WEEK 01 - IDEA GENERATION

Idea 01 - Bus with Interior ALD E400 MMC first bus spec

What do I like?

• I like the idea of creating a bus; this can be used within games and environments, such as a city or town high street, or a bus depot. This has a lot of use after making the bus as well. Once I have made one type of bus i would be able to make more variations of the bus or different buses altogether. 

• I like that if I choose this idea by the end of this i would have made a bus to a high standard that can be used in games and envriomaents this bus that I have chosen also allows me to look at making this panel by pannel  

What do I not like?

• I have my concerns that I might not be able to complete this within the window given to do this. The core reason for this is I lack the skills needed for this based on the type of bus I have chosen to make, however i might be able to make the more basic version of the bus, the ALD E400, but this bus does not have the same modern look to it and will look boring by itself however for a project at home on my own time this might be a good starting point. 

• textureing due to complex curves on this bus, making the textures for this might take me longer than I have to complete this 

Variation of "Market Competition"?

• So far, after looking on art station i have found that the type of buses I want to make are not on there; however, games such as OMSI 2 and Bus Sim 27(upcoming) have made this so there is a gap in the market for this. However, the addon for this on Steam for OMSI 2 is selling for around 13.99  

Visual Reference?

• This section will also cover screenshots that may be off topic, but will also give more context to the above 

• And below the last screen shot i wil;l talk in more detail about the bus I want to make 

i will be using images of the first bus, part of the first group, as they have a large number of ALD E400 MMC's coving single and double door 

The plan is to make the outside of the bus start with, and then make the inside as well. This will cover the seats, bells, screens, next stop display, till (with tap on tap display by the door ) i will opt for the camera mirrors, texturing the bus can go in anyway, such as a bus company or looking like it has just come off the production line out of the factroy 

different lengths?

• 10.3m

• 10.9

• 11.5

• 10.5

This covers how long the bus is, all lengths have single and dual door set up this can be a after fit or in production 

SWOT , coving thw Strengths , thing i am good at doing and how it is linked into this idae , weakness, this might be things that i am not very good at os a skill set that is needed that i lack or need to improve on loinked into this idae ajnd project , opportunities, what opportunitits does this idea present to me it might be anything form larening a new skill or a better methored of doing something this is linked the overall benifit of the idae to me , threats , what threats dose this project pose to me such as nit complating this in time or failing the unit due to0 how long this will take or handing this in late this is a threat that this idae might have linking back to me.

so i will go over the SWOT and this will be taken into accopunt as to why this is a good idae or a bad idae this will be used with othere aspecit such as planning why i like the idae and why i do not.

Strengths 

There are many strengths I have when it comes to making this; however, for this idea, I have little experience with modelling buses in Unit 12. This was my test looking into hard surface modelling, 

Weakness 

Having covered the fact that I lack experience with modelling buses and car etc this is a weakness and also a threat to the project, as it will end up taking longer to complate i will be spending more time trying to work out how to model complex parts of the bus, then modelling the bus as well as doing the write-up for this unit 

I also feel that the time this would take at my skill level may take me over the deadline; however, this depends on which part I get stuck on and how long i take to figure out what i need to do to fix this 

Opportunities 

At the end, if I have complted bus with the inside of the bus modelled as well, this would allow me to make other buses and even the possibility to work with the studio. Or local bus companies who want to try a livery on their bus but do not want to spend the cost on paint as well, using this for marketing. This would also be a very useful model to use in environments 

Threats 

The main threats might be the time needed to complete this to a professional standard, as well over scope of this has happened in my last project, where I keep finding new things to add to a envermaent that I have working 

so i will give conclison later aftre all idaes have been looked into in detail and planning for all idaes have been complated and then i will way up for the fors and agaist og doing every idae and i will explaine why i chose the idae idae 02 is next.

