The Advent of the Eco-Friendly Vehicle and California's Automotive Industry

Which technologies from previous decades influenced its creation? How could it influence new technologies we have not heard of in the future?

The technologies leading up to the modern California-standard vehicle have primarily been experiments involving different kinds of batteries. These include Lithium Ion (year), Nickel Metal Hydride (year), and Lead Acid (year). In addition to these, alternative forms of energy have been developed, such as biodiesel (a replacement fuel for diesel vehicles utilizing vegetable oils or animal fats, chemically reacted with an alcohol), hydrogen, compressed natural gas (CNG, a compressed hydrocarbon mixture mainly consisting of methane), and more. Different vehicle designs since 2004 include various versions of the Battery Electric Vehicle ([B]EV), i.e. Neighborhood EV (NEV), City EV (CEV), Full Function EV (FFEV), Plug-in EV (PEV), Hybrid EV (HEV), and Plug-in Hybrid [Electric] Vehicle (PHEV), as well as many forms of the Low Emission Vehicle (LEV), i.e. Transitioning LEV (TLEV), Ultra LEV (ULEV), and Super ULEV (SULEV), which meet California's LEV1 and LEV2 standards.

Ethanol is an alcohol made primarily from corn and can be used in a Flex Fuel Vehicle (FFV), which is capable of operating on gasoline, E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), or a mixture of both. Previous decades used what is called an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), which inspired the Hydrogen ICE Vehicle (an ICE that runs specifically on Hydrogen fuel) and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle (HFCV or FCEV– the most recent design for California's vehicles, incorporating automated driving features). Besides the Nissan Leaf, Tesla has specialized in the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV). These are not limited to cars, as zero emission motorcycles (ZEM) and zero emission buses (ZEB or ZBUS) can also be found in California. Other advances include the Partial ZEV (PZEV), Advanced Technology PZEV (AT PZEV), and Enhanced AT-PZEV, which meets AT-PZEV requirements and also makes use of an off-board ZEV fuel such as hydrogen or electricity. Probably the most understandable of the modern technologies is regenerative braking– "the partial recovery of the energy normally dissipated into friction breaking that is returned as electrical current to an energy storage device" (Regenerative Braking).

California's LEV 1 exhaust emission standards were defined in 1994, measuring for Ultra Low- and Low-Emission Vehicles, and apply to cars made between 1994 and 2003 (with some later exceptions). The LEV 2 exhaust emission standards were defined in 1998, measuring for the same vehicles, but apply to cars made between 2004 and 2010 (with some earlier exceptions). California requires that a Global Warming Score (GW) be displayed on every car made since January 1, 2009. GW is a decimal (range of 1-10) score that ranks a vehicle's CO₂-equivalent value; higher values are cleaner. This is not to be confused with Smog Score (SS), which ranks pollutant levels of Non-Methane Organic Gases and Nitrous Oxides, but measures with the same scale as GW. Since these technologies, a miles per gallon equivalent, "MPG(e)," has been applied to primarily electric vehicles. This measurement is based on Fuel Efficiency/Economy, which refers to the average distance traveled per unit of fuel consumed. California has also formed a measure to meet its own standards, called "California Miles Per Equivalent Gallon" (of fuel) or CMPEG.

These technologies can potentially lead to vehicles with automated driving features, self-sustained engines, and truly all unknown technology since the current majority fuels on Earth destroy the atmosphere and alter the environment, risking the end of most innovation. 

The trickiest part I found was the lighting. Because one side (the wrong side) was already shady, I found that flipping the figure horizontally almost completed the effect. The last trick was doing the same to the shadow layer.

I had often considered collecting a handful of shells that washed up on a beach and organizing them by shape color, and then putting them into a picture. Thankfully, I didn't even have to go to the beach since there were plenty of shells in a drawer under a glass-top table. I organized them by shape and color, then I deduced that there were primarily white shells, a black background, and a few red, orange, and brown shells. I had initially wanted to make the shape of a ghost (ghost out of shells), but I had to accommodate the red shells, so I chose to add a tongue. When I searched images ("ghost with tongue") for inspiration, I came across [King] Boo, the ghost from the Mario® games. I didn't want to do something so strictly geometry-based (circles, triangles, etc.), so I then sought images of a skull with a tongue. I came across an image of a person with makeup resembling that of Gene Simmons, and decided to make that the subject of the grid project. It was surprisingly hard to find a picture of Gene Simmons' face with makeup in closeup, but I found a painting of it. If I had a better angle and a more calm, gentle hand (it is, but not enough for this), I could have done better. I figured the smallest unit would be something like the smaller sand dollars, thus meeting the 30x30 rule. I used an app on my phone to view a comparison of the two, lining up the eyes and tongue.

I wanted to do something for everyone's favorite dragon, again. I figured that the polygon base of the game would ease the ability to pen the contours of the silhouettes. Although true, it was still difficult.

I wanted to keep the look started in each image. The most fantastic sights I know of are at Mount Rainier National Park and The Gates of Hell, Turkmenistan. Ice and fire, cold and desolate, dry and moist.

Some appeared to make impressive poster-like material, so I tried to induce that effect with different filters.

Other images were so picturesque, they only looked good through filters that simulated paintings.

A few had such layering in the image, it only seemed appropriate to soften the detail and toy with the contrast contrast.

There was a hidden rainbow in this image, and I brought it out. For the portrait, I chose a diffused glow, hiding the detail of my face while simultaneously preserving contours.

For the animation project, I began with one of my favorite books, hoping to put together a story that mirrored that of the book it was in, namely My Side of the Mountain. I planned out the points in the book at which I would want to do certain drawings. My default method for execution is to begin with extravagant detail, and gradually become sketchy, and this case was no exception. I found myself defeated with only one weekend remaining. I had excited myself with the idea of going limitless with my creativity: cutting, ripping, adding external elements, etc.

I soon felt some remorse for the little book. It was a huge undertaking that I had tackled, and I felt a little guilty with my plans to destroy it in the animation process. I then considered how I would rather do that to a book I hated, such as Fahrenheit 451, and then I got the grand idea of how I am really skilled at drawing fire, and I could even burn the book at the end! How ironic that would have been, if only I didn't hate that book so much that I had already done this to any copies I previously owned (which is zero to be exact). There was no time to order one, so I had to resort to a different book. I found this one that has a match on the front, and with renewed confidence, I let my tired sketchy hand perform my unbeatable flame-drawing skills. I still did some destructive animation tactics, and planned to burn the back cover, except for lack of matches, lighters, or flint & steel, much less a place to do that.

I laid a blanket over a toilet in a bathroom, since it is an immovable object with a right angle and a blanket can easily be draped over it. This made a perfect layout. Next, I lit it with an on-camera mounted light, chose a prime lens that would capture the entire book from a decent distance, and laid the book on its side, flipping each page down carefully so as not to shake the book. I still had to adjust focus a number of times, but I minimized camera shake by using a cable-connected trigger to trip the camera shutter. This expedited the process significantly. The exporting process was a nightmare, because the shots were out of sequence, and I couldn't get the export to a good quality upload for YouTube and the frames kept stuttering in the raw file.
The destruction and nonlinear page progression complement the creative process; it highlights how unique the creative process is for the individual and cannot be repeated.