THE UNDERCOVER PORSCHE GT2 CAR

I thought it would be nice to show other Speedhunters something unique and exclusive as an added bonus to our Porsche feature month.

As some of you may know, I work on the need for Speed ​​Car team as the main vehicle Concept Artist for our Downtown Vancouver Studio. The majority of my working days is taken to design bodykits and cars for hire and help / direction vinyl. I will explain the process of designing a body kit for a single car key in our game. I think this is the first time we showed off the development process outside of EA Blackbox.
In the production at the beginning of Need for Speed: Undercover, we started looking at the cars of our characters and what might lead car would end up on the cover. It's been a while since Porsche was introduced on a need to cover speed, so we decided to use the iconic Porsche 911 for this game.

This called for a unique body kit for the 997 GT2. The brief was to create an "aggressive, but tasteful" kit. Yes, these are the very words! As an artist concept of primary vehicle, it was my job to make this "brief" in something visual. ...

It was important not to destroy the classic lines of the 911 and it was vital that the kit is fully integrated, as the trend of the real world continues to move away from wild bodykits. Its usually a quick turn around for a day or two to get a design kit, so it was a nice change to have the extra time to explore shapes, which really paid off. I also wanted it to remain credible.

Porsche was also involved at an early stage, so it was time to draw with one of my favorite pieces of technology, my Wacom Cintiq. I love this stuff!
Early drawings show the inquiry into the forms of entry. I had a vision clear enough to the rear and side, but the front needs more exploration. The back was defined by a carbon diffuser and a large wide-mesh grid, which will also house the license plate. I also designed a new rear wing, which is mounted on the trunk GT2 changed. The wing supports have larger air intakes for the engine more extreme.


The Porsche Carrera GT and 959 influenced the side profile. As the brief required a widebody kit, I joined a larger vent in the rear Fender air, similar to the Carrera GT, the mixture of the shoulder of the main body, which often detects light along the door .

The front was more of a challenge. Research has shown that we need a front bumper brand new, rather than a lip kit to give it a new identity. We needed something dramatic that would be unique to our products. As you can see, I focused on the design, to work with the stock radiator and cooling.

In the end I went for a design that was extreme but believable, with cooling radiators, brakes and intercooler splitter and an integrated lower front for aerodynamics. The new bumper extends further forward than the stock to give an aggressive (but tasteful!) Watch. We have also included the second actions GT2/Turbo lights and indicators for realism. The cover is a new design for Undercover, which is exclusive to mid-engined cars in / out, inspired by GT1 and GT2 cars.

Once I had settled on a design, it was out of the Porsche Design Studio for approval. Fortunately, it was approved without change. Whew!

The car was then modeled by one of our car modelers, Angelo Borrillo. Meanwhile, Concept Artist, Mike Hayes, with the help of Carl Jarrett, James Lau and I were watching the livery and paint (I do not use the term, vinyl, this is not really a vinyl!) .


Mike has explored a number of opportunities and we agreed from the outset that the focus would be on different material finishes while Carl concentrated on how it sounds in the game

We noted a growing trend of matte black (sometimes called satin, or "murdered") paint on modern cars, which was inspired by Rat-Rods. There was a slow transition of the finish-roads in rat muscle 60 and now modern cars. I wanted to go further, based on a number of cars we had seen in recent years SEMA, where Flat Black was mixed with glossy finish that is a trend of development.This car needs to stand out, so we investigated how different colors work with the matte black. Ultimately, we went to a deep red, which complements the lines of the car while not being too bright. Gives it a chic look and is suitable to the character that drives the Porsche.

By the time the livery was approved, the model was complete and we could see the end result in the game
So hope this gives you a little background on what I work on when I'm not Speedhunting, and how we designed this kit in particular.