LEGO Stunt Rally LEGO Stunt Rally development artwork

[BobaFett2]

This is very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[k-g]

Alright!

Here are some photos of the very first vehicles created by the development team for the game. These were sent for review to LEGO HQ, who then started work on improving these. I'll post some images of those later.

 

[eagleeyedan]

Brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing this.

 

I don't know if you know, but in 2011 LEGO released a minifigure that looks suspiciously similar to your punk guy. I like to think it is an intentional homage.

That guy was also in the LEGO Loco game, and yeah, when I saw the Minifigure Series version I thought the same thing.

[emily]

Aw man, awesome to be able to see the very first models. I definitely can see the closeness of that second one to the car Mega Hurtz got in the final game.

 

Thanks once again!

[lol username]

This really makes me want to build some LEGO cars. Thanks!

[k-g]

Here is the next batch, (dated 23-9-1999). Note the Danish text on the table.

 

 

 

 

 

(looks like there were two X-car prototypes at this point!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lol username]

Oooh, nice. Aside from their coloration, the F1, hot rod, jeep, and tanker all look pretty close to their final designs (if not exactly) - I'd have to take a good look at the in-game models to be sure though. The other cars look nice, though the final designs were definitely improvements.

Oh, hey, wait a moment... One of the pieces in the jeep was never available in green, yet there it is, in the model...

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=30149

The piece on the front of the hot rod wasn't available in red, either:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=30147

And this piece on the F1 and robot cars wasn't available in red or trans green...

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6152

Did LEGO supply you with special pieces or something? :P

[Jimbob]

These are brilliant photos! The designs for Mr X's cars have to be my favourite, but I really like Johnny Thunder's car too. Given that the Thunder's racer in your first set of photos is called "jeep1", and the green racer in the second set is too, was Johnny going to be the Jungle boss originally?

[k-g]

@jamesster: Wow, you really know your bricks! Pretty interesting to see that some of these bricks were never released in those colors. I don't really remember, but I think we may have received some of those models. We had no idea at the time these were using rare pieces though! I guess that would make them worth quite a bit to a collector these days.

 

@JimBobJeffers: These models were made at the time while I was working on a different game. I would re-join the team later, by when the characters and most of the vehicle designs had been finalized. I'm pretty sure our team intended to have original characters only for the game, and not use any existing Lego characters. 

The jungle boss, Snake, was based on Colonel Kurtz from Apocolypse Now - his face paint is inspired by Kurtz's face paint pattern.

Here is the next batch of photos (dated 29-9-1999).

 

 

Another failed attempt at the muscle car, by the looks of it.

 

 

This is easily my favorite design of the X-car. Probably didn't pass the safety test.

 

(Yes, still more to come!)

[lol username]

I like that version of the robot car. That X-car looks great... Let's just hope the driver doesn't lean back too far. :D

[RobExplorien]

I never touched this game but I do love these car models, indeed especially that X-car you mention.

[k-g]

Here is the next batch of vehicles photos (dated 5-10-'99).

Hurray! The muscle car has been finalized!

[kaitodaimon]

k-g, could you also answer these questions:

 

Do you have any knowledge regarding the intro cutscene in stunt rally, since the intro cutscenes from the retro-LEGO games, are more detailed than the moden LEGO game´s cutscenes, in terms of lightning and overall details.

 

Do you remember how many of the models in the game were based upon actual LEGO sets?

 

What was your biggest reference in the development of the models and the structure of the layout for the game?

 

Is there any particular reason that none of textures for the minifigures had gradients implemented to them?

 

Were there any restrictions in the development process from LEGO that you remember?

[Ben24x7]

 

Do you have any knowledge regarding the intro cutscene in stunt rally, since the intro cutscenes from the retro-LEGO games, are more detailed than the moden LEGO game´s cutscenes, in terms of lightning and overall details.

 

I know you wish to talk to k-g but if I may point out the differences is that the newer cutscenes are rendered in real-time, while the retro/classic games had pre-rendered cutscenes. With pre-rendered cutscenes, you could achieve more lighting and visual effects than that you could achieve in real-time renders.

[kaitodaimon]

But if that is the case for the in-game cutscenes (which I assume are rendered in real time), why does for example the Clutch Powers movie not have as much details? Isn´t that pre-rendered?

