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MARUTI SUZUKI LAUNCHED REFRESHED 2012 A- STAR

Maruti Suzuki 's small car offering, the A-Star gets a refresh for the New Year. The company now offers the A-Star with new alloy wheels and an integrated rear spoiler.
On the interiors front, the 2012 A-Star gets dual tone beige and black upholstery. Maruti has also put in 50:50 split rear seats and more cubby holes in the cabin.

Airbags and ABS are now optional on the A-Star with two new colour options, Glistening Grey and Pearl Caffeine Brown.

Maruti Suzuki hasn't tinkered with the engine and the new A-Star retains the 998cc K10B petrol engine with 67PS of power and 90NM of torque, mated to a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission.

The new A-star is available in five variants - LXI, VXI, VXI AT, ZXI and ZXI (with ABS and airbags). Prices start from Rs 3.66 – Rs 4.40 lakh , ex-showroom Delhi.

Toyota Kirloskar India launched a cheaper version of Corolla Altis Automatic called the 1.8 G-HV variant

Toyota India has introduced new petrol variants of its D-segment sedan Corolla Altis. The new petrol variant called G(HV) comes with a same 1.8-litre petrol engine and the seven-speed CVT automatic transmission, also available on the top-end VL variant. Toyota has priced the G(HV) at Rs 13.76 lakhs ( ex-showroom Delhi ) , which is Rs 1.23 lakhs cheaper than the V automatic variant.

Toyota India has introduced this model with limited branding activities, but we can’t help but highlight the fact that this is not the cheapest automatic in the D-segment. Since the engine and transmission are the same from the top-end, the company has compromised on few features to reduce the cost.

Besides lower maintenance costs, compared to other vehicles in the segment , the new Corolla vehicle is looked upon as a secure and safe vehicle due to safety features like being bomb proof. Corolla Altis G-HV has a touchscreen DVD console with Bluetooth connectivity. Obviously a host of other luxury features will have to be done away with so as to compensate the lower price tag.

The features that have been deleted include electric seats, leather upholstery replaced by fabric seats, Xenons with headlamp washers replaced by normal headlamps, retractable rear sun shade, start/stop button, keyless entry retained without smart entry,full leather wrapped steering retained without wood wrap.

THE NEW VERSION HYUNDAI FACELIFTED i20 DETAILS

The facelifted Hyundai i20 have been released onto the web ahead of the car's official unveiling at next week's 82nd Geneva International Auto Salon.

The styling tweaks to the three-year old i20 were more or less to be expected, as the focus was to refresh the supermini and bring it more in line with the latest Hyundai models on the Europe market such as the i30 hatch and i40 sedan/estate.

Most of the changes take place up front with the 2012 i20 gaining slimmer headlamps, the company’s signature hexagonal grille, a redesigned front bumper with new vents and fog lamp housings, as well as a different hood that 'hugs' the front fenders.

The styling revisions continue at the back with new headlamps and a reprofiled bumper, while Hyundai also added new alloy wheel designs.

Project Review: 21: Blue-Ray and DVD Menus-3D Animation + Illustrations

A frame from the final HD Animation I did for the Blue-Ray DVD menus for Art Director Hesham Morsy at The Cimarron Group back in 08'

Here is a 'Hero' shot of the Virtual Blackjack table I built for the project

A Player POV[ Point of View] shot for a menu. I was ready to animate cards etc.

The overhead move down to the table felt is seen here in the opening frame of a proposed Style Frame.

A Dealer POV shot for the Blackjack game done for the presentation for, 21 the film back in 2008.

Here is a shot if the blackjack table built fast and dirty with only the padded rail done in quads.

Project Review

Blue-Ray DVD Menus

Client: via The Cimarron Group.
Art Director: Hesham Morsy.
Project Date: April 2008.

Back in the fall of 2008, I was still in-house at The Cimarron group, and got to work with Hesham Morsy, on the Blue-Ray DVD menus with him as I did on, "So I Married an Axe Murderer" the prior year. I have worked on a a couple dozen projects with the AE[ After Effects] team on Home Entertainment over the years, always a pleasure.

For this project, I provided two parts; First a 3D animation sequence in HD of flying poker chips, cards, and Playing Card Icons of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, and Spades, and Second a Blackjack table interface for the menu itself.

I built out a fast and quick model of the Blackjack table game, as the budget was smaller, as they had been each year so 3D got squeezed out of production over time, but it was sure FUN while it lasted. I reused some stools from the Felini's Model I built for the owner of Cimarron, and the chip was a reuse as well, but the piece was scrapped, though the 3D animation transition I did, was rendered and put in the final.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Virtual Magic Kingdom PART VI-Curvilinear Perspective Wraps

Here is the full 360 wrap for the Adventureland hub, near the Jungle Cruise for the Video Game we were developing back in the 90's at Disney Interactive.

