice before committing to a list of roles that's fine too. As long as I eventually get it.) Then I will try to work out together with you who goes where in the project. If there are too many or too few volunteers I will also try to deal with that like an adult who would like to do cool stuff with you all. As a final thing: don't forget to mention if you'd be up for making this a video (see the last bit of this post).

The steps

1 Base shape (car1)
You have quite possibly the most creative control but also one of the more demanding jobs, you get to make the car's ingame model (car1 in the .3sh file) with Stressed. Let your creativity run rampant, as if you're writing the setup for a joke others will spend half a year telling. No pressure. You either know how to make a good less buggy model or are willing to learn.

2 Other models/details
You port car1 over to car0, where you can add the sort of details that only work in the showroom. You also take care of the car2 model that rolls out of the truck at the start and of the explosion shards. It's a good job if you're looking to get more comfortable with doing graphics work with Stressed and/or Carworks.

3 Paintjobs
Odds are that the model people already sort of made one paintjob, as it's just really useful during model making to see how things are going to look, but they're certainly not the boss of you. You know how some cars just make you want to drive them as you select your color? That's your task. Little technical insight is required, but an artistic look on things like shading is welcomed.

4 Base performance
You set the weight, size, wheel coordinates, air resistance, grip, grip modifiers and anything else you can think of that's not the torque curve or the gears. Actually setting the values is very little work, but it's massively important to the character of the car (among other things your weight value determines the car's powergear category), so we all trust you to think hard about it and to test if you like it.

5 Engine and gearbox
You set the torque curve, the gear ratio's, the maximum and idle rev's and the upshift and downshift points for automatic gears. If this appeals to you you might be a real gearhead. Flat track and real top speed as well as acceleration times all depend upon your work. You test hard to give the user the smoothest experience. The one performance related thing you can't set yet is the gearbox coordinates.

6 Base dashboard image
Remix, pixel art or based on a photo, you deliver a stunning dashboard. Your work is what will be in peoples' field of vision while driving. You create the dash, dast and dasm images for the stda----.vsh file.

7 Dashboard implementation and details
You get to do a little bit of everything. You do the gearbox including coordinates in the res file and you make the roof image (if the vehicle has a roof). You set the color and locations of the steering wheel dot, create the images in which the steering wheel is moved and set the needle positions for the meters in the .res file. I'll be honest, this is the role I'm least sure about because those last two in particular can feel a bit like that step that takes too long but just needs to be done. If you like the idea of most of this job but maybe not all of it you can work with person 6 and others to see how work can be divided better.

8 Text, quality control, wiki information, name
Yes, you read that right. 7 other people worked on it, you get to name it. I'm sure you'll think of something better than "Community Car" You also provide the information for the car select screen and for the wiki, things like top speeds and acceleration times. You perform rigorous final tests and check back with the team if you find anything odd and possibly unintended. If it turns out I forgot steps, you are the person responsible for getting them done.

Video project?

As an extension to building a car I thought it might be cool to have a video about it on our (by that time no longer) new Youtube channel. If everyone joining the project likes this idea I think it might be cool if we have like 2 minutes of footage with text or voiceover for each step. Everything you need to know to build a car is way too much information for one video, which is why we have the wiki and the forum, but a quickstart guide that doubles as a cool community project video could be fun. Maybe for instance you could record two minutes of working with stressed and talk over it about your design goals for this project or your best practices for making 3D models, whatever you like. But consider this an optional extension.

[Overdrijf]

Hi, I'm Overdrijf, and I would like to sign up!

My preferences are:

1: step 3 Paintjobs
2: step 4 Base performance (I keep editing these first two around, unable to decide which one I like more)
3: step 5 Engine and gearbox
4 (bonus): step 8 Text, quality control, wiki information, name

As the organizer I feel like I should not be the one making the basic 3D shape, as I would risk really making this my project with the rest of you just doing my dirty work. I also don't feel like the greatest dashboard artist, and would prefer setting my mark on the outside look or the feel of the car. Also as the organizer I am willing to be a bit flexible and either just test the thing and tell you all what a great job you did or maybe do a job that's left over at the end rather than my own preference.

I would also like to extend the project into making a video.

[Cas]

Hi!  Cas here!

Reading the steps, I realise I'm mostly bad at all points XD  I'm probably going to have problems with any of the tasks and it's not like I have plenty of time, but this is what I feel about each of the potential tasks I could be assigned:

1. I could create a shape. I can't run Stressed right now, but I do have Blender and can export OBJ, which would work. The thing is I have no idea about cars so whatever I make probably won't look like most people would expect. I can try, though. If I fail, I will admit it openly, ha, ha

2. This one sounds very difficult. To edit a pre-existing shape and add or remove detail is something that would be very hard for me to do. I wouldn't know what to add or remove

3. Paintjobs should be easy, but as I said, I can't run Stressed. Actually, I can't compile it for some reason. CarWorks is currently limited about this bit. On the other hand, I could "design" paintjobs without assigning them. I don't know

4. Like before, I could do this, but not being able to run Stress puts a strong limitation. I'm very inexperienced about some details here too

