Unappreciated by the world is the fact that in today’s elusive studio of motorcycle design America is a major player – for some, the major player. Dozens of designers, engineers and craftsmen are creating some of the most exciting and innovative motorcycles the world has ever seen – ever dreamed about. This doesn’t just mean “yet another chopper”. It means names like Confederate, Ecosse, Fischer, Roehr, Vectrix (producing an electric sportbike), and MotoCzysz in addition to, and no less worthy in this context, the establishment Harley-Davidson with Buell, Victory, and even Indian. Award-winning author Alan Cathcart visits twenty-five shops interviews the designers and engineers and rides the motorcycles. Each shop, interviewee and motorcycle has been photographed especially for this book.

Check out the following excerpt from the book featuring the rMoto Electrix Superbike. You can also download a PDF file here. To purchase a copy of American Dream Bikes by Alan Cathcart click here.

Is an Electric Super Bike important?

My team and I started to prepare the booth at the ’08 INDY Motorcycle Industry Expo very early in the morning. We had spent the last two days setting up. The show didn’t start until 10:00 am, but we were there at 8:00 am because we were anxious to get everything ready. The truth is we were very nervous. This was the very first motorcycle industry event that Vectrix Corporation had ever attended in North America, and we wanted to make a good showing. This was also the first time that any company had attempted to enter the conventional North American motorcycle market with an E2W machine of this quality, and at this price or performance level. Only recently, Vectrix had attended EICMA, the major European motorcycle industry event in Milan. The ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike (rMoto) was “unveiled” with terrific fanfare and attracted tremendous attention from the press and the industry. The momentum had begun.

We only had a little booth at INDY, barely big enough for three or four demo models of the Maxi Scooter sized Vx1 Electric Scooter. The booth was so small, that most of the sales team had to stand in the isles. Even so, I had decided to devote a lot of valuable space to something we wanted the US industry to see, even though it was not something we could sell to prospective dealers.

I had decided that the beautiful, life sized model of the Super Bike was so exciting as a concept, that it should take the front and center spot in the booth as a symbol of what our new brand represented. I was acutely aware of the interest that the showing at EICMA had generated in Europe, and wanted to continue the momentum here in the US.

This was, after all, to be an all-inclusive E2W brand, not just a “scooter” brand.

All of us were a bit worried. We had promised our company that the conventional motorcycle industry was where our machines belonged, not in electronics/appliance retailers, EV stores, stand-alone flag ship stores, or automobile dealerships, as many in the company still believed, although the success at the EICMA show was beginning to change minds. Their concept was that these electric machines were “revolutionary personal transport”, “rolling computers” – anything but motorcycles. That sales tactic had been tried for several years, at great expense, and with no success. One argument held that the lack of success was due to the machines being too advanced and ahead of their time for people to understand. I contended that they were motorcycles, motorcycles with electric drive systems, but motorcycles none-the-less. And that they belonged in stores that had clientele who were or had made the “life choice” necessary to embrace two wheeled vehicles. I believed we needed dealership partners that were trusted by long time clients, so that a new brand, and a new propulsion system, would be trusted by extension, and had all of the expertise, service and accessories necessary to satisfy that prospective end user, or fleet user.

As the morning wore on we took the dust cover off the Super Bike model and did other preparations to make the booth ready for the show to open. No fanfare as at EICMA, we just took off the cover. It was about 9:00 am. A funny thing started to happen. Suddenly, people from the other booths started to wander over to our booth. Before long we noted people taking pictures and making calls on their cell phones. Within half an hour we had a large crowd of industry insiders surrounding our booth, actually surrounding the Super Bike model. The cell phone calls and the transmitted cell pictures continued to bring more and more people to the booth. When 10:00 am arrived and the show opened, the crowd changed character from other OEMs to dealers and dealership staff. All weekend long we had national press, industry association and newsletter reporters, other OEMs and former visitors bringing others with them, back to the booth for another look. We soon became worried that we had not brought enough literature. Everyone wanted pictures and specs. Before the first day was over we had made about 40 appointments to take demo units to dealerships in aid of their adopting our brand, and hundreds of other inquiries. Staff had done dozens of press interviews and made appointments for press visits to the Vectrix corporate facilities.

