Ben White is a talented 3D hobbyist from the United States who won 1st place in polygoniq’s Ultimate Race Track Challenge. In this insightful conversation, brought to you by Fox Renderfarm, a leading cloud rendering services provider and render farm in the industry, we delve into the creative mind behind the winning entry. Join us as we chat with Ben about his passion for 3D art and the influence of the "Wipeout" series on his design choices.
Fox Renderfarm: Hi Ben! We are honored to have you here! Please introduce yourself to the Fox community.
Ben: Thank you, I’m honored by the request. My name is Ben White and I’m a 3D hobbyist living in the United States. When I’m not working at my day job, spending time with my wife, or renovating our old home, I try to squeeze in as much time working on 3D projects as I can.
Fox Renderfarm: Congratulations on winning 1st place in the Ultimate Race Track Challenge! You mentioned that the "Wipeout" racing series inspired you, how did it influence your design choices?
Razor’s Edge © Ben White
Ben: Thank you! Yes, the "Wipeout" series was instrumental in constructing this project. I was first exposed to the idea of high-speed, zero-gravity racing through the original game’s release in 1995, so the concept of my entry can be directly linked to the series. While I tried to avoid copying any specific elements, the design and feel of "Wipeout" is undeniably present. I routinely referenced videos from the franchise in order to take note of what kinds of materials were found in the games, the markings that would appear on the track, how the tracks themselves were lit within the game’s environment (whether via holograms, overhead spotlights, neon accents, etc.), and in what kinds of worlds the races took place. The basic shape of my racing vehicle was also heavily influenced by one of the more prolific designs of the series.
Wipeout © Sony Entertainment
Fox Renderfarm: Can you walk us through your creative process for designing the race track and the vehicles?
Ben: As far as the track was concerned, I knew that I would be constrained by several of the requirements for the challenge. First, my animation could not exceed one minute in length. Second, I only had a month to completely wrap up the entirety of my submission. This heavily influenced the direction that I would take with this project, given what would be achievable within the allotted time. I decided to mainly focus on the start of the race and therefore only needed to model the first quarter or so of the track. Initially, I was heavily inspired by a sequence in the "Top Gun" movie that involved aircraft rising on elevators out of the bowels of an aircraft carrier. I thought that would make for a fairly compelling opening, so that was something that I wanted to include from the beginning. I had also envisioned a wide sweeping turn with several of the vehicles in the frame of the camera that were all vying for the lead position. Those ideas essentially formed the crux of the track design. Finally, I turned to modern-day Formula 1 tracks to inject a bit of realism, inserting the sorts of details that can typically be found on a racetrack.
Top Gun © Paramount Pictures
As for the vehicle design, I referenced one of the primary racing vehicles from "Wipeout" for the general shape and look. It featured swept wings that jutted from the fuselage at canted angles and a single engine in the back. I once again looked to Formula 1 for inspiration, adding massive air intakes under the wings and an elongated nose that featured horizontal stabilizers. I think it’s important to include easily identifiable elements in futuristic designs for them to feel grounded and realistic. I try to avoid adding garish lights and elaborate details to futuristic models for the sake of making them look "cool." Details should be placed with intention, have a function, and be explainable by the narrative of your world.
Razor’s Edge © Ben White
Fox Renderfarm: Can you elaborate on the kitbashing process you used for this challenge? What elements did you combine?
Ben: I imagine that my process mirrors that of most artists out there. I typically try to take my models as far as I can go with the time that I have available. I then resort to kitbashing to fill in the blanks, to make them feel whole. As for the 3rd party assets that I used, the trees were from Botaniq, I used several greebles provided by Ian Hubert to flesh out the racers and finally used some components from Big Medium Small’s Industrial kit to fill the empty spaces within the track, notably in the pit area and the starting line. I have traditionally resisted the use of 3rd party assets, with the notion that it is somehow cheating, however, I’ve begun to reject that fallacy. Kitbashing is just another tool to help facilitate the creative process, diminishing the burden placed on artists and easing the time it takes to fulfill their vision.
Razor’s Edge © Ben White
Fox Renderfarm: You mentioned that you created most of the models and assets. What software and tools did you use for this project?
