From a physical model to 3D and back again
As far as the work of the designers themselves is concerned, it starts with sketching, of course: first in good old 2D, but then more and more in 3D. “That makes it easy to pass our vision on to our digital modellers, who work with the designers to develop the idea into a more concrete 3D model,” explains Dimitrios Darkoudis. “We do a lot of work with virtual reality these days,” adds Jiri Hadaščok. Martin Bogner, head of the digital modelling team, also describes the recent shift: “While we used to work mainly with clay models, now most of our work is done in the digital realm.”
The design of a car's lights has a huge impact on its overall looks.
Different design variants are created in 3D models as the work goes into greater and greater detail. Take the car’s lights, for example. “A car can have beautiful lines, but if the lights aren’t right it ruins the whole impression. The lights are the jewels that make the car shine and give it a unique look. That’s why they are extremely important and we take a lot of pride in their design, which means that, again, the light designers get involved in the process from the very first sketches,” Hadaščok points out. In the first stages, the lights specialists try to understand the designers’ idea and start to think of a suitable solution, which is then incorporated into the digital models. Just how good Škoda light designers are at their job is demonstrated by a recent award from the prestigious Car Design News platform.
The digital models are then converted into physical models made from clay (technically called industrial plasticine). “For concepts for car shows and future production cars, we make everything in 1:1 scale, because some important proportions or fine details may not stand out in a smaller scale,” explains Vlastimil Pažout, coordinator of physical model construction. Initially, the exterior, interior and physical models have various alternative designs, which are scrutinised, altered and fine-tuned in different ways. “Out of six to eight virtual designs we select four, which we make as physical models,” says Jiří Hadaščok.
The modelling team makes both digital and physical models.
The physical models aren’t only important for understanding the overall impression the design creates, they also help crystallise specific details. “Ergonomics are important for the steering wheel and other interior elements, for example,” explains Lukáš Vaněk from the interior design department. “So we quickly move on from sketches to 3D iterations of the steering wheel. Then we create a 3D printed model we can use to evaluate the ergonomics, so we can make further adjustments to it in 3D and verify it again,” he adds. Only then is the steering wheel model for the entire interior model made. This model is also given the appropriate material or trim pattern. Everything will still have to be fine-tuned further, but this shows how closely connected the different areas really are.