SoVibrant Opinion8: 3D Visualisation

28 November 2013

"The Timeless Racer" by Daniel Simon

Good morning readers,

I would like to share with you an artist that inspired me throughout my time in education and continues to inspire me today. Some of you may not know him by name but there's a strong chance you will have seen his work on the big screen. I am of course referring to German concept designer Daniel Simon.

Daniel Simon and his Bubble ship from Oblivion
Image courtesy of danielsimon.com

Backed with a degree in automotive design from the University of Applied Science in Pforzheim, Simon spent 5 years in Barcelona at Volkswagen's advanced studio where he eventually became the senior designer for Bugatti automotive. Not many people had the chance to work on the legendary and world famous Bugatti Veyron so this must have been a real honour and certainly a lot of fun.

The Bugatti Veyron
Image courtesy of bugatti.com

It was in 2007 when Simon published "Cosmic motors", a book that opened the doors to Hollywood. This book was a collection of sketch work and high end 3D visualisations showcasing a work of cutting edge vehicles from an unknown galaxy. Upon discovering this book was the time I knew I wanted a future in visualisation.

I have followed his career closely, witnessing his vehicle designs in such films as Tron Legacy and Oblivion. It's with vehicles where we are very similar as I have mentioned in my previous blogs that I am a huge petrol head and automotive racing nut. Something that I believe can also be said about Simon. The way he combines his passion for design, 3D modelling and all things automotive is incredible. His technique and style are the things that really set him apart, combining high end 3D models with photography and some compositing resulting in a visual that looks convincingly real.

All three images are courtesy of Cosmic motors and danielsimon.com

So with this I am happy to say that Simon has a new book on the verge of release. "The Timeless Racer" is his second book and is the first in a series depicting a racing world that could have existed between 1916 and 2615. This book, set in the year 2027, is due for release in the next couple of weeks. I have no doubt the visuals will be of an incredible standard, I am just as interested in seeing his sketching and Photoshop rendering, as this really highlights his design process and the origin of his final designs and the subsequent 3D models.

All images courtesy of danielsimon.com "The Timeless Racer" and Design studio press.

It has been 6 years since his last book was released and 10 years since he started his first. It will be interesting and also very exciting to see how his style, techniques and process have changed since cosmic motors. All I can say is that I'm looking forward to being utterly blown away, as I have had it on pre-order for 5 months.

You can find out more info on Daniel Simon and his work at www.danielsimon.com. I will leave you with a selection of some of my favourite pieces of his work.

Happy reading.

All four images courtesy of danielsimon.com and Google images.

14 October 2013

SoVibrant at Yorkshire INSIDER Property Industry Awards

At SoVibrant we don’t often blog about our own projects, awards or whereabouts so to break the current trend in my colleagues blogging, I thought I would share an event myself and Mike attended earlier this month.

Every Year INSIDER hold a Property Industry Awards Ceremony in New Dock Hall, Leeds. This year SoVibrant were a main sponsor of the event and we can safely say the exposure we have had through the event has been very positive.

The night started with a drinks reception, meeting our guests and catching up with others in the industry. This is always a nice start to the evening and even better, a nice wind down to the busy day at SOV HQ. We were greeted to the event by key speakers from INSIDER and also had the fantastic Scottish comedian Fred Macaulay as the comperé. Unfortunately (or fortunately as some may say) our table was in the comperés line of fire so we ended up being part of the comedy quite a few times throughout the night ... amazing free advertising!

We settled into the evening with a beautiful three course meal followed on with the awards ceremony....What we had been waiting for. We were so proud to see two of our clients, City of York Council (West Offices) and Yorkshire Building Society (Broadgate) not only be nominated but actually receive awards. Tracy Carter from City of York Council accepted the award for Restoration and Refurbishment of the Year with West Offices and Philip Kirtlan accepted the award for Commercial Property Deal of the Year. As a main sponsor we were also able to hand out an award for Consultancy of the Year in which Davis Langdon were the winners. I can only describe the on stage situation as slightly daunting, but also felt a great sense of achievement in not tripping up the stage and not drinking too much vino so could pronounce the winners clearly! PHEW!

The awards continued through to the early morning however not before I personally got heckled by the comperé. At the time this was again, a daunting situation in front of 400 industry professionals including being dragged on stage for a photo with Fred Macaulay himself! Ahh never mind, it was all fun and games and SoVibrant have most definitely made an impact in the industry in 2013.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter at SoVibrantUK for our latest news and whereabouts.

Genuinely not photoshopped! We're on the BIG screen!

Some of our lovely clients (left to right, Peter Hall Jones Spiral Partnership, Alison Carrick, Head Teacher at Victoria Primary School, Lee Ford, 4D Creative Media)