It was absolutely clear to all of us that the Super Bike model was what caused the excitement. Once the dealers understood that it was the Vx1 that was currently available, and once they had experienced the scooter going in reverse, learned about the regen throttle (being electric we could run them indoors even if only for a few feet), and heard that it could go 62 mph… they were sold. Because we were able to show a convincing road map of planned future products and had the promise (dream?) of having a fantastic electric Super Bike in the foreseeable future, they were interested and anxious to become dealers. The US team went on to open over 100 US dealerships in the remaining 8 months of its current fiscal year and placed over 2200 Vx1s on dealership floors during that time period.

After that show, Company enthusiasm increased dramatically and an all out effort, anchored with the Super Bike model, was launched – continuing the introduction of Vectrix and the Super Bike to the motorcycle world and the world press.

Up until that time, only sporadic forays into E2Ws had been made by any large brand. A few low-speed, limited distance units had been tried here and there in the western world. Meanwhile, a very large number of similar but low performing low-tech machines had begun appearing in the Asian markets and met with wonderful success. Unfortunately, most of these were of relatively low quality and had inadequate performance levels for US or European use. Literally no one had even remotely considered such a thing as an electric super bike. So, when the ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike was presented to the world it had an amazing impact.

As recently as last year, Mission Motors produced a prototype electric motorcycle (super bike) that has now set a two way record at Bonneville of over 150 mph. It is said to have a nominal street range per charge of 100 miles to 150 miles. This is reported to be a production prototype.

Shortly after that, Lightning Electric Motorcycle Company set a one way measured mile record at Bonneville of over 166 mph. The same machine placed second at the first sanctioned all electric motorcycle race in the US. It is also reported to be a production prototype.

The Agni bike (a one off proof of concept for the Agni electric motor company) won the Isle of Man GPXTT zero emissions race and went on to win the first race of that type in the US.

Lightning, Moto Czysz, Mavizen, Roehr, Agni and a few others are offering to build race only electric bikes for teams interested in entering these races.

Last year, an electric motorcycle dragster, the KillaCycle, began to do quarter mile races in the sub 8 second times, rivaling all but the fastest Super charged and multi engine ICE drag bikes.

Only a few weeks ago, 13 electric super bikes competed in the first officially sanctioned all electric bike race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA, and in so doing achieved speeds that were very close to those of ICE super bikes, doing laps only 15 to 18 seconds slower than ICE super bikes.

Yamaha, Honda, Peugeot, KTM, BMW, Polaris, and other Legacy 2W OEMs have announced the introduction of E2W machines into their product lines in the next few years.

Recently, Quantya, Zero, Brammo, EVS, and as many as 10 other small specialty E2W and EATV OEMs have entered the market place.

Four years ago, within the motorcycle industry at large, there was no evidence of such a thing as an electric super bike; or for that matter, serious consideration of electric bikes at all. I now know of a few people and some industry insiders that had been privately working on electric motorcycles and scooters in their garages and workshops for many years – but in the industry at large, this was not a seriously considered concept.

So what was the vision for the rMoto? ROBRADY design by that time had extensive experience in the motorcycle industry and had recently begun working with Vectrix on electric scooters. They understood where electric vehicle technology could go. The design for the Vx1 was completed and the beginnings of a product road map – a smaller scooter called the Vx2, fleet specific bodywork for patrol and delivery service, and even a prototype three-wheeled version of the Vx1 were in the works. What they were looking for though was something that could aid in building Vectrix into an iconic brand. The answer to that was the Super Bike, even though the technology necessary to drive such a thing at ICE like speed for any distance was not available or even understood.

When one considers what would drive anyone to go out on this sort of limb, what impetus would drive such a conceptualization, one can only think it was passion. The idea of a commercial industrial design studio being an incubator for this sort of work seems attractive and appropriate, but it’s not at all common. The driver here seems to be genuine passion on the part of all concerned. The nature of a design studio is collegial and only a shared passion could drive such a leap forward in concept… and, why not? This concept combines a lot of elements that are extremely attractive to the creative mind. Once the team was exposed to the Vx1, they were aware of the awesome capabilities of electric drive systems, the positive effect on the environment such machines could provide, the amazing power delivery concept of 100% torque from 0 mph, and the utter silence of these machines in motion. Additionally, I think, there was the passionate impetus to convince this client company, Vectrix, that driving prospective dealerships and end users to their brand, and to continued interest in the brand for the long run, required a brand awareness-“a total brand design”- that encompassed a long term product road map and a unified design of the company now and the future.

