Technical illustration how-to
If you have a lot of patience (720+ hours worth) and some cruiseship blueprints lying around, then boy do I have a project for you. After seeing the comments in this Drawn! thread, Mark P sends in this link: Technical illustrator Kevin Hulsey offers up a fascinating demonstration on his site on how he created a stunning three-dimensional cutaway illustration of a cruise ship using only a set of blueprints and Adobe Illustrator (and Photoshop for colour). I can’t imagine doing something like this without going crazy, so kudos to Kevin Hulsey.
And if you’re not quite ready to jump into a project that will take you 1000 hours to complete, maybe you can start off with his basic principles of perspective drawing and go from there!
*gulp*
Sweet Jebus.
Can you imagine doing this stuff old skool?
i used to love those old science books for kids where the did cutaways for almost anything – and those must have been done with an airbrush.
It wasnt too long ago where I was wondering if I would find a how to guide to doing those amazing cut away illustrations. So here I go….
I stumbled onto this a few years ago. Amazing amount of work. Props to the Hulsey
I was an engineering major in college and one of our required classes was engineering graphics/drafting. Being the naive person I was I thought it would be an easy “A” because I was artsy and heck, I’ve been drawing my whole life.
Let’s just say I very quickly realized my error.
Kevin Hulsey’s work is stunning.
Looks good, but 720 hours?!? With 3D modeling software such as 3ds Max this could be done in a fraction of the time and effort, and the result could be viewed from any angle and animated at will. Also I believe the result would look better, at least more realistic, if decent materials and renderer would be used.
I think Jeope sums it up nicely.
Antti, if the client wants it, who’s to say it could be done quicker or better? I’d be very happy to go quietly crazy for three months doing this kind of quality work for 10 hours a day.
Mind boggling stuff!
Maybe there are reasons why he didn’t use 3d modelling software.
I’d take my hat off to him. If I owned a hat.
I agree with Antti. I started out over many moons ago as a technical illustrator, when we still did all of this by hand (yes I am that ancient). It was a great discipline, taking incredibly complex 2D engineering drawings and making 3D exploded views of them.
But lord, drawing nuts, screws and bearings over and over and over again! The advent of software, both 2D and 3D, liberated us from repetitive, soul-destroying tasks like that forever. It freed us to concentrate on the big picture, to be more creative and daring.
That said, I don’t want to take away from Kevin Hulsey, I’ve seen this illustration many times before, and it certainly is an amazing piece of work.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a grand ship.
Magnificient!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:shock:
Esta loco.
Muy bueno el resultado final, pero esta loco. Definitivamente loco.
My brother’s first payed job ever was inking exploded views, in our neighbour’s studio. Around 1970 that was. I thought the craft was obselete!
Anyone know why 2D apps were used instead of 3D? I’ve never seen a 3D model that looked that nice, so I’m thinking there must be something to it.
Hulsey digitally follows in the footsteps of David Kimble, an automotive illustration legend who worked with airbrush on layers of acetate to composite his images. Google him.
I’m a technical illustration student at Sheridan College (see website ;) so here’s my take on the 2D vs 3D debate.
Complex technical illustrations (such as Hulsey’s) are a delicate balance of accuracy and clarity. Too much accuracy obscures the focus with complexity (In my opinion, Kimble’s work tends in this direction). I’ll agree with Antti that a 3D model has the advantage of being viewed from any angle, and would enable walk-through videos, etc (though I’m not so sure it would take a fraction of the time, especially at the rendering stage). However, the realism enabled by 3D wouldn’t necessarily aid clarity of the image, which becomes especially important when the image is printed (the ship illustrations were done for brochures, so you can imagine how small they might be).
I don’t contest that 3D can be used to accomplish similar results (though, I’m not so sure about the time factor), I just find subtle control over realistic/diagramatic subtleties is a lot easier with a 2D image.
Nice web site James. Excellent work.
As regards to time, once you build a substantial library of common 3D parts, things become much faster. It’s debatable whether it’s faster to build a 3-point perspective grid in Illustrator, and plot objects into that space ‘manually’, or to model the thing in 3D software. I must admit faster isn’t necessarily better – but for many clients speed and quantity is often more important than quality, as much as that sucks.
