Reflections and Shadows

You can have the most interestingly sculpted shape in the world – if your reflections sabotage its virtues, your sculpting efforts have been in vain. Reversely, if you have a boring object, you can give it a surprisingly exciting, visually sculptural quality by employing surface modeling in clever ways – without really changing its volume a lot (in short, there are ways to put a few dents into a boring box which make the box look pretty good as soon as it has its clearcoat on).

Just to clarify a few terms:

• Shadow Lines are the boundaries of any shadows cast anywhere on your model. Good designers are able to refine the model’s shape so well that it will have attractive shadow lines cast no matter where your light is coming from. Never is this left to chance.



• Highlights are the brightest reflections on your model, and you must sculpt your object in such a way that they appear just where you want them to be – e.g., along an especially important edge which serves to define your model’s sculptural qualities when no shadow lines will be there to do the job.



• Reflections occur on any shiny surface, and can be used to make your object look smaller, larger, sleeker, brighter, darker, or more elegant than it really is. In order to do this, you must develop a feeling for the environment your object will be in, and decide what in that environment you will allow to reflect in the surface of your model, and what you’d rather hide. E.g., if you are designing something for outdoor use which will have to be large, but you want it to look compact, try curving its side walls in such a way that the sky starts reflecting on its sides at a low height, getting ever brighter toward the top, so that the eye can barely distinguish where the object ends and the sky begins – this will take away the hugeness of it to any onlooker.
• Volumes are the different shapes of which your model consists. In good sculptural tradition, they should interact with one another in exciting ways.

When you build a computer model, you are in complete control over the way shadow lines, reflections and high lights will eventually flow over the object you are building. This is the bit we will focus on today. Building interesting bodies and sculpting them is a different matter, and one you probably understand already.

How do I create a perfect surface then? Really designer-worthy?

It’s surprisingly easy. But you must learn to handle Control Point Curves. It is true that you can build good-looking surfaces from any curve. But beware of the difference between just any old curve and control point curves (or Graded Curves, as they are sometimes called, as in “Third-Degree Curve, Fifth-Degree Curve”, etc.).

A control point curve lets you tweak it in any way you like, and allows you to create climax points or parabolic-style direction changes. Any surface built on that will provide you with much more interesting qualities than surfaces built in simpler ways.

This is the difference between 3D-modeling and creating design with 3D modeling! Anyone can throw together a few curves and skin them, but only a designer will understand how to make reflections flow delightfully, and purposefully, over a surface!

Good looks are no coincidence. They are constructed.

Here are the rules:

• Develop a plan how to build your model out of as few surfaces as possible. The fewer surfaces you build, the cleaner your model will be, and the more attractive it will look.
• Never piece and patch things together in 3D modeling with little bits and ends, as if you were handling paper-machee. Your model will look like something that has been in a bad accident. If you don’t like an aspect of your model, select it, delete it, and rebuild it in large, generous, swooping forms.
• Use as few points as you can to build your curves. 3 to 7 is best. More is a deadly sin. Then, play with the control points until the curve looks great and has no weird kinks or bumps anymore.
• If you want to build another volume, use a new curve. Build separate objects. If you want one volume to visually flow into another, use the appropriate functions for it, such as building a bridging piece whose curves are made to flow seamlessly into the adjoining surfaces’ curves.

What About Control Points for Solids?

There is a way to make structural changes to solids. You simply activate the control points of a solid, and pull one or more of them in certain directions. While this can be of great help when you are building simple shapes, do not expect any acceptable results for more complex things!

If you try to negotiate a complex model entirely with the help of modified solids, you may end up with a space potato, but it won’t be something anyone would need to pay a designer for.

Remind yourself what convenient, clean work 3D-modeling is; there is no need to start building things in goofy ways, as you can so easily build and re-build anything as many times as you want.

And the Revolve Command?

That tool makes some stunning shapes. But its use is probably best limited to things like wheels, musical instruments, hubcaps, pottery, or cooking ware. Nevertheless, it’s great for that. You create one curve, set a revolving point, and you get an amazing result.

Beware: If it can be done on your computer, that may not necessarily mean that it can be made in a factory! To establish that, better do some research on whatever production methods are used to make whatever it is you are designing first.

Your object will be as beautiful as the curve you’ll have based it on. Take your time when you use it. If it is to be part of another object, use radii that can be found on it. That way, it won’t look like it doesn’t belong there.

To summarize: Our best friends for creating perfect surfaces on a computer are:

• Control Point Curves – the King of Curves.
• Control Points for Solids – for simple objects. Use sparingly! Space Potato looms.
• Revolve Command – for UFOs and other household contraptions.

That Evil CAD

Chris Ebbert/ Product Design/ Otago Polytechnic



3D-CAD – pro and con

Ever consider that 3D-CAD use in product design can have disadvantages? Here they are, and what to do against them:

Lack of sensory exploration in the development process:

• Touch: When you make things by hand, you develop a feeling for it as you progress towards completion of the object. You get a feel for how the object handles, what it weighs, and you pick up on subtle things like “does it feel good when you rotate it this way and that in your hand?”, “is that edge pleasant to touch?”, etc. In CAD, you have no such options. Possible solution: Either build on experience (takes a few years) to choose the right radii and curvatures when you design things on screen; in the meantime, outputting through a 3D-printer for verification purposes might do the trick, expenses permitting. Otherwise, make sure you’re aware of existing standards (see semantics/ semiotics handout) and use them: “1mm minimum radius for moulded housings”, etc.)

• Human perception: When you build an object in 3D-CAD, you normally get perfectly scaled and dimensioned objects, often constructed without fault. You can also expect perfect Bezier curves. But what you don’t get is a feel for how the object will actually look. True, there are perspectives, there are renderings, and you can turn it on screen. But all that is seen through the simulation of a camera lens, which is no match for what happens when you walk around an existing object and watch as the object’s shape works in different angles, different proximities to the onlooker, and when you’re moving (ever moved your head sideways while looking at a glowing LCD-display? The numbers seem to dance. Similar things happen when you look at objects while on the move, due to the reflections caused by imperceptibly pulsating AC lighting; CAD can not show you that). Possible solution: Either imitate something someone has done, and which works well, such as a certain sloping angle on chair legs; there will be a reason for it. Or create 3D-printed outputs, expenses permitting, for repeat-verification.

Compatibility Trouble:

• Software wrong for project: This can happen and is most likely going to happen at the workplace, when management does not understand the needs of designers and forces them to use limiting software (e.g. Solid Works for a freeform sheet metal vacuum cleaner housing project – useless!). It can also happen if you’ve spent all your energy learning one software package only with limited capabilities, because then you’re stuck with it. Solution: Communicate clearly at your job interview what software you can handle and what software you require training for. Later, when new software is introduced while you are part of the firm, immediately sign up for training for it. If computers are something you are being associated with, make sure you are being regarded as knowledgeable about the subject; that way, when new projects begin, and you feel you haven’t got the right software, management is more likely to make the necessary purchase of suitable software when you ask them to.

• Files incompatible with connecting applications: Depending on the quality of communication and competence in the work process, you may be presented with file outputs that mean nothing to you and cannot be processed by any of the computers available. It happens when people send you data without asking first what you can actually open, but the same goes for you, too. Solution: When giving out a data-CD to a rapid prototyping facility or any other agent for further processing, save the file several times on the same CD, in different file types. A good, universal one is IGES, which can normally be read by most software, if you have only one choice.

Company-internal, political issues:

• Lack of CAD competence among management: Commonly seen in small to medium companies of long standing which are run by the founder and a few of his old boys. Usually leads to the young designer becoming the official “computer genius” in the company. The difficulty of mastering 3D CAD software is often underestimated in such scenarios, and the value of your work can be, too. Traditional, old bosses are suspicious of workers who seem to sit still all day, looking at a screen, with very little happening and all output being a little file. Solution: Involve management by explaining to them what it is you’re doing, why it seems to take long and result in seemingly small things, and what it equals in terms of traditional methods. Once they understand that you’re actually doing the work of 5 engineers, a few craftsmen and an entire prototyping facility alone and in a week, they will appreciate your work.

• Inappropriate emphasis on certain software suites: A company may be entirely outfitted with software X and expect you to use it, because the licence is expensive, they’ve always used it, it’s perfect, blah-blah. If you disagree, download a trial version of the software of your choice onto your office workstation and demonstrate its advantages. In the end, nobody cares what you use to get the job done, as long as the result is right. They just don’t want to lose money and time. So, if you can download a free version and get the job done more quickly because it’s the appropriate software, then pop it into the official company software, everybody will be happy.

Advantages of 3D-CAD use:

• It’s precise;

• You can generate and visualize a large number of variants with great ease, showing different ways of constructing, proportioning, or colourising the product;

• You can generate photorealistic visualizations of a finished CAD model and hand it straight to marketing;

• It lets you exchange elements with a few clicks if testing shows that a re-design is indicated;

• Some software lets you test your product in virtual space. You can realistically crash cars, detonate buildings, age products (run a vacuum cleaner for 500 years in a second), or simulate stress situation handling with some programs;

• Direct output though 3D-printers gives you mature prototypes in hours which used to take weeks and months to make.

• For yourself: There is more, and safer money in CAD services and visualization than there is in design. If you can do both, you’re at an enormous security advantage.

The Package

Chris Ebbert, Otago Polytechnic/ Product Design


The Package


The Package has nothing to do with bubble wrap. Instead, it describes the bare basics of your product, including all the necessary technical considerations. It is extremely advisable to get the package together in great detail and with merciless attention to:

• Legislation (“what does the law require for this product?”)
• Ergonomics (“what does human interaction require of this product?”)
• Manufacturing Restraints (“what can be built?”)
• Marketing Brief (“what exactly am I asked to create?”)

A package can be accomplished in written form, but it is better when accompanied by graphic evidence. Multiple plots of a well-built CAD model are best. It is a good idea to have the package signed by your client or supervisor as a legally binding product development contract to avoid future trouble. Whenever a deviation from this document arises, have your client or supervisor sign a respective document. Keep all of them. Nothing is more destructive to your work than outsiders messing with your basics once you’re halfway through designing the product, as it undoes everything you’ve achieved. If there is a signed package, this won’t happen as easily. Plus, any nasty surprises won’t be pinned exclusively on you, as your signature proves another party was informed.

How to compile a package

In the olden days, which is to say until about 2000 in most places, the package used to be a so-called “full-scale tape”. It was typically a side view of an object or vehicle, pinned to a wall covered with vellum, executed in full scale, with the help of special, thin, self-adhesive tape which cost a fortune. On that tape drawing, measurements could be taken for the verification of compliance with norms and standards, and mannequins could be positioned.

These days, we can do a lot better than that. The best approach is to build a CAD model with a mannequin, in which everything complies with the norms and measurements which may apply. It gives you a perfect, three-dimensional “skeleton” of your future product, which you only need to “dress” as soon as you know how to. That information will usually come in just about when you’re done building the CAD model.

What programs do we use to make a package, and how do we use them?

• Adobe Photoshop: Use it to spiff up the package with a few well-placed airbrush strokes or colour coding if you wish – purely decorative, and save it till the end, please.

• Adobe Illustrator: For its line drawing capabilities. It lets you do Bezier-curves, which are beautifully controlled, crisp curves, executed in any colour or brush tip you can imagine. They add an element of confidence and skill to your outputs that will gain you the respect of everyone.

• Solid Works or Rhino: Build your package in it if you can.

Dr Photoshop

Chris Ebbert

How to Get Perfect Renderings

Renderings are the final touch to compliment your model. You can base them on sketches or 3D CAD models if you’re really clever (perfect perspective!). They do have to look like manual artwork though. That’s part of our designer nimbus, kind of like singing the chants when you’re a medicine man – it’s simply expected of you.

Again, the procedure for rendering 21st-century-style:

1. Sketch on cheap paper using whatever you like. Pencils are still best. Be prepared to bin forty to sixty pages until you have what you want. Keep going, page after page. You’ll see how your design will look better every time you draw it anew.
2. Once you’ve got it, scan it with 240 dpi. This will make it laser-printable.
3. Go into Illustrator and place your scanned image into the viewport.
4. Draw your lines using the pen tool in Illustrator. Try different types of lines and brushes. There are some interesting calligraphy options which are worth the time and effort, giving great variations of line weight. Remember, this is for lines only!
5. Click on the placed image of your sketch and delete it.
6. Save the newly drawn Illustrator line drawing as a PDF.
7. Open the PDF in Adobe Photoshop and flatten it (Image – Flatten Image).
8. Use Photoshop as outlined below.


Photoshop Magic for your Renderings:

Yes, markers, chalk, and airbrush are nice and traditional.
No, you don’t need them, as Photoshop can do everything they can, without causing the same costs and health hazards. Also, you are in much better control over your results.

Here’s the treasure chest. Use and enjoy. You will not find this information anywhere else.

To do marker style renderings: Use the paintbrush, set to a sharp boundary, with reduced opacity (50 to 80%).

To create an impression of glass: Select an area and make it look slightly milky – you do that by going “Image – Adjust –Brightness/ Contrast” – contrast down about 20%, brightness up by 10 to 20%.

To create an impression of tinted glass: Select an area and make it look slightly milky – you do that by going “Image – Adjust –Brightness/ Contrast” – contrast down about 20%, brightness up by 10 to 20%. Then go “Image – Adjust – Colour Balance”, and turn up the green or the blue just a bit.

