I started with a quick sketch of an idea I had (while commuting one day) -
about an antigravity motorbike. Such a bike would only need one wheel, I
imagined, and without the front wheel, the rider's position could be more
aerodynamic and more in line with the direction of force. Antigravity also
means that a road need not be a flat 'ribbon', but might be tilted, or even
upside down, or tubular (you could ride inside or outside the tube; this
would give you more usable road surface for the same volume of space).

I admit that the gun is a bit gratuitous, but I couldn't resist; it seems
to fit the agressive feeling of the bike quite well.

I started in Alias Power Animator version 7, with my sketch and some
references cut from motorbike ads spread out on the table. I revolved the
wheel, and kept the construction history (which I usually don't), since I
knew it was a tricky shape and needed to be test-rendered with more of the
geometry around it in order to finalize its shape.

Then I built the blue bits and the exhaust pipe and the engine one by one,
using 'skin' or 'bi-rail', at first only doing the right hand side, and
then copying some parts over to the left. (But not all, as you can see in
the screen shot.) I never planned this for an animation; just a one-shot
still, and I didn't want to weigh down the file too much (my hardware is old).

Then I brought in my virtual actress, Ariana, and started to bend her into
position with the skeleton she has. When it looked close enough, I deleted
the skeleton and continued fine-tuning on the cv level, something very hard
to do otherwise in an extreme pose when you also have live clusters created
in a neutral pose. Additionally, I painted some new clothes for her in
Photoshop. She's wearing her high heels, which looks a bit strange, but I
imagine her on the run and having stolen this bike in an emergency get-away attempt...

The hair is simple geometry with complex pix files and masks, except for a
few smaller strands at the back that have the Alias SolidCloud shader in
the transparency channel.

Shading: the skin is slightly translucent, and it has two layers, for more
control over the highlights. The blue enamel is also in two layers, the
bottom one to get the skylight type highlight that surrounds the sun, and
the top transparent one just to get the stronger and harder sun-highlight.
Separating them also enables you to add starry glow to only the top sun
layer.

The background and the road-tube are very streaky,
to make them look motionblurred.

Changes I'd like to do, when I get the time, include adding a brake, a
clutch, throttle handles with their cables, and rear-view mirrors; I'd
prefer a more aggressive design on the blue panels and a bigger, meatier
engine; maybe a windshield, and maybe a prototype jetplane-type silver
finish or black or red instead of the blue...

The brunette is basically the same head as the blonde, just edited. The
expressions come from controls I've created, which means she's animatable,
and I'm actually working on a closeup scene where she speaks.

Steven Stahlberg
1/12/99

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