I printed this out on the color xerox and made a cylinder that you could stand-up and view to get the feel for the space in 3D[ it worked great!], a 2D version of Quicktime VR from the era in sketch format! Here is a 3D Mock-Up to Illustrate this technique

A close up on the RIGHT side of the wrap with the Pavilion in center.

A close Up of the LEFT side of the wrap with the Queue for the Jungle Cruise.

Disney Interactive: VMK
Virtual Magic Kingdom DVD Game
Curvilinear Perspective Wraps
Part VI

Client: Disney Interactive
Art Director: Myself
Project Date: Summer 1996

This is my sixth post in my series on the Virtual Magic Kingdom [ VMK] project I did for Disney Interactive back in 1996, and with this post, I cover a second perspective wrap that I did for a full 360 view from one of the game "Nodes".

They wanted a single sketch that would help them visualize the view from a specific point in the hub at the Virtual Disneyland Park we were making for the Virtual Magic Kingdom game so I did a sketch for each land.

You will notice that the artwork uses the fish-eye perspective grids I based on M.C. Eschers study of this drawing method, so I developed it to the project. I even taught the team curvilinear perspective to follow the theme we had for this game. A very fun time I had there with a great team, and now that I am back doing work for WDI, I pass by the old building on a regular basis.

You may review my earlier VMK posts in these link-a-dinks:

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: NEXT (2007): 3D Motion Graphics Design PART I

Frame One of the final Finished Title treatment for the film NEXT from back in 2007.

The final animation I provided to Tom Kositchotitana in Motion Graphics had 3D motion blur used on the 3K frames.

An animated Gimbal move with the type letters rotating into the final position.

Almost seated and final in about 1 second total for the move.

The last frame with all seated and a slight flare near the 'X', in Next.

Here we see a simple 3D heavy beveled type object in a mesh-view, but look closely, as I convert these simple items to an editable polygon , and then put a little bevel on all edges to catch mini highlights on a small face edge as a third read. This adds a lot to a simple object like this, as the lights will naturally animate on these little slivers well.

Project Review

NEXT (2007)

3D Motion Graphics Design PART I

Client: Revolution Studios via The Cimarron Group.
Art Direction: Geoff Calnan, Tom Kositchotitana, and myself
Project Date: January 2007

Today I have posted up my first in a series on the 3D Animation Motion Graphics work I did for this film[ among others]. I primarily do print work, with well over 1000 3D logos done this last decade for Theatrical clients, but I have also finished to film nearly 85 final Motion Graphics pieces, like what is seen above and is in the final trailers as well.

I always work with an After Effects artist on Motion Graphics work, as I am a 3D Animator/3D Designer to them, and I provide the raw frames for their composite.

I have worked with Tom K. for almost every Motion Graphics piece I have done[ 95%], and we always get this type of work finished on time and under budget whenever we have done the 'T-N-T**' production.[**Tom and Thom]

For today, this first part in this new series, we see a simple metal 3D logo with a heavy extrusion gimbaling into frame for a Title seat. I added the double edges on all sharp outer parts to get that little highlight running around the edges as well, something I often do to simple stuff like this.

It is FUN to create and deliver this stuff!

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: The Phantom 2040-PART 95: LXXXXV- Small Stuff Props

A Coffee Pot I designed for The Phantom 2040, used in the Dorms and also re-used with the Maid B.I.O.T. here.

A small compass, not sure who used this one it was unmarked, but it was a Phantom prop for sure.

The Phantom used this cable rider for a few episodes, and it was a pick-up prop requested by the animators in Canada for the project I did this on-site while I was there visiting the vendor in 1991.

Here is a small old styled pocket watch used by Graft when it was the flashback sequence.

Phantom 2040-PART LXXXXV[95th]

Small Stuff Prop Design Drawings

Client: Hearst Animation Productions.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date Spring 1993.

This is my 95th post for The Phantom 2040 from in the early ninety's, and today I have posted a few small props that I did for the show as a quick post.

When you do a futuristic setting everything see needs to be addressed in design. Characters and the overall world come first, but this world then needs to be filled in.

I had to design anything seen, or especially touched, used or referenced by and character in the story, but I also needed to fill up areas so I designed literally hundreds of these little bad boys to fill the world of METROPIA!

Are you a FAN of The Phantom 2040, and on FACEBOOK, there is a group here.

There is a TAG on the list to the RIGHT for other Phantom 2o4o entry's, but you can click this as well.

Cheers, THOM