Work on:
3D Ultra NASCAR® Pinball

All images/animation's for Private non-commercial viewing purposes only.
© Copyright 1997,1998 Sierra Online\Dynamix All rights reserved.

This page details some of the work I did for COMPUTOONS® for Sierra\Dynamix's latest pinball game, 3D Ultra NASCAR® Pinball.   COMPUTOONS® was sub-contracted by Dynamix to create the 3D graphic elements and animation for the game.  In addition to model building and animation, my job was to place all the elements into the two main sets, the garage and pitstops, and finalize the lighting.

All of the work was done with 3D STUDIO MAX2 software, along with Adobe Photoshop and Fractal Design Painter.

The other artists on the project were Dennis Clevenger (modeling, car texture maps and animation)and Chuck Carden (kineticizing characters and animation).

Overall view of the Pitstop game table.  This set was reconfigured to match the colors and graphics for each individual NASCAR® driver represented in the game.

Goodyear Eagle racing tire.   A simple model, but since NASCAR® had to approve of all final graphics, we needed to be as authentic as possible.  Of course you have to look past the fact that very few NASCAR® garages include pinball ramps and flippers.

Gatorade container prop from the pitstop table. Even the most commonplace models need to be built to round out a detailed set.  Hey, CGI isn't all robots and dinosaurs.

It takes tools to build a NASCAR® vehicle.  Just one of the many smaller props needed to fill the large set/pinball tables.

Final garage set aerial view.  This set includes all the various elements created by the entire Computoons® team, placed, animated and lit. Once the final garage and pitstop props and models were finished, different sets of maps were used to create the sets for all four drivers.

Actual view as seen in the finished game. A different color scheme was used for each of the four featured NASCAR drivers.

The outdoor track or Pitstop table.  Note the similarity to the garage design.

Close-up of the car lifts.   To accomodate any possible changes or additions to the animation, I built them completely articulated.

Jack. Okay, its not as exciting as a spaceship or say, a robot, but it's another example of the level of detail required for NASCAR® pinball.  We needed to maintain a fairly high level of detail because as we were working on this stuff, the final plan for the cinematics were still undefined.

In some cases we know in advance which projects will not have cinematics, and for the sake of speed we can model in a lower resolution.