UPDATE (May 4th):
Please go to the SECOND PAGE of this thread for the very latest render. Thanks!
Original message:
Here is a picture of my pure energy speeder model for the F1 contest:
This is a compressed JPEG, so some artifacts are present here that will not appear in the final render.
Still working at it…
Robert
Oh my god, that is one awesome pic…
I’m speechless…
That almost hurts to look at! 
Looking great! The only thing that bothers me is those hoses to either side of the cockpit. To me, they just don’t fit in with a sleek car like this one.
Thanks, Sily!! 
I’m glad you liked it.
Robert
Hi, Curtis! Thanks so much for checking out my model. About those hoses: they’re energy conduits connecting the energy chambers (large silver objects behind the cockpit) to the front middle tire propulsion system. There are two conduits for each tire, and the side ones have shorter tubes that come out of the sides of the main energy chambers. None of these parts add any wind drag thanks to the hybrid propulsion system that uses magnetic fields, which also repel air particles surrounding the vehicle. 
Having fun with this one…
Robert
Very loud expletive!!!
That’s magnificent!
that’s great
good job
Logik_Guy 
DUDE! I like this! It’s like something I will only dream about only in the wildest of my dreams… VEEERY funky [and in my own strange way of speaking, that’s a hell of a compliment 
].
And it’s so full of little things here and there… woha… dude… I like this one, there’s something about that red though…
Keep it up!
I wonder how fast it goes…
Incredible!!!
The background is really too busy and the red bars especially pull my eyes to the upper right corner. There should be some contrast between your F1 and the background.
The styling of the vehicle itself is wilder than before, but the surroundings are a bit too distracting. I’m more impressed than I was before, though (and I was very impressed before).
Thanks for such great feedback, everyone!!
I’m in the process of refining the track walls and track. I will definitely ease up on the red track markers, enhance the contrast, and more. This is a nighttime race, so there are many more lights/reflections than would be at daytime race, mostly because in this alternate future the F1 race is somewhat of a wild light show due to the speed. The track is supposed to be enhanced with some sort of holographic afterimaging system, which trails each vehicle with light (not a dense wall of light like in Tron, just a glow trail). As the F1 race got faster over the years (current speeds exceed 1,000 MPH), it was agreed something needed to be done to enhance the event for viewers, who were increasingly dissatisfied with graphic depictions of the actual cars on large screens – people wanted to see the actual cars in action. In meeting those demands while acknowledging the limits of human perception, those in charge of the race did everything possible to make this a race unlike any other…
You’ll notice in Star Wars Episode I for example, people watch races both in the stands and on computer displays, or they listen to the two-headed announcer call out positions. When pod racers whiz by, they are only seen for a second or two, and then a lot of dust rises (in the desert that is) so the holographic light trails here exist to make things a little more interesting and lasting for the eye. These track enhanements are also reasons why drivers wear those perception enhancing helmets, since the spectacle of track markers and energy emissions from other racers would be dangerously distracting to the naked eye.
…or something like that
Well, hopefully sometime I’ll have some to post an update very soon. I’m really enjoying this!
Robert
Hi, everyone! Here’s an update to my F1 model. I’ve done away with the second model manual reflection beneath the track and am now (after numerous errors and crashes) using envmaps for the reflection, which is fainter and set deeper into the floor (because the floor in keeping with the track idea is multitiered for holographic project purposes). Colors have been adjusted, and the red energy beams are gone. I still wanted some red in this to break up the blue, so the track wall edges are now red but also fade in intensity as they go further back. Some purple to bridge the red/blueness of the scene has been increased. Envmaps have been added to most parts of the car as well.
Lighting has also been adjusted too and meshes and textures have been further tweaked yet. This image is a compressed JPEG, so artifacts that won’t appear in the final render are seen here.
Well, this is bordering on an obsession to get this thing as perfect as possible I hope it’s better now.
Robert
top 10 material!
5 :Z :Z :Z :Z :Z zies
I definitly like the picture more now. The red bars being gone lets the attention shift more towards the car, and the background being darker makes it pop out more. Good work! Some more color contrast might be good thought too. I like how the car is blue and the ground is purple, but maybe a bit more would leave a clearer edge between the background (both the tracks and reflections) and the car. I’d say you’re 95% there.
Thanks, RipSting!! I’ve made some more adjustments and will be posting the results soon. More purple and softer lighting towards the rear of the scene have, I think, improved the contrast/clearer edges just as you had suggested. Thanks again for the constructive and motivational feedback 
Robert
Here is the very latest render as of May 4th:
With all the added envmaps, lighting, etc. this model now takes almost an hour and a half to render on a 2.4ghz XPpro system with 512MB RAM. Sometimes I get a white screen after the first render, and then when I press F12 again to render the scene rerenders properly, also much faster with the envmaps having been calculated.
This project has become epic beyond belief, and I’m so totally grateful for all the comments and encouragement from my fellow Blender users. Your interest and insight has been so helpful. Almost every free hour I’ve had for the past few weeks has been spent working on this thing. I’m not quite ready to call it finished though. I’m still obsessing over some of the details
Hope everyone had a good weekend. Have a great week!
Robert
“Sometimes I get a white screen after the first render, and then when I press F12 again to render the scene rerenders properly, also much faster with the envmaps having been calculated.”
Next time you get that white screen after rendering, you might try pressing F11 twice to close and re-open the window … it may not need to be re-rendered.
man, that is truly monstrous, amazing stuff.
my only gripe is that some of the white just looks like plain old white material with no textures, but its hardly noticeable.
wow very extremely brilliantly GOOD!
what’s the render time?
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