To create the impression of fog with features in it: Any ghostly image on a dull surface will be seen as something in the fog. You need a surface first. Then you choose an image which will become your “thing in the fog”. You select it, copy and paste it onto your surface, and use the eraser tool to rub out the boundaries. Then you go to the layers and reduce the opacity to a very low setting, like 10 to 20%.

To add reflections: Any ghostly image on a shiny surface will be seen as a reflection. You need a shiny looking surface first (see “To create a surface impression like painted metal”). Then you choose an image which will become your reflection. You select it, copy and paste it onto your shiny surface, and use the eraser tool to rub out the boundaries. Then you go to the layers and reduce the opacity to a very low setting, like 10 to 20%. If your surface is curved, you may want to “squish” your selection image a bit (Edit – Transform – Scale).

To add a camera-style flare: Go Filter – Render – Lens Flare. Remember to adjust the intensity of the flare before hitting OK. Also, try the three different types of flare on offer first.

To create something resembling chrome trim: Draw a little square with the square selection tool at the end point of where your chrome trim should go. Now go Filter – Render – Lens Flare. Remember to adjust the intensity of the flare before hitting OK. Also, try the three different types of flare on offer first. When that’s done, go Edit – Transform – Scale, and pull on the side of the little transformer selection frame, all the way across your image. You can then get rid of the little transformer frame, and you will find that the selection is still active – go Edit – Copy, and you can just paste more chrome siding into your image easily that way, if you want.

To create a surface impression like painted metal: Draw a square of the correct height for your purpose with the square selection tool at the end point of where your painted metal panel should go. Now go Filter – Render – Lens Flare. Remember to adjust the intensity of the flare before hitting OK. Also, try the three different types of flare on offer first. When that’s done, go Edit – Transform – Scale, and pull on the side of the little transformer selection frame, all the way across your image. You can then get rid of the little transformer frame, and you will find that the selection is still active – go Edit – Copy, and you can just paste more metal panels into your image easily that way, if you want.

To create a material impression: Either use the texturizer (Filter – Texture – Texturizer, and select a material there), or find an image of a material and paste it into the area you want to work on. Then find your layers, activate the layer of the image you have pasted in, and reduce the opacity until what’s underneath is showing. Increase the contrast at will: Image – Adjust – Brightness/ Contrast).

To make swooping areas rather than curved ones: If your image is maximized (centre button on the very right of the blue top bar), you should be able to draw huge ovals with the elliptical marquee tool, far exceeding the image’s boundaries. That’s how you create curved selections. If you want to fill everything but your selection with a colour, go Select – Inverse. Use the paint bucket to dump the colour of your choice into your selection.

To make curved lines: If your image is maximized (centre button on the very right of the blue top bar), you should be able to draw huge ovals with the elliptical marquee tool, far exceeding the image’s boundaries. Now just go Edit – Stroke, and choose the right stroke width before you hit OK. There’s your curve.

To add 3D effect (Danger! Can look goofy if you have no taste!): First, select the curve or area you want to make 3D, e.g. with the magic wand tool. Then go Edit – Copy, Edit – Paste. Now go Layer – Effects – Bevel and Emboss, or Drop Shadow. Inside Bevel Emboss, you have several options. Try them. Remember also to play with Blur and Depth! Less is often much more.

A few final words of advice:

• Use colour sparingly
• Use highlights
• Cast shadows
• Indicate materials
• Always put your name on your renderings
• Always put the project title on your renderings
• Always date your renderings


Basic Photoshop Handling and Tips for When Things Go Weird

The following is a list of practical applications of Photoshop functions, what you can expect from them, and how to get there:

• Creating a new, empty format to work on: File – New; in the window that pops up, enter e.g.: Width: 28cm, Height: 20cm, Resolution: 240 Pixels per Inch (this gives you an A4 format). Then click OK.
• Getting images from the internet: Remember that most images belong to individuals and companies, and that it may be illegal to use them unless you have written permission. It may, however, be OK to use them if you are not planning to publish the images. GIF images are all protected, so acquiring one of them is technically illegal. This is how you get images: Do a Google image search; on the pages of pictures you get, select the right one for your purpose by clicking on it; now click on “see full size image”; then click on it with the right mouse button and save it into your own cad folder by selecting “save as” on the pop-up banner. Done. The image is now saved in your cad folder.
• Pasting images into your format or into another image: Select – All; Edit – Copy; go to the image you wish to paste into and click on it; Edit – Paste.
• Changing the size of an image you have pasted: Edit – Transform – Scale; if you want to keep the image proportions as they are, hold the shift key down while you take hold of one of the corners of the image you want to re-scale. Otherwise, the image will be distorted. To get rid of the scaling frame, click on any selection tool, e.g. the lasso or square in the tools pillar, and click on “Apply” in the window that will pop up.
• Changing the size of your entire image: Image – Size. Enter the measurements you want it to have. Remember, it will keep its proportions, unless you click on the little checkmark in front of the word “Retain Proportions”.
• Getting rid of the scaling frame: To get rid of the scaling frame, click on any selection tool, e.g. the lasso or square in the tools pillar, and click on “Apply” in the window that will pop up.
• Getting rid of the selection: To get rid of any selection, double-click into your image, using any selection tool (Magic Wand, Lasso, Square, Circle). Alternatively, click on Select – Deselect.
• “It´s not doing anything!” You may be trying to work on the wrong layer. To find the right one, find the layer window and check which one is highlighted blue. That´s the active one. If it is different from the one you want to work on, scroll up or down till you´ve found the right one. You can tell which one is correct by looking at the little image showing you the layer´s contents.
• Getting to see the layer window: Window – Show Layers
• Rulers: Window – Show Rulers
• Grid: Window – Show Grid
• Making a layer look translucent: Find the layer window. In it, there is a small window giving you a percentage reading and the word “opacity”. Click on the little arrow behind the percentage and use the sliding button to turn down the image´s opacity.
• “My images are gone!” Probably not. If you have been saving them as PSDs so far, and then switched to JPEG, the computer may not show them, but they are there. To see all your files, scroll down to “all formats” in the window you get when you click File – Open.
• Getting rid of excess material around pasted objects: The best way is to use the eraser tool. Make sure you have selected an appropriate brush tip. To do that, click Window – Show Brushes, and select one of the fuzzy ones. If you want to get rid of a very plain background, and if your pasted object has sharp contours, you can also use the magic wand tool and the backspace key.
• Brush Tips: Window – Show Brushes

On the Evolution from Drawing to Idea

Chris Ebbert/ Product Design/ Otago Polytechnic


DC3

On the Evolution from Drawing to Idea

Many hold the view that you must have an idea before being able to draw. This is only somewhat true. It is usually the interaction of an ongoing, alternating process of drawing and reflection on the drawings which leads designers to the discovery of their way in every individual project.

It is a curious thing that the French word “dessigner” means “drawing”. The similarity to the English word “designer” is certainly not coincidental, neither ethymologically, nor by content.

Large design studios cultivate an atmosphere of calm and inflection in which designers can be seen drawing for weeks on end, all day long. It is part of our profession to draw passionately and with no regard for further facets of the job until the drawing phase has come to a close – which it normally does as soon as a concept has emerged which warrants an immediate move towards those stages of the design process which lie outside the drawing room. But until then, designers draw.

It is expected that much of your output will only be process work. Nobody is looking for end products at this stage. But we can put refinement into our sketches by the dexterity we possess, be it though talent, or through “mileage”.

Even during these very tentative stages of the design process, try to exude confidence and clarity in the way you draw. It will help you think properly, and it will also give you something tangible to put on your wall.

It must be possible for you to extract the essence of that which you have taken away from a day’s work and express it in a series of clean, attractive drawings. This forces us to draw conclusions from our sketches, and it takes us one step closer to having an outcome. Conveying our ideas in large, clean, page-filling drawings makes it possible to put them up for discussion, be it within the team, or for superiors, or clients. Never forget that we get paid for doing this, and that a designer must be able to produce about NZ$1000 worth of work every day someone can be billed for.

In a world in which intellectual property changes hands for amounts in the millions and billions, this is strongly linked to the clarity with which you express your ideas, as any recognizable feature you draw may become another claim to strengthen the case within a patent application. It is on you to spell these things out.

And it is therefore vital that you portray all the possible guises in which you can see your idea. No engineer and usually not many patent attorneys have the vision or the inclination to do this for you. So, if you can think of another way your idea may become a product, grab another sheet of paper, and give it life.

If you have no idea just yet, it is considered a good tactic to start doodling. You must keep your pen busy at all times during this stage, and you will be amazed by the things you will find in doodles if only you allow yourself to do so.

Remember to photograph, scan, or photocopy things as often as you like. It will allow you to start over from one promising sketch, and it is a great way of getting more images for the sake of comparing subtle variations without having to redraw things.

Once you have gained an idea from one of your doodles, focus in on it and develop it.

Example Brief with Assessment Outline for a product design visualization paper

DC3
chris ebbert


Hello,

Welcome to DC3. In this paper, we are going to explore all known presentation techniques in product design, and try to bring our presentation skills up to near professional levels. We have 12 weeks together, in which I will be able to see you for 2 hours per session. There will be four deliverables within that time, each worth 25% of your mark. They are:

1. Your drawing log (due Friday 12pm, week 19)
2. Your sketches (due Friday 12pm, week 11)
3. Your presentation drawings (due Friday 12pm, week 15)
4. your rendered CAD model (due Friday 12pm, week 19)

Phase One

Sketching
Assessment criteria of our first presentation:

We want to create real designer grade sketches – think “documents”, things with a trade value. You are going to be billing for those before long – make them look the part.

They must be a documentation of our thought processes, and there is nothing flighty about them. They are clean, firm, elegant pieces of work with flawless perspective and delightful, artistic touches such as shading and highlighting.

These are our criteria:

1. A demonstration of breadth in exploratory sketching
2. A visual image that fits the brand and product you have chosen
3. A unified look to all your individual presentation boards
4. Proper labelling – name, project name, company logo, date, variation name
5. Sufficient bulk (sturdy materials, large enough format, filled with a satisfying amount of sketching)
6. Neat lines, done in Illustrator or with French curves; no pencil
7. Faultless perspective
8. Meaningful picture itinerary to explain how the object works and how it gets assembled/ what parts it is made of (configuration drawings would be good)
9. Well-chosen views of object
10. Neat, written explanations and referencing on the sheets (no serif type font)
11. 100 working sketches, give or take 20. All tricks allowed as long as used responsibly (photocopies, scans, CAD, etc.), in a folder
12. 3 – 5 neat presentation boards, complying with all of the above except point 11, of course.

Phase Two

Presentation Drawings
Assessment criteria of our second presentation:

We are at stage two of three with our visualization process.

Stage one were our sketches, an exploration of the topic with as broad a range of possible outcomes as imaginable, documented by an impressive stack of process work, and culminating in the selection of three mounted key sketches.

Stage two is now all about communicating a sense of “homing in” on a final solution to your client. Using your three key sketches, you will now create three highly accurate hand drawings of good, artistic quality, which demonstrate in something approximating production outcome visuals how the new product will look - in three meaningful variations.

These are our criteria:

13. A demonstration of detail resolution (ways of hinging components, assembly of parts)
14. An exploded view of each version
15. An assembly drawing of each version
16. A visual image that fits the brand and product you have chosen
17. A unified look to all your individual presentation boards
18. Proper labelling – name, project name, company logo, date, variation name
19. Sufficient bulk (sturdy materials, large enough format, filled with a satisfying amount of sketching)
20. Neat lines, done in Illustrator or with French curves; no pencil
21. Faultless perspective
22. Well-chosen views of object
23. Written explanations and referencing on the sheets (no serif type font)
24. Absolute neatness, in colour, A3.

Phase Three

Rendered CAD model:

These are our criteria. They are simply checked off for being there. Every one is worth 5% of this last project phase’s mark, which is 25% of the whole mark for this paper:

1. It’s a Powerpoint presentation or similar slide format, manageable by people who do not understand digital imaging and are merely users, as your clients most likely would be: Yes/ No (underline)
2. Your name is on every slide: Yes/ No (underline)
3. The project- or product name is on every slide: Yes/ No (underline)
4. The client’s brand name on every slide: Yes/ No (underline)
5. The beginnings of the project are also part of the narrative: Yes/ No (underline)
6. Your CAD model is actually finished as intended: Yes/ No (underline)
7. Your CAD model has been rendered with materials: Yes/ No (underline)
8. Your CAD model has been rendered with shadows: Yes/ No (underline)
9. Your CAD model is sitting in a meaningful environment: Yes/ No (underline)
10. Your CAD model is realistically lit: Yes/ No (underline)
11. You have added detail to your CAD model which helps make it look more realistic (split lines? Hardware?) : Yes/ No (underline)
12. You have successfully built elements in your CAD model which reflect the necessities of manufacturing and therefore deviate from the CAD ideal, making the object look more like a photographed prototype (e.g. modelled split lines in 3D which actually have “meat” on the split edges) : Yes/ No (underline)
13. You have made use of CAD to explain the object in its single parts, as in an exploded view: Yes/ No (underline)
14. You have created more than 10 slides: Yes/ No (underline)
15. Your perspective millimeterage is appropriate: Yes/ No (underline)
16. Your chosen perspectives are realistic: Yes/ No (underline)
17. Your CAD model actually looks like a photograph of a real object: Yes/ No (underline)
18. Your model’s surfaces are clean: Yes/ No (underline)
19. Writing accompanies your images enough to make the presentation self-explanatory: Yes/ No (underline)
20. Your imagery is of faultless pixel quality and large enough to fill the screen: Yes/ No (underline)

The number of checkmarks multiplied by the 5% they are each worth results in your mathematical assessment mark. The actual, academic mark will be the result of calculation with other factors, but as a rule of thumb, 100% is definitely an A, and 50% would be a C-.


