Braintree Teen Makes Video Game Art Of Braintree Police Cruiser

BRAINTREE, MA — Lots of teenagers spend their time playing video games, but one Braintree High School student does more than just play. He also dabbles in game design.

Thomas Chenette, 16, spent his free time during the coronavirus pandemic learning how to create three-dimensional models of police and fire vehicles and put them into video games. And one of his designs came from some local inspiration, a Braintree police cruiser "Grand Theft Auto V" players can drive in-game.

"I had a lot of free time, and I always liked video games, so I thought it would be something cool to learn, Chenette said.

Chenette said he started by making fictionalized police and fire vehicles, but when Braintree police got their new Chevrolet Tahoe cruisers, he wanted to create something for the game based on reality.

Chenette said he used a 3D modeling software called Zmodeler to design the cruiser. He said the software was user-friendly, and he learned how to use it by talking to other game designers and watching YouTube tutorials.

"It's pretty much how it happens in real life," Chenette said. "You take the pieces together in the car and put them together with Zmodeler."

Braintree police also caught wind of Chenette's art and gave it their stamp of approval on their Facebook page.

"Ok....This is cool.... We recently stumbled upon a Braintree resident who made these video game themed BPD cruisers," police said on their Facebook page. "Thomas (Who also attended our first Junior Police Academy) you rock! If anyone on Instagram wants to see his work, his handle is lspd.thomasc."