Vehicle 3D Animation | Excerpt from senior capstone project

This is an excerpt from my capstone, a project I completed during my final semester in the University of Cincinnati transportation design program. I designed a future concept vehicle for moving loads in urban areas. In the final six weeks of the semester, I created a 3D animation to tell the story of a typical use case and showcase important features of the concept vehicle.

Please note: the animation does not have audio.

I created a text storyboard to organize the shots and assets for each scene and to provide a high-level view of the plotline.

I modeled the vehicle in Fusion 360, a parametric 3D modeling software. This took about four weeks total: two weeks to determine a 3D workflow and two weeks to create the model.

Other assets and props were created in Blender in a low-polygon style that is efficient to model and easy on the computer when rendering.

In order to best communicate the urban environment the vehicle concept operates in, I modeled the buildings off of real-world structures in an efficient, low-poly workflow.

I set the animation to run continuously on the monitor next to the printed display to create a more memorable experience for DAAPWorks attendees.

Electric Vehicle Charger Installation Guides

Designed a series of instructional guides for installing electric vehicle charging systems
Team: Bally Design; industrial and graphic designers (2-5 people total at various points in the project)
Timeline: five weeks per booklet; six booklets

We received basic text instructions from the client, a multinational power equipment manufacturer. Our task was to validate the directions and add value by streamlining step flows, producing vector illustrations and organizing the content into a cohesive, branded document. As an industrial designer, I focused specifically on the validation and illustration component.

Validation Process

Discussed actions users would take based on initial instructions from client

Examined CAD data supplied by client to validate parts list and construction

Explored actual products in studio (when possible) to identify discrepancies

Illustration Creation

Reviewed assets from client including 3D CAD files and physical product

Digitally sketched over screenshots to validate illustration intent with client

Extracted linework from CAD to create vector illustrations for final prints

Each booklet was around sixteen printed pages. Some were full color, most were grayscale. With each successive project, the client expressed enthusiasm and a desire to continue working with us to create the next booklet  in the series.

Omnicell XR2 Showcase Video

Omnicell contracted Bally Design to create a sales video showcasing the features of their brand-new XR2 Automated Central Pharmacy System. It's a room-sized robot that distributes pills and other medicinal equipment to hospital employees. For the video, I sourced the background music and identified candidates for the voiceover.  I also compiled early drafts of the video in Adobe Premiere to help the team adjust the timing of scenes with respect to the storyboard.

Blackstone Products Griddle Scoops

The griddle scoop was my first professional project at my first product design internship. The team had previously identified a similar tool as a potential value add for their lineup. During my co-op, I was responsible for advancing the project from idea through research, sketching and up to prototyping. The final products, pictured above in both large and small sizes, have a clear lineage from the prototypes I created.

3D prints that I modeled to validate ergonomic variables like weight-in-hand, maneuverability and effective capacity. Unfortunately, I did not document much of the work I did while at Blackstone. Since this first internship experience I've learned to document all of my work, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Documentation of work is every bit as important as the work itself.

Conair Desiccant Dryer Cart Redesign

Conair contracted Bally Design to provide aesthetic inspiration for the next-generation of their cart systems. These machines dry out plastic pellets as a part of the injection molding process.

I teamed up with a senior designer to create sketches showing different aesthetic directions Conair could take their new carts. I learned to ideate for sheet metal, keeping the material and manufacturing constraints in mind. Reducing cost was also a primary objective: our concepts addressed this through shrinking the size of aesthetic panels and adjusting the color of painted components to freshen the look.

I've included images that show the original and the final redesign, which represents Conair’s interpretation of our sketches.

Original Cart Design:

Redesign:

Electrical Equipment Renderings for Eaton

Eaton contracted Bally Design to render a range of electronic system control units for a sales brochure. In order to create these renderings, I adjusted the asset counts of the original engineering CAD to be lighter weight for the rendering computer by removing unnecessary components. I also made tweaks to match the real-life color and material specifications (as well as the CMF of preexisting renderings) through a process of trial and error.

Content Writing

While working as a freelance designer, I engaged with a local marketing agency to produce search engine optimized written content among other design-related services.

The written content I produced took advantage of backlinking, a process where I collect existing facts into a question-and-answer format in order to potentially display them as Google featured snippets, which would drive traffic to my client's website.

Project 8

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Project 12