5. In theory, I can do this with CarWorks. Thing is I know nothing about gears and engines. I don't really understand torque very much. It'd be mostly trial an error

6. Will this be a car based on a real one and we'll get a photo?  I figure I could work on a previous photo and try to adapt it. I haven't done it before, but I guess I could do it. I feel a little more confident about the 3D, but maybe after trying, I'd realise it's not like that

7. Sounds hard. I have the tools, but I feel like I can't assure how much time it would take me

8. I feel it'd be can of cheating to do this part about a car I haven't done anything else on, ha, ha. But I can offer my help

The video idea is very good, to see the process. In general, I would like to know if there's a previous idea on what kind of car this will be or if it's still to be discussed. I'm more inclined towards fictional cars. I think we have too many reproductions of real-life cars, but I'm OK with those too. I think I'd be better trying to do either the original 3D or the dashboard and if I fail tremendously, maybe switch. Open to propositions

[Overdrijf]

Hi Cas! Happy to see you're interested.

I would like to know if there's a previous idea on what kind of car this will be or if it's still to be discussed. I'm more inclined towards fictional cars. I think we have too many reproductions of real-life cars, but I'm OK with those too. I think I'd be better trying to do either the original 3D or the dashboard and if I fail tremendously, maybe switch.

I have to be careful to not dictate too much, but my idea was actually to just leave this completely open, and get surprised by each other. Although I am hoping that this will cause a bit of a fantastical design in one way or another. If the first person would say "here, this is a model for a realistic [year] [Brand] [Model]" then the creativity for all the followup steps is kind of reduced. If it looks like something a Martian might drive everyone else can go nuts.

As for what you said about the different steps: I don't feel Stressed is that important for work on the mechanics of the car in step 4 (and 5). You'd only need some sort of access to the model to be inspired by (exported or through screenshots with some wheelbase and length measurements and such), everything else can be done with Carworks and/or Car Blaster, and tested in Stunts. In contrast for step 7 it's reaaally handy to have access to Stressed, I would find it near impossible to set up good dashboard details without it (edit: on second thought, I'm probably underestimating your Carworks again, aren't I?), while step 6 can be pretty easily done without Stressed as long as you understand a few minimum and maximum sizes, it's basically "just" drawing a good looking dashboard image.

[Cas]

Yes, it's more about my skills that I have doubt than about the tools. As I feel it, CarWorks has three parts: 3D, dash and specs. None of those is 100% complete in its capabilities, but 3D is the weak one. With the Dash Manager part, you can do virtually everything, except it doesn't aid you in digital speed-o-meter design. Specs is complete, although some RES stuff are handled in the 3D section and those need work. 3D is very incomplete.

[KyLiE]

I'd like to join the project!  Below are my preferences:

• Text, quality control, Wiki information and name.
• Paint jobs.
• Engine and gearbox.

I'm open to documenting my work in video form.  However, if a voice-over is required, I'd appreciate if someone could recommend a good but simple microphone for this purpose.

[Daniel3D]

I've learnt a lot about the 3D part. I'm quite confident that I can do it with relative ease. But may is my first available timespan I can do it..

Are we making the siluro??

[Overdrijf]

Hi KyLiE (I'll give up on capitalizing your name properly any day now ) and Daniel, nice!

I've learnt a lot about the 3D part. I'm quite confident that I can do it with relative ease. But may is my first available timespan I can do it..

So in about three months, that might still work...

So either job 1 or job 2, basically? If you're looking to do 3D stuff?

Are we making the siluro??

Nope, that's just my own pet project, currently in the works (retroactive spoiler alert).

My idea/concept/setup for this one is more free form, if you all agree with that, see what every person comes up with on their own and if it ends up coming together.

[Daniel3D]

My idea/concept/setup for this one is more free form, if you all agree with that, see what every person comes up with on their own and if it ends up coming together.

So a sibling to the Melange.

A Medley?

[Overdrijf]

So a sibling to the Melange.

A Medley?

A community car project, to be named in step 8.

But sure, as a term describing the style of the project, "medley" works well.

[Overdrijf]

This is a great crew of four I'd happily build a car with any day (well, year, building a car in a day would be kind of a rush job), but we're not in a particularly great hurry, so I think I'll keep this open for a little bit to see if some more people show up. More creative input, more better.

[Overdrijf]

I've got one more person who's potentially interested talking to me over PM, and it's an absolutely legendary car maker, so I'm waiting just a bit longer in the hopes that he replies here.

[KyLiE]

I've got one more person who's potentially interested talking to me over PM, and it's an absolutely legendary car maker

Well, I already joined, so you must be talking to yourself again.

[Daniel3D]

I've got one more person who's potentially interested talking to me over PM, and it's an absolutely legendary car maker

Well, I already joined, so you must be talking to yourself again.

I bet it's zapper,   

[Argammon]

I can join, but I am absolutely hopeless with these technical things. So, you will spend much more time explaining stuff to me than it would take you to just do it yourself, haha. 

I would prefer to work on the 3D model if possible.