Design thinking from BW

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Happy Campers

...thought you wanted to hear a testimony. I did a modified version of the Red Eye cup, send it to some relevant people, and now they want me to send them an offer on a specific assignment :)
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Training

Want to take your product design work to the next level by learning new tools, or becoming more efficient with your existing tools? Get in touch.

To get started, pick your poison:
modo, SolidWorks, Rhino, UGNX, CATIA, Theory, Adobe CS, Processing
Or, if you're not sure, search.

Training Tips

learn several tools

The more you know, the more flexible your mind will be when faced with new and different challenges. cadjunkie recommends that product designers learn at least one surface modeler (e.g. Rhino), one parametric modeler (e.g. SolidWorks), and one visualization package (e.g. modo).

learn by rote

It takes years of practice to master anything, and digital design tools are no exception. No matter how many tutorials you do, you will never master a tool until you've spent hundreds or even thousands of hours using it. cadjunkie recommends doing tutorials more than once: each time it gets easier, and more of it becomes 'muscle memory'.

read the help docs

Ever wonder how we learn so much about the tools we use? Don't tell anybody, but... we read the instructions. AHH! It's true. There is simply no better source of information on a topic than the help docs of most digital tools, and yet people seem to ignore them almost completely. We read the help docs on a regular basis to make sure we're up on the latest hidden features, shortcuts, and workflow solutions.

when in doubt, ask

Computers are incredibly good at repetitive tasks. If you find yourself doing something that seems monotonous or repetitive, chances are there's a better way. If you're ever thinking "there must be a faster way to do this", there probably is! Drop a comment in the Discussion section, and somebody may suggest something that saves you hours, or even days of work!

cadjunkie Philosophy

don't fight it

When we use a tool for the first time, the tool is in charge. It shows us what it will and will not do, and we may find ourselves struggling to force it to do things it stubbornly refuses to do.

Don't fight the tool; let it do what it does best. If the tool doesn't do what you need it to do, find a different tool.

a note on 'purism'

Digital design tools are no different from paint brushes, sculpting chisels, or a potter's wheels: they are tools that assist us in the process of making things.

There is nothing 'inauthentic' about digital design tools, no more than a painter who uses a brush is 'less authentic' than a finger-painter.

The more tools we have at our disposal, the more informed our designs will be. If a sculptor has only a single chisel, he may compromise his design decisions based on its limitations. (It is possible, of course, that he may choose to limit himself to a single implement for one of any number of reasons. But this should be an informed choice, not ignorance.)

Controversially, cadjunkie believes that the tools we use do--and should--affect the designs we create. For example, a pot thrown on a wheel should look different from one made of injection-molded plastic, because the medium has a different nature. As long as we are conscious of the strengths and weaknesses of the medium, the tools we use can and should affect our designs.

modo

As industrial designers, we use modo to rapidly model and visualize design iterations. Its efficient modeling tools, lightning-fast real-time render engine, and robust rigging and animation tools make it invaluable. { browse modo }

Recent

If you're a frequent flyer here at cadjunkie, here's what you may have missed in the last few days: (listing tags: modo)

Tips & Tricks

cadjunkie is the place to be for modo Tips & Tricks! Browse our full archives for hundreds of videos, or check out the most recent ones below: (listing tags: modo, tips and tricks)

modo for Industrial Design, 2011

This fifteen-week university-accredited course will equip students to use Luxology's 'modo' version 501 for design, visualization, photorealistic illustration, and simple animation. The course will use exercises inspired by the packaging design industry, but the content itself is applicable to anyone wishing to use modo for design-related modeling and visualization.

Beginner: Coffee Cup

In this quick beginner series, we'll walk through the process of modeling and rendering a virtual photograph, and composite it with a backplate photo. (listing tags: modo Level 1 coffee cup 2011)

Beginner: modeling

This three-part beginner course introduces digital 3D using modo 501, the latest release of Luxology's fast-growing modeling, sculpting, texturing, rendering, and animation tool. (listing tags: modo Level 1 modeling 2011)

Beginner: Sunglasses 2011

Step-by-step instructions walk the viewer (that's you) through the process of modeling and rendering a pair of whimsical sport glasses from reference images and using a head mesh as an underlay.

Intermediate: Backpack 2010

For sale at luxology.com, and covers the basic tools and techniques used to illustrate soft goods like this backpack.

Intermediate: Bugatti Veyron 2010

3DWorld Magazine issue #127 is now available in stores, and the modeling of the Bugatti Veyron is written and recorded by yours truly. Over six hours of video!