Drawing Log (ongoing):

This is where you think, record thoughts, try crazy stuff. It is a record of your intellectual endeavours, your scribbles, your trials and errors, the ghosts of things which may have crossed your mind. All of these are important, and you are welcome to both write and doodle, sketch, draw, whatever you like. Consider it your “product designer’s fevered poetry album” if you like. Start collecting now, please. I expect to see one concept per day, for every day of the coming semester. Inventions, ideas, thoughts you have on things. It’s a diary of your creative mind. When marking this, I will be looking for evidence of:

Dedication
Creativity
Original thinking
Conceptual and inventive abilities
Ability to research and process information
Experimentation and process

… but on the whole, the drawing log needs to be the book that convinces me that you have a deep and original mind.

The Stages of Visualization in Product Design

chris ebbert

The Stages of Visualization in Product Design


Your primary money-earning enabler as a designer is the generation of visualizations of what is inside your head. In the process of developing a product, there is ample opportunity for this, but the seasoned professional is known by his or her ability to deliver the right kind of visualization at the right stage in the development process. These visualizations are known by a myriad of different terms in the industry, all stemming from the dilemma of people from different backgrounds trying to sound cool when asking for them.

I’ve heard it all – “napkin sketch, chicken scratch, thumbnails, storyboards, scribbles, ideations, sketches, renderings”, and probably somewhere in the world, “atzquorkydoodle” or “whem-whem40”, maybe even with a short pantomime and a hop, too.

That was the bad news. The good news is that you don’t need to know what they are, as long as you can begin your interactions with your client or colleagues by telling them precisely what you will give them. Personally, I go by this list, which is reasonably expressive in a common-sense sort of way to clients and colleagues of all kinds of backgrounds:

1. Ideations
2. Sketches
3. Presentation Drawings
4. CAD Model


This is how I personally define these terms to my clients if they ask:

The ideations are something I do for myself, in my sketchbook or drawing log or whatever you want to call the little book you never show to any client, because that’s the one with the chocolate stains in it, and also possibly containing political ravings capable of alienating the odd reader from one-self.
If the client is sympathetic to creative processes, or is even a romantic soul who takes an active interest in how we really work, I might copy and digitally enhance the odd ideation out of my book and show it to them just to add a little, artistic flourish to the experience – at the end of the job, I might present it to the client in a frame, for laughs and to make them remember where we started. But if my client comes from the “products are designed by NASA in an ivory tower and come out of a machine fully polished” school of thought, I skip that step.


The sketches are usually the first thing I bill for, and they are not nearly as loose as the word may imply. I call them “sketches” only because it implies a degree of possible negotiation that is wise to allow for at such an early stage, unless you want to call the sketches “proposals” and risk parting ways with your client prematurely.
Because I want real money for my work, and usually at every point of delivery, I make sure those sketches make an impact.
First, I employ digital help to create a crisp layout with plenty of stats and data written all over it in the most appropriate possible font (never use a serif font – it clashes with the spirit of innovation).
The most appropriate possible font is usually the one your client’s stationery uses, by the way.
If your client has no stationery yet, as may be the case with many young companies or new business ventures, just use Arial or Tahoma, as they are very neutral (remember that this may be an opportunity to offer your services here to help develop a corporate identity package with stationery and logo, etc.).

To create my sketches, I may use one of my ideations as an underlay in a vector programme like Illustrator, where I trace them, using Bezier curve tools, to generate clean, black and white line drawings which may contain the odd speck of colour only to clarify certain things – like, where the on-switch is, which I may depict in red.

The sketches serve to spell out the full range of possibilities you foresee to address the design problem, and you should approach this systematically:
Decide that you will show your client a certain number of sketches (three to five is normal, ten is not unheard of, one hundred may sometimes be necessary).

Then decide what progression your range will show – will you go from “conservative” to “avant-garde”? Or from “boxy” to “organic”? “Serious” to “humorous”, “cheap” to “expensive”, “good” to “evil”? This is up to you. Choose wisely. Normally, your initial conversations with your client should give you a clue as to what may be called for here.
Try tuning into the client’s psychology and aspirations.


Whatever the sketches show, remember to be as neat and as systematic as you possibly can be, adding shadow where needed, pointing out materials by resorting to writing and illustration techniques, and indicating moving parts by drawing arrows which show a high level of sophistication (this may mean drawing them digitally, or in perspective).

The sketches should be extremely clear, simple, and serve to pin down the big picture. Avoid getting caught up in detail at this stage.

The sketches are usually A3 in size, and will be printed out commercially on heavy card stock when ready, and covered by a sheet of vellum attached with tape on the backside before given to the client in a tasteful folder. All this becomes the property of your client.
This will cost you money, but economizing here may cost you more money. Remember that your charges should recoup these costs. Investing in a $50 leather portfolio costs you nothing if you jack up your bill accordingly, but your client will feel treated in a first class way.
Just make sure what’s inside the leather case looks at least as good.


Your Presentation Drawings should be as pompous an affair as they sound. Get ready to part with a further $50 for another leather case, and possibly some bubbly.

Presentation Drawings are an emotional thing. They are supposed to unleash the client’s happiness hormones by showing in all glorious detail, full colour, what the new brainchild COULD actually look like. This is still negotiable, but a lot less so than at the sketching stage.

To arrive at a great set of presentation drawings, you need to make sure you and your client are in accord first. Your client will have seen your sketches, and picked out the ones he or she liked best. Based on those preferences, you would have developed further sketches, and met as often as necessary, to reach accord.

With that out of the way, you go away to create a full pictorial of the future product (= the presentation drawing), which will serve to conclude the concept phase of the design process and give you an opportunity to ask for your cheque and offer further cooperation in the shape of developing a CAD model, which represents the first stage of the prototyping process.



Personally, I approach my presentation drawings as follows:
Religiously heeding everything the client ever mentioned, I actually start building a rough CAD model already, which I recycle later. I do this because I believe there is a great opportunity for better credibility in it for you if your presentation drawings look a lot like your later and final CAD model, and the fact is that you can prevent many surprises by building to scale immediately. From that initial CAD model, I create depictions which have a certain, hand-drawn character, but whose perspective is flawless, and which can be turned and replicated with great ease to show functionality and colour. Simply render the CAD model in default lighting, then save it as a JPEG, and put it through the Poster Edge filter in Photoshop, which will give it a comic book style look.

Keep in mind that you can, and may even have to, show the object multiple times in different positions on the same page to achieve your objectives. If it is a CAD model already, this becomes quite easy.

The presentation drawing should try to answer all the questions someone else involved in the product’s development may ask:

• What is it made of?
• How do the parts come together?
• What will it look like when in use?
• What are the dimensions?
• Which way does that flap open?
• Is that a little light there?
• Which one is the on-switch?
• Where does the recharging plug go?

The more of these questions you can answer visually, the better. Otherwise, add writing. People love to read, and the combination of text and image is a winner every time.


The CAD model is easily the most important, the most precious, and the most useful of services we designers can deliver to our client. Many clients will also ask for CAD drawings, and may, in fact, often be better off with them instead of 3D models, which many companies cannot process further due to a lack of software expertise. CAD drawings are a jiffy to create from a CAD model, and any 3D modelling software will let you do this one way or another.
Make sure you go the extra mile and do a fully rendered presentation or even animation of your CAD model though, and show it to your client when you bring the CAD drawings. CAD models, animated or as a slide presentation, always impress tremendously, and doors may open for you because of it.

If the company does have software expertise for further processing of your 3D model though, you will need to make sure a few things have been addressed. Those in charge of CAD operations are often formally trained CAD operators or engineers, who expect certain conventions to be complied with. Your image and credibility will suffer if you ignore this. Always make sure you do the following things when building and handing over a CAD model:

• Know which software the client company uses, and save your model in a format which is compatible. If in doubt, IGES is usually a good format. “I could not open your file” is an avoidable nuisance email.
• Mind the coordinate system of your CAD system; “x” is the longitudinal axis of your object, and “z” in the positive is its height. Much confusion can be avoided by correct positioning. How often have I been asked “what is that thing you sent?”, and had to reply “it’s, um, your truck, upside down, with the front facing backwards”.
• Your model should be built with the x axis precisely on its centre spine. That is the only way you can build half models, and mirror them for full symmetry.
• Your model should start at “xyz=0”. In the case of vehicles, that point is the front wheel hub axis. If you don’t do that, chances are a CAD operator working on a different scale will never discover your model once imported into his system, because it may be floating light-years out there.
• To send out a CAD model for further development or prototyping, keep one handy that doesn’t contain all the lights and cameras and extra screens you built for rendering. They just confuse the hell out of everybody, because they show up as objects (I was once accused of being silly by building lots of little UFOs surrounding a caravan, which in fact where my rendering spotlights, and looked like flying saucers to another company’s earnest CAD operator).
• Make full use of everything CAD can offer you – namely to create photo realistic images of an object you’ve created. You can not really go too far here – think “illusion of reality”. Photo realism is possible in CAD. That’s exactly what you want. CAD is an amazing make-believe machine, and our best friend when it comes to making people accept our visions.

Assessing a visualization paper

In order to cast off the shackles of subjective judgment, I have developed this method for assessing product design visualization work done by students. It may read cumbersome now, but much of the information contained in it is unnecessary. This could be shorter for the student user.




DC3
Assessment of Sketches
chris ebbert

Student name:

Assessment criteria of our first presentation:


We want to create real designer grade sketches – think “documents”, things with a trade value. You are going to be billing for those before long – make them look the part.

They must be a documentation of our thought processes, and there is nothing flighty about them. They are clean, firm, elegant pieces of work with flawless perspective and delightful, artistic touches such as shading and highlighting.


These are our criteria; 100 points are possible, and your mark will be computed out of them:

A demonstration of breadth in exploratory sketching (20 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “Does this pile of sketches really show every possible way of addressing this design problem? Every imaginable facet of it, as in, what it is made of, what aspects of relevant human psychology for this project it reflects, and are there matches for everything the competition is making?”).
You have produced about 80 – 120 sketches to attempt to cover the entire range of possibilities (20 points/ 100): Yes/ No

A visual image that fits the brand and product you have chosen (15 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “Does this presentation look like something which almost could be a magazine ad by this company?”).
You have chosen a brand name (5 points/ 100): Yes/ No
You have created a successfully composed layout (5 points/ 100): Yes/ No
Your colour scheme is in tune with the brand (5 points/ 100): Yes/ No

A unified look to all your individual presentation boards (5 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “Is it clear that these all came together, for the same occasion, by the same designer?”).
It is visually obvious that all your pages belong together (5 points/ 100): Yes/ No

Proper labelling (14 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “If these documents were found by someone who has no idea about the project, would they understand so well what it is about just by looking at the stats that you would stand a chance of getting your cheque even if the person who ordered you to do the work doesn’t work there anymore?”).
name (6 points/ 100): Yes/ No
project name (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No
company logo (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No
date (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No
variation name (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No














Sufficient bulk/ commitment/ value impression to the client (6 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “If you had your own manufacturing company, and this work was brought to you by a designer, together with a bill over a few thousand dollars, how inclined would you feel to pay up? Does it satisfy you? Do you feel like you got your money’s worth?”).
sturdy materials or good resolution if on-screen (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No
large enough format (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No
filled with a satisfying amount of sketching/ imagery (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No

Neat lines, possibly done in Illustrator or with French curves; no pencil (10 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “Does this look like something the layman is unable to do? Does it justify bringing you in? Is it neater than an average person could ever hope to depict something? Does this blow people away?”).
In exploratory sketching (4 points/ 100): Yes/ No
In presentation sketching (6 points/ 100): Yes/ No

Faultless perspective (10 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “Is there anything wrong at all with this perspective? Does this look absolutely right?”).
In exploratory sketching (4 points/ 100): Yes/ No
In presentation sketching (6 points/ 100): Yes/ No

Meaningful picture itinerary to explain how the object works and how it gets assembled/ what parts it is made of (configuration drawings would be good; 10 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “If someone who has no idea about this project found your work, would they understand what it is you have depicted just by looking at it, and without your explanation? Would they understand how it comes together, and what the different parts are made of?”).
10 points: Yes/ No

Well-chosen views of object (4 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “Would you actually see this object in that kind of perspective, in a realistic situation? Or would you need to be an ant/ bird/ space alien to see it in that kind of view?”).
Realistic views for depicted object (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No
No key aspects hidden by perspective or viewing angle: (2 points/ 100): Yes/ No


Neat, written explanations and referencing on the sheets (no serif type font; 3 points/ 100 total):
(Ask yourself: “Does this writing reflect trust? Does it look like you actually believe what you have written? Will someone who reads it be able to understand your visualizations better?”).
(2 points/ 100): Yes/ No

3 – 5 neat presentation boards, complying with all of the above except point 11, of course (3 points/ 100 total):
(2 points/ 100): Yes/ No

Deconstruction

chris ebbert DCC4 workshop
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is…
… not a style, and not a movement. It’s an approach.
… how you get there, not what it ends up as.
… to ask ”who says it has to…?”
… to disagree on principle.
… to turn convention inside out.
… to find out what the rules are, and break them.
… to challenge common views, by providing a working solution that defies all expectation.
… wot r u doin 4 lunch m8?