It just seems a little masochistic to redraw the same item from many different angles using 2D techniques. Model it once in 3D, reuse it a thousand times. I take your point about clarity however, so if time is not critical, why not model in 3D, do a very basic render, then bring it into Illustrator and trace over it?
Of course, for simple work – and for organic items difficult to model accurately – there are times when 3D is both much slower and is overkill, not to mention that ‘hand drawn’ work can look much more natural and ironically more realistic.
WOW….. that is amasing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the main problem with 3D modelling probably comes with the lighting. If you compare rendered 3DS Max technical illustrations with Kimble’s 2D work the latter has a huge edge in terms of clarity of detail because he can light areas that would ‘realistically’ be in shadow. The 3D stuff looks more ‘real’, but you can’t see as much. And seeing as much as possible is the point of technical illustration. You can see more images by Kimble here: http://art.webesteem.pl/10/hulsey_en.php
Have a look at his Acura Integra Engine Cutaway – how could you light that as effectively in 3D software, getting in to all those nooks and crannies? Look at a similar image on the Autodesk website for comparison: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/3dsMax8DesignViz_v13.pdf
Ironically in this field people seem to use 3D modelling software for more impressionistic purposes – showing clients what a building might look like etc. I guess there are crossovers. But in the end I think artists and clients will just do whatever they feel is effective.
Well, I don’t know about anyone else but I’m not saying 3D is ‘better’. However there are some pretty awesome cell-based renderers for Studio Max which you can use if clarity is more important than realism.
I think what we’re really talking about is speed and efficiency. If you work faster in 2D, then power to you.
Just because Kevin works in 2D, hardly makes him inferior in some way – that’s crazy, it’s like me saying I’m a better artist because I use XYZ paintbrushes rather than what you use.
But why does it have to be ‘either – or’? Why not use the strengths of both?
I think the bigger your toolbelt the more effective you are. Like I said above, what’s wrong with modelling in 3D, and finishing in Illustrator for technical art? Best of both worlds.
I would agree with you there Darren.
I was a bit lazy with my links in the above comments, so will correct them here:
Hulsey in Webesteem magazine
3Ds Max PDF with example of engine
Amazing Work!
I think it would´ve taken him longer to acomplish the same result in 3D. His client didn´t asked him for an animation or a Walktrough, it´s Royal Caribbean! they already have those don´t you think? What they were looking for it´s the clarity and the organic feel to it.
Everyone uses 3D nowadays for this kind of illustration. This is how you stand out of the crowd.
motherfucking mother of all the ships of sea!
[...] Drawn! always has something of interest. They recently posted about the work of Kevin Hulsey, a professional technical illustrator. [...]
It might be of interest for people to know that we still teach technical illustration as a major part of our BA (Hons) Information Illustration programme at Blackpool and the Fylde College in England. Long may this art continue and develop. Thanks to Kevin for the excellent web site.
Prof. Stephen Thompson
Prof. Stephen, I’m not in the technical illustration field anymore, but just as I was ‘leaving’ it, a software package called IsoDraw (made by a German outfit Itedo) was becoming all the rage.
In fact it was becoming a required package for military contracts in particular (at least in my part of the world). Some work done with it: http://www.isodraw.com/E/s1000d_overview.php
Just out of interest, is it still in wide use, or has other software supplanted it? I would think it might be better than Illustrator for technical art, since it’s specifically aimed at this field.
I am trying to locate a technical illustrator with the last name of Kimble. He was the best at his craft in the 70’s and 80’s. His specialty was automotive — cars and motorcyles. He did the original illustration of the Honda Goldwing motorcycle when it was introduced. He lived in southern California at the time.
[...] but just as I was ???leaving?? it, a software package called IsoDraw made by a German outfit …http://drawn.ca/2006/03/21/technical-illustration-how-to/Press Releases: PTC Acquires Leading Technical Illustration Software …Acquisition will Enable PTC [...]
[...] thread, Mark P sends in this link: technical illustrator Kevin Hulsey offers up a fascinating …http://drawn.ca/2006/03/21/technical-illustration-how-to/Technical illustration – Beaudaniels.comAutomotive and product cutaway technical illustration. … [...]