Moto GP 09/10 - Helmets

Studio:
Monumental Games

Publisher:
Capcom

Platform
Xbox 360, PS3

Role:
Lead Artist (Manchester)

THE RIDERS and teams often don't finalise the helmet designs until the racing season is actually underway. This is a long way into the development cycle and ensuring quality whilst sticking to a tight schedule was seen as a priority.

The reference provided was excellent; Dorner provided full access to the teams and Lead Artist Harvey’s years of experience with MotoGP meant he was on first name terms with a lot of the riders. Previously the artists stitched the photographs together to create a texture, but mapping a more-or-less spherical object from a bunch of stills is no mean task. Especially when despite best efforts the super shiny helmets are full of reflections and highlights.

So the decision was taken to (gulp!) re-draw the whole lot. We adopted a projection mapping technique, which would essentially automate the spherical mapping part of the process, leaving the artists free to concentrate on the art. Superior results were obtained with no schedule implications and minimal stress.

The new technique allowed us to keep the textures in a highly editable state allowing for easy modification. An important issue when dealing with licensed product.

The images here are just for demonstration. I've put the high resolution images generated by the export process and put them on the models used for the projection mapping, the final textures would have been crunched down to 256 * 128 for the game.

The helmet texturing was split across a number of artists; These are the ones which I tackled, mostly for the 125 class riders.

The rider model was built by Lead Character Artist Merlyn Lear. You can check out some of his fantastic work here: MerlynLear.com

Helmet Texture - Scott Redding

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

THIS ONE was a bit of a challenge, as there was no reference photograph for the rear of the helmet. I had to make a big guess about the bulldog logo but it sailed through publisher QA so I must have got it right.

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Helmet Texture - Scott Redding

Helmet Texture - Sergio Gadea

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

A VERY complicated design for Sergio Gadea. It was quite a challenge to get it done on schedule but I think the results more than justify the effort.

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Helmet Texture - Sergio Gadea

Helmet Texture - Dominique Aegerter

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

THIS WAS a really fun texture to work on; the design is so over the top. I was very pleased to capture the cartoon style of the airbrush art.

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Helmet Texture - Dominique Aegerter

Helmet Texture - Luca Vitali

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

THE Y SHAPED device on the back of the helmet crossed though the seam in our unwrap. The addition of a third set of UVs in the projection mapping made it easy.

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Helmet Texture - Luca Vitali

Helmet Texture - Bradley Smith

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

THERE'S A lot of detail in some of the scrollwork patterns but they were quite easy to vectorise and progress was faster than I anticipated.

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Helmet Texture - Bradley Smith

Helmet Texture - Joan Olive

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

MOST components of the helmet textures were drawn as vectors but I thought it best to keep the circular logo on the back as a bitmap.

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Helmet Texture - Joan Olive

Helmet Texture - Julian Simon

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

GETTING the shading on the flag pattern was the challenge for this one.

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Helmet Texture - Julian Simon

Helmet Texture - Pol Espargaro

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

I'VE no idea what the dog in a chef’s hat is about but it cleaned up quite nicely.

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Helmet Texture - Pol Espargaro

Helmet Texture - Sandro Cortese

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

THIS was the first one I tried with the unwrap technique. In retrospect I would have liked to use more vector graphics.

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Helmet Texture - Sandro Cortese

Helmet Texture - Randy Krummenacher

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

THIS Basic Red Bull helmet was a quick and easy one. With a name like Randy Krummenacher he just had to be a racer.

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Helmet Texture - Randy Krummenacher

Helmet Texture - Esteve Rabat

Assignment:
Texturing

Schedule:
2 Days

Data Budget:
256*128 DXT1

NOT as easy as it looks, this one. Getting all the pin striping to line up was quite fiddly.

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Helmet Texture - Esteve Rabat