Lazy Hikers don't walk, they ride the chain!

Well, it's been like smashing my head against a wall on the Hiker game for Molson/ Coors. The design was based off of early sketches and collages of what it was to look like. Originally the reference was an icy, almost vertical wall, but we had to adjust the size and angle for transportation logistics. So as the 3d model was massed and ready to go...........a revised drawing came in with enough changes to head me back to the drawing board. We'll still drive the hiker with a chain, and he'll still have the same number of checkpoints, but now it's a grassy hill, with the Coors mountains in the background. They also want the "Coors Light Mountain Survival" logo on the flat portion the man will travel. This messed up the existing chain layout. So the last few days have been spent at the computer again, incorporating everything that has changed. It's one of those things that by moving one piece, just a little, it has a chain reaction to the rest of the pieces! Oh well, we do love a challenge!!

I was able to re-purpose the gear sprockets, and move them to their new location on the board. The Logo is offset to the right to allow for the mountainous hill that will hide the hikers return to the starting line.

I drew a grid plane in Hexagon that will become the base mesh of the game surface. The cylinders, and the belt shape that runs up the side and the top, represent the volume of the little vagabond hiker that will endlessly hike this hill. This is so when I mass the terrain, I can be sure he will have ample clearance to get around. I exported the logo outline from Corel as a dxf, and imported it into Hex as a position holder. The horizontal and vertical lines were used as alignment reference. It's crucial that everything be as accurate as possible at this point! The same went for the track and sprockets. All DXF's, exported and aligned to the base mesh. I will eventually do the same for the little "X"s as well.
We have been busy cutting tons of stuff for the other sign shops in the area, so I'm not as far along on this game as I would like, but we will be heavy into the fabrication come Monday when it's all drawn and the layout clearances all work together!
8)
JO