For research, see the research page / this will be on a sub page. /Idea 01 - Bus with Interior ALD E400 MMC first bus spec/

If I were to work on this project, this is a potential plan on how I may go about things. I will make a low-floor modern UK bus found in cities and larger bus operators

What is needed for the inner side of the bus is - 

• Seats

• cab

• steering wheel 

• control buttons

• cab door (with full high drop glass)

• till ( with tap on tap off base and tap bases)

• support poles and accessible handrails

• stop bells (with blue and red buttons)

• fire door

• windows (long, thin windows that can be opened)

• ramp (can be found on main door or secondary door *secondary door ramps will extend and retract by a button in the cab)

Idea 02 - House Exterior that is inspired by UP.

What do I like?

• I like the style and feel that Pixar uses in their films, and the models used, such as the house form up 

• the art direction used in stylesed 

What do I not like?

• I do not like that this is a house, and the last house project I did ended up with a massive over-scope 

Variation of "Market Competition"?

• looking on art station, there are a lot of environments based on what I want to make, but this will also be useful when getting reference images to work with. However, there is not much of a gap in the market when compared to Idea 01, where there was a big gap in the market 

Visual Reference?

this will be found on art station and linked and added below 

To do (complate by 03/03/2026

Planning!

• House (outside only)

• 2 floor's 

• real-sized house 

• windows non-see-through for now, but will model the house so that later I can work on the inside if I want to 

The first floor will cover every wall, room walls, and windows, and a cut out of starts to be added if I wish to after this project has been handed in, as well as a driveway and fencing around the back and frount of the house as well as grass and trees around the fornt and tress line behind the house textures for the house will follow a sytealyed deisgned as well 

SWOT, coving thw Strengths, thing i am good at doing and how it is linked into this idae, weakness, this might be things that i am not very good at os a skill set that is needed that i lack or need to improve on loinked into this idae ajnd project, opportunities, what opportunitits does this idea present to me it might be anything form larening a new skill or a better methored of doing something this is linked the overall benifit of the idae to me, threats, what threats dose this project pose to me such as nit complating this in time or failing the unit due to0 how long this will take or handing this in late this is a threat that this idae might have linking back to me.

So I will go over the SWOT, and this will be taken into account as to why this is a good idea or a bad idea. This will be used with other aspects, such as planning why I like the idea and why I do not 

Strengths 

There are many strengths I have when it comes to making this; however, for this idea, my main strength is having prior experience in making a house, and this is something that I enjoy doing, so this is a strength in the fact that I will spend more time working on the house than a project that I do not enjoy.

Weakness 

one weakness might be that the last house i modeled i have to remodel due to how the house was made this did not allow for the house to be expanded without remodeling the house and the texture id,s ware not set up in the right way - weakness listed in threats as they are a waekness however they might be more of a threat than a waekness.

Opportunities 

the opportunitites i face are being able to show that i can model the outside shell of a house to a high standard and will also allow me to work on the inside to a high standard as well. After this unit is done in my free time, the next opportunity is that this house can be used in any new envirmaents i craete later, such as in unit 10 i add the house from unit 09 to the isalnd 

Threats 

The main threat is over scope of the project the last house project i started off started fine but i began to add more to the project this lowweredthe over outcome of my work this was the maya house in unit 09 see image below the next threat is that i tend to add to project mid way aftre starting such i will randomly desied that i want to do the inside as well now this is a threat to the projects timeline 

So I will give a conclusion later after all ideas have been looked into in detail and planning for all ideas has been complated and then I will weigh up the pros and agaist og doing every idae and I will explain why I chose the idea - idea 03 is next. This is an Isometric Building Environment (IBE)

also refrace images can be found on the planning page 

For research, see the research page / this will be on a sub page. /Idea 02 - outside house pixar styled imspireded  outside of the house/

Outside house environment inspired by Pixar*

This plan is less of a list of items that need to made and more what do I need to reassert to make this and understand why Pixar do what they do when it comes to modelling and texturing there environments as well as understanding the timeline that they have to make the environment to understand where I should force all of my work and how viable this might be.

I will be looking into the film up and understanding why they designed the house like they did and what textures and colour they used and the logic for this such as wh the size and hight and the fount garden in the film why was it the size that it was. 

1. the house 

i have found online a good website where a company had remade the house in real life with a floor plan on line as well this will help me with understanding the sizes of my house i will make and give me a better insight to how big the house should be based off of the numbers of room and where the stairs might be - visit the website Recreating a Real-Life "Up" Movie House in Utah - Hooked on Houses - site viewed on the 05th of march 2026 @ 12:04 PM GMT 

Below is the floor plan copyed form the website above

as you can see this dose not floor the stander for walls layout you tended to see in more modern homes there is around 12+ walls on the outside of the building this is what gives the buildings is own charter looking at a lot of the buildings in the films with regards to the new high rises the house stands out due to it unic shapes due to the rest of the buildings all following the same type of shape this will help me with the planning as i will no no longer use the 4 walls layout and will try out 5 or 9 walls as well as the floor looking like it was built around the upper floor 

Idea 03 - A bus depot 

What do I like?

• I like the idea of creating a bus depot as this fits into my skill set of making 3D environment and based on the feedback taken from last year's FMP i have learned what not to do to get this done on time and to a high standered 

• The ability to make my own bus depot based on real-life bus deports keeping the uniform layouts that are used, but the freedom to make the layout how I want to make it 

What do I not like?

• There's a high chance that I might overscope on this project 

Variation of "Market Competition"?

• There is a small market for this, such as OMSI (free|Paid) and other paid games that use buses, as well as a use for a bus depot, such as Bus Sim 27 or making my own game 

Visual Reference?

• See planning page 

Planning!

Making a bus depot based off of uk bus depots, this would cover a few buildings and road layouts such as 

• bus shelters 

• electric charging bays

• cash office 

• walk ways 

• parting bay 

This bus depot would be a one-way in and one-way out depot with car parking and bus and lorry parking, with a staff carpark and a shuttle bus stop with an inside office and break room space, with this being empty inside unless I have time to model the inside of the building and coloured walkways 

SWOT, coving thw Strengths, thing i am good at doing and how it is linked into this idae, weakness, this might be things that i am not very good at os a skill set that is needed that i lack or need to improve on loinked into this idae ajnd project, opportunities, what opportunitits does this idea present to me it might be anything form larening a new skill or a better methored of doing something this is linked the overall benifit of the idae to me, threats, what threats dose this project pose to me such as nit complating this in time or failing the unit due to0 how long this will take or handing this in late this is a threat that this idae might have linking back to me.

So I will go over the SWOT, and this will be taken into account as to why this is a good idea or a bad idea. This will be used with other aspects, such as planning why I like the idea and why I do not 

Strengths 

This is a manageable project to complete as it's the same level as my last project a underground train station on the Elizabeth Line (ArtStation - Canary Wharf Elizabeth Line, Cj ) 

This is an outside environment with the intranets modelled, however, to a minimal level 

Weakness 

Keeping to the planning, as this is a project where the outside of the building allows room for me to add to this in the past, I have, and the project has grown too large to complete within the timeline at the best quality I can achieve as well as over scope. This is something i tend to do a lot 

Opportunities 

Based on the market, there is not a lot of a lot of environment based on what I want to make, as well as not a lot of games making use of the bus depot other than OMSI 2

Threats 

There is a list of threats to my project, such as OneDrive no longer working, running out of available space on the OneDrive, or no longer being able to access OneDrive while i have a hard drive that i backup all my work onto this might fail, losing all of my work, and over scpoe of the project is a threat 

so i will give conclison later aftre all idaes have been looked into in detail and planning for all idaes have been complated and then i will way up for the fors and agaist og doing every idae and i will explaine why i chose the idae - idae 03 is next this is a Isometric Building Environment (IBE)

For research, see the research page / this will be on a sub page. /Idea 04 - outside house pixar styled inspired bus depot/

making a bus deport based in the uk based of form bus deports within the uk form the the core main operators the core channel being that most of the deports will not have a lot of online coverage however with the use of google maps and some research understanding how a bus deport works and what is needed such as is it one big site or split over two or more sites covering diffrent departments are the staff office's based else where and why? 