Themes similar to deconstruction that affect our working lives as product designers:

• TRIZ – Genrich Altshuller’s problem solving system for inventors.
• Forced innovation
• Reverse Engineering
• Innovation Management


What other examples of deconstruction are we living with today?
What would you get if you deconstructed yourself?
Reflect in your workbook.

Identity

DCC4 Workshop 3 chris ebbert

Identity
“Every time you buy a product, you cast a vote for the kind of world you want to be living in.”

Aspects of products we may use to build identity in a product:
• Brand – “Whose philosophy am I endorsing?”
• Colour – “What fruit might this be?”
• Continuity – “Who are this product’s parents, siblings…?”
• Culture – “Does it eat with chopsticks?”
• Designer’s name – “Whose guru’s credo does this carry?”
• Gender – “Is it a boy or a girl?”
• Graphics – “What mood is it in?”
• Logo – “How much self esteem does it have?”
• Materials – “Show us what it’s made of.”
• Nationality – “Which land’s exotic vibe does it give off?”
• Performance – “What does this measure up to?”
• Religion – “Has it got ethics of its own?”
• Shape – “Is it a predator, prey, pregnant, or attacking, etc.?”
• Size – “How much stuff do I get for my money?”
• Detail – “How much refinement do I get for my money?”
• Smell – “Is it in good health?”
• Sound – “Has it got poise?”
• Stereotype – “Does it take sides?”
• Technology – “Is it trying to be a weapon of mass destruction, or just a stick?”
• Touch – “Do you want to cuddle?”
• Value perception – “Will I be envied for it?”


In-Class Exercise:

Tell us about your shoes, using all of the criteria above.


Workbook Homework:
Pick an object of your choice and reflect on it in the same way in your workbook, using images and writing.

Research Methodologies and Product Design

Research Methodologies and Product Design chris ebbert, workshop 2, DCC4

Let’s work with the statement that our entire work process as product designers creates a trail of research activity, and can even be classified entirely as research. Here’s how and why – please reflect on it in your workbook, and illustrate it with examples:

• “As product designers, we are empirical researchers whenever we engage in a trial and error mode of exploring solutions.” Cue-words: Ideations, Study Models, Variations.
• “We are theory-based researchers whenever we work on the basis of existing solutions.” Cue-words: Incremental Innovation, Me-Too Approaches, Reverse Engineering, IP-Research.
• “We are quantitative researchers whenever concrete data are needed to complete our design work.” Cue-words: Benchmarking, Market Research.
• “We are qualitative researchers whenever perception plays a role in our work.” Cue-words: Haptics, semantics, semiotics, cultural considerations.
• “We are action researchers whenever we make our work available to further instances and participate in the ensuing proceedings.” Cue-words: Prototype Testing, Prototype Refinement.
• “We are engaging in reflective practice throughout the entire design experience.” Cue-words: “What does this solution do with me?” Be it your own, or someone else’s, at any stage of the design process.

IP Research for product designers
It is wise to get involved in Intellectual Property research (patents and copyrights) at an early stage of the design process. It helps establish the following aspects of direction for the project, and its early completion can save much time and money:

• Who? You must identify possible IP holders, and possibly interact with them.
• What? You must define the exact range of purposes and capabilities you wish to address with your project.
• Why? You must justify the introduction of your new solution.
• Where? You must identify your markets and your sources.
• When? You must time the IP process with its related obligations.

I suggest using your PDS2 project to practice answering the five “W”- Questions above in your workbook for DCC4. Introduce the project on a page in your workbook, and try to find answers to the questions as they might pertain to your PDS2 project. If you can think of other, even hypothetical projects to use for this exercise, feel free to use them instead, or in addition.

The Story Of The Little Dustbin

The Story
Of the Little
Dustbin’s Batch Production

By Chris Ebbert

Once upon a tyme,
Not too far from the beer gardens of southern Germany, there was a product design consultant named Chris. This struggling consultant soon met a friendly, Turkish businessman named Hürriyett, who desperately wanted to have a product all his own. Hürriyett and his brothers, who ran a successful business selling frying pans at trade fairs under a franchise agreement, felt that a product of their own, whose exclusive rights they would hold, would enable them to break free from the tyranny of the big, evil frying pan franchise, and make them very, very rich.

Hürriyett and Chris went on to meet regularly over lavish, Turkish dinners in fine restaurants, and decided that the best product to create would be a little household dustbin. But it would have to be the most beautiful and amusing dustbin in the entire world. And it would have to be unbelievably clever, because otherwise, people might just ignore it.

It was agreed that Chris should work for a consultancy fee, and become co-owner of the patent later-on.

Chris then started thinking hard, brooding over piles of paper napkins from Turkish restaurants, which had been scribbled and sketched on profusely with pens borrowed from waiters and other guests. Hürriyett and Chris had soon produced a mountain of sketches, trying to come up with concepts for the little dustbin. Looking at them all with a comparing eye, it soon occurred to Chris that the best idea would be to create a dustbin which would clamp down the bin liner around the edges to prevent it from falling in, somehow including the inside of the lid. And it would have to have large, exchangeable caps on the lid, to allow for a customized look, and to make it look like a little monster which opened its mouth whenever someone stepped on the pedal. This all amused Chris very much, and he created 18 colourful drawings to present the concept to Hürriyett and his brothers.

Over a water pipe, the concept amused the three Turks just as much, and it was agreed that a study model should be built. Hürriyett gave Chris the equivalent of 50 pounds and the keys to the company bicycle to go and get what it would take to build a cardboard model.

Chris went and built the cardboard model, and it worked well.

This made the three brothers very happy, and they decided that a working prototype should be built. Hürriyett gave Chris the equivalent of 300 pounds and the keys to the company’s 500-year-old executive car to go and have the prototype built somehow, somewhere.

Chris drove the disintegrating BMW 750i to the shop of his friend Werner, across the border, in France, and instructed him to laminate a working fibreglass model of the little dustbin. Werner, a long-haired biker who lived on cappuccino and nicotine, and normally produced fibreglass cows and amusement park rides in his shop, set to work and produced a nice working prototype of the little dustbin.

The three Turkish brothers were by now incredibly excited and needed to smoke the water pipe a lot to stay calm. The dustbin was working, and it looked nice. Now they would have to get a patent, somehow find a way to produce the little dustbin, and open up marketing avenues. To make sure they would be taken seriously, they bought a big, black Mercedes 600 SEL with lots of frying pan money. Then they told Chris to somehow take care of the patent and the manufacturing, while they would go looking for suitable exhibitions, fairs, companies, and telemarketing ventures to sell the little dustbin, and smoke the water pipe a bit more.

Chris scratched his head a lot and realized that he had to produce some very specific information now, based on which any manufacturing company would be able to quote him a price for the production of the little dustbin, and to be able to apply for a patent. This meant he had to construct the production version of the little dustbin in great detail, on his computer, in a 3D-CAD program, to be able to say exactly what kinds of parts would be needed, and how many of them, and how strong they would have to be, and what exactly they would have to be made of. This took him two strenuous weeks. As he went, he soon realized that he would have to decide how the little dustbin would be produced, and exactly which processes he intended to make use of for the manufacturing process. He had it worked out after a while that there were two options: Either he would design the dustbin for mass production by injection moulding, which meant huge startup investments, but cheap, clean, and quick manufacturing, or batch production by vacuum-forming, which meant cheap setup costs, but lots of niggling problems and corrections during the manufacturing process. He designed two different versions of the little dustbin, one for mass production, and one for batch production. Then he started looking for possible manufacturers. Using the 500-year-old car, he drove to Italy, Switzerland, and Austria, to meet with mighty plastics moulders, who promised to give top quality at premium prices, be it batch- or mass production. Their prices caused the three Turks much despair, and no further they went with them. Being a careful sort of man, Chris had every single one of the mighty plastics moulders sign a confidentiality agreement, to make sure they wouldn’t turn around and steal the little dustbin-idea before it was protected by a patent. This now proved a wise idea, as none of them would enter into a business agreement with the three Turks.

So Chris turned east instead and invited an illustrious bunch of plastics moulders from China and India, who conjured up stories of varying credibility as to their capabilities, some of them a bit crazy. After much haggling, bragging, and wining and dining, a nice gentleman named Deepak, from Bombay, emerged as the one whose offer was favoured by the three brothers. He claimed to be able to bring the dustbin into production for one-third of the price of the Chinese competitors, and to be able to do this within only three weeks, making use of a seamless chain of excellent, cutting-edge technology he had command over due to the fact that he and his brothers were engineers who could simply build any machine they needed. This caused the three brothers so much joy that they immediately lit their water pipe, and they stayed connected to it for an entire evening, and there was much laughter and commotion, and it was decided that Chris should go to India and create a great manufacturing empire within a few days...

Meanwhile, Chris had found a patent attorney who set to work in writing the patent application for the little dustbin. In order to be able to lift his pen, this noble man required the equivalent of about 2000 pounds first, which the three brothers gladly gave him. The patent application the noble man was about to write would protect the concept of the little dustbin from copycats until the patent would be either granted or denied. The patent would be granted only if the attorney was able to prove that the little dustbin was entirely different from all other dustbins in existence, whether they were patented or not. And the patent would be denied if he failed to do so. If it was denied, the attorney would have to find a way to re-write the patent application until it differed so much from similar patents that the little dustbin’s patent would finally be granted. This could take years, and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

This is why the Turks were anxious to get the little dustbin onto the market quickly, to generate revenue to pay for the coming legal fees.

Thus Chris was bundled off to India to help bring the little dustbin to life. There, everything was very different from Europe, and even though Chris was allowed all the Chicken Tikka Masala he wanted, it took not 3 weeks, but 11 months until he was able to return home. It may have had something to do with the fact that the Indian brothers turned out to be breathtakingly clueless after all, and weren’t capable in the least of building anything remotely like they had promised.

This is what happened:

Normally, when plastic parts are developed, the product design consultant will painstakingly sculpt a plasticine version of the future part by hand first; as this is time-consuming, and expensive, only one-half of the part is normally sculpted. The other half is produced by scanning the half-part with a 3D-scanner, with whose data collection a virtual model of the half-part forms automatically on a computer; that virtual part is fed into a milling machine, which carves out a perfectly clean and symmetrical model of the full part, made of a material which is hard enough to be used as a mould for the first few parts to be produced with. All this normally takes around two to three weeks.

Unfortunately, none of this technology was available to Chris at the manufacturing plant in Bombay, and Deepak, the nice gentleman who owned the company, and his brothers were very surprised that Chris thought he needed any of it, and that it existed at all. They had thought Chris would be happy to accept the services of the company’s senior carpenter, a charming old man named Mistry, who spoke no English, but carved beautiful things out of wood on a balcony overlooking the palm tree-lined company parking lot in East Goregaon, while porters served glasses of hot tea with milk, and little stray dogs were licking his bare feet. Quaint though this prospect had seemed to Chris, he felt wild despair: How was he supposed to deliver a product which would stand up to the rigors of the European market’s requirements, under these circumstances, within three weeks?

It was obvious that Deepak and his brothers had good vacuum forming machines, but getting the moulds done symmetrically in an acceptable quality seemed impossible now. Chris consulted with his Turks, who understood the situation and conceded that they’d gladly pay Chris to stay in India until everything would be finished.

So, Chris, who tended to write steep bills, and who began to like India, shook his head in disbelief, arranged to stay for a long time, and started to improvise. He found that there was a kind of childrens’ plasticine in India which, even though it had the consistency of a shredded stray dog in tooth paste, and tended to run like ice cream in the tropical climate, could be made to perform reasonably well as a first mould in the vacuum former if cooled in the company’s refrigerator over night. Chris spent weeks modeling moulds from shredded stray dog with scissors and caps of pens, refrigerating the model in the evening, and usually ringing for the shop manager, who was waiting in standby-mode in front of the small office, on completion of a part in the morning. The wiry man would then hurry off with the ice-cold, ridiculously coloured mould, running fast across the hot workshop, in order to reach the moulding machine before the model could get soft. He then immediately took a plastic imprint of the model. Whenever this worked, everyone was very happy. Sometimes it didn’t work, which meant that everyone had to wait until the model had melted and been poured out of the ruined mould, and put back into the refrigerator to get hard enough for modeling again. Meanwhile, Chris would stroll off to have a tall glass of fine Kingfisher beer and play with stray dogs in the parking lot, and come back two hours later to carve the same part again, hoping that it would work this time.

After many weeks, all parts of the little dustbin had finally been moulded from ABS, using frozen models; hard, acrylic casts had been made from them to develop the aluminium production moulds. Understandably, the finish left much to be desired, and Chris had to oversee a small army of workers who were busy sanding down the acrylic casts, and later grinding down the aluminium ones with sandpaper and flexes, to make them smooth and symmetrical.

