Max007x’ Ultimate Guide to Track Design

Max007x’ Ultimate Guide to Track Design


1 Introduction
2 Basics
3 Track Design
4 Decoration
5 Finishing Touches


1 Introduction
Since Free Rider is a game that highly depends on the creativity and skill of the community to succeed, making people understand track design better is really important. The tracks you play are as good and as fun as the community makes them. Free Rider HD is the latest version of Free Rider but I’ve noticed that nearly all the classic creators from Canvas Rider or the time before that have left. That’s why I’m writing this post. To make all the new members of the community understand what makes a good track. I’ve been creating tracks since 2008 and I feel that I know what makes a good track and I want to share this with you guys. If you have questions after reading this, please ask.
If you look at the most played and highest rated tracks I feel that those do not represent the best tracks out there.
If you want to know how far the editor can go you should search for designers like Lolz666, Hawnks, Graggen and Moose_man, some of the classics from the previous Free Rider games. Keep in mind that everything I write here is my own opinion and doesn't have to be true for you.

2 Basics
The hardest part of creating a good track is the start. The first few lines that will be part of your ‘best track yet’ (Trying to create your best track yet everytime you make a new track is a great mindset.). This is the part that costs me the most time. Sometimes I work on a brand new track for half an hour when in the end I decide to delete it all and start over again. It’s so important to get this right because it will decide the feel for your new track.
When making a new track there are three things you should think about:

-Will I make a track or an auto? (Auto’s aren’t my thing, I won’t talk about them in this post)
-What type of track will I create?
-What is the theme of my track?

The first question is a simple one to answer. The next two are a bit harder. I personally answer the third question before the second question because I feel that the theme of the track is the most important. I want the player to go somewhere, to explore a place. For me that is the most fun part of track design. Designing the location. I do feel though that most people start with the second question so let’s talk about that first.

Track Types:
This is where you decide how difficult your track is going to be and how it’s going to play. There are many options here and there is a lot of freedom in each option. There are a few common track types but your track doesn’t need to fall in a category. A few basic things you can think about are if your track is going to be smooth or not, if it’s going to be hard or easy or if it’s going to be using a lot of power-ups or not. I believe that people focus to much on what ‘type’of track they’re going to create though. I feel that this limits creativity. People who go for a common theme like a downhill track, a dirt jump track or a northshore track. This is why I start the theme of the track first and pretty much don’t think about the track type at all. That’s because the theme you choose will also decide what the track type is going to be. For example if you choose to make a track in the dunes, it’s most likely going to be a rather smooth track with lot’s of small jumps. If you choose a rocky mountain theme it’s going to be bumpy. That’s why I recomend starting with the theme first. It will lead to a more creative track and the driveline and the detail will blend a lot better. exceptions to this rule are trials but those aren’t really popular on this site because easier tracks get a lot more thumbs-up. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make one though! I just won’t go into detail. Maybe another time.


Track themes:
To me, this is the most important part of track design. Picking a theme will decide the look and feel of your track. If I decide to make a new track, I start with drawing sketches on paper, like concept art. These drawings are not detailed but give me an idea of what I’m going to draw. Sometimes I go to google images and search for images of nature or fantasy landscapes to inspire me. Or I get inspired after watching a movie, playing a video game or just looking around. With this inspiration I then start making a sketch of a landscape untill I find something that I want to spend time on. Sometimes I make 20 sketches untill I find something that I really want to turn into a track. When you have a theme, the driveline design should come naturally. Obviously there are tracks where the type is more important than the theme but that is mostly for trials and tracks with lot’s of power-ups. Generally the best tracks out there have a great theme.


Note: Do not design your track to appeal to the masses. Design the track you want to design. Most of the best classic tracks don’t have a high rating on the site but are really loved by the people on the forums. Ask for feedback on your track on the forums for a better look at how good your track really is. Most of the tracks in trending and most played are mediocre tracks that get a lot of thumbs up because they’re really easy.