How far, given all of that, is it from the Vx1 to the rMoto? I think the distance in concept between the two is actually light years. Am I trying to make the case that this Super Bike was the only reason for the growth in interest in electric E2Ws, or that it was the single impetus for the sudden appearance, so soon after it was shown, of actual electric super bikes; perhaps not. However, I do believe that it was a prime mover, and one of the primary eye opening and imagination generators in the development of everything that has come since. Nothing else in the rapid progress of these developments has had this much influence or this much power to influence the current outcome.

During the ’08 INDY show, and for a long time after, the sales team reported dealer after dealer saying that they had decided to adopt the brand in large part because of the promise of a product line that eventually would included the Super Bike. One dealer agreed to adopt the brand only if he were promised that his would be the first dealership in his state to have the Super Bike.

Clearly, giving credit where it is due, the Vx1 is a good bike and deserved success in it’s own right. It is still the best E2W that has ever been offered to the general motorcycle marketplace in terms of design and performance. It offers acceptable speed (62 mph/100 kph), product differentiation from ICE bikes with regen braking and reverse throttle, excellent handling and decent distance per charge.

But I don’t think it would have achieved such rapid dealer acquisition, and reached the public consciousness so quickly, without the electric Super Bike model.  The Super Bike offered prospective dealers and end users a clear vision of what to expect in the future (a future which is coming about rapidly as noted above), and excited the imagination and efforts of an entire industry.

Bravo ROBRADY design.

We seem to be surrounded by people who tell us we are living in the age of a personal transport revolution. Their main reference point for this bold statement is that motorcycles powered by electric propulsion systems have become available.  But while the use of batteries as the energy source to drive motorcycles is considered by many to be a revolution, it is in fact part of an evolutionary process.

There have been electric vehicles (EV) including motorcycles (E2W – Electric Two Wheel) for well over one hundred years – in fact before internal combustion engines (ICE) came into common use. However, wide use of the electric powered motorcycle in the contemporary western world is relatively new.  In China alone, there are reported to be more than 25 million E2Ws – mainly scooters – currently in use.  There are significant market reasons for this fact, in particular, very low speed limits that make even the slowest E2W competitive with ICE.  Also, their economic situation constrains most individuals from owning an auto or truck.

To some among the current E2W startups, there seems to be confusion about this issue of evolution within the motorcycle industry, leading to characterization of these machines as rolling computers or revolutionary transport appliances and even attempts at selling them in electronics/appliance stores. An E2W is not an electronic appliance, not a “computer on wheels.” It is, at the end of the day, quite simply a motorcycle.

Mistaking and merchandising an E2W for anything else is an error, will cause confusion and will slow down market acceptance and growth. If we wish to drive acceptance of these machines, we must make sure they conform to the actual uses that are true of conventional motorcycles and be accepted and sold in motorcycle dealerships. Essentially, we are talking about a function of the up-front design concept, branding, marketing, sales, and after sales processes. Success in bringing E2Ws to market in the western world relies on recognition of certain realities that exist in the marketplace.

One informative result of surveys by Frost & Sullivan, Deloitte, and others is that among market drivers, “green” or environmental issues are generally about half way down the list. The top five are all related to mission specificity and value. The same criteria is attached to conventional ICE machines. Fortunately, it is now possible for E2Ws to fulfill many of those criteria.

Making sure that the first – the beachhead products – are mission appropriate, price competitive, and targeted to those market areas that fit the current limitations of this drive system in terms of speed, range and price, is the role of the design firm/team.

An understanding of how surface design, mission specificity, and the other aspects noted above effects perspective dealers, retail end users and fleet users is crucial to this effort.

The two most telling cases that come to mind are the retooling of the KTM brand by Kiska of Austria, which led directly to the KTM break away market-entry success, and the design work by ROBRADY design that led to the very successful launch of the Vectrix Maxi VX1 electric scooter (and eventually to the now iconic ROBRADY/Vectrix Electric Super Bike). Because of the fact that the ROBRADY effort was aimed directly at an E2W startup, it is most salient to this discussion.