In the meantime, Deepak and his brothers crisscrossed Bombay in rickshaws, hunting down subcontractors who would be able to produce stickers and the necessary, small metal parts for hinges. Finding ways to communicate to the very relaxed factory workers that it actually did matter where exactly on the product stickers and drill holes were to be positioned proved a huge issue. In the end, putting depressions into the moulds in the appropriate locations, and offering a Swiss watch to the worker who would hit the right position most reliably did wonders for quality control.

In July, Chris flew to Istanbul for the first time to present the little dustbin to Hürriyett and his brothers. They were very happy, but thought that it should be just a teeny bit larger.

So Chris flew back to Bombay and started everything all-over again, just to make the little dustbin a teeny bit larger.

By October, this was done, and the little dustbin was produced in great numbers. Container after container arrived in Europe, Turkey, and the Arab Gulf States, and the three Turkish brothers and Chris went from one business meeting to the next, and smoked the water pipe a lot.

Amazingly, the patent had been granted without any difficulties. But the patent only protected the little dustbin in Germany and France, and the three brothers found so many wholesalers elsewhere, that they had to pay the noble patent attorney an additional 30.000 pounds to apply for patents for the little dustbin in other countries, as well.

This they did, and the little dustbin sold well for a while, and almost everyone lived happily ever after.

Postmodernism and product design

Not only Alessi and Robert Venturi show an approach to object design that avails itself of contemporary means to employ flashback semantics. The Retro movement of the 1990s, in some cases still ongoing, shows a similar psychology of nostalgic adornment as postmodernism did.

Telltale signs in product design:
• Citing brand specific, historical styling references
• Nostalgic themes and names reminiscent of the brand’s past classics
• Adhesion to mainstream form while applying nostalgic accents



Homework suggestion for your workbook: Find images of products and vehicles that were designed in the last 20 years with a nostalgic, or retro attitude.

Design in the 60s and 70s

The face of product design over the decades, and the return of the stylist

1930s:
Architects and artists begin to take influence in the manufacturing scene, creating objects suitable for, and expressive of, their times. On a lower level, stylists work in various industries for the purpose of achieving aesthetic results without aspiring to innovation on a conceptual level.

1940s:
Scarcity of materials and emergence of new technology infuse the world with new possibilities and solutions, inspiring architects and artists to utopian dreams of a better time after the war. Stylists still abound, but insight into new technologies displaces them in favour of technologically more informed, industrial artists – the designer as we know it is born.

1950s:
The onset of a middleclass society with strong consumerism breeds awareness of public focus in research and design, de facto turning the tables on the “great innovators”, and making them more attuned to listening to the public. Consumer-oriented development takes shape.

1960s:
Rising individualism fuels diversity in contemporary styles. Anti-conservative sentiment lends itself to the introduction of exotic aspects, both authentic and utopian. The consumer object begins to reflect its owner’s creeds and ideologies.

1970s:
Hangover sets in from the freewheeling effects of the hippie movement, and the oil crisis compounds a feeling of gloom and doom, which expresses itself in overly assertive forms.

1980s:
Idealism subsides as a driving force in society, giving way to a culture of fluff and indiscriminate consumerism, at times slanted towards environmentalism.

1990s:
The advent of computer technology allows for streamlined r&d processes and new shapes, inspired by the realities of using 3D modelling software. Neo-conservatism, at times culminating in retro approaches, and a new mannerism enter the world of product design toward the end of the 90s.

2000+:
Mannerism abounds in the world of shape. Incremental improvements in electronics and digital technology spawn new kinds of products, whose semantics are increasingly styling-heavy.



Homework: Reflect on the notion that product design is a sounding board of public sentiment, and the overall psychology of society. Find a few current products in a store or online, and consider in your workbook what their semantics are telling us about our society, and the way people think today.

Luxury & Power, Streamline & the decorated form

Streamline

Why do we like it?
• Organic appeal
• Implications of speed capability

What visual traits does it have?
• Gradations
• Reflections
• Highlights

What is it good for?
• Mold release
• Haptic appeal
• Ergonomics
• Aerodynamics

Who used to be able to make it?
• Shipbuilders
• Panel beaters
• Metal crafters
• Stone masons
• Clay and ceramics specialists
• Carvers

How do we achieve it?
• Foam modelling
• Clay modelling
• MDF mockups
• 3D CAD computer modelling
• 5-axis CNC routers via 3D CAD data files



Reflect in your workbook:
• How do we express luxury and power in the object today?
• What meaning does the decorated form have today?

The Legacy of Austerity and the International Style

Important aspects first expressed by propagators of the International Style:
“The activity in architecture and design is about significance.” (Mies van der Rohe)
“If you need decoration, your design has faults.” (LeCorbusier)
“Streamline everything.” (Raymond Loewy)

Important aspects first expressed by propagators of Austerity:
“Do what you can with what little you’ve got.”
“Substitute ambiguity with refinement.” (as seen in Walter Gropius’s Lakeshore Drive buildings; the staged radii, proportioning systems, economy of material through optimized concept)



Consider this in your workbook:
Are we adhering to any utopian ideas today in product design? Which ones?
What is your opinion on the work of Kaara Klint and Charles Eames?

The Bauhaus and Product Design

The Bauhaus introduced the following aspects to the world of art and design:

• Redefining human existence according to new ideals and possibilities
• Introducing aesthetics into the world of necessity
• Scientific approach to the visual
• Taking charge of new perspectives with artistic esteem
• Merging architecture, sculpture, painting, and the crafts, creating industrial design as a discipline
• Working with the nature of materials
• Independent thinking, based in reason
• Designing aesthetically for mass production
• Connecting the arts through theatre
• Natural sciences


Discussion and workbook assignment:

Reflecting on the points listed above and your notes, ask yourself what the Bauhaus might do today if it were still around. Write down your thoughts and collect images on the following considerations:

1. What would it take to redefine human existence according to new ideals and possibilities today? What things do we know today that are still untouched by aesthetics, and how might they be tackled by the Bauhaus?
2. What do we have today that would be as revolutionary to the world of art and design as the natural sciences were back then, and what could we gain from that?
3. Where do all the arts come together today?
4. If we were thinking independently, and based in reason, refusing convention, what kind of world would we designers of today need to idealize?

Digital Visualization for Designers

Chris Ebbert/ Otago Polytechnic


Digital Visualization for Designers


As designers, we need to be able to communicate our ideas professionally. This text is about the necessary technical skills, and can serve as a manual for self teaching.



What is CAD?


· “CAD” stands for Computer-Aided Design.
· We distinguish between two-dimensional (“2D”) and three-dimensional (“3D”) -CAD.
· 3D-CAD is used by engineers, architects, and designers to create objects which resemble real ones, and which can be put into environments resembling real environments – hence “Virtual Reality”.
· 2D-CAD refers mainly to graphics software. It is used almost everywhere today, but especially in advertising and in retailing. It is the kind we will focus on.




What can CAD do for us?

It helps us create artwork for commercial applications. That means:

· Worlds
· Objects
· Art
· Automated Presentations
· Brochures
· Business Cards
· Flyers
· Layouts
· Leaflets
· Letterheads
· Logos
· Menues
· Moodboards
· Patterns for Printing
· Photo Montages
· Portraits
· Posters
· Shop Window Designs
· Store Signs
· Slide Shows
· Store Plans


How is CAD used?

As a rule of thumb:

· Creating an image from scratch can be done with both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, but Illustrator does it better.
· Making alterations to an image is best done in Photoshop.
· Creating a presentation is the domain of Power Point.


What do we need to have for CAD?

Apart from the obvious, which is … :

· Suitable hardware (i.e., a reasonably powerful computer work station with a fairly large and well adjusted monitor);
· Good software (e.g. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and Power Point; although this could be extended to include Dreamweaver, Flash, and other products for more advanced CAD activities)

… you need the following, human qualities:

· A bit of artistic spirit
· A drive for self-expression
· A sense for aesthetics
· A methodical approach – use what you can, as well as possible.



Basic Photoshop handling

The following is a list of practical applications of Photoshop functions, what you can expect from them, and how to get there:

Creating a new, empty format to work on: File – New; in the window that pops up, enter: Width: 800 Pixels, Height: 576 Pixels, Resolution: 72 Pixels per Inch (unless you have something different in mind for a specific reason). Then click OK.
Getting images from the internet: Remember that most images belong to individuals and companies, and that it may be illegal to use them unless you have written permission. It may, however, be OK to use them if you are not planning to publish the images. GIF images are all protected, so acquiring one of them is technically illegal. This is how you get images: Do a Google image search; on the pages of pictures you get, select the right one for your purpose by clicking on it; now click on “see full size image”; then click on it with the right mouse button and save it into your own cad folder by selecting “save as” on the pop-up banner. Done. The image is now saved in your cad folder.
Pasting images into your format or into another image: Select – All; Edit – Copy; go to the image you wish to paste into and click on it; Edit – Paste.
Changing the size of an image you have pasted: Edit – Transform – Scale; if you want to keep the image proportions as they are, hold the shift key down while you take hold of one of the corners of the image you want to re-scale. Otherwise, the image will be distorted. To get rid of the scaling frame, click on any selection tool, e.g. the lasso or square in the tools pillar, and click on “Apply” in the window that will pop up.
Changing the size of your entire image: Image – Size. Enter the measurements you want it to have. Remember, it will keep its proportions, unless you click on the little checkmark in front of the word “Retain Proportions”.
Getting rid of the scaling frame: To get rid of the scaling frame, click on any selection tool, e.g. the lasso or square in the tools pillar, and click on “Apply” in the window that will pop up.
Getting rid of the selection: To get rid of any selection, double-click into your image, using any selection tool (Magic Wand, Lasso, Square, Circle). Alternatively, click on Select – Deselect.
“It´s not doing anything!” You may be trying to work on the wrong layer. To find the right one, find the layer window and check which one is highlighted blue. That´s the active one. If it is different from the one you want to work on, scroll up or down till you´ve found the right one. You can tell which one is correct by looking at the little image showing you the layer´s contents.
Getting to see the layer window: Window – Show Layers
Rulers: Window – Show Rulers
Grid: Window – Show Grid
Making a layer look translucent: Find the layer window. In it, there is a small window giving you a percentage reading and the word “opacity”. Click on the little arrow behind the percentage and use the sliding button to turn down the image´s opacity.
“My images are gone!” Probably not. If you have been saving them as PSDs so far, and then switched to JPEG, the computer may not show them, but they are there. To see all your files, scroll down to “all formats” in the window you get when you click File – Open.
Getting rid of excess material around pasted objects: The best way is to use the eraser tool. Make sure you have selected an appropriate brush tip. To do that, click Window – Show Brushes, and select one of the fuzzy ones. If you want to get rid of a very plain background, and if your pasted object has sharp contours, you can also use the magic wand tool and the backspace key.
Brush Tips: Window – Show Brushes




Scanning

Apart from the internet and digital photography, scanning is a classic way to obtain imagery to work on.

It basically means that an image is being “read” by a machine capable of translating visual information into pixels.

Scanning is a very simple process, but you need to select a few settings before you do it to ensure satisfaction with the result. The most basic and most important ones are colour and resolution. Make sure your scanner is scanning in colour, and also make sure it is set to a reasonable resolution. On most scanners, it is possible to choose from a range of resolutions between 50 and 1000.

As a rule of thumb, never choose a resolution of less than 72 dpi, simply because your computer’s monitor usually displays imagery at a higher resolution than 72, and your image would look dismal at less than that. Also, try not to exceed 300 dpi unless you really have to. For most jobs, 150 dpi is a good, solid choice, especially when your work is going to be printed by an inkjet printer later. Remember to choose this setting when you scan. If you are planning to print your work with a laser printer some time, try 240.

Assignment: Feel free to wander off right now and go in search of an image of a painting you like very much. It must not be larger than A4, and not smaller than a postcard. Good places to look might be the library, especially inside books on art history. By next week, have it scanned at a resolution of 150 dpi, and ready to work on in your CAD folder. If you have problems scanning it, bring the image next time to do it then, but please give it a try first.


This is how it is done:

Within your CAD folder, create a folder and name it “Scans”. Then, do this:

Open Photoshop
Go “File – Import – Twain 32”
Wait a little until the scanner has woken up and has done its pre-scanning
The panel which came up should show the following information: Colour Photo, Source 21.59 x 29.71 cm in Width and Height (this means A4), and the target needs to have the same dimensions. This is normally how the panel comes up anyway.
Set your resolution to 150 dpi
Place your image face down onto the scanner window (lift flap first, of course); make sure your image is plane and touches the glass everywhere by pushing down on it GENTLY
If it is printed, which it most likely is, make sure it does not line up with the frame of the scanner, but sits there slightly crooked. You read that right: It prevents the so-called Moiree-Effect, which tends to occur while scanning printed items. This is because printed surfaces have intervals which can interfere with the image. You can see if it has happened to you by looking at your scanned image in Photoshop later. If it looks grey and blurry, you’ve been “moireed”.
Press the Scan button
Once the scanner has stopped, you can get rid of the scanner interface and will now find your image waiting for you in Photoshop. Just save it into your CAD folder where you can find it.




The Type Tool

What it can do

The Type Tool lets you add straight text to your image. It can type horizontally or vertically, and you can make your letters glow, cast a shadow, look three-dimensional, or translucent. You can choose various fonts and styles, and any size.

How to use it

To activate the type tool, click on the T icon in the tools pillar, then click on your image.