 

3 Track Design
At this point you’ve decided what kind of track you want to make. You chose a theme and decided how hard you want your track to be. The next step is designing the driveline. I always keep the theme in mind when drawing the driveline, so that the theme and the track itself will blend well together. For example, if your track takes place in a city, a lot of straight lines instead of curves would make sense when designing the track. Keep the theme in mind! Now you have to ask yourself: what makes a fun track?
To me, a good track is a track with a lot of room for time improvents. A track where all the top times are the same is not that much fun. I can’t really tell you how you should design your track but there are a few things to keep in mind:

-Don’t use to many power-ups. I see this a lot. Power-ups make you lose controll over the bike and should only be used when they really improve the track. If you do want to use a power-up, use a single one. multiple power-ups doing the same thing looks ugly.

-Stay away from the curve tool. This is a tool that I never use. If you use this for your driveline you track WILL be bad. This line should be drawn using the straight line tool.

-Is a part of your track not as good as it could’ve been? erase it! I feel that the eraser is not used as much as it should be. If a curve is not as smooth as you want it to be, draw it again!

-Practice makes perfect. Don’t expect to draw perfect curves on your first try. This takes time and effort. Same goes for good track design. Link your track on the forums and ask for feedback. This way you’ll find out what works and what doesn’t. If you’re not sure if your work in progress is good, PM it to someone you think knows something about track design and ask them for feedback.


Smooth Curves
This seems to be the most asked question on the forums. How do I draw smooth curves? Being able to draw smooth curves is a great skill to have. These curves aren’t needed in a track but most tracks that don’t really go for a theme have smooth curves in them. so how do you draw them? First of all, don’t use the curve tool. Use the straight line tool. With this tool selected you should draw small lines after eachother, each a little bit steeper than the previous one. To help you do this you should hold shift each time you draw a new line. This makes the new line start where the previous line you drew ends. That’s all there is to it. Remeber to erase a few lines if you mess up a part of the curve and try it again. You’re going to make a few mistakes when trying to draw smooth curves so don’t be afraid to erase. When doing this make sure though that you still make each line start exactly at the end of the previous line or else your curve won't be as good. Also test your curves a lot to make sure they are as smooth as possible.


Landings
The second part of a smooth track is the landing. Your track can have the smoothest curves out there but if the landings are bad, there won’t be any flow to it. You should avoid boosts to help with the landing. To make a good landing you should ride your ramp while just holding ‘up’. Then, if you’re at the point where you want the rider to land, press space to pause the track. Now draw a line here. After this restart your track and try the jump this way again. If the landing is perfect, continue the track there, if it’s not, change the line slightly and keep trying untill it’s perfect. If you want your jump to be harder, try the jump while holding up and leaning and draw the landing that way. This way you won’t be able to complete the jump if you aren’t leaning, making the track harder. Making good jumps just requires a lot of practice. You will find out what works and what doesn’t but these are the basics.

With these 2 tricks you should be able to draw a smooth track. Since smooth tracks are a big part of this game these are some good skills to learn. Try to make your smooth track challenging though by making hard jumps and force the player to turn a lot in the air. You could also use gravity switches to make your track even more interesting.

Tip: don’t use too much space for your track. Making the player have to re-ride parts of the track or making the track circle around the same spot is good track design and makes sure that you don’t have to detail for weeks.

 

4 Decoration
Decorating the track is for me the most fun part of the game and I love to look at what other players can draw. Don’t let your decoration take over the track though. A good track is the basis. Detail is where you differentiate yourself from the average track creator. The decoration is half the track but it’s really the part where you see the biggest difference in skill. If you learn how to draw on Free Rider, you’re going to be a great designer.
Decoration is everything but the driveline, and even that can be part of the decoration, think about the driveline being the roof of a building or a wooden ramp. There are two main parts to decoration. Objects and landscapes. Objects are trees, rocks, buildings and stuff like that. When I say landscapes I mean the hills in the background, the ground you’re riding on and stuff like that.

For both of these there is a rule to follow: Shape- >Detail- >Shade. If you take your time for this and practice a lot, you should be succesfull. I’m not really going into detail on drawing specifics.


