Gravity Sketch is the 3D tool that helps design teams turn great ideas into great products. Intuitive creation in VR lets designers go beyond the bounds of 2D sketching to explore ideas at 1:1 scale in a virtual studio. Others can join from headsets or their screen to collaborate on designs and provide feedback on the direction of an idea. It’s proving to be a key tool for the transportation, footwear and industrial design industries, by bringing seamless communication of design intent into a product’s lifecycle, bringing teams to make better decisions faster.
Founded in 2020, Gravity Sketch’s Student Ambassador Program was created to provide the most talented design students in the world with the hardware, software and training needed to better communicate their design ideas in 3D. Each year around 100 students from a range of backgrounds are selected to work with Gravity Sketch on nurturing their skills and preparing them to be stand-out candidates in the design talent pool.
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Their training as a Gravity Sketch Student Ambassador culminates in a personal project that is reviewed to certify the students’ proficiency in Gravity Sketch, as well as showcase their design capabilities. At the end of each year, the achievements of these students are celebrated as they are introduced to industry partners who have the ability to create life-changing opportunities.
From Gravity Sketch’s 2022-2023 cohort of student ambassadors, 11 have been selected to represent the scope of innovation, dedication and skill found within the pool of students.
You can sign up to join a live showcase of their projects to understand the full process, tools, and skills used in their creations:
Transportation session – May 30th 5:30pm BST/ 12:30pm ET/ 9:30am PT
Industrial design session – May 30th 8pm BST/ 3pm ET/ 12pm PT
Footwear session – May 31st 8pm BST/ 3pm ET/ 12pm PT
Learn more about Gravity Sketch’s 2022-2023 Student Ambassadors
Alper Özgür
College: Istanbul Technical University – Turkey
Major: Industrial design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: Exterior designer at Porsche
Alper Özgür is a fourth year student in Istanbul Technical University’s Department of Industrial Design. Describing design as “a way of life”, he views everything around him from a design perspective, which fuels his creativity. Every design should have a purpose, and Alper is constantly researching and exploring ways to create more functional designs to make people’s lives easier.
Alper’s transportation workflow
Alper started his project with traditional 2D pen and paper sketches, before exploring design iterations in VR using Gravity Sketch. The entire modeling and sketching process was completed in Gravity Sketch, with renderings done in Keyshot for surface improvements and refinements.
“Being able to create diverse design alternatives in a very short time was an important factor that increased my motivation for the project.”
Andrés Bastidas
Portfolio | LinkedIn | @doodlingcars | @abastidas97
College: Hochschule Pforzheim – Germany
Major: Transportation Design
Graduating: 2024
Dream Company and Role: A creative design role at McLaren / Pagani / Bugatti
Andrés is a passionate motorsports fan, which fuels his performance and aerodynamic focus within automotive design. Form is function, and he firmly believes that a high-performance approach inherently results in beautiful designs.
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Andrés’ transportation workflow
Andrés often starts his workflow in Gravity Sketch using imported NURBS data from Alias as a base for his design. He then has the ability to sketch a line or quickly model a surface, for the interior or exterior and view it in 1:1 scale, without having to switch software. He then exports to Alias for more detailed refinement, or to Maya for renderings.
“I used to view the process as a linear progression, where one would jump from pen and paper, to Photoshop, to CAD data, to final renderings; with each segment feeling quite disconnected from the one before it. Now, however, those lines have blurred. What once was a linear process, has now become a circle, which brings the best of every stage of the process together.”
Deshui Yu
College: University of Oregon – US
Major: Sports product design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: Nike footwear designer
Deshui Yu is from Cangzhou, Hebei, China. He specializes in designing footwear and other industrial products that combine performance and aesthetics. He believes a good product is an interface connecting humans and nature, and should always tell the story of how it forms a symbiotic relationship with people.
Deshui’s footwear workflow
For Deshui’s project, the workflow started with a quick shoe idea sketched in Gravity Sketch. Afterwards, he imported the screenshot of the lateral view into the AI drