Personal Project My 6th Term Transportation Design Four Project 'Sunset' Fall 1990 Part 1- The Fifth Scale Clay Model

 A 3/4 shot of the nose up front on this design from my 6th Term ID Transportaion Design Class from Art Center in the 90's. I themed it with aquatic shapes[ Waves shells, Hydrodynamic Shapes etc.]

 A higher angle 3/4 rear shot of the clay model in progress at Art Center in the 90's.

 A side shot I took back then of the profile of the car[ 4 door ] with hub-less wheels and all wheel steering. The lower body articulates for bounce front and rear similar to my 3rd term Bubble Car.

Here it was in the project room, I sat next to Chip Foose who was two terms ahead, though our 6th term class got space in there with the 7th and 8th termers. I found with these pics from his Pre-Prowler Model I will post in the future.

Personal Project

My 6th Term Transportation Design Four Project
'Sunset' Fall 1990
Part 1- The Fifth Scale Clay Model

This is my first post covering my personal school project from back during my Art Center days in Transportation Design my Sixth Term in the Fall of 1990.

This was the second clay model I built, and the first one I painted, since the 5th term Transportation Class taught by Harry Bradly, did not allow us to paint the clay. This class was sponsored by Sunset Magazine, as almost all upper level courses were[ Toyota-CALTY,  Alfa Romeo etc.], so some connection was made in the design requirements.

My design theme I picked used shapes reminiscent of waves and basic aquatic life, and I wanted to theme this design based on swooping aqua shapes as seen on the California Coastline near Big Sur regularly a feature in Sunset.

Also the brand new hub-less wheel technology was just emerging at the time from Italy, so I put hub-less wheels on all four corners as well as part of the concept. 'Big-n-Littles' as all Hot Rodders like were cast in plastic from wood bucks I turned on the Lathes provided in the shop.[ I was a Pro woodworker prior to my return to ACCD so this was Boilerplate].

As I have discussed in prior postings, three dimensional thinking is the ability for an artist or designer to see in his mind an object or design in dimensional space FIRST in the head before sketching. To think 3D, is to see 3D, so to speak, and all of us have a disconnect when we draw and 'fake' it to look better, and this is where ACCD fixed that.

As an ID** major[**Industrial Design], that faking will not fly since we build out actual three dimensional models to show the design complete, and any fake will show in reality and needs addressing. 

Over time the 3D Designer gets better and better in the accuracy in which we sketch, model and design. This is a natural process that gets better every year in fact, and as I continue in 3D to this day, I still see learning each year in my ability to see in 3D first in my head then on screen.

I have many follow up posts including the fully painted model as well that I will be posting in weeks to come.

Enjoy the post.

Cheers, THOM