
The Academy of Art University, San Francisco When we first spoke with Antonio Borja, Director of the School of Industrial Design and heard about the Academy of Art University’s unique interdisciplinary program and rich industry collaborations, we wanted to know more. So we asked Antonio and some of his students to talk to us about…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

As promised, we’re thrilled to offer our Autodesk Automotive community the AIF On-Demand Experience. If you were unable to attend our live event in Munich this year, or if you weren’t able to take in all the presentations, we’ve curated a virtual experience for you. Head over to the AIF Content Hub and start your…
INDUSTRY NEWS

Our first full AIF in two years took place in Munich, Germany. Hotel restrictions meant a reduction in our usual capacity, but we were pleased to host 250+ attendees from 20 countries. One of the Day 1 Highlights was our Design Studio Keynote presentation, featuring Autodesk’s Marek Trawny, Brandon Tasker, Phil Botley and Lukas Fäth.…
INDUSTRY NEWS

It’s easy, these days, to be drawn to the latest software programs, the newer and more simplified versions of some of the programs you cut your design teeth on. Not for Christian Grajewski. This Alias veteran, from Hannover, Germany, has an intriguing career that reinforces both a “creativity first” and a “know the right tools”…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

Changing Demands, New Technologies and How Transportation Design is Meeting the Challenge Moderated by Car Design News’s Abel Sampson, this February 2022 Panel engaged one of the biggest questions the vehicle design industry is facing: how to navigate the most fundamental disruption of the last century. Customer demands are changing as disruptive technologies become more…
INDUSTRY NEWS

At Autodesk, we believe in developing the best solutions for our customers. Part of that process involves an understanding of customer challenges and supporting them through overcoming these challenges. With that in mind, we worked with our partner, Genesis Design, to create a next-generation mobility concept vehicle, leveraging the full breadth of our solutions, workflows,…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

Putting passion first. This German designer has built an intriguing career that reinforces a “creativity first” mindset. With an education in product and conceptual design, experience with Alias, and an internship (September 2007-February 2008) at the Volkswagen Group Future Center Europe GmbH, Christian believed he was set for the life of a permanent interior designer.…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

Over the last few years, several technologies which massively speed up concept modeling have been added to Alias. These technologies include subdivision surfaces, Dynamo and Create VR. Inspired by this, some colleagues and I wanted to challenge ourselves: How detailed a car design could we create, when limited to a 15-minute time frame? We went…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

In 2021, we went behind the scenes with Senior Designer Mike Turner to hear about some of his work with VRED. These videos offer tips and processes for extending VRED’s value and experimenting with views and environments, the basics of data set-up and file import; artwork techniques to make your design pop; VRED environments, HDRIs…
Essential SKILLS

In this bonus episode of his first VRED series, DGDesign’s Senior Designer Mike Turner walks through how he created a “retro wave” aesthetic to show off a performance-ready DeLorean model. (Mike’s already talked us through getting into VRED for bespoke automotive design, importing data from Alias, working with backplates and other rendering approaches.) Mike starts…
Essential SKILLS

In episode three of his VRED series, DGDesign’s Senior Designer Mike Turner talked about creating backplates that really make your car design pop. Mike picks up on the backplate conversation in episode four, sharing some other render approaches he’s exploring on his own. Like the “spot-lit” effect that you can create using VRED’s sky light…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

This is Part 3 of our podcast with Florian Coenen, Technical Marketing Manager. In Part 1 of our podcast, we introduced you to the ETRAXX. We talked through the process behind the design, what design elements inspired it, initial sketching and moving those sketches into a CAD environment. In Part 2, we went deeper into…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

” ‘We’re a group of passionate people with decades of experience in automotive design…. We’re in position to provide best-in-class tools for the automotive design studio and our customers in that space to get the latest and greatest designs on the market.’ ” Thomas Heermann, VP Automotive, Conceptual Design and XR Raconteur spoke to our…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

In the third episode of his VRED series, DGDesign’s Senior Designer Mike Turner talks backplates: flexible, clean auto artworks to make your car design pop. This “straightforward” technique opens the door to all kinds of exploration. And once your backplate is in place, you can pan around the car with just the standard lighting environment. You’ll…
STORIES & INSPIRATION

In our first conversation with the APMA’s Colin Dhillon, Ananda Arasu and I talked about Society 5.0 and its implications for technology and design. We had the chance to talk with Colin again about smart cities, the future of mobility, and how we can get closer to a more sustainable, ethical future with (not despite)…
STORIES & INSPIRATION