Although very distinctive, the ROBRADY design for the premier Vectrix machine, the VX1, does not radically deviate from the conventional in terms of visual design. Styling elements that are unique and can be replicated in the continuing product road map are certainly present, but the design is recognizable as a Maxi Scooter. This was a very thoughtful conceptualization in the case of Vectrix for the following reason. It is hard enough to convince a prospective buyer to accept a new brand and on top of that to accept an electric power train with it’s inherent limitations. Why ask the retailer, and the end user, to also accept something with unrecognizably radical visuals as well? Sometimes subtlety and restraint is strength in this respect.

The same precept was applied to the ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike, which was indeed radical in concept and unique in design, but remained recognizable as a motorcycle. It was important for the ROBRADY /Vectrix Super Bike design to maintain that restraint for the same reasons, as it was the first time that a concept of an actual all-electric “Super Bike” that could potentially compete on an equal footing with ICE Super Bikes was introduced at industry events.

That concept is most important for a start-up to realize, unless they are content to step aside when the trusted legacy companies finally launch their E2Ws, which they will do shortly within carefully chosen price ranges – starting with the small useful ones designed for a larger market.

Branding, which is a process that must be done in order to state clearly what the company represents, is an integral part of the effort, as is infrastructure, legal requirements, dealers and an all important end user interface. These are also integral parts of first stage planning and a part of the “total brand design” that should be done as part of the above process. That effort is essentially a design process that includes the design firm, the OEM, the sales and marketing team (perhaps ideally the same entity), and all those involved in compliance and finance.

This is perhaps even more serious for an E2W start up due to their need to compete with Legacy OEMs.

Most important to this complex effort is the “total design concept” that encompasses the entire brand story, including its interface with dealerships and end users. The most successful illustration of this concept is Apple.  This brand is well known for its design prowess but equally known for its total design concept, which reaches into every aspect of product design, packaging, marketing, sales, dealer and end user interface. What makes them successful is a concept that goes well beyond the design quality of the products themselves.

Confusing an E2W for an electronic gadget sincerely misses the point regarding the normal evolutionary progress that will be shown in good time by all of the existing, successful motorcycle brands. However, this is one of those rare times when a start-up can actually compete and bring a new brand into the marketplace. This is because of economic issues relating to the ponderous nature of new development in older, large motorcycle OEMs, product and brand confusion (selling ICE and E2W at the same time) and the lack, on the part of the legacy companies, of “overall brand design” that has been such an integral part of Apple’s ability to produce such prodigious sales of new products within their brand, and to overcome competition from other companies with like products.

That is where a “total design concept” process is critical. There are many computer companies, but only one Apple.

There are many motorcycle companies, but only one…

The Legacy OEMs are exploring electricity as a possible alternate drive system, for use in certain – currently limited situations – notably a few big brand e-scooters and e-ATVs are already in test release. However, they are not offering a serious product road map for future products and certainly are not offering the proven excitement of a Super Bike; leaving the door open to a well considered start-up (up start?), particularly one able to relate to its customers successfully through a “total design concept.”

Another problem lies in the propensity of some current startups to provide only over-developed, very expensive, first generation E2Ws that cost many times more than comparable existing ICE bikes without providing comparable performance. This only serves to showcase the limitations rather than the advantages of E2Ws, creating an elitist perception of these machines – the very opposite of what is creating such success in Asia. Some even ignore the very useful and innovative features that clearly create critical product differentiation between E2W and ICE, such as regenerative braking and reversing from the throttle.

Many in the industry believe that the Holy Grail of the emerging E2W industry is the 150+ mph super bike, and it surely is. We learned that from the excitement generated the very first time the ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike was shown to the industry. It is, because it suggests to the skeptics that an E2W can some day perform respectably along side of contemporary ICE bikes. In retrospect, the now iconic ROBRADY/Vectrix Super Bike led many to that conclusion.

The history of the motorcycle industry is evolutionary, not revolutionary. As in all evolutionary progress, the best is kept and preserved alongside the inevitable advances that will surely come. My suggestion is that this evolutionary process includes not only electric drive systems, but also a “total design concept” as the real “new paradigm.”

