Wow, that's so cool... wait, what is industrial design exactly?

That's the reaction i usually get when i tell people what i do. Probably most of you reading this know basically what it is i do, or at least have heard my vague explanation of it. but i thought it would be fun with the use of some visuals to explain a bit further.

ONE of the things i do frequently is 3D modeling on the computer. When it's a simple, geometric form like the one below, that's a pretty quick and easy process. Objects with complex surfaces take a bit more time and thought.

I think one of the funnest things i do is rendering. After you have your 3D model all done, you assign materials and colors to the different parts, set up lights, choose or create an environment, and basically photograph the sucker. for quicker results i do it in the above program (solidworks). if i want high quality, especially for transparent, highly reflective, or otherwise complex materials (such as woodgrain with a gloss clearcoat) I like to import to Rhino (below).

After a whole bunch of times fine tuning lighting, materials, etc. and with test renderings between, i eventually get something i'm mostly pleased with (you have to be careful at this stage. you can get something pretty good in a few hours, then spend another day on fine tuning without it looking all that much better. law of diminishing returns i guess.), I take it into photoshop and make it a bit more juicy. If all goes well, the rendering should look pretty close to real life.

I'm not saying this is a great example, but it's not too bad i think. If you don't recognize this, check my older posts.