Malta International Circuit

Site overview. A lot of stuff to fix up with the terrain as it is quite steep in places and that is creating issues. Parking located in the dark grey, with roads in the very dark grey, and support lanes in light grey. In addition to the main motorsport circuit, there is a karting track with floodlighting, and a driver training centre which can be seen on the right side of this image.

A view of pit lane looking back towards Turn 18. This is from the top of the Paddock Club facilities.

A shot of the back straight and the support pit lane. The track runs underneath a hotel, similar to in Abu Dhabi. On the right, one can also see the 4,000 seat Malta Arena.

A view down the pit straight, showing the paddock bridge. The track runs uphill at 10 degrees for approximately 600m. Renault and Honda are already planning their appeal against the circuit inclusion on the Formula One calendar.

The view from the main grandstand.

The view of the runoff at turn 8. Turn 13 is located just below this.

The exit of turn 9, showing the runoff at Turn 8 and the bridge.

Part of the paddock, with team hospitality areas, the medical centre and the pit building all visible.

So, this is my latest project. I have been working on this one since April/May. Set in the Maghtab region of Malta, this circuit features 18 turns and is designed to host a wide variety of motorsport categories. Of the greatest note, though is the 100m elevation change of the circuit. There is still a fair amount of work to do on the circuit, but I am hopeful that it will be completed soon. I then plan to take the track into Assetto Corsa so that I can drive it. It feels sweet driving it during my testing laps so far.

I hope you're all having a very enjoyable and well deserved rest at this time of year.

Shanghai International Circuit

Isometric view

Topdown view of the circuit.

Start-finish straight. Massive grandstand just to your left, pit lane to the right. I believe they've also replaced the grass on the outside line here with astroturf.

Turns 1, 2, 3. Very little braking through this turn. Track is headed downhill, but the car is slowed down through sequential gear shifts. Exit of turn 3 is very difficult as you're still turning as you try to get on the throttle. Easy to spin on upshifts (see: Vettel in practice).

Kink into turn 5. Flat out through here

Turn 6. Tight right hander. Need to pick up traction quickly as there's a lot of time to gain out of this corner.

Turn 7 - long left hander. Car is always sliding right through here, keeping it stable is important for the next turn.

Turn 8. Slightly tighter than 7, a right hander this time. Sacrifice exit speed for this.

Turns 9 and 10. Double left hander in sequence. Little traction through 10, but a good exit is the key to a good lap time with a decent little straight following this.

Turn 11. 80km/h left hander. This is also the last point you're not accelerating for a mile.

This complex is very tricky. Especially through the first half, it's easy to spin your wheels up. Camber is increasing right the way through the corner which helps with grip. Aim to be in 8th before the DRS line.

The long straight. Those grandstands are over 1km away.

Approaching the braking zone. Brake around the 90m point.

The track opens up a lot on exit allowing you to accelerate out of the corner.

Final turn is a 90 degree left. Run straight on for the pit lane.

There used to be a gravel trap on the outside of the pit entry. Thanks to Pastor Maldonado beaching himself here last year, this has been replaced with tarmac. Congratulations must go out to Maldonado, though, on once overshooting the pit entry and needing a push from the marshalls, and on once trundling down the pitlane because his brakes gave out. Seems the tarmac was for nothing.

Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia

Overview

Looking in at the circuit

Pit lane

Start finish straight. It's a long one

Turns 1 and 2. Heavy braking with a slight incline into turn 1, keeping tight on exit as that opens up turn 2. Turn 2 is downhill and falls away from you. Then it is a long, flatout right hander.

Approach to turn 4. Slight incline again, tight right hander is easy to run wide at.

A long left hander

Flowing into a right hander

A double right hander follows, just beyond turn 15 there.

Turns 9 and 10 - a left hander uphill into a right hander. Be careful on upshifts out of the corner as there is very little traction through here and dropping it into the wall is easy.

Turn 11 - a deceptively slow right hander. Vale Marco Simoncelli.

A long, flatout left hander leads into

A double right hander. Very difficult braking zone as you are braking as you turn, easy to lock up or run wide.

All the way back down the straight and to turn 15, a hairpin before launching back down the start finish straight.

So in my last post I hinted at the possibility of fencing and trees. Well, here is fencing and trees. Once I got it right, it wasn't too hard. One day I will go back and redo Albert Park. Anyway, enjoy the race, and do a little better than I did. 1.43 is a terrible lap time here.

Wrestlemania 31

This shot is from behind the stage.

A shot from the ramp. This was one of my marquee angles for the stage. Unfortunately, the red stage graphics and red seats don't stand out here.

A rather unique camera angle, this is perched on top of the central ring structure. Would be great for Brock Lesnar's entrance in particular.

Another camera angle, designed for capturing the entrances

Camera angle from stage right.

Hard camera view of the ring. That floating thing above the ring is designed like the one NXT has. Similarly to WM27, it lowers down over the ring for entrances.

The shot of the thing I was talking about. Notice the sides of the ring are LEDs as well. I added that a few weeks ago so when I watched RAW this past week, and saw those, I got a massive kick.

A rendered shot of the stage from inside the ring. I've been having some problems with VRAY lately and it's unwillingness to render my lights, so they're crap. But the ideas are there, and the set is clearer here.

Camera angle, stage left.

Another angle of the stage, this time just outside of the ring. Notice my little shoutout to the winner of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale. Sorry for the spoiler alert, but #AXELMANIA is running wild.

Sky shot. If you look at the big screen, the rendering issues are plain as day. But it shows the ambience well enough. I wanted the LEDs to wrap around the stadium as the set is very small.

Shot from the 200 level seats, looking at the ring and the stage.