CAD Renders

Looking through the gallery of designs I realised that my CAD skills are sorely lacking in the aesthetic department. Are the teak decks upholstery designs etc textures or are they modeled elements?

 

Generally, they are bit mapped textures applied to modeled surfaces.

 

That's what I thought. Is there a free library of such textures available for download?

 

That's not really important; most of shiny renderings are lacking of sence.
Boat design is not a software competition

 

Depending on the software you are running, there are several shareware and even freeware libraries available... or you can make your own bitmap textures to wrap. Delve into Google a bit and you'll find the resources.

 

I guess that depends on one's control of surfaces, lighting techniques and the software being used, as well as one's level of subjectivity.

That will probably bring objections from the software companies servicing the marine industry. If one extends that line of thought, then I suppose that a drafting table, T-square and all the typical tools one might see in use are also inappropriate. At least that's what I hear from the guys who never use a drawing and simply eyeball all of their boat design/build work.

From where I sit, the whole thing is about competition, just as are virtually all of the pursuits of mankind. Having the software guys and the use of their products right in the thick of things, makes complete sense to me. The boys do have to make a living... ;-)

 

The problem is that some designers and their customers are more obsessed with photo-realism of pictures than with practical solutions and real-working systems. Now there is no need to ensure safety, performance, comfort - show nice rendered picture with water and sunset, and the deal is done.

Then, 2-3 decades ago a guy starting in boat design had to spend years exercising with splines and manual drafting, gaining real experience and good eye for curves and shapes. Today the one who got the software is becoming 'boat designer' in 2 weeks and is using 'wizard' to generate a 'hull', the result is poor in 90% of cases.

So I really think good design is sellable without advanced renderings. Our renderings are more technical style but it works.

And now the story: one our customer wanted to have 'better photo-realistic renderings' of the design. We sent 3D to their ‘rendering artist’. The result became evident to us in IBI magazine (see report from Mumbai boat show 2009): some software guy has turned-on frozen layers of 3D showing older options of arch and roof. So on the renderings the hardtop looked like ugly sandwich supported by duplicate arch. This 'rendering' was placed on the boatshow, in primer location. So is there any sense in such renderings? Rendering is here.

 

But Renderings catch peoples eyes at shows and get them in the door.

 

Most of boats are never bought from renderings, only from seeing real product.

If we are talking about custom-designed boats say, for wealthy Arabs - yes, they will like the renderings with water, sunset, villa on background (don't show much of boat, show the environment, let them dream!). But they will like it for only for first two months, until they see something different...

 

lol, It's more to line the walls of an otherwise empty booth at boat shows

 

I don't know if they teach this in formal Naval Architecture programs.... but they should.

Recreational boats are bought, or built, principally because of someone's dreams. (with a taste of ego tossed-in for good measure)

The buyers/builders dream of where they will travel. They dream about the adventures they will encounter, how fast they will go, how many of their friends they can take along, what size fish they can haul out of the sea, that their wife, (or girlfriend (or mistress)) will be comfortable, etc., etc. It isn't until the imagination of the buyer is captured, that they begin to assess the technical side of the boat's potential. We've all done it. We have looked at the images provided for a new boat and simply moved on past the subject, not even looking at the spec sheet, the polar diagrams, etc.. We just aren't moved by the looks of the boat and can't see ourselves riding around in it, even if it does move heaven and earth from a pragmatic perspective.

Whether we like it, or not, while engaging in the process of designing craft for this market, we are in the suggestive, thought provoking business of weaving wonderful stories and potential fulfillment for the future owners of these boats.

Human beings, being primarily visually stimulated creatures, naturally gravitate to well-done illustrations of these proposed dream machines. Believe it, or not, most folks do not buy magazines that have endless pages of specifications with no rendered representations. Truth is, it's mostly the other way around.