In the window that has popped up, you can select the following settings for your Lettering:

Font: Choose your font wisely. They all have different “personalities” and may or may not fit with your message. As an example: What looks more appropriate, modern or modern? Gentle or Gentle ? Serious or serious ?
Font style: you normally have a choice of regular (just normal writing with no frills), bold (normal writing, but thicker), italic (your font slightly slanted to the right), and italic bold (slanted to the right and thicker).
Underline: Gives you a line under your letters.
Faux Bold: For letters for which there is no formal “bold” setting, Photoshop will make one up.
Faux Italic: For letters for which there is no formal “italic” setting, Photoshop will make one up.
Size: measured in points, a good size for text normally is 12 or 14. Anything smaller than that requires a higher resolution, because it tends to look edgy otherwise. Larger type is no problem.
Colour: Choose a colour for your lettering. If you want to change colour within the word, you need to perform a separate action.
Positioning: You have a choice of three settings, left, centre, and right.

To write from top to bottom, rather than horizontally, click on the T icon and and keep the mouse button down to see the other options; one of them will be a T icon with an arrow pointing downward. Click on it and then proceed as you normally would.

If you have already typed something and would like to convert it to vertical, go Layer – Type – Vertical, or Horizontal if that is what you want to see.

You can retrace your steps by clicking on different stages in your history window in the lower right hand corner of the monitor.

To get 3D effects, like shadows or an engraved look, go Layer – Effects – Drop Shadow, or Bevel Emboss, or any other function you fancy.

To change the colour of what you have written, go Layer – Effects – Colour Fill, and change the colour of your writing by changing the colour in the little square.

To make your writing translucent, go Layer – Options, and turn down the opacity percentage.

To change the size of your writing, either go Edit – Transform – Scale (suitable only for downsizing!), or erase your writing by going Layer – Delete Layer and doing the lettering over again in a bigger size.


This is how it is done:

Within your CAD folder, create a folder and name it “Signs”. Then,

Go New – File, and create an image with the measurements 800 pixels (width) x 576 pixels (height), 72 dpi
Save the image as “Sign 01” in your new folder called “Signs”
Now pick images you feel would make a good background from the internet. Use company imagery.
Add text and make use of the functions explained under “How to use it”
Flatten the image and save it as a JPEG in your folder.
Now you’re done.



E-Mailing Images

When images are e-mailed, it is crucial to give them the right file type and dimensions.

The right file type is JPEG, and the right dimensions vary to a certain degree. As a rule of thumb, you will want to make sure that your image is large enough to fill the screen, but it should not be larger than that. Since you don’t know how large your recipients’ monitors are, you have to find one value which will work for all. These days, the dimensions 800 pixels by about 576 pixels, at 72 dpi, are your best bet. Slight variations are fine, such as 800 x 600. The image may also be smaller than that, but keep in mind that it will look better the larger it is.




Colour Theory

Colour Management and its practical applications in Photoshop

Colour Mode:

There are several colour modes associated with computers. They are:

RGB (“Red, Green, Blue”)
CMYK (“Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Kontrast or Black”)
Indexed colour

RGB is best used for images which will be shown on monitors. Examples would be Power Point Presentations or projections. RGB images consist entirely of lighting elements, and dark regions are generated by an absence of light.

CMYK is used for printing, where images are put together with the use of pigment. Darker tones require the addition of black.

Indexed Colour is used for internet applications such as websites and homepage designs.


Colour Depth:

Colour Depth is measured in Bits. The higher the bit number, the more colours there are at your disposal.

1 Bit means that all you can expect to see is black dots forming cloud like images. Black is the only “colour” available.
Indexed Colour images, as used on the internet, possess 4 or 8 bit. They give you 16 and 256 colours.
Black and white imagery with 8 bits have 256 grey tones at their disposal.
RGB files give you 15, 16, or 24 bits, and a total number of up to 256 x 256 x 256 colours, which adds up to something over 16 million colours. This is as close as it gets to the natural spectrum of colours.



Colour-related functions of Photoshop:

Foreground & Background Colour: Lets you choose the colours you want to work with.
Foreground & Background Colour – Web Colours Only: Lets you use only colours which are suitable for the internet.
Foreground & Background Colour – Custom: Gives you various colour systems from which to select coded colours (e.g. Pantone, Toyo, etc.).
Image – Mode: Here you can choose between RGB, CMYK, Grayscale, and Indexed Colour.
Image – Adjust – Levels: Allows you to change an image at a very technical level. Low priority for us.
Image – Adjust – Auto Levels: Brings your image into a well-balanced colour situation automatically.
Image – Adjust – Color Balance: Allows you to “tint” your image
Image – Adjust – Hue & Saturation: Allows you to make changes to your image’s colour saturation. Useful!
Image – Adjust – Desaturate: Allows you to convert individual elements of your image to black and white, but leaves others in colour.
Image – Adjust – Replace Colour: Allows you to select and replace single colours in your image.
Image – Adjust – Selective Colour: Allows you to modify individual shades of colour in your image – very useful and worth trying!
Image – Adjust – Variations: Shows you different ambiences simultaneously. Nice.
Select – Colour Range: allows you to select single colours and highlights in your image (e.g., all the reds, or all the highlights, etc.)
Window – Show Colour: gives you a handy little colour palette to work with
Window – Show Swatches: gives you a limited little colour palette to work with

Some practical advice:

Choose the right colour mode for your project in Photoshop before you get going, because a conversion from one mode to another can result in a loss of colour.

On the other hand, you get the best range of filters and functions in RGB. If you know that you are going to do some complex work on an image, you are better off working on it in RGB mode and converting it once you are done, then make necessary adjustments to lost colour.

To change colour mode in Photoshop, follow this route: Image – Adjust – Mode. You can select the mode of your choice at that location.

To change the overall colour of an image, use this route: Image – adjust – Colour Balance. There, you can alter the tint of an image. Also at Image – Adjust, you will find various other ways to control and manage colour in your image.






Layers

What they are, and what they are for:

Imagine painting or writing onto a clear sheet of acetate. And then imagine painting or writing onto a second, third, fourth sheet of acetate, and putting them all on top of each other. Obviously, you would be able to see everything you have created. This is how Photoshop works, too.

When you open a new file, it represents the first layer, called “Background”. Any other layers you have to add yourself.

This can be done in three ways: Either you click on “Layer – New – Layer”, or you paste something, or you write something. Any of these three actions will give you an additional layer over your original background layer. If you paste 5 different objects into your image, there will be one layer each.

To be able to work on one specific layer, it has to be active. You can activate a layer in the little layer control window by clicking on it. And you can shuffle layers, bring them forward or push them backward, by clicking and dragging them, also in the little layer control window.

Using layers in graphics contexts:

Prime scenarios for the use of layers are applications where you want to make something look translucent or merge into something else. It also lets you soften the appearance of something whose colour may not be perfectly matched to whatever it is on.

Layers are practical to use because they allow you to move things around and make changes to individual elements.

If you want to save something as a JPEG though, you will have to flatten the layers first. This is irreversible.



Working with Lines and Measurements

How to create line drawings in Photoshop

Photoshop lets you do line drawings using various tools. There are the official line making tools, such as the line tool itself, the pen tool, and the brush; but they are to be handled freehandedly, resulting in unguided, coincidental lines.

To obtain perfectly straight lines and right angles, it is best to use the square or circular selection, or the polygon lasso, in combination with the function Edit – Fill Contour (make sure to select an appropriate line width, e.g. 2 or 3 pixels).

How to measure things in Photoshop

There are three ways of measuring things in Photoshop:

Image Size can be viewed and changed by clicking on Image – Image Size;
You can switch on rulers which seem to frame your image by clicking on Window – Show Rulers; whenever you move your mouse into your image, its current position is being followed on the rulers like in a coordinate system. You can see exactly where you are in terms of centimetres. X=0 and Y=0 is in the left upper corner of your image – this is where the measurements start.
There is a measuring tool in the tools pillar. If you want to find out about the distance between two points in your image, you may use it.

How to build actual models from Photoshop graphics – and why would I want to?

Provided you are familiar with the basics of paper or cardboard model making, you can produce excellent looking models using Photoshop, and you can come to these results at tremendous speed when compared to conventional techniques.

This may come in handy when you want to quickly demonstrate to your team or your store decorators what you want done. You can create models of shop windows, of rooms, of furniture, buildings, etc. The main trick to learn is how to plan and build a cube.

Simply create a cube structure as shown in the examples, paste in the images you want, print it out, cut it out, and glue it together.



Picture Enhancement
Photographs are almost always imperfectly lit, blurred, spotty, pixelled, and they are grey and slightly tinted.

Photoshop offers us several tools to make the best of bad photographs. This is how you find them, and what they do:

Image – Adjust - Auto Levels: This function will automatically adjust your colour values for you. It takes a programmed median as a point of reference, and is therefore not always correct. But in most cases, you will find it helps a lot.
Image – Adjust - Auto Contrast: This function will automatically adjust your contrast values for you. It also takes a programmed median as a point of reference, and is therefore not always correct, either. But just as the previous tool, you will find it helps a lot, most of the time.
Image – Adjust – Color Balance: Allows you to adjust your colour balances yourself. Handle with care.
Image – Adjust – Brightness/ Contrast: Allows you to change contrast and brightness yourself. Use wisely.
Filter – Sharpen: Will gently add sharpness to an image. Use only once, otherwise, your image becomes a mess.
Filter – Sharpen Edges: Will seek out boundaries in your image, sharpen them, and leave everything else alone. Wise choice for the average photograph.
Filter – Sharpen More: A turbo-sharpener, if you like. Use only once, if at all. Can destroy an image.
Filter – Noise – Despeckle: Has a soothing effect on most pictures.
Filter – Blur – Smart Blur: The ultra-soother. If over-used, it can make your image look like a 1940s gouache painting. But it takes out pixels and grain very effectively.
Dodge Tool: Allows you to bring back some detail if a part of an image is too dark. Use with care.



The Rubber Stamp and its Options

The Rubber Stamp Tool lets you…:

Make unwanted objects disappear from images
Fix botched transitions on textured surfaces
Design your own pattern
Create a pattern out of anything
Apply a pattern in a translucent manner to an image



Rubber Stamp - This is how to…:

Make unwanted objects disappear from images: Click on the rubber stamp tool (in the tools pillar) and set its opacity to 100%, then go Window - Show Brushes and select a nice, fuzzy brush tip (about 50 to 100 pixels in width). Then move the mouse arrow to a spot which you think is worth cloning, hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and click once. Now you can let go of the Alt key and apply the rubber stamp tool as if it was an airbrush – only that it will spray an exact replica of the area you have chosen, wherever you choose.
Fix botched transitions on textured surfaces: Click on the rubber stamp tool (in the tools pillar) and set its opacity to 100%, then go Window - Show Brushes and select a nice, fuzzy brush tip (about 100 to 200 pixels in width). Then move the mouse arrow to a spot which you think is worth cloning, hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and click once. Now you can let go of the Alt key and apply the rubber stamp tool.
Design your own pattern: Create any elaborate graphic element (like a rose) or odd little squiggle (by throwing some black markings on the canvas using the paint brush). Then, click on the rubber stamp tool (in the tools pillar), and keep the button down until you find the pattern stamp tool. Set its opacity to 100%, then go Window - Show Brushes and select a nice, fuzzy brush tip (about 100 to 200 pixels in width). Click on the rectangular marquee tool and select your rose, or squiggle. Then move the mouse arrow to your squiggle or rose, hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and click once. Now you can let go of the Alt key. Go Edit – Define Pattern, deselect, and apply the rubber stamp tool. You will receive a page full of repetitions.
Create a pattern out of anything: Click on the rectangular marquee tool and select any area. Then move the mouse arrow to it, hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and click once. Now you can let go of the Alt key. Go Edit – Define Pattern, deselect, and apply the rubber stamp tool. You will receive a page full of repetitions.
Apply a pattern in a translucent manner to an image: Create any graphic element or select any area. Then, click on the rubber stamp tool (in the tools pillar), and keep the button down until you find the pattern stamp tool. Set its opacity to less than 100%, then go Window - Show Brushes and select a nice, fuzzy brush tip (about 100 to 200 pixels in width). Click on the rectangular marquee tool and select your graphic element. Then move the mouse arrow to it, hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and click once. Now you can let go of the Alt key. Go Edit – Define Pattern, deselect. Then apply the rubber stamp tool to the image which you wish to overlay with a pattern. You will receive a page full of translucent repetitions.



The Distortion Filters

Distorting an image is a way to create artwork quickly and effectively. It could then be used to produce decorative wall coverings for retail premises, backdrops in ads, or prints for paper and textiles.

Photoshop offers various distortion filters. This is where they are, and what they can do:

Filter – Distort – Diffuse Glow: Adds a ghostly mist by emphasizing bright areas in the picture. A great effect for anything to do with weddings, fairy tales, positive ghosts, and mystery of a happy sort.

Filter – Distort – Glass: Allows you to create glass objects in pictures. Just make a selection with any of the selection tools, apply the glass filter, go edit – copy – edit – paste, and layer – effects – bevel emboss; set the highlight opacity to 100%, the depth and blur to maximum, and click OK. You will now have a glass object hovering in your image.


Filter – Distort – Ocean Ripple: Lets you create water surfaces and water reflections.

