Video Game Platform Proves Ideal For Rapidly Creating A Concept

Aside from being designed by the same guy responsible for the 2008 GTbyCitroen concept, the X-Taon was drawn up using the Allegorithmic’s Substance gaming platform.

The point was to demonstrate how Substance can speed up and improve automotive design, especially with regards to colors and trims. Altogether, it took just 60 days for this car to go from paper sketch to finished ‘show car’.

“I wanted not only to visualize the texture and the colour of the car but also to design a part of the car with the ability to show Substance’s parametric functions. I wanted to design a car which can showcase the full potential of the Substance software,” stated its designer, Takumi Yamamoto.

“Styling wise, I paid attention to the purity of the surface so that the design of the car itself wouldn’t interfere with the texture or colour which would be chosen afterward.”

The end result is that of a clean design, which also looks detailed enough so as to not seem too generic. Those of you who remember the GTbyCitroen concept, will probably recognize how some of its design traits have carried over to the X-Taon, especially at the rear.

According to Cardesignnews, the software used is also said to have affected the speed of iteration. That’s because of the way it can generate surfaces, designers can simply alter certain parameters in order to generate different design variations. For example, changing the number of spokes for the wheels can be as simple as dragging a slider.

“With Substance, you can not only change the number of spokes, but also the other the parameters of the shape. It gave me a lot of inspiration which I couldn’t have come up with without,” added Yamamoto. “And the real-time rendering ability of Substance is amazing, as you can create variations in a few clicks.”