Only by studying the past, emulating the evolutionary norms of our industry and embracing the newly evolved “total brand design” concept, will any new E2W company be able to tell the compelling story necessary to grow its new brand in today’s crowded and highly competitive marketplace.

The db0 3.0 received unanimous praise from the audience, who were impressed by its sleek designer appearance, eco-friendly message, and “humanized power”. The event also highlighted DK City’s relationship with ROBRADY by showcasing videos that introduced its studio and team. In early 2009, DK City had sought out ROBRADY design after seeing their award-winning work on the eco-friendly electric Vectrix VX-1 Maxi Scooter and Super Bike, as well as their work with designing many products for Segway. The two companies partnered in August 2009 to design, develop and manufacture the db0 folding bike line. The db0 3.0 has garnered international design recognition with the receipt of the gold Spark award in October of this year. Photos and video of the launch party can be seen on ROBRADY’s Facebook page.

The new db0 bike, which is scheduled for release to the market in the first quarter of 2010, is first in a series of electric bikes that embodies their mission to design a series of clean, bold, and innovatively simple folding bikes. The design promotes the folding mechanism unlike it has ever been done before in this market – as a “focal point” that adds visual value to the bike. The battery configuration and integrated travel handles are also treated as iconic elements that offer aesthetic as well as ergonomic benefits. The db0 bike design is currently being featured at the Autodesk Design Gallery in San Francisco, CA as part of the Spark Awards show.

This tutorial will focus on the “hero” rendering that is used to accurately explain the details and surfaces of the final design. This drawing usually follows a long design process filled with pages of loose sketches and concept ideation. But nothing can sell your design to others like this kind of polished illustration.

As with most of my professional work, I draw the vehicle into a white studio setting. This means I won’t be spending much time and energy on a fancy background, in addition to saving printing ink and layout space.

This technique is fairly simple, and produces great results. Primarily sticking to the digital airbrush, most the tools I use are out of the box Painter defaults. These are automobile surface finishes in a studio environment, so we won’t need to employ any wild texture techniques. The key is in the details and the design. So if you have ever dreamt of designing your own concept car, lets go!

Click here to download the concept sketch and final concept car rendering for this tutorial.

This tutorial was originally featured in Corel Painter™ Official Magazine by Imagine Publishing and authored by Erik Holmen. Erik Holmen is an award winning Senior Industrial Designer at ROBRADY design and a College for Creative Studies (CCS) Alumni.

Step 1: The Sketch

This could be the most important part of the entire rendering. And for a tight illustration perspective is king. If there is a perspective problem, it could throw off the believability of even the most well rendered vehicle. Spend the time here to get it right; flip the canvas horizontally to check the perspective. Even ask somebody to check your completed line art.

Step 2: Block In

Take your completed line art, and copy it to a new layer. Set that layer to multiply, and name it “lines”. This is the only layer I ever keep track of. Create some new layers underneath and start to block in tone. Here I use a digital airbrush with the 1pixel edge setting (Brush Controls > Size). This is a good time to decide what colour you want your car to be.

Step 3: Defining Form

Staying under the lines layer, use the standard digital airbrush to start shading those surfaces. This is where you determine a light source, placing the hotspot to show of an interesting part of the car. Right now all the paint should look matte, as if it has no clear coat. Don’t worry the number of layers you use, as long as they are under the lines.

Step 4: Nice Sketch!

Start working on top of the lines layer to clean this up a little bit. Add some crisp highlights and reflections to make the paint look glossy. This ends at what I would consider a decent loose sketch. It should represent the intent of the final illustration. Use this opportunity to get some feedback before the time consuming stuff starts.

Step 5: Start Rendering

Because it’s the backbone of the design, I will start the tight rendering with the bright silver parts that run the length of the car. Using the pen tool, draw a shape completely around this part. Because it’s a continuous surface, it will save us some time down the road to have this part selected. Shapes > Convert to Selection + Select > Feather (2pix)

Step 6: Car Paint

It doesn’t hurt to illustrate car paint like it’s applied in real life. I start here with the base coat, flat silver. No hard reflections; it’s easier to draw, here shown with one major light source. Try not to jump around the rendering too much, this part is fairly complicated and should be focused on.