Shape
The most important part of drawing is the shape. If you don’t get this right your detail is going to be bad. A track that doesn’t include detail or shading but just shapes can still be a good looking track. This is a part where the eraser is going to be your friend. If something looks slightly bad, erase it! If you don’t have much experience drawing at all, you should try to google ‘“the object you want to draw” sketch’, like ‘tree sketch’, and then choose a really easy to draw sketch and try to draw it in the editor. This will give you an idea what a tree looks like and after you’ve done this with different trees you should be able to draw trees without using google img. I really recommend searching for images of things you don’t know how to draw.
When drawing the object, don’t use the curve line tool. The straight line tool should be the one you use because it makes for better controll. If you practice a lot with this and learn how to draw shapes, you’re already halfway there.


Detail
I find this a lot harder than shape, and maybe that’s why my tracks are usually not too heavily detailed. This is the part where practice is the only thing that will help you. In some cases it’s not too hard, like when drawing a tree. After you’ve got the shape right, you can add lines along the tree or a small hole in it and a few mushrooms along the trunk. For other things it’s a lot harder, like when drawing a rock. The shape is really easy for a rock but adding detail to it is real hard. All authors use different amounts of detail. People like Lolz666 use an immense amount of detail while someone like Ness uses little to none.

http://www.freeriderhd.com/t/1009-chillwind-woods
http://www.freeriderhd.com/t/1689-contest-entry

If you’re not that good at detail then maybe you shouldn’t focus to much on this step. Maybe your style is light detail. Both are great in their own ways.


Shading
Shading is the last part of designing an object and it’s really the finishing touch that can make a track look twice as good. What you do here is decide where the sun is and then add some lines at the side of the object where the sun isn’t.



Here’s an example. The tower would look kind of boring without the shading but just adding those few lines makes it look a lot more detailed. This isn’t high level shading though. Getting really good at shading will again require a lot of practice. If you look at the lolz666 track you can see what good shading can do to a track. You’ll just have to keep trying. If you can’t shade like Lolz I do recommend to go easy on this. Overshading is something you don’t want to do. I prefer a clean looking, stylish track with good shapes over an overshaded track any day.

If you master these three things and practice a lot you will be able to draw almost anything. Start with easy objects and work your way to the harder ones. Now that you can draw objects you aren’t done with your decoration yet. You still have to draw the landscape. I personally just draw a lot of objects and don’t focus too much on the terain. I keep this simple. Other people don’t and that’s just as good.

For drawing the terain, this track can give you a bit of inspiration:

http://www.freeriderhd.com/t/1032-mountain-mission

Generally, when drawing terain you want to draw lines that follow the shape of the driveline, but just below it or slightly differently angled. Another part of the landscape is the cliffs. Drawing the landscape is really just something I can’t really teach you. It’s a skill that is pretty much only in Free Rider and will be something that you’ll have to find out on your own. Try to create your own style and impress people with the fresh look that you create.

http://www.freeriderhd.com/t/1079-spelunking

This is another great example for a landscape, this time more 2d. This is not what rocks look like in real life and that’s why 2d detail is hard to learn and will just come with practice.


5 Notes
I hope that this guide helped you understand the basics of track design. There is a LOT more to it but I feel that that should be discovered on your own. If you keep improving your skill you will understand track design better and will find out what works and what doesn’t.

Of course there are people who will disagree with what I wrote here but this is how I think about track design. Nothing of this has to be true for you but I feel that these tips will help you become a better designer. There is one last thing that will differentiate you from all other authors and that is originality. This has to be the most important aspect, after you understand basic track design. You don’t have to draw a track in the mountains or in a cave, you can design whatever you want and originality is really appreciated. Try out new things, design new obstacles, draw absurd landscapes, it’s all up to you now.

I’m posting this guide now and feel free to ask questions or ask for stuff to be added to this guide. Right now I feel like I’ve covered everything but I’ve most likely missed real important stuff.


Have fun designing tracks and good luck !

 

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Yeah there's going to be some tl;dr here

 

There is a reason I'm not using images that help you draw certain objects. This guide is meant to give the designers tips for creating tracks, and to understand what goes into good design. I'm not a fan of these detail tracks because they'll just teach you how to draw an object the way a certain editor would. That's why I try to keep this as broad as possible by explaining how to draw any object instead of a certain object. Originality is so important !

 

If there is anything else you'd still want to see here please ask.

 

I said something else. Those tracks are usefull but they're more for people who do not visit the forums. This is more to really learn how to design tracks you know? Well, you posted the links so if someone takes a look on this page they will most likely see those anyway.