Go watch little children when you place a stack of books in front of them. If you provide books that are picture driven stories, as well as books with no images and lots of words, you will see the kids move to the books with the illustrations and they will stay with those books even if they've seen them many times before. It's just human nature to enjoy powerful imagery that stimulates the imagination.

I am asked all the time for more imagery of my small craft. Since I have always been engaged in the business of creating images, (graphic designer, film maker, photographer) I have found that my previous life experiences have become powerful tools that help me to demonstrate my design skills. Yes, the boats have to make it to the water as final proof that they work, but that initial surge of interest is created through the use of nicely crafted renderings. It doesn't hurt that I have a decent capability for writing about my boats, as well, but the interest originates in the pictures.

All of my boats originate as hand sketches with pencil and paper. I fool around with the relationships of the forms, the angles, the technical solutions and the overall feel of the boat. These drawings then move to the computer as the tool of my choice for design. Computer generated renderings are a natural expression of the developed boat at that point.

 

My daughter's favorite book is Lamb's 'Ship Design and Construction'. The book looks thick and sound, besides it is black and white, she likes to go page by page, both volumes. She is 1.5 years old

Yes, but renderings are not the purpose of desgn. Real boat is a purpose. Renderings without boat behind do not sell, boat without renderings - sells.

But I agree with You. Unfortunately we are living in the world of consumption now, where eye-catching multi-color pictures and sweet slogans of salesmen are used to replace the reality.

 

Test

Look at picture below and try to estimate time spent on looking at picture (I call it drawing-style rendering), and then time on looking at drawing.
Would be interesting to see the result.

 

If you are asking this question of me as a small craft designer, I see merit in both renderings.

If you're asking me to look at the pair of illustrations as a regular guy who grew-up at the beach in SoCal, the developed rendering holds far more interest than does the line drawing of the hull in several views.

If you use both of them to market this design to the wide array of people who would typically be reviewing the proposal, the colored rendering set will provide the most information to the widest collection of individuals.

 

What can I say... Like father, like daughter. ;-) I have a daughter of my own, though she's now 21 and about to graduate from college.

Renderings are but one product of the design process. Built boats are but another. Why does the purpose of the rendering have to be a real boat? Why can't it simply be a form study, or a piece of art for its own sake? Could it not be a single stage in a process as a final design comes into focus?

I'm guessing that not every boat you have ever drawn has been built, or are you unlike most marine designers and have a 100% success rate? ;-)

I know that I have created many new designs that I have presented to the silence of the interested public. They sit now, in the dark corners of my portfolio as renderings. Perhaps one day I will suddenly come upon a new source of inspiration and revisit the designs to find some degree of success from the time invested. Maybe not. But, it's all part of the on-going work surrounding design as a pursuit.

Perhaps it's fair to say at this point that I do not derive the majority of my income from boat design and that I do not have the powerful need to constantly create designs that have marketability. I do keep track of the time I have invested in a given project and I do move on if they appear to not have a real potential as a commercial product. Some design work, however, is outside of the commercial requirement folder and I simply do it because I enjoy what I am discovering.

Well, built boats do sell.... sometimes. One need only look at how many well-known builders of commercially successful boats are now going out of business and they have marinas full of unsold boats that are being desperately offered at auction.

Conversely, I've seen many boats sold based on the conceptual presentation of a well-made set of renderings.

This begs the question, what is reality?

Would this be the reality of a world where tons of freshly designed junk are foisted on the buying public? The same buying public who buy stuff that they do not truly need, simply to be engaged in the process of buying... the process of out-of-control cosumerism and easy credit?

OR

The reality where the buying public purchases only what they need, when they really need it? The same reality where they tend to fix and maintain that which is a component of their pride in what they do as a human being... rather than toss it in the junk pile and buy yet another?

It's a complex issue to be sure, Alik. It's one to which I have no substantive answers at present and may never. I do know this, though Alik... I like the work you have shared on these pages; built, or otherwise. I'm glad that you have taken the time to create renderings that show the process of your creative interests. We've all been made richer as a result.