The plan is set, and the stages will be as follows 

• Understand what is needed to have a working bus depot 

• Layouts 

• deisgne 

• how it might befit the local area (first bus in Bath has an island bus depot with a public footpath to cross over the island from Upper Bristol Road to Lower Bristol Road)

• Road making and layout 

• walking routes 

• parking 

• bus parking 

• workshops 

• departre bay (moved the closest exit ready to be used)

This is just some of the things that I might use for my own bus depot. I will also be taking a look into games that use this as well, such as OMSI 2, bus simulator and others; however, this is a plan, this does not mean that I will be going with idea 04, but this is just to see how viable this plan might be 

Research - 

• look on google maps / Earth to see layouts around the world 

• understand why and how this layout works for the space 

• understand the size vs the area that would be served and the number of parking bays for staff and company needs 

from a modeling standing point 

• Look into water, how this can be used and how best to go about using water and where 

• texturng 

Looking at textures on Fab and other websites for free textures, as well as looking into using oftwheer to make my own 

• What building might I need to make 

understanding how many building i need and there size and the best to go about this such as making a moduler asset pack for the core budidings and customer made packs for any assets that will not work within the moduleer setting this as a car wash/bus wash or a lift bay if i chose to model the insides othere assets might be doors windows, ramps, lighting, gates and fancing and more 

Environment - What do i want to have that is something that will not work if removed - this will help work out what to model first and what is last in order of priority 

first 

• any customer road layouts 

• outside of buildings (not the inside)

• fancing & gates 

• signs - such as speed limits, info signs , warning signs , one-way signs , PPE sign , buses only / staff only / visitors / deliveries 

Second - semi-important assets, but make sense if they get missed out, such as 

• refuelling pumps - not all depots have this, some will have the driver take the bus to fule station that allows for lorries to refuel due to having the right fuel and high limits 

• bus wash (car wash but bigger) 

• Road markings are something not all departments will have. The bigger depots will have this, however, due to the cost of its smaller-sized depot with fully trained staffing with a lower income, they will not pay out for full road making in the deport proving this is in line with H&S (Health & Safety regs) 

• bus parking bays (numbered/numbered with letters and colours)

Third - this is not that important and is mostly an inside list of assets, such as -

• staff room 

• staff meeting room 

• QC

• enginers office 

• HR (base department for bigger comanys this will be at the registered business addresses with local hr branches as well )

• deport manager office

• cash takings room by the exit/entrance to the building not linked to the main buildings for security 

• storage room 

• loading doc (very rare )

• in and out bays for large departures where there are lots of buses coming in and out 

Final Idea - Bus Depot

• Explain why you have chosen to go for the Bus Depot as the final idea for the project. Make sure to discuss your ambitions, link to the fact that you are wanting to go to Uni, Portfolio.

Research

Research Plan -  my plan on what I will be Researching

First Research Topic - Existing Products 

Looking into existing products i have found a game called Bus Simulator 27 

sites used - > Bus Simulator 27 

Bus Simulator 27 is an upcoming bus sim game. I will be using their screenshots and existing games and customer base to set a benchmark for my project, with the key difference being my project is not a game, it is an environment that said there screen shots show a more simplified layout compared to my planned layout 

What is there target audience 

looking at age rating for the uk store I have found on xbox.com it has been given a rating of PEGI 3 (visit xbox.com to also see this Buy Bus Simulator 27 | Xbox  data was last checked on the 29/04/2026 @ 14:03) who is this game aimed at form what I can tell it has been aimed at those who enjoy driving games, people who enjoy simulator's, and those who have a interest in buses and public transport with the main target like being people who enjoy simulators i will also be using parts of this game's screenshots as a reference as well to help influence me 

Other existing projects also include games like OMSI 2, which covers real-life routes and UK buses, which is the target audience for OMSI 2. With OMSI 2, they will be targeting OMSI 1 players, as well as new players. OMSI 2 has a bigger following due to modding support and the in-game map editor, allowing players to make their own maps and share these maps as well. The game also supports a 3-part hard where for driving the bus - see the Steam page for details - OMSI 2: Steam Edition on Steam 