Step 7: Clear Coat (Reflections)

Because the vehicle is in a studio environment, it will reflect white from all directions. I will draw these with a large 1 pixel edge airbrush, at full opacity. This will give me a nice crisp edge on the highlights and reflections. Adjust the intensity through the opacity slider in the layers palette. Each reflection will get its own layer.

Tip: Many, Many Layers

I only manage layers in the early sketch phase, when it’s important to keep everything under the lines. Once I start rendering the final illustration, layer management goes out the window. Every time I add a new highlight or shadow, it’s on a new layer so to not disturb any previous work. By the end of the drawing, I will have made roughly 300 layers, and have had to flatten a dozen times. You might need to go back into previous layers for clean-up, so only flatten when you get to a good milestone.

Step 8: Pinpoint the Highlights

Drawing tight highlights on a long edge is made super easy with the ability to snap to curves. Click the “Align to Path” box in the Property bar, and your brush stroke will be snapped to that shape. This is a car designer’s best friend to hitting that perfect arc. If you go to the properties menu, and click “Paint hidden shapes”, you can snap to a hidden path.

Step 9: Complex Surfaces

Because these areas are much smaller and more complex than the bight silver surfaces, it won’t save too much time making selections of everything. I start by painting over the sketch to clean it up, and start fresh. I roll over any small details like the headlight; it will be easier to draw these in later than to draw around them now.

Step 10: Silky Smooth Shine

Try to use bold single brush strokes when building up highlights and shadow. If you noodle around, the digital airbrush will create some muddy artefacts that don’t look very good on car paint. I will often make a highlight or shadow bigger than its needed, and use the eraser to bring that effect down to the desired location.

Step 11: Subtle Reflections

To give these surfaces a high gloss finish, we add some hard reflections. As with the silver piece; I will draw them in as opaque white, and adjust the layer down to around 10% opacity so they don’t draw too much attention. Give these reflection shapes some interesting form, this can give a boring surface some drama.

Step 12: Headlight

Time to bring back the headlight; I draw a simple overall form, to which I will add projector beams, and a lens. All glass effects are drawn on last, so feel free to have some fun with those projectors. Draw one, and duplicate it to save some time. Add some hard reflections to show off the clear lens over the entire piece.

Step 13: Cool Wheels

By now you can see that I am working on each part until it’s completed. With all the detail on this vehicle, you can burn up a lot of time by jumping around to the interesting parts. I want to finish up this corner of car, so the wheel is the next. Start cleaning it up by over-drawing the existing sketch.

Tip: Online Resources

A great resource for car design is CarDesignNews.com (www.cardesignnews.com), a site that I will check every day for the latest and greatest of the car industry. It’s a great source for inspiration, where you can find articles and galleries on huge auto shows or design school student shows. They have excellent design reviews, featuring sketches of concept cars directly from the studio. You can create and browse through portfolios of car design students and car design professionals. Also bookmark www.dieselstation.com as a great site for high-res car photo galleries and latest car news.

Step 14: Concept Car Wheels

I decided that the wheels I had going were not wild enough for the car. I wrap the tire into the rim in true concept car fashion. Here you can see where I start to add a little surface texture to the tire. I switch to the “simulated woodgrain” paper, and use the blunt chalk brush to apply the texture.

Step 15: Brake Rotor

For a brake rotor, or anything with a brushed surface finish, I will use a round oil brush with the feature setting cranked up. Apply a wash of dark streaks to a new layer, and drop back the opacity. Apply a wash of bright highlight, and drop back the opacity until everything looks correct.

Step 16: Chrome Engine

Exposed engines are usually the domain of rear engine supercars. Here I want to show off a front engine GT with a chromed-out centrepiece of a motor. Start cleaning up the surfaces by washing in big fields of flat colour.

Tip: Photo Reference

Photo reference is an awesome tool when rendering an automobile in Painter. It is important to understand how highlights will react to surface forms. Before you get started on a highly detailed rendering, look at photographs of similar setting and colour. You will see how the car reflects the light of the scene, and be able to sample colours directly off of the picture. If you are having trouble landing that initial sketch, grab a photograph, drop back the opacity, and overlay your sketch. This will greatly help with any proportion and perspective problems.

Step 17: Rendering Chrome

Chrome can be tough to render and depict form at the same time. Photo reference would be good here. Just remember that everything needs a lot of contrast with chrome, hard reflections, and that it reflects its environment. DO NOT render “desert chrome” unless you draw the car in a desert.

