DISQUS

SolidSmack: Yes You Can! Graphic Design for Print and Web Using SolidWorks

  • bigmikeo · 6 months ago
    I've rendered all our current products for the sales/marketing folks. They wanted photo's and paid good money for crappy pics. Then they asked me to give it a shot and people felt they are pretty decent. I mean if you get in on it you can tell it's not the real thing but it's good enough.
  • Josh M · 6 months ago
    I love hearing that. I really push engineers/designers, if they have the interest in this stuff, to go ahead and do it for the company to show what can be done. It shows some initiative and helps learn some rendering stuff, and it doesn't take that much and could save the company a lot of money!
  • FrankParenteau · 6 months ago
    I am basically the render guy at the office, and photoworks can be really powerful if set up right. For exemple if you check most of Mega Bloks packaging, and instructions booklets, those are all Photoworks renders. You just have to know how to tweak it and emulate a studio environment the right way. I love seeing what others can do with it, some great exemples can be found here : http://rendercontest.com/ , where the Rob Rodriguez contest now lives on :)
  • Rod_Uding · 6 months ago
    Fascinating.
  • Anna Wood · 6 months ago
    This is really cool.... Would have never thought to use SolidWorks for Graphic Design. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Cheers,

    Anna
  • ckeen · 6 months ago
    Interesting technique, but it looks like a best practices nightmare (SEO, XHTML compliance, load time, 508, etc). I would like to see this design methodology to completion. Fun stuff.

    I guess you could take the image and start slicing in PS or Fireworks (pick your poison).
  • FrankParenteau · 6 months ago
    I wouldn't call this method a best practice nightmare, as it's basically just the "design" aspect of the work. It then all goes into Photoshop, where i do the slicing and optimising of the files, and then in Dreamweaver where i code everything. I use Solidworks because it is easy for me to get the shapes or the textures i want for whatever part of the project i am working on. It's one of many tools available to get the job done, i just happen to be quicker with this one ;)
    And I am a xhtml / css purist so no worries there.
  • ckeen · 6 months ago
    The more I think about it, the more fun this sounds. I am going to try as an experiment.
  • Josh M · 6 months ago
    Let us see the results when you're done! but only if it's cool lookin! ;) just kidding, I want to see what you come up with.
  • Dman · 6 months ago
    I have been working on this for about a year on and off but I haven't published the site yet. I was considering mentioning to solidworks that they should develop so tools for rendering and exporting more effectively. My method has been creating the whole site and creating the slices in fireworks. Give it a try.