Lastly, Roblox has games within the platform that are almost real-life-like as well 

Roblox bus sim's covers a younger audience, but does have a lot of highly detailed assets and is mostly a free game; however, the baseline for the target audience will be 12 and up due to users needing to be 12 and up to use Roblox as the platform as a whole 

Reference Board – Lighting

This will be used to help me workout hopw i will light my environment, such as ware should a i light. For this, I will mainly use images of bus depots at night, where lighting will be in use 

Reference Board – Materials

The core materials used for the project. Most of the assets I will make will use these core materials; however, as time goes on, I might decide to change from the list below

i may also make custome textuers as well this can be found in pre-production or production depeanding on where i had made them 

Reference Board – Quality Benchmark

I will be using games such as OMSI 2 and Bus Simulator, both of which are very good and popular games. For this, I will be using screenshots from the internet and YouTube, as I do not have a copy of Bus Simulator

Bus depots - general research 

This will be used to help inform about how a bus depot works, what is needed, and what needs to be taken into account when making a bus depot, such as 

Does the depot need more than one entry and exit, or where does the staff parking go, and why? Some depots support EVs. This is something to take into account, also some depots function as out stations, which is important for a game or even environmental art 

Google Maps – Bus Depot Images

This will be used to help me decide on how I will make and lay out the bus depot 

Architectural Blueprints

This will be used to help me decide on how I will make and lay out the bus depot 

Bournemouth depot layout planning submitted to BCP 

Existing Bus Depots – Real World

This will be used to help me decide on how I will make and lay out the bus depot 

images of this can be found below 

Existing Bus Depot Projects

This will be used to help me decide on how I will make and lay out the bus depot 

however i was unable to find anything to level of detail that i am aiming for 

Art Direction

Use of lighting 

I will be making use of a post-process volum box for the lighting, as I'm looking to go with a more real-life lighting set-up following this guide on ArtStation that talks about how to do it. ArtStation - Dynamic Lighting & Environment Composition (Part 1). This is showing part 1. This talks about how to set up the scene for lighting and doing the final render. This also links into the presentation. The main issue at hand with lighting is deciding where and how much light is used, as the main gate will be lit, and around buildings will also be a bit, but the rest of the depot does not have much lighting. I will look a bit more into lighting around depots, not just BS depots, to give me ideas.

Art Style

Looking into the art style, I have found an article on Art Station that will be a big help when choosing the art style (ArtStation - The Indie Developer’s Guide to Game Art Styles )  

For my Art Style, I will be going with a realistic style to match what my project is, a real-life bus depot based on real bus depots around the south of England. This mostly covers core sections such as the road, fencing, path and even the road markings. This will allow my environment to look better than most games, where they choose not to go the completely realistic route 

Presentation

I will be looking into ways to present my final project, such as the branding and how to show this on the main landing page (home page) 

I will be making a second website showing the bus depot as if a new bus company had opened up in the local city and wanted to tell the public about their new depot   

Creating Roads

Looking into how to make a road in a real usable way, such as modular 

, I found this set-up for a modular road on Art Station. The road has been made in such away you can snap each road part together and reuse them as much as you like. Overall, there is no real downside until you need a custom road part; however, you can always make it so that it still works with the modular system, as long as you get the maths right or have a second part if the road is to make a full loop 

ArtStation - Modular Road, Artur Filonov 

Assets

This will be my reference board for modelling using pure Ref 

Texturing Assets

With texturing my assets i will be using a mix of custom-made textures and textures from Fab. The textures I will likely be using from Fab are for buildings and decor, and the rest will be made in Substance Painter and Photoshop for custom textures, such as a sign  

Texturing Assets

Trim sheets, gaining a better understanding 

I have watched a short YouTube video that explains why you might want to use a trip sheet and what they are. The main point to take away from using a trim sheet is that when you are making an apartment building, for example, you might have a lot of different materials used to make this outer wall. Now, you might make X amount of texters that can only be used on this apartment building, or only the back wall; you might also want to do the font and sides; they might have doors now. Your texter list is growing by using a trim sheet. You only have one texture that works on any asset; however, this video only tells me so much. I know the why, I know the use case i do not know the how. How do I make a trim sheet and use it 

