Opel Rocks e is undoubtedly splitting opinions, you either love it or hate it. However it is definitely some fresh air in the field of mobility, because it is the opposite of what defines a modern car. Especially its purity and simple way of construction makes it very interesting. So when Lukas heard about it for the first time from a colleague at his internship, he was very excited to think about modifications he can do to attract more people to this vehicle. He then decided that an off-road version (Opel Rocks e-xtreme) would fit the name and the design of the base model quite well.
Introduction
All sorts of ATVs and Trophy Trucks mainly inspire this project. The car should be very capable, rough and sporty while remaining a quirky and funny presence. To recreate this idea in 3D and make a short animation to learn more about animation, video editing and sound design it took around 1 week to finish this project.
Design
To achieve this concept, the suspension setup has been changed for double wishbones at the front and a live axle at the rear with a much wider track for stability. The body needed wider fenders, which should use the same bolts as the original ones. The whole vehicle leans forward for an even sportier presence.
For a sturdy feel a frame is added over the greenhouse, which provides mounting points for the additional lights at the front and a rear spoiler. It‘s mainly there to underline the playfulness of the concept. Lukas also changed the color scheme to a friendly combination of yellow with blue contrast details. These modifications change the overall appearance drastically compared to the base model.
It shows that electric vehicles can be exciting and fun to drive, without having a luxury interior with screens all over the dashboard distracting you from the purpose of mobility. It encourages you to have fun driving yourself and explore your surroundings.
Fun to race with the Rocks e-xtreme
For the animation Lukas first created a storyboard, before modeling the scenery and setting up the lighting. He wanted to achieve a quite neutral but friendly environment, kind of a skate park, where it would be fun to race around with the Rocks e-xtreme.
The course contains several different driving situations like accelerating, braking, turning, jumping and bumpy roads to show the capability of the vehicle and to see the suspension working. As an intro and outro the car moves through a dark room with large displays slowly revealing the shape of the vehicle. Everything except the sounds are made with Blender, starting with modeling, animation, rendering and post production.
About Designer
Lukas Wenzhöfer is a 25 years old industrial designer from Germany currently studying at the Pforzheim University of Design. After his apprenticeship at Opel Automobile GmbH as a technical modeller he wanted to get more into the design, because he loves the mixture of technical and aesthetic aspects.
