Technical Illustration Schools/Programs

[Mike A]

Jeff,
Others, who are more focused on traditional B&W line artwork, are probably in a better position to advise you on their chosen software for this. Certainly PTC IsoDraw used to be a mainstay, but I don't know if that's still the case.

For me, as a more generalist illustrator, with a presentation / marcomms focus, some key tools are:

3D: FormZ and Rhino for modelling, Cinema 4D for more freeform modelling and texturing / rendering.
Vector drawing: Illustrator
Image manipulation: Photoshop

For me, Illustrator is the weakest of this set. While it has some nice features it's not focused on technical type work and has workflow issues. IMO it needs to be supplemented by some decent plugins such as those from Astute Graphics to make it usable. You might like to look at Corel draw as an alternative.

As far as hardware - yes, tools like a Wacom Intuous or Cintique are essential for any painting or image manipulation type work. Perhaps less so for technical vector drawing.


Mike

[Jeff L.]

Mike,
Thanks for your take on the software.
We will most likely be teaching Illustrator and Photoshop. We have people on staff who can do that (not me). I will look into CorelDraw. I know that we have it some places here at school. We use it with our laser engravers. Not sure if anyone on staff is versed in it enough to teach it, however.
For 3D, we will be teaching 3ds Max because that is what we have and I already have classes set up for it. I am thinking that I will need to provide some short courses on illustrating with SolidWorks, Inventor, and CATIA as well.
Awesome information people! I will definitely recommend this website to faculty and students involved in this program.
Jeff

[JuanCal123]

morning Jeff, at the moment for Technical Illustrations I haven't had to use a tablet or any special digitizer. A keyboard and a mouse will do the trick. In my case I have two mouses one for my left hand and the right, over the years I have carpool tunnel issues. I dont want to get surgery, so in order for me to keep making money I have had to make my self learn how to use my left hand.

But if you can get a tablet more power to ya

[Don Cheke]

Mike,
Thanks for your take on the software.
We will most likely be teaching Illustrator and Photoshop. We have people on staff who can do that (not me). I will look into CorelDraw. I know that we have it some places here at school. We use it with our laser engravers. Not sure if anyone on staff is versed in it enough to teach it, however.
For 3D, we will be teaching 3ds Max because that is what we have and I already have classes set up for it. I am thinking that I will need to provide some short courses on illustrating with SolidWorks, Inventor, and CATIA as well.
Awesome information people! I will definitely recommend this website to faculty and students involved in this program.
Jeff

Hi Jeff, I am self-taught and for a while that felt like a bit of a deterrent. The reason why is that I purchased and used software that I could afford (some of it free). In the early days when when I would occasionally look at the job boards the software I had learned was never listed as a required skill. If I were starting over I would find a way to get industry standard software right from the start. Using industry standard software in a school setting is of paramount importance. That is why I am glad to see you using Illustrator & Photoshop. I am not familiar with 3D Max so I don't know how a user models in it. Is it just a push and pull node modeler or is it a true CAD system? It does depend on what a student usually ends up doing that will determine what they will need, but if 3D Max is not a CAD system I would also include SolidWorks. It is not a very affordable option for a freelancer ($6K + 1800/yr maintenance). That does not include 3Dvia Composer which is around 5K or so + maintenance) which would be an ideal companion for a technical illustrator. SoldiWorks in definitely an industry standard package and quite impressive in my opinion, especially for mechanical design.

I have been a freelance CAD and graphics guy since 2004. I had my first introduction to CAD in 2002. It was with TurboCAD which is not an industry standard CAD program but it is an awesome general CAD program nonetheless. I use it every day for my long time clients in the Trade Show booth industry and my long term clients in the Advertising industry. The Platinum version is about $1500 (no maintenance fees, but upgrading is about $600/yr or so, if a user wants to keep up). I also use SolidWorks on a daily basis as a design engineer for another long time client. I also have and use Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat almost daily.

I believe that anyone interested in TI needs to know numerous programs to function well and meet all the demands of their varied clients (or one's boss - if employed).

I believe that there is definitely a place for 2D illustrators as one can see by the works posted here but I also believe that 3D is the ideal, especially as you draw it once and then you can create innumerable views to suit. You can do exploded views easily and even create animations or motion studies from those 3D models. Strictly 2D - and you need to redraw to make another view. Also, with 3D printing becoming so popular a background in 3D modeling will always come in handy (many industrial print shops already exist and the 3D printed model IS the final product).

These are just my thought......

[Don Cheke]

Jeff,

I wanted to mention too, that illustrators should not believe that they are limited to one tool. The ones I mention early that I use are often used together to get the best results. I wrote a TurboCAD tip about that a while ago if you are interested. Tip 20 Enhancing TurboCAD Renders.

Link to PDF: http://www.textualcreations.ca/TurboCAD ... p%2028.pdf

[JuanCal123]

Don Cheke

NIce Turbo CAD tutorial. I like the Photoshop parts and how you used layers and the trick tricks layered raster software provide. Looks like the secret to our magic is out.

[Jeff L.]

Don,
Thanks much for the info.
3ds Max is an Autodesk product that is used in movie and 3D game design. It has complete 3D modeling capabilities as well as rendering and animation functions. It is more of a presentation tool than a CAD tool. It is easier to create organic shapes in Max than other products, SolidWorks for instance.
One of its best features, I feel, is the wide range of file formats that you can bring into it. 3D models created in SolidWorks, Inventor, CATIA, CREO, Revit, etc. can all be directly imported. Once you get them there, they can be edited, materials added, lighting displayed and rendered. The images that you showed in your tutorial (very nice, by the way) could be created in Max. The models could be created there from scratch or imported. Images can be used for the background or attached to materials applied to the object, like the Red Bull cans. There is a full range of lighting and special effects.
I think my students will need to be versed in this type of 3D rendering as well as animation and 3ds Max does it all. As you mentioned, it is very important for them to know Illustrator and Photoshop to manipulate images and 2D line work.
Jeff

[JuanCal123]

Just posting an Update on my technical Illustration journey.

Im now in my second semester in Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation pursuing A.S. degree.
Was looking at some job boards and the future looks bright. Im growing with the new technology thats at the forfront and staying competitive in the job market. Hope this inspires many of my Technical bretherens.
I saw a great example of Job opening in Atlanta, GA; Technical Illustrator/ CAD Drafter electro mechanical, Automation knowledge a plus. here is the link

http://www.dice.com/jobsearch/servlet/J ... medium=cpc



there are other opportunities, but this one caught my eye cause its in another state.

I saw a cool quote on a report done on Elon Musk, I don't remember it to well but it went something like this, a Generalist is someone who works on learning things that he's not interested in.

As a Generalist, there are somethings that I wasn't interested in, but sort of become part of my career and have grown on me. Good example is Coding software, never thought I would be doing anything remotely related to it, but has now become something of a hobby and ive applied it to work and is something that will be a part of my new degree in Mechatronics.


anyways thats my update on school/programs