Decals 

I will be using decals for the depot layout of the parking bay's and depot layout without the need for texting it in substance painter as this will take a long time to do 

Optimisation Of Scene

This is something that has been my key point in the past, on feedback, with texturing and adding foliage, that I should use less foliage and keep textures below 2K; however, I have been looking into trim sheets, as this lowers the number of textures the engine has to load and might be better for optimisation of the Scene 

decals the same as above this also lowers the number of texters needed and allows nfor less memory use overall 

Proposal Form

Bus Depot Research - that is not covered in the above sections 

The goal is to understand what is needed and where is gose and why, such as the new electrical buses, they will need a way to be powered overnight. Some deport's have gone for hanging cable on 

Entry and exit 

This is the key part i will cover walking and driving entry routes, covering diffrent layouts and looks as well and incorapeded with local road next work such as traffic nlights on a junction this is not that commen and can lead to more issues with moving buses in and out of the deport.

brloe are screenshots form google maps covering salisbiry deport , damroy deport and stoage , 

Salisbury - depot

Looking to Salisbury depot

The entry is on the left-hand side. The exit is on the right this allows for a loop to go in and out of the deport and to the side is parking for staff and if you go right to the end snd turn right there buses park along the back walls and in the middle holding upto 60+ buses and couaches with currently 3 EV bays for the BYD E200 MMCEV there has also been 30 new EV bays.

This depo has a 5 MPH speed limit. There's a central wall linked to the end of the main central building 

Next will be the bus parking bays and how they are set up - todo 

Damroy & storage - depot

Looking to Damroy depot & Storage site, this is used by more buses, Salisbury red and Damroy and other parts of the GSCG (Go South Coast) group.)

Location 

This can be found on the A354 heading to Blandford Forum, around 15 minutes away from the town centre and 30 minutes away from Salisbury. This can be found while travelling on route 20 from Salisbury ( used to extend to Weymouth on morning trips, but was cut due to lack of funding) 

Entry and exit

Located next to the junction but not part of the junction exits onto the A354; however, it would be more efficient to use the minor road over the major road if the depot were ever busy enough. Adding 4-way lights for the junction and depot will make entry and exit safer 

Empress Rd | southampotn - depot

Looking at Empress Rd in southampton the main depot (there is also Tottren depot to note, as well as a Limington depot ) 

Location 

This can be found on Empress Rd in Southampton. This is not that far form sawthing railway station 

Entry and exit

This road is a minor road with the entry being on the left-hand side and the exit on the other side. This is an odd setup, but it looks like this was planned for a free-flowing loop with more room on the back side for buses to enter the inside, as well as parking bays being the first section for the buses to stop in, as well as being set up to expand or change the layout as the needs chagne  

Poole bus - depot

Looking at Empress Rd in southampton the main depot (there is also Tottren depot to note, as well as a Limington depot ) 

Location 

This can be found behind the bus station and shopping centre 

Entry and exit

The entry is a slip road off Seldown Bridge. By following the signs and road signs saying buses only, this depot has more than one way in and out. The bus lane is used a over flow this is due to a lack of room to move buses around, so even with low levels of buses in the depo they still park buses outside of the depo 

As you can see in this image form google maps, the bus lane has been used for the bus lane covers to 2 main entry and exit points; however, there is no outbound bus lane on this side due to this being a one-way road


Look at the BCP Register 

3D Google Earth 

Bournemouth bus - depot

Weston super mare depot for electric charging 

First Bus builds depots for new electric buses at West sites - BBC News 

what is needed to have a functioning bus depot ?

I have found the following online.

The core reason for a bus depot is to store buses overnight, as well as washing and inspecting them to see if they are fit for use, so what makes a bus depot then?

To understand this, we need to first look at the two types of depots and what they do. You have the smaller depots for a small local bus company, and the larger bus company's overall set-up is mostly the same; however, the larger depots do more in-house 

Route Contract: Gross Cost / Infrastructure Requirements / Bus Depots