Filter – Distort – Pinch: Creates an impression of an image that seems to bulge outward if set to negative coordinates, or inward if positive.


Filter – Distort – Polar Coordinates: totally transforms an image. Can be used to create dynamic graphics out of anything quickly, but without much control over the outcome. Suitable for the creation of amusing, round graphics, which could be applied to CDs as stickers.

Filter – Distort – Ripple: Can be used to generate interesting pattern for printing out of photographs if set to high magnitude.

Filter – Distort – Shear: Waves and bends an image


Filter – Distort – Spherize: Creates an impression of an image that seems to bulge outward if set to positive coordinates, or inward if negative. Much like Pinch function, but creates a visible boundary inside the image.

Filter – Distort – Twirl: Spins an image slightly and causes related distortions. Can make an image more cartoon-like.


Filter – Distort – Wave: makes waves in the image, and is highly controllable.

Filter – Distort – Zigzag: as above; try using wave and zigzag together. They create wonderful, instant graphic wonders. Good for CD covers, CD stickers, sign backdrops, etc.


Colour and Black & White

Converting an image to black and white can be done in two ways:

Image – Mode – Grayscale will convert an image to black and white.
Image – Adjust – Desaturate: Allows you to convert individual elements of your image to black and white, but leaves others in colour.

Converting an image from black and white to colour requires much dedication. This is how it can be done:

Switch your black and white image from grayscale mode to RGB colour mode (Image – Mode – RGB).
Double-click on the polygonal lasso tool, and set the feather amount in its control window in the upper, right corner of your monitor to a setting of 1 or 2. This will keep your selection soft.
Alternatively, use the magnetic lasso. Set it to a similar feather amount, and set its frequency to about 99 or higher.
Look at your image: Decide which areas may have what colours. Start with one. Select it carefully (use the magnifying glass in the tools pillar to get optimum results).
With the selection on, go Image – Adjust – Color Balance, and carefully give the area its tint. Stop in time.
If you feel the area needs a stronger tint, use the contrast tool: Image – Adjust – Brightness/ Contrast.
Continue until done.


Tips and tricks about colour:

· Nothing in nature has only one colour. If you want to achieve more than a colourised look, you need to copy and paste your selection when you are done tinting, tint the newly pasted piece differently, and use the eraser tool to wipe out parts of it. That’s how you get many different shades into your image.
· When working on a picture, find a comparable one in colour on the internet, bring it into photoshop, and check the colour values. This can save you much time: Use the colour picker to find out what the R, G, and B values are. Then simply punch in these numbers for your tint amount.
· In the end, try using Image – Adjust – Auto Contrast to bring the punch back. This may not always work, but often does.
· It’s a good idea to put cold colours in the background (like blue and green), and warm ones in the front (red, yellow, brown). This makes your image deeper.
· If you think your colours are too strong, select and paste the black and white original, then go to the layer control window in the lower right corner of your monitor and turn down the opacity.
· In the end, flatten your image (Layer – Flatten Image) and save it as a JPEG.



JPEG Compression

When preparing an image for emailing or a website, it is often compressed to reduce its size in Kilo Bites. This does not mean that the dimensions change, but only that it becomes more simple. You may not immediately notice the difference visually, but the image quality and size in Bites are being reduced. This can become evident in a loss of detail. Nevertheless, JPEG compression is a useful thing for these two applications.

To compress a JPEG image, click File – Save As, and scroll to JPEG. If the choice is not offered, you need to flatten your Image in Photoshop (Layer – Flatten Image) and try again.

The control window which pops up has a sliding button which lets you choose the degree of simplification for your image. As a rule of thumb, the further down toward 0 you push the button, the more your image will become simplified. To verify that your image is now simple enough for your purpose, check on the image size in Photoshop by clicking Image – Image Size; in the upper region of the control window which appears, you will see numbers, followed by K, KB, or M. That is your present image size. As a point of reference, images that are emailed through Hotmail must not be larger than 1.024 KB (Kilo Bite), or 1.024 M (Mega Bite), or else they will be rejected.

It is also a good idea to save completed work on your computer as JPEG file, because JPEGs are generally smaller than Photoshop files (psd); however, if you are planning to keep working on it, or print it, do not reduce its size with the sliding button, as you would lose quality and detail then. Strive not to save an image repeatedly as a JPEG reduction, as it will cause it to lose a lot in quality. Once should be enough.



Improving hand-drawings with Photoshop

Photoshop is used to work on images – who says they can’t be drawings, or paintings, and your own? We all know the problem:

You’ve done a nice drawing – well, except for that weird, long leg that person somehow seems to have… and the colour of the face is a bit off… and you just wish you’d chosen a different pen to draw that outline…

But there is hope:

Scan your drawing in. It now becomes a Photoshop image, and the sky is the limit. You can do anything with it.

Here are some suggestions:
· The most common problem is contrast. Most hand-drawn images are actually too pale. That is because of the media we use on paper (crayons, pencils, felts, etc.)– they will never give us the punch of digital images on a screen. Just adjust the image automatically: Go Image-Adjust-Auto Contrast, and Auto Levels. Alternatively, crank up the contrast yourself under Image-Adjust-Brightness and Contrast.
· The thing that really brings your image to life is lightness and darkness. Some near-black and some white in any image will liven it up a lot. Use the Dodge Tool and the Burn Tool in the tools pillar to add light and dark areas without losing features of your image.
· Backgrounds: You never really do much of a background on paper drawings, because, let’s face it, the pens are getting drained, and it’s tedious. In Photoshop, that is no longer true. Try adding backgrounds as colours, sprayed in with the airbrush set to unusual settings (remember to select first!), or just pasted in from elsewhere. Photoshop doesn’t care how much colour you dump into your image – if it’s black you want, there you go. No harm done to the felt pen.
· Colour Coordination: Often, your hand-drawn image somehow doesn’t look comfortable; that is frequently the case because your colours don’t look right. In Photoshop, you can replace them individually (Image-Adjust-Replace Colour), or give the entire image a tint (Image-Adjust-Colour Balance).
· Rectifying mistakes: So the leg is too long, or the person generally misshaped? Just select carefully with one of the lasso tools, copy, paste, and go Edit-Transform-Distort; now you can correct the mistakes in the drawing.
· Other interesting features: Try inverting a line drawing; the black lines become white, the rest of the image dark (Image-Adjust-Invert); this can give a boring image some punch and sophistication. You can also add text, take out spots, collage things together, paste things in and flip them, and change their size, so that it looks like you drew a lot more than you did; you can colourise any line drawing directly in Photoshop, which can save you a lot of time (just make sure you use more than the paint bucket to add colour to your image, unless you want it to look like something from “The Simpsons”).





Special Effects in Photoshop:

To create an impression of glass: Select an area and make it look slightly milky – you do that by going “Image – Adjust –Brightness/ Contrast” – contrast down about 20%, brightness up by 10 to 20%.
To create an impression of tinted glass: Select an area and make it look slightly milky – you do that by going “Image – Adjust –Brightness/ Contrast” – contrast down about 20%, brightness up by 10 to 20%. Then go “Image – Adjust – Colour Balance”, and turn up the green or the blue just a bit.
To create the impression of fog with features in it: Any ghostly image on a dull surface will be seen as something in the fog. You need a surface first. Then you choose an image which will become your “thing in the fog”. You select it, copy and paste it onto your surface, and use the eraser tool to rub out the boundaries. Then you go to the layers and reduce the opacity to a very low setting, like 10 to 20%.
To add reflections: Any ghostly image on a shiny surface will be seen as a reflection. You need a shiny looking surface first (see “To create a surface impression like painted metal”). Then you choose an image which will become your reflection. You select it, copy and paste it onto your shiny surface, and use the eraser tool to rub out the boundaries. Then you go to the layers and reduce the opacity to a very low setting, like 10 to 20%. If your surface is curved, you may want to “squish” your selection image a bit (Edit – Transform – Scale).
To add a camera-style flare: Go Filter – Render – Lens Flare. Remember to adjust the intensity of the flare before hitting OK. Also, try the three different types of flare on offer first.
To create something resembling chrome trim: Draw a little square with the square selection tool at the end point of where your chrome trim should go. Now go Filter – Render – Lens Flare. Remember to adjust the intensity of the flare before hitting OK. Also, try the three different types of flare on offer first. When that’s done, go Edit – Transform – Scale, and pull on the side of the little transformer selection frame, all the way across your image. You can then get rid of the little transformer frame, and you will find that the selection is still active – go Edit – Copy, and you can just paste more chrome siding into your image easily that way, if you want.
To create a surface impression like painted metal: Draw a square of the correct height for your purpose with the square selection tool at the end point of where your painted metal panel should go. Now go Filter – Render – Lens Flare. Remember to adjust the intensity of the flare before hitting OK. Also, try the three different types of flare on offer first. When that’s done, go Edit – Transform – Scale, and pull on the side of the little transformer selection frame, all the way across your image. You can then get rid of the little transformer frame, and you will find that the selection is still active – go Edit – Copy, and you can just paste more metal panels into your image easily that way, if you want.
To create a material impression: Either use the texturizer (Filter – Texture – Texturizer, and select a material there), or find an image of a material and paste it into the area you want to work on. Then find your layers, activate the layer of the image you have pasted in, and reduce the opacity until what’s underneath is showing. Increase the contrast at will: Image – Adjust – Brightness/ Contrast).
To make swooping areas rather than curved ones: If your image is maximized (centre button on the very right of the blue top bar), you should be able to draw huge ovals with the elliptical marquee tool, far exceeding the image’s boundaries. That’s how you create curved selections. If you want to fill everything but your selection with a colour, go Select – Inverse. Use the paint bucket to dump the colour of your choice into your selection.
To make curved lines: If your image is maximized (centre button on the very right of the blue top bar), you should be able to draw huge ovals with the elliptical marquee tool, far exceeding the image’s boundaries. Now just go Edit – Stroke, and choose the right stroke width before you hit OK. There’s your curve.
To add 3D effect: First, select the curve or area you want to make 3D, e.g. with the magic wand tool. Then go Edit – Copy, Edit – Paste. Now go Layer – Effects – Bevel and Emboss, or Drop Shadow. Inside Bevel Emboss, you have several options. Try them. Remember also to play with Blur and Depth! Less is often much more.


How to Get Perfect Sketches

Sketching ability is usually your most marketable skill as a designer, right after 3D modeling. You absolutely must be incredible at it, otherwise, life will be hard.

Luckily, we now have much better tools than we used to have to help you get there. On the downside, everyone is using them, which puts pressure on you to compete. Better get with it.

Nowadays, this is how we organize our sketching process. Follow this order for great results:

1. Sketch on cheap paper using whatever you like. Pencils are still best. Be prepared to bin forty to sixty pages until you have what you want. Keep going, page after page. You’ll see how your design will look better every time you draw it anew.
2. Once you’ve got it, scan it with 240 dpi. This will make it laser-printable.
3. Go into Illustrator and place your scanned image into the viewport.
4. Draw your lines using the pen tool in Illustrator. Try different types of lines and brushes. There are some interesting calligraphy options which are worth the time and effort, giving great variations of line weight. Put a thicker boundary around the outsides of your sketched objects than the lines within the sketch. Remember, this is for lines only!
5. Click on the placed image of your sketch and delete it.
6. Save the newly drawn Illustrator line drawing as a PDF.
7. Open the PDF in Adobe Photoshop and flatten it (Image – Flatten Image).
8. Use Photoshop as outlined below.


Photoshop Magic for your Sketches:

Remember: Sketches are not renderings! Sketches are supposed to be simple, but striking. It’s OK if they’re black and white only. But do put reflections and shadows in to help understand them. Also put writing into them, arrows, whatever, to explain functions.

To do marker style renderings: Use the paintbrush, set to a sharp boundary, with reduced opacity (50 to 80%).

To add reflections and shadow lines: As above. Thiswill give you the same effect as markers. You can also airbrush them in. In that case, set your airbrush to a high fade.

To add a camera-style flare: Go Filter – Render – Lens Flare. Remember to adjust the intensity of the flare before hitting OK. Also, try the three different types of flare on offer first. Use sparingly, as it can get hoaky when there are more than two in on sketch.

To create something resembling chrome trim: As above, but use stronger contrast.

To make it all look very neat and intense: Cram lots of very cool sketches onto one page and make them smaller. Do this in a way that makes sense, e.g. let them tell the story of the functionality of your sketched object.


Basic Photoshop Handling and Tips for When Things Go Weird

The following is a list of practical applications of Photoshop functions, what you can expect from them, and how to get there:

Creating a new, empty format to work on: File – New; in the window that pops up, enter e.g.: Width: 28cm, Height: 20cm, Resolution: 240 Pixels per Inch (this gives you an A4 format). Then click OK.
Getting images from the internet: Remember that most images belong to individuals and companies, and that it may be illegal to use them unless you have written permission. It may, however, be OK to use them if you are not planning to publish the images. GIF images are all protected, so acquiring one of them is technically illegal. This is how you get images: Do a Google image search; on the pages of pictures you get, select the right one for your purpose by clicking on it; now click on “see full size image”; then click on it with the right mouse button and save it into your own cad folder by selecting “save as” on the pop-up banner. Done. The image is now saved in your cad folder.
Pasting images into your format or into another image: Select – All; Edit – Copy; go to the image you wish to paste into and click on it; Edit – Paste.
Changing the size of an image you have pasted: Edit – Transform – Scale; if you want to keep the image proportions as they are, hold the shift key down while you take hold of one of the corners of the image you want to re-scale. Otherwise, the image will be distorted. To get rid of the scaling frame, click on any selection tool, e.g. the lasso or square in the tools pillar, and click on “Apply” in the window that will pop up.
Changing the size of your entire image: Image – Size. Enter the measurements you want it to have. Remember, it will keep its proportions, unless you click on the little checkmark in front of the word “Retain Proportions”.
Getting rid of the scaling frame: To get rid of the scaling frame, click on any selection tool, e.g. the lasso or square in the tools pillar, and click on “Apply” in the window that will pop up.
Getting rid of the selection: To get rid of any selection, double-click into your image, using any selection tool (Magic Wand, Lasso, Square, Circle). Alternatively, click on Select – Deselect.
“It´s not doing anything!” You may be trying to work on the wrong layer. To find the right one, find the layer window and check which one is highlighted blue. That´s the active one. If it is different from the one you want to work on, scroll up or down till you´ve found the right one. You can tell which one is correct by looking at the little image showing you the layer´s contents.
Getting to see the layer window: Window – Show Layers
Rulers: Window – Show Rulers
Grid: Window – Show Grid
Making a layer look translucent: Find the layer window. In it, there is a small window giving you a percentage reading and the word “opacity”. Click on the little arrow behind the percentage and use the sliding button to turn down the image´s opacity.
“My images are gone!” Probably not. If you have been saving them as PSDs so far, and then switched to JPEG, the computer may not show them, but they are there. To see all your files, scroll down to “all formats” in the window you get when you click File – Open.
Getting rid of excess material around pasted objects: The best way is to use the eraser tool. Make sure you have selected an appropriate brush tip. To do that, click Window – Show Brushes, and select one of the fuzzy ones. If you want to get rid of a very plain background, and if your pasted object has sharp contours, you can also use the magic wand tool and the backspace key.
Brush Tips: Window – Show Brushes





Rhino


How does this fit into the design process?

In industry, designers usually spend intense periods of time sketching, producing hundreds of little sketches in the process, and holding peer-reviewed crits regularly to establish priorities and compare concepts. It is perhaps the most important phase in the design process, because it’s where you decide on your concept. At the end of the sketching process, when your key sketch is selected, you normally take it into 3D CAD for verifications of various kinds:

Can your design actually be built to the proportions you gave it, or does part of it need to be changed so that ergonomics will work? Needless to say, you can easily put models of people into your finished computer models to check. They are called “mannequins”, and are usually available as ready-to-use models on the internet (where you may have to buy them), and which you can simply paste into your design. This would be called “ergonomic verification”.

If you work with engineers, which is often the case, they should be able to supply you with something they call the “package” – this is a computer model of the arrangement of technical components as they have to be installed inside the object you are designing; ideally, you can just slip it inside your model and see whether it fits. That would be your “technical verification”.

The great thing about 3D CAD programmes is that you don’t even need to have a finished model to do these verifications; instead, you can simply place your key sketch onto the interface of your 3D-programme, paste the package and a mannequin in, and you already get a rough idea of how things will work out.

What is a “Useful Key Sketch”?

Your key sketch is the one sketch which you think represents best what you are trying to create. You may have made many, but the key sketch is the one that has just the right feel to it. By this, we mean that it is your most exciting, most interesting, most promising design; the one you’ll want to develop into a 3D computer model.

To make your sketch useful for 3D modeling, you must now make sure it is relatively clean, allowing you to see curves and lines well enough so that you can trace them in Rhino. You may find that your sketch is too contrasty, which means you may not see the Rhino curves on it; to counteract that, you can make your sketch pale in Photoshop. While you’re there, also make sure it is small (72 dpi and photo-sized are enough! This is important, because Rhino doesn’t handle picture files easily when they are too big).

This is how that’s done: Scan your sketch and save it as a Bitmap or JPEG file; open it in Photoshop; go Image – Mode – Grayscale – OK (that reduces your sketch to a pure black and white drawing, and makes the image file more compact and thus easier to handle for the computer); then, go Image – Adjust – Contrast/ Brightness, and use the push levers to reduce the contrast of your sketch; make sure you increase the brightness after that, otherwise, your image may be too dark. Once you’re happy, save your image, and leave Photoshop. Go back into Rhino and place your image onto its interface.



Placing a key sketch onto the Rhino interface:

1. Make sure you have one sketch each of…:

A side view of your product
A top view of your product
A front- or rear view of your product

All of them need to be scanned in, saved as JPEGs or Bitmaps, black and white, and paled down (for details, see the bit on Photoshop above).

2. Open Rhino. Go “New – Save As – “ … and give your project a name. Save it to a location which you will remember, and which you know is right. Name it using your first initial and surname, plus a number (“1” for the first model you build, obviously). This will help when the marks are made later.

3. Now visit your individual viewports; you can activate each one separately by clicking into them; it is a good idea to pull your work surfaces’ 0/0 coordinates down into the lower, left corner of your view ports, and leave them there; click on “save” to make sure the computer remembers this setup; that way, you get your entire, available work space at your disposal. It is considered “good manners” (and also very clever) in 3D modeling to build the left half of your model only in positive space. Positive space is where your x, y, and z coordinates are in the positive. For the future: Get into the habit of clicking on “save” whenever you have completed whatever tiny thing it might be; every little doodad counts toward the big picture!

4. Time to build a reference point for your sketches now before we import them; that way, you can be sure your three sketches are arranged together in space in a way that makes sense; find the symbol for solids in the tools pillar on the left of the screen; it should be a cube. Click first on the cube and then into one of your viewports; move the mouse a bit and click again – now there should be a cube. Select it and move it so that it is positioned entirely in positive space, with one corner on 0/0. Go “View – Background Bitmap – Place” … and find the file of the sketch which you have prepared. Place the side view into the viewport labeled “Right”, the front or rear view in the one labeled “Front”, and the top view into the one labeled “Top”. Select and move as required. If what you get doesn’t really make sense, consider starting over by going back to Photoshop and flipping your images over until they face the right way. To do this, open your images in Photoshop, and go “Image – Adjust – Flip Horizontal”, then Save.


On a general note:

The beauty of Rhino is that it is intuitive, i.e. “user friendly” – you can make Rhino do whatever you want by typing a command which you think describes what you want to do in the top command box, and it will offer you whatever it has to choose from in that department. E.g., if you want to move something, just type “move”, and Rhino understands. If it doesn’t, it will show options to choose from, which you can try out. If you don’t like the result, just go “Edit-Undo” and try another one. On top of that, Rhino will also tell you what to do next in the top command box. Keep watching it, it’s worth it!


Modeling with Solids

“Solids” are geometrical shapes which a 3D modeling programme offers you ready to use. Just select one, pop it into one of your view ports, and start making changes to it.

Here’s why it is a good idea to use solids whenever possible:

They are flawless, closed models which won’t cause you any trouble during further applications such as Rapid Prototyping, because they have no holes or gaps;
They give you great results very swiftly, with perfectly curved, even surfaces that provide excellent reflections and shadow lines;
Most objects harbour geometric shapes within them anyway – if you identify which ones they are, you can get a great percentage of your model built quickly and easily by using solids;
They take up less computing power than objects you build based on curves, which means your model will be easier to work with in the later stages of the CAD process;
Even if you do not want to build a geometrical shape, you can use one as a basis and modify it to get what you want; the result will be quick, and quite likely very good.

This is what you can do with solids:

Choose from a variety of them (cubes, spheres, toruses, prisms…)
Move them around in space
Shade them immediately to make them visible
Copy and paste them, to get many quickly
Scale them up and down proportionately (all ratios stay constant)
Scale them up and down non-proportionately (distorting them)
Put them into one another like foam bubbles to build something interesting (solids are not “solid”, but will actually shift into, or through one another like ghosts; this can be used to create complex-looking objects)
Weld them together to form one object
Punch holes through them in the shape of other solids (by converting one of them into “antimatter”)
Create objects that are the result of overlapping two “negative” solids (only the overlap becomes visible as an object, the solids themselves don’t)

This is what you would typically build with solids:

Pushbuttons on electronic gadgets
Doorknobs or handles on furniture
Wheels
Concrete slabs, to display a car or motorcycle on
Drywall boards and showcases when modeling an exhibition
Any object which is largely, or in part, geometrically shaped (thermos, CD case, watch, coffee maker,…)

A word of caution:

Tempting as it may be, do not put together a complex model entirely comprised of solids. It will look like a congealed pile of refuse. Use solids sparingly, and wisely. Model your main shapes with curves. We will explore that next time.



Modeling Surfaces based on Curves

Ask yourself: Why does a car or boat look attractive? Is it the way it is sculpted, or the way the volume is interchanging in its various aspects? Or does it have something to do with the way the shadow lines and reflections/ highlights are flowing along?

The answer is: All of these are important. And we must address them in our computer model if we want to create something that is as attractive as this.

But the main thing is always how your reflections are flowing, how your shadow lines are emphasizing the sculptural qualities of your surface. You can have the most interestingly sculpted body in the world – if your reflections sabotage its virtues, your sculpting efforts have been in vain. Reversely, if you have a boring object, you can give it a surprisingly exciting, visually sculptural quality by employing surface modeling in clever ways – without really changing its volume a lot (in short, there are ways to put a few dents into a boring box which make the box look pretty good as soon as it has its clearcoat on).


Just to clarify a few terms:

Shadow Lines (see picture below) are the boundaries of any shadows cast anywhere on your model. Good designers are able to refine the model’s shape so well that it will have attractive shadow lines cast no matter where your light is coming from. Never is this left to chance.
Highlights are the brightest reflections on your model, and you must sculpt your object in such a way that they appear just where you want them to be – e.g., along an especially important edge which serves to define your model’s sculptural qualities when no shadow lines will be there to do the job.
Reflections occur on any shiny surface, and can be used to make your object look smaller, larger, sleeker, brighter, darker, or more elegant than it really is. In order to do this, you must develop a feeling for the environment your object will be in, and decide what in that environment you will allow to reflect in the surface of your model, and what you’d rather hide. E.g., if you are designing something for outdoor use which will have to be large, but you want it to look compact, try curving its side walls in such a way that the sky starts reflecting on its sides at a low height, getting ever brighter toward the top, so that the eye can barely distinguish where the object ends and the sky begins – this will take away the hugeness of it to any onlooker.
Volumes are the different shapes of which your model consists. In good sculptural tradition, they should interact with one another in exciting ways.



How do I create a perfect surface then? Really designer-worthy?

It’s surprisingly easy. But you must learn to handle Control Point Curves. It is true that you can build good-looking surfaces from any curve. But beware of the difference between just any old curve and control point curves (or Graded Curves, as they are sometimes called, as in “Third-Degree Curve, Fifth-Degree Curve”, etc.).

A control point curve lets you tweak it in any way you like, and allows you to create climax points or parabolic-style direction changes. Any surface built on that will provide you with much more interesting qualities than surfaces built in simpler ways.


This is the difference between 3D-modeling and creating design with 3D modeling! Anyone can throw together a few curves and skin them, but only a designer will understand how to make reflections flow delightfully, and purposefully, over a surface!


Good looks are no coincidence. They are constructed.


Here are the rules:

Develop a plan how to build your model out of as few surfaces as possible. The fewer surfaces you build, the cleaner your model will be, and the more attractive it will look.
Never piece and patch things together in 3D modeling with little bits and ends, as if you were handling paper-machee. Your model will look like something that has been in a bad accident. If you don’t like an aspect of your model, select it, delete it, and rebuild it in large, generous, swooping forms.
Use as few points as you can to build your curves. 3 to 7 is best. More is a deadly sin. Then, play with the control points until the curve looks great and has no weird kinks or bumps anymore.
If you want to build another volume, use a new curve. Build separate objects. If you want one volume to visually flow into another, use the appropriate functions for it, such as building a bridging piece whose curves are made to flow seamlessly into the adjoining surfaces’ curves.


What About Control Points for Solids?

There is a way to make structural changes to solids. You simply activate the control points of a solid, and pull one or more of them in certain directions. While this can be of great help when you are building simple shapes, do not expect any acceptable results for more complex things!

If you try to negotiate a complex model entirely with the help of modified solids, you may end up with a space potato, but it won’t be something anyone would need to pay a designer for.

Remind yourself what convenient, clean work 3D-modeling is; there is no need to start building things in goofy ways, as you can so easily build and re-build anything as many times as you want.


And the Revolve Command?

That tool makes some stunning shapes. But its use is probably best limited to things like wheels, musical instruments, hubcaps, pottery, or cooking ware. Nevertheless, it’s great for that. You create one curve, set a revolving point, and you get an amazing result.

Beware: If it can be done on your computer, that may not necessarily mean that it can be made in a factory! To establish that, better do some research on whatever production methods are used to make whatever it is you are designing first.

Your object will be as beautiful as the curve you’ll have based it on. Take your time when you use it. If it is to be part of another object, use radii that can be found on it. That way, it won’t look like it doesn’t belong there.


To summarize: Our best friends for creating perfect surfaces on a computer are:

Control Point Curves – the King of Curves.
Control Points for Solids – for simple objects. Use sparingly! Space Potato looms.
Revolve Command – for UFOs and other household contraptions.