Concept Vehicle Design:
 
This course is designed as an introduction to the world of vehicle design from an industrial design perspective as it applies to entertainment. It will supply students with a foundation in design thinking and a variety of ideation and illustration techniques. Students will be pushed to experiment with the goal to develop an understanding on how to find and nurture their personal style, all while still able to meet a production's needs. 
 
​
A basic understanding of perspective and 3D principles
Basic Visual Communication skills are recommended to get the most from the class.
Experience drawing and painting using traditional and/or digital drawing tools
This will be a mileage-heavy course, so be ready to dedicate time to doing homework.
​
Course Materials, Textbook, and Software This is Optional (example: Photoshop, Blender, Maya etc. Aka what tools will you be using in this class).​
Required Material​
Class will be taught primarily using photoshop, blender, and plasticity and may potentially include various other 3d software such as Gravity Sketch, Moi3d, and traditional tools 
Any 2d digital art software
Any 3D polygon modeling, nurbs modeling, or sculpting software and rendering package recommended but not required
Traditional tools such as markers, pencil, pens, gauche etc.. are welcome but must be cleaned up and clear upon presentation
Recommended Texts & Other Readings:
H-Point The Fundamentals of Car Design & Packag
Mechanika by Doug Chiang 
The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist
Cosmic Motors by Daniel Simon
​
Important Note: This syllabus, course assignments, and due dates are subject to change. It is the student's responsibility to check our course. Any changes will be clearly noted in course announcements.
​
​​
Week 01: Intro to Vehicle Design: Iconic Vehicle Design Analysis​
Activities: Lecture & Demo
Homework: Warm-ups, Studies, Silhouette Sketches, Project 1 reference sheet
Due Date: Week 2
​
Week 02: Lecture: Bluesky Design & Ideation​
Activities: Critique, Lecture & Demo
Homework: Refine ref sheet (add design brief), warm-ups, project 2 package ideation, silhouettes with light & shadow, final 3 views
Due Date: Week 3
​
Week 03: Commercial & Consumer vehicles Pt. 1​
Activities: Critique, Lecture & Demo
Homework: Ellipses, car/bike sketches, project 2 ref sheet, ideation
Due Date: Week 4
 
Week 04: Commercial & Consumer Vehicles Pt. 2
Activities: Critique/ paintover, Lecture & Demo
Homework: Refine ref sheet if needed, Refine ideation and finished final views
Due Date: Week 5​​
​
Week 05: Aerospace​
Activities: Critique/ paintover, Lecture & Demo
Homework: Aerospace sketches, pick one design to take to finish; Paint or line/value
Due Date: Week 6
​​​
Week 06: Interiors & Cockpits​
Activities: Critique, Lecture & Demo
Homework: 2 Interiors with matching exteriors
Due Date: Week 7
​
Week 07: Extreme Modification: Extreme Modification : Leveraging your tools & Final Project Launch
Activities: Critique, lecture & demo
Homework: Build a 2d/3d kit, modify one of your previous designs or design a heavily modified vehicle
                   Final project pitch/ref sheet & package/ concept ideation
Due Date: Week 8​
​​
Week 08: Vehicle Stylization
Activities: Critique, Lecture & Demo
Homework: Design a vehicle based on an animation/ video game character, layout and design according to provided storyboard or white box
Concept refinement or 3d massing &  paintovers
Due Date: Week 9&10​
​
Week 09: Art Directing yourself​
Activities: Critique/ Paintover & Demo
Homework: Keyframe of finalized design(lighting materials, greebles, graphics,etc)
Functional callout or cutaway sheet
Due Date: Week 10​
​
Week 10: Final Presentations​
Activities: Presentation/ Paintover & Demo​​​
Homework: N/A
Due Date: N/A
​
​
​
​
​
List objectives for this course. 
 
Students will learn to develop their sensitivity for vehicle design and further develop their design, sketching, and illustration techniques. 
Style development 
Pipeline and process development & exploration
Gain an insight into understanding the importance of thumbnailing, scale & packaging, visual association, proportion, form, shape, silhouette, compound surfacing, corners, section design, volume, function based detail, story and manufacturing considerations, and commercial (consumer facing) vs industrial design.