Step 18: Rough Texture

To add some interest in the engine bay, let’s give this part some texture. Use the fine spray airbrush, and dust it with some dark sparkle. Do the same with white for a textured highlight. I use this brush all the time when showing textured plastic and cast metal.

Step 19: Interior

My original grey interior is looking a little dull with the rest of the car being fairly monochromatic. I clean it up and add some warm colour. It wouldn’t hurt to find some photo reference of car interiors. Use an image to find good colours, sampling highlights and shadows.

Step 20: Render Away

The process here is nothing new, add highlight and shadow over a base tone. I am paying the price for all this detail…this rendering is taking a while. If you want to speed things up, just make this a coupe. But I am having fun with the different materials, so it’s no big deal.

Tip: Compare With Others

ConceptArt.org is another fantastic place to get inspired, but its greatest use for artists and designers are the honest and valuable critiques. If your design is not confidential, go ahead and post it in their critique centre forum when you hit step4. Fresh eyes can see mistakes that you have grown used to. You might also get some good design tips along the way. Just be open to the ideas and suggestions, and never get too attached to a design. The “Its Finally Finished” forum is a great place to see some hot concept art. If the work up there doesn’t inspire you to get drawing, nothing will.

Step 21: Windshield

Automotive glass has a slightly green tint; on a multiply layer, cover the windshield with a light pale green. On new layers, add some white reflections, and drop back the layer opacity until they look good. Keep the reflection edges sharp, automotive glass is highly reflective. For all hard reflections, I use that same digital airbrush with the 1 pixel edge setting.

Step 22: Oops, Bad Perspective

When I flip the canvas horizontally, something looks funky at the rear end of the car. I notice that the perspective is cranked with the headrests of the seats, and the passenger side rear fender is way too small. Flatten the image, and duplicate these areas. Free transform the pieces, and move them into place.

Step 23: Final Details

I saved these details until the end: side mirrors, front emblem, door cuts and shadow. They should support the overall design, and would be tough to draw around in the earlier stages. The shadow can be especially difficult; I usually save it until the end, so it works with the values of the car itself. Use the pen tool to make a selection that excludes the car, this will save you a lot of erasing time.

Changing the Color

I usually render vehicles in silver. Its easy to draw, easy to read, and prints well on almost any printer. But you might want to do some colour options in the end. Silver is relatively easy to turn into different paint finishes, but it doesn’t always work the other way around. Once again, it doesn’t hurt to look at some photo reference for good colour samples.

Step 1: Make it Red

On a multiply layer, add your colour of choice in a single solid block. This will be shaded automatically by the silver tones underneath. Use this time to play around with different colours, see what looks best on the car.

Step 2: Add Warms and Cools

On that same layer, click the preserve transparency option in the layers menu. This will limit your paint to cover only the pixels you already have on that layer. Where the highlight is hitting the surfaces dead on, I put down some warmer red-orange hues. On the backside of the car, I brush in a very washed out red, as reflected by the background.

Step 3: Highlights

Add some new highlights on top of the red base coat. Make a new layer, and paint in opaque white fields for your highlight reflections. Drop back the layer opacity until they look good. Do the same thing for your ground reflections, and you are done!

One of the highlights of the show was a Thursday evening dinner with the LEV association (Light Electric Vehicle). Led by Ed Benjamin of Benjamin consulting, the evening was a great networking opportunity for all those in attendance- a real global event. Across the board the conversations were very open and optimistic. Of special note, the market guidance was very bullish going forward. We had a chance to connect with designers from major manufacturers, start-ups, and authorities on the subjects of bicycles, all aspects of electric technologies and where the two might be heading in the future. Well worth the adventure of getting back to Konstanz through the late hours of via taxis, ferries, and buses… and a bit of walking of course.

UPDATE 09.09.09: Core77 has uploaded a nice gallery of images from their time at the show as well. Follow this link to check out their shots.

1234...8910►

This “designers notebook” features the first in a selection of photographs we shot while touring the first day of the show. You can find several sites that are covering the news and events of the show- we’re posting imagery that we’ve noted as interesting purely from a designers perspective. Enjoy.

123456►