Ben: I used Blender for all of the 3D modeling and rendered everything in Cycles. One of my favorite plugins is the HardOps addon for hard surface modeling, which I used extensively in this project. In an effort to streamline production, I utilized Blender for most of the textures and materials. I would typically start with an image texture from textures.com, then use procedural methods within Blender to add variation through dirt and edge wear. The liveries of the racing vehicles were all created procedurally, though that did hinder the quality of their designs. If I had more time, I could’ve created more compelling and distinct team liveries by hand. I also implemented the Population addon for the crowd and the Botaniq plugin for the vegetation. The video editing and color grading were accomplished with DaVinci Resolve and the music was created using Acoustica Mixcraft.
Fox Renderfarm: Did you incorporate any new or innovative techniques in your work that you hadn't used before? If so, what were they and how did they impact your project?
Ben: The use of AI in art is a fairly controversial topic right now, but I believe that it can be a valuable tool in a creator’s toolbelt. I may be a bit behind the times, but being a first for me, I was able to leverage the power of AI to quickly create fictitious company logos for the sponsors and signage that appears on the track. It had the potential to be a bit of time-consuming worldbuilding, but I was able to inject several iterations in seconds, allowing me to shift my focus to more demanding aspects of the project.
Other than that, this project marked the first time that I used a proper color workflow. I ended up rendering out EXR sequences and doing all of my color grading in DaVinci Resolve. I can really see the power and potential of this workflow and won’t be reverting back to my previous habit of compositing within Blender. For those of you that are interested to know more, I followed along with the excellent tutorial series on gumroad by Creative Shrimp that details the entire process.
Fox Renderfarm: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while working on this project?
Ben: I would say the greatest challenge of this project was the sense of scale and speed. While it would be possible to fake, I knew that the only way to achieve believable results would be to work within as accurate a scale as possible. I’m not sure if it’s ubiquitous to all 3D packages, but the viewport and controls in Blender can be temperamental when working at those scales. It made it a bit of a challenge to place some of the models and fine-tune the animations. Other than that, this was one of the longer and more elaborate animations that I’ve ever created and it was difficult to ensure that it was finished within the deadline. The task does not seem quite as monumental now that it’s behind me, but at the moment, it was a lot for me to conceptualize, create, and deliver, especially with a family and a full-time job. There are certainly many aspects and elements that I would have liked to improve upon.
Razor’s Edge © Ben White
Fox Renderfarm: What type of music or sound effects would you have wanted to incorporate if you had more time? Or are there any additional elements you would have liked to add to your piece?
Ben: The sound design definitely suffered as a result of the deadline. I began dabbling in music creation long before I gained an interest in 3D. Ever since my introduction to Blender, it’s been a dream of mine to personally score one of my animations. However, in this particular instance, I did not have the time to create a unique piece of music specifically for this project. This led me to comb through my hard drive for something that could potentially work but didn’t necessarily support the project as well as it could have.
I also would have liked to spend more time building upon the sound effects. There are several instances of the same effect being repeated, along with moments of anemic sounding effects that could have benefited from overlaying more sounds to build them up.
Fox Renderfarm: Have you tried or heard about Fox Renderfarm’s services before? What is your impression of our cloud rendering services?
Ben: Yes, I have only used Fox Renderfarm on one other project, but I was immediately struck with the ease and simplicity of use, especially when compared to other similar services. The process was streamlined and intuitive, not to mention how unbelievably fast the finished results were delivered. I was truly amazed and would use it again.
Fox Renderfarm: What lessons did you learn from participating in this challenge that you would like to share with others?
Ben: It’s a bit basic, but I think one of the more crucial aspects of working on a project of this scope is the ability to stay organized. Storyboards and basic gray box layouts are integral for ensuring that you aren’t wasting precious time on details that aren’t important. I can’t even count the number of instances where I’ve launched into a new project, excited about a particular element or design, only for it to ultimately become irrelevant due to the scene composition or camera location.
The next lesson is largely aimed at myself. Always keep references at the forefront of your designs. It’s too easy to rely on your mind’s eye for details, but memory is often skewed, leading to inaccuracies that detract from the realism and believability of the project. With tools like PureRef, there’s no excuse for not amassing mountains of reference material.
Ben’s Social Media:
- Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/benwhite1
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@benwhite4015