SolidWorks

As industrial designers, we use SolidWorks to build manufacturable geometry. Its consistency and ease of use have made it one of the most popular product design CAD systems on the planet. { browse SolidWorks }

Recent

If you're a frequent flyer here at cadjunkie, here's what you may have missed in the last few days: (listing tags: solidworks)

Tips & Tricks

These one-off videos demonstrate specific tools and techniques, usually in under 10 minutes. (listing tags: SolidWorks, Tips and Tricks)

Beginner: Pentax

If you've never used SolidWorks before, this is the place to start. Here we'll introduce key concepts for quick and dirty modeling from the perspective of an industrial designer. (listing tags: SolidWorks Level 1 2011 Pentax)

Beginner: Modeling

This beginner series was developed as a supplement to a digital design course at Otis College of Art & Design. (listing tags: SolidWorks Level 1 2010)

Intermediate: Modeling

Once you understand the fundamentals, every industrial designer should take a careful look at the master model (aka master form) method. It may seem round-about at first, but it has huge advantages downstream. (listing tags: SolidWorks Level 2 2010)

Rhino

Rhinoceros 3D by McNeal and Associates is an indispensable 'Swiss Army Knife' for all things 3D. I rarely use it all on its own, but as a complement to my other CAD tools, it can be a god-send. { browse rhino }

Tips & Tricks

These one-off videos demonstrate specific tools and techniques, usually in under 10 minutes. (listing tags: Rhino, tips and tricks)

Beginner: Modeling (2011)

This video series was developed to augment a digital design class at Otis College of Art & Design. (listing tags: Rhino Level 1 2011)

Beginner: Modeling (2010)

This video series was developed to augment a digital design class at Otis College of Art & Design. (listing tags: Rhino Level 1 2010)

Intermediate: iPhone (2010)

Creating clean exterior surfaces for an object as deceptively-simple as the iPhone can be trickier than it looks! Sure, there are simpler ways to create roughly the shape of the phone, but I want control! (listing tags: Rhino Level 2 iPhone 2010)

UGNX

Siemens NX is one of the oldest and most respected high-end CAD systems on the market for large organizations with huge collaborative projects, not to mention clean, beautiful 'Class-A' surfacing. { browse ugnx }

Tips and Tricks

These one-off videos demonstrate specific tools and techniques, usually in under 10 minutes. (listing tags: ugnx, tips and tricks)

Beginner: Modeling

Let's look at a few of the fundamentals of Class-A surfacing in UGNX. (listing tags: UGNX Level 1 2010)

theory

Good design is more than knowing which buttons to click in your favorite CAD system. In this section, we'll look deeper into the theory underpinning great design. { browse theory }

Best Practices for 3D Design

Every 3D design tool is different, but in many ways they are very similar. Here we'll discuss the underlying principles that make CAD work, and explain how to use them to best advantage; regardless of which package you're using! (listing tags: theory)

Adobe CS

The Adobe Creative Suite is ubiquitous, and so are CS tutorial sites. Since we're product designers, we focus on techniques for using CS specifically in the context of a product design pipeline. { browse Adobe CS }

Recent

Adobe tools are ubiquitous--as are tutorials for them!--but there's much more to CS for industrial design than meets the eye! (listing tags: adobecs)

Processing

Processing is a Java framework developed at MIT for the visualization of data, and integration with the open-source Arduino platform. If you like Arduino, but you want to use it to make pretty pictures on your Mac or PC, Processing is for you!

Processing Level 1 2010

These one-off videos demonstrate specific tools and techniques, usually in under 10 minutes. (listing tags: Processing Level 1 2010)

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The Team

Adam O'Hern (partner)

adam@cadjunkie.com
@theCadjunkie

Adam O'Hern is an industrial design consultant specializing in visual brand languages, and has designed products ranging from laptops to power tools, classroom toys to bathroom fixtures, and robots to lint rollers. He has published with 3DWorld Magazine, CGTuts+, and Luxology, and works with Josh Mings of SolidSmack.com on EngineerVsDesigner.com.

Josh Mings (partner)

josh@evd1.tv
@SolidSmack

Josh Engineers and Designs. An odd combination indeed. He is a CSWP with certified SolidWorks training and support. He is founder and editor of SolidSmack.com and co-host of EngineerVsDesigner.com, a weekly podcast about design, engineering and what makes it all happen. Follow him @joshmings on Twitter or on Google+

Simon Martin (assistant editor)

simon@cadjunkie.com
@simonsaysdoit

Simon Martin is an industrial designer in Portland, OR. In addition to being an assistant editor for cadjunkie, he also works with Adam O'Hern and Josh Mings on the weekly podcast EngineerVsDesigner.

Discussion

We hear just about enough of Adam's voice, thank you very much. We want to hear yours! { browse all: discussion }

cadjunkie is more than just a bunch of videos: it's a community of product design students and professionals learning together. Questions? Comments? Cool stuff you're working on? Let us know!

NOTE: cadjunkie Free members can participate in topic threads, but only Premium and Pro members can start one.

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All Discussion

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modo for Industrial Design, 2011

This fifteen-week university-accredited course will equip students to use Luxology's 'modo' version 501 for design, visualization, photorealistic illustration, and simple animation. The course will use exercises inspired by the packaging design industry, but the content itself is applicable to anyone wishing to use modo for design-related modeling and visualization.