[lol username]

Again, thanks for the pics! I was wondering if the purple piece for the roof of the muscle car wasn't ever released, but it looks like it was... But years later, in 2003: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=6180&colorID=24&in=A

@kaitdaimon, Stunt Rally's intro, the character animations, etc. are all pre-rendered. If you go to where you installed the game and look under artvideo, you can view them in whatever video player you have installed. The smaller videos played in the corner of the screen for Mr X, the playable characters, and opponent taunts are pre-rendered as well, but I think they're in a custom format - though Will did make some progress on figuring out how they work, and ripped some still frames from them: http://kirk.by/s/14a645730f1 I'm not sure what you're talking about with the Clutch Powers movie... Of course it's "pre-rendered", it's an animated direct-to-DVD movie, and the models and lighting are much higher quality than you could get from a cutscene rendered in realtime.

 

Is there any particular reason that none of textures for the minifigures had gradients implemented to them?

... Huh?

[kaitodaimon]

Wouldn´t gradients increase the detail of the texture when there is lightning, and thus create a greater quality of the video.

 

If they are both pre-rendered, why does the two animated features have different "styles". In, for example, LEGO Racers 2 intro the minifigure presentation of Rocket Racer, as well as the objects in the backround, seems to be much more "well-rounded" and visually 3-dimensional, and not as "flat" as, for example, some of the episodes of Ninjago seems to be sometimes, when only the model itself is presented in one colour without many gradients.  

[lol username]

Wouldn´t gradients increase the detail of the texture when there is lightning in a video, and thus create a greater quality of the video.

 

If they are both pre-rendered, why does the two animated features have different "styles". In, for example, LEGO Racers 2 intro the minifigure presentation of Rocket Racer, as well as the objects in the backround, seems to be much more "well-rounded" and visually 3-dimensional, and not as "flat" as, for example, some of the episodes of Ninjago seems to be sometimes, when only the model itself is presented in one colour without many gradients.

I'm assuming that by "gradients" you mean lighting. LEGO pieces with single colors + lighting = "gradients". You said it yourself; different styles. Different art direction, different lighting setups. Though this is getting quite off topic, as this thread is for Stunt Rally concept art/prototypes/other development stuff. Maybe start a different topic if you want to talk about 3D rendering?

[kaitodaimon]

However, my question was about the intro for the stunt rally (and potentially all other) intros, in order to get a hint in the, as you mentioned earlier, art direction and lightning setups for those intros, and since the intro is an asset I assumed it would be relevant to this topic. 

 

The only reason I can think of creating a topic, would be to make a comparision between a undetailed LEGO video and a detailed one, but how would that help in understanding the style of the intros? Even though you may be aware of something, it doesn´t necesserly mean that you can understand the fundamentals of it.

 

 But there is one thing I do not understand, why would someone choose a certain style over another. Personally I think the intros are visually more impressive than a standard Ninjago episode, however it might also be because of nostalgia, but I would regardless want to know how to replicate that style.

[lol username]

I don't know for sure, but the intro, outro, podium, etc animations seem to have a noticeably different style than the animations for the character screen, taunts, etc. The character designs are often different, as well. The majority of the pre-rendered cutscenes in these early LEGO games were often done by other companies - Artworld UK did animations for Rock Raiders, Racers, LEGOLAND, Creator Knights' Kingdom and Harry Potter, etc. http://www.awn.com/animationworld/one-stop-digital-shop-data-design-interactive-and-artworld-uk

I'm not sure who did animations for Stunt Rally, but the intro/outro/podium animations share more than a few similarities with the the intro/outro animations for LEGO Island 2 and Soccer/Football Mania

[k-g]

Hi kaitodaimon, I'll answer your questions as best as I can:

1) Do you have any knowledge regarding the intro cutscene in stunt rally, since the intro cutscenes from the retro-LEGO games, are more detailed than the moden LEGO game´s cutscenes, in terms of lightning and overall details.

As others have pointed out, the intro cutscene is pre-rendered and in a different style from the modern games. The intro and victory videos were indeed done by another studio, while the in-car camera shots were made by IG. As for the increased amount of detail compared to the modern games, my guess is that back then LEGO didn't have their preferred style nailed down for cutscenes. I'm pretty sure that by now they will have very strict guidelines as to how minifigs need to look and move in animations (in whatever medium). 

 

2) Do you remember how many of the models in the game were based upon actual LEGO sets?

As for vehicles, only the cars of the playable characters were based on existing LEGO sets, which were being developed at the same time. The characters themselves were designed by a few of IG's artists.

 

3) What was your biggest reference in the development of the models and the structure of the layout for the game?

For the cars, we received the actual toys, photos, and rendered images that were being made for the cutscenes (I will post some of those later). We didn't reference anything for the structure and layout of the game.

 

4) Is there any particular reason that none of textures for the minifigures had gradients implemented to them?

