2d Line Work In Product Design

[Guest jariellin]

This qn might sound a little ridculous and ignorant.

I just wanna know if most designers just sketch a product on paper, scan the linework and trace over it in illustrator using paths,

OR, using a wacom, free-handedly do line work directly

[Tim_meh 0]

Scott Robertson does that with his bicycles on his DVD..acts as a good guide. I don't have a tablet so can't comment too much, but I guess it depends on the type of work you are doing..quick sketching etc... either method, there r people that sit on either side of the fence on this question as talked about in other threads..but if you have good drawings skill, have a crack at the tablet, takes sometime from what i have seen and heard to become efficient

[Cyberdemon 17]

Both are valid methods. I've been using the tablet PC for about 2 months now and I've preferred doing the looser renderings in Alias sketchbook versus the tighter path/Photoshop technique. There are many different levels that you can take a render, you can be Harald Belker/Scott Robertson and be able to take a Photoshop render to CAD/Photo realistic quality, or you can get away with a sketch with some color thrown into it in Painter that works equally well.

[Guest sixfish]

Good points so far. The key word in my young career as a mid-level ID guy is EFFICIENCY. Get the work done to an acceptable level within the time period allowed. That's the key. Now, which ever method allows you to do that is the right one for you. As we all know, every project, presentation, process, etc. is different. Personally I have tried to take a sketch to the Illustrator/Photoshop level too quickly, making it look real. The problem is, at early stages of development if you present a concept that refined everyone thinks "hey...there it is! It looks good so we are finished!" Therefore I strongly prefer a sketch either scanned in and colored in PS or Painter, or drawn all digital with a tablet. It just look "sketchier" and like there is "thinking" involved in the idea. That can go a long way with presenting an idea without saying "this is the final concept." There will be time for the final presentation later down the process. Hope this helps,

 

-sixfish

[Cyberdemon 17]

Six brings up a very good point about clients and often professors seeing a very polished rendering and thinkg "This is done now".

 

A lot of people (me included) tend to jump into CAD very early, before they've refined the form in sketches, and the result is people thinking they have a final product that doesn't look or work very good.

[Guest jariellin]

thanks eveyrone for your replies in this thread so far,

i used to work in a design company before but i was just helping with the brain storming and the rendering stages of the design process, it was quite like a factory line production. Theres a A Brainstormer, a Concept Sketcher, a CAD monkey, A presentation person.. everyone had a very specific role. The product in qn changed hands half a million times before finally taking its final form, so no one had a real ownership to it.

Is it like this with the design companies you guys are working at?

Frankly i was a little disillusioned after working there for about a year & a half..

 

btw. the guy who did the line work is the concept sketcher, who uses illustrator after a certain concept is chosen

in illustrator the line work is cleaned up and 2D views of the product is presented first before the cad monkey comes in to make a kick-ass 3d model.

[Cyberdemon 17]

Every company operates differently, and I believe a lot of it will depend on the employees. It's not uncommon to have a person whos strong point is CAD doing just CAD if their sketching skills are poor, and vice versa.

 

Likewise there are also companies where a single designer will often take a product from an initial idea all the way to the stages where it needs to be handed off to an engineer or manufacturer.