I guess your wondering who Gabriel Rabhi is. Well, he could be you, he could be me, he could be anyone with a passion for cars. See, as we learnt from his website, Rabhi is not a professional automotive designer but a computer graphic artist that works for many companies and projects. A passion may fade over time, but as Rabhi’s A7 splendid rendering proves, it’ll never die.

Now, a word about his interpretation of an Audi A7 four-door coupe (rumoured to be unveiled sometime in 2008). According to Rabhi, the main characteristic of his A7 is the mid curve on the side of the car that’s inspired from 70’s muscle cars and is also evident on the upcoming A5 Coupe spy shots. Another highlight of his design is of course the 'ala' Alfa Romeo inspired hidden rear door handles. Via: Fourtitude, Source: Gabriel Rabhi -Continued: Click “Read More…” below to see the rest of the article plus a high-res image gallery

GABRIEL RABHI

A First Study Work

I’m CG Artist, video game and graphical software programmer, multimedia developer and composer. I’m living in France. I’ve started this modeling to learn complex surfaces modeling with high curvature control. I have done the entire project, from design to rendering in approx. twelve days. Technically, it permits to me to evaluate the process of modeling curved surface usually used in automotive industry, describes as polynomial NURBS curves with high degree, from 5 to 9. This is the only way to have perfect continuity between surfaces.

This car is the result of an intuitive work without any pretentious but a high rendering quality: I have done most of the design directly in 3 dimensions, on the basis of few roughs to define ideas. The absence of a real design work still visible: there are a few ideas, but the whole design is awkward, the language is not clear, the curves and volumes are not perfectly balanced, and numerous details are not realistic. This model is not the result of an advanced work of design with numerous roughs, a reflection to define perfect volumes and a new Audi design language. The design was the matter of only few hours.

But I think the result is good proof that fast virtual prototyping is a reality: I have used one of the best render engines to reach a high quality in lighting simulation, and I was inspirited by the classical Audi concept cars presentations, like the one of the Nuvolary to build a studio like view. And actually, it seems to produce studio like picture from an idea, the longer processes are design and modeling, not rendering.

From this rendering setup, it’s easy to build an animation and make it realistic moving in a virtual road, or in a real road with a final composition process to mix real pictures and virtual car pictures.

The design

The global look is four doors coupe that can be similar to the coming A7. The main idea is the mid curve on the side of the car that is inspired from the 70’s muscle car. This curve is near what has been done on the A5, but with a wider curvature. This curve is looking like a feline body before a run, with eyes that look at its prey.

To define the volumes of this model, I was starting with the automotive definition constraints: headlamp position, engine compartment space, seats position, rear passenger space, roof, boot volume, realistic wheel size… I started from an RS4 modified to take care of visible evolutions of the B8 platform mules: reduced overhang, larger wheelbase, wider track, engine backward.

This model is a little bit realistic about technical specifications. I think this model design is not extraordinary. But the rendering is good, and I can say it’s one of my masterworks. Going far beyond in rendering sophistication is not an easy thing. I have used a global illumination model finely tuned to have a large color frequency specter and rich gradients. The lighting was made to enhance the understanding of shape trough specular highlights.

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