It sounds like you are using "gradients" to describe the rendering style. Some of the plastic in the pre-rendered movies in LSR looks more shiny/glossy than IG's renders. This has nothing to do with the textures, but rather a setting in the material. That setting in the material says how shiny/glossy should look when rendered. So the different teams used different settings for the plastic materials. The lighting will also be different - in IG's movies/renders, we aimed to have very soft shadows. 

 

5) Were there any restrictions in the development process from LEGO that you remember?

Absolutely. Working with any publisher or holder of an Intellectual Property (IP) (also often referred to as a "a license"), there are always guidelines on what you can and can't do with the characters/world. etc. One starting point was that we were given was a fairly strict set of colors to use. So, for example, if something is red it needed to be a precise RGB value set by LEGO, we couldn't just pick a color red that we liked. This kind of stuff is standard when working with an IP.  

Things got a little weird at times though. For example, at one point we were told to change the color of all the city roads from dark grey to light grey. We had based our roads on existing (but slightly less common) dark grey road plates, and we argued against the light grey because a) it didn't look as nice (due to the lower contrast) and b) it would be a considerable task to change it all (re-work all the road textures and re-render all the icons (twice actually because the game has two UI sizes)). I've seen some screenshots with the dark grey roads online, but they are all light grey in the final product.

 

One major change that LEGO demanded was the removal of the steering. People on this forum have discovered the hidden FREEFORM driving mode, which was actually the default mode during much of the development. The team was pretty gutted when that request came, but LEGO's point was that the game was too difficult for its target audience. Driving controls with an isometric view is quite counter-intuitive, so you can see their point. With the simplified controls, the game became a scalectrix type game. For the very first level of the campaign, we aimed to make it so easy that you could win by just holding the accelerator the entire race (with any car!). Obviously, that is the most boring level to test, so we had an orange do it. We placed an orange on the up cursor button on the keyboard and just waited for the result.  The first level needed to pass "the orange test", which became a bit of a meme inside the team. I may have an image of the orange in question, I'll see if I can find it.

[le717]

One major change that LEGO demanded was the removal of the steering. People on this forum have discovered the hidden FREEFORM driving mode, which was actually the default mode during much of the development. The team was pretty gutted when that request came, but LEGO's point was that the game was too difficult for its target audience. Driving controls with an isometric view is quite counter-intuitive, so you can see their point. With the simplified controls, the game became a scalectrix type game. For the very first level of the campaign, we aimed to make it so easy that you could win by just holding the accelerator the entire race (with any car!). Obviously, that is the most boring level to test, so we had an orange do it. We placed an orange on the up cursor button on the keyboard and just waited for the result. The first level needed to pass "the orange test", which became a bit of a meme inside the team. I may have an image of the orange in question, I'll see if I can find it.

 

That is both hilarious and confusing at the same time. It's development stories like these I love to hear. Thanks for sharing. Do you remember any other stores like this?

[lol username]

As for the increased amount of detail compared to the modern games, my guess is that back then LEGO didn't have their preferred style nailed down for cutscenes. I'm pretty sure that by now they will have very strict guidelines as to how minifigs need to look and move in animations (in whatever medium).

Oh indeed they do...

Things got a little weird at times though. For example, at one point we were told to change the color of all the city roads from dark grey to light grey. We had based our roads on existing (but slightly less common) dark grey road plates, and we argued against the light grey because a) it didn't look as nice (due to the lower contrast) and b) it would be a considerable task to change it all (re-work all the road textures and re-render all the icons (twice actually because the game has two UI sizes)). I've seen some screenshots with the dark grey roads online, but they are all light grey in the final product.

For those who might be curious, here's some beta screenshots with dark grey roads: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=468828

 

For the very first level of the campaign, we aimed to make it so easy that you could win by just holding the accelerator the entire race (with any car!). Obviously, that is the most boring level to test, so we had an orange do it. We placed an orange on the up cursor button on the keyboard and just waited for the result. The first level needed to pass "the orange test", which became a bit of a meme inside the team. I may have an image of the orange in question, I'll see if I can find it.

It's a shame the controls got simplified, but that is pretty funny.

[k-g]

This is how we tested the first level (maybe the 2nd level as well, I don't fully remember). 

Several members on the team needed orange help.

This model was actually in the game for a while - we wanted to keep it in as an easter egg, but of course there would be too many legal troubles if anyone ever found out, so we took it out.

[mumboking]

Poliwhirl, Pikachu and Meowth!

That's actually some nice drawing.

Actually... why did you draw Pokémon faces on them?