Course Introduction

I like to think of this course as something kind of like those NES magazines circa 1989, where you could find out that up-down-left-right-A-B-START was the key to greatness… Ah but I flatter myself.

Week 01: Cup o' Joe

I'm feeling ambitious, are you? Sure, we could get away with a mere UI overview on week one, but where's the fun in that? Put your feet firmly on the ground: modo's about to rock those socks. Ready, set, go. (listing tags: Cup O Joe 2011)

Week 02: Happiness in a Box, Part 1

This week's modeling task is about as fundamental as it gets: we're modeling boxes this week people, and dimensionally correct boxes at that! Don't be fooled though, this is important stuff. As an industrial designer, building dimensionally-accurate models is critically important to my work, so we'll be beginning to practice methods that emphasize numerical precision. Fun stuff! (listing tags: Happiness in a Box Part 1 2011)

Week 03: Happiness in a Box, Part 2

Last week we built boxes, and this week we'll render them. Along the way we'll take a look at item heiarchy's in modo, specifically how to make the logo in the top-left of the image appear to be stationary, even when the camera is moved or rotated. (listing tags: Happiness in a Box Part 2 2011)

Week 04: RedEye Coffee, Part 1

This week we'll be expanding our geometric repertoir from cubes to cylinders, and looking at a couple of different ways of creating radially-symmetric (i.e. "round") objects. Who knows, we might even learn a thing or two about Subdivision Surface Modeling (SDS) along the way ;) (listing tags: RedEye Part 1 2011)

Week 05: RedEye Coffee, Part 2

Now that we've modeled the cup, the fun part begins! We need to "map" some 2D graphics onto the sleeve, and instead of importing the vector art directly from Illustrator, this time we'll use a method called "cylindrical projection." (listing tags: RedEye Part 2 2011)

Week 06: Liquid Courage, Part 1

To be perfectly honest, this tutorial could easily be almost exactly like the RedEye coffee tutorial: you've already learned almost all of the basic tools and techniques necessary to model this tasty beverage container. As such, we'll try to mix it up a bit and use some alternate methods along the way. To all who hunger and thirst after modo righteousness, prepare for baptism! (#blasphemy) (listing tags: Liquid Courage Part 1 2011)

Week 07: Liquid Courage, Part 2

This one's fun. Sure, it's just a studio shot, but, believe it or not, the key to a great studio shot is unrealistic lighting. Our goal here isn't to make the product look real so much as to make it look fantastic. In a real-life photo shoot this is achieved with meticulous retouching, but not with modo! (listing tags: Liquid Courage Part 2 2011)

Week 08: Lil' Squirt, Part 1

This might well be the most difficult modeling exercise in the entire series, but it will really help to demonstrate that while SubD is an incredible tool for rapid freeform modeling of highly-organic shapes, it is much more cumbersome for precision hard-body modeling. That said, virtually anything can be modeled in SubD, so today we'll look at a few techniques for adding crisp, tight detail to a low-poly SubD mesh. (listing tags: Lil Squirt Part 1 2011)

Week 09: Lil' Squirt, Part 2

You will often want to render a product into the context of a backplate image, and today we'll see how that's done. You're getting pretty good at this, aren't you. You know you are... go ahead, get down with your bad self :) (listing tags: Lil Squirt Part 2 2011)

Week 10: Splash Fizzy, Part 1

Modeling and rendering splashing liquid in modo is a lot of fun, and it's shockingly easy to do. (listing tags: Splash Fizzy Part 1 2011)

Week 11: Splash Fizzy, Part 2

Of all the images in this series, this one might just be the most satisfying. Bring on the fizzy! (burp) (listing tags: Splash Fizzy Part 2 2011)

Week 12: Cocoa Bunny, Part 1

This week should be fun. Instead of a long, drawn-out lesson, today we'll be taking a quick tour of multiresolution sculpting in modo 501, and then dive right into playtime. (listing tags: Cocoa Bunny Part 1 2011)

Week 13: Cocoa Bunny, Part 2

Like last week we'll be keeping lecture-time to a minimum, and instead focus on application. Take your time and really practice using the tools. (listing tags: Cocoa Bunny Part 2 2011)

Week 14: FastMax, part 1

modo is almost never used in isolation. For industrial designers it tends to be used alongside CAD packages like Rhino or SolidWorks, and modo works beautifully with both. Today we'll be looking at ways of using modo along side other CAD packages, and best practices for getting the most out of the resulting mesh data. This is bread-and-butter stuff for an ID guy like me; I use this every day! (listing tags: FastMax Part 1 2011)

Week 15: FastMax, part 2

Finally, let's use everything we know about rendering in modo to bring our imported CAD geometry to life! (listing tags: FastMax Part 2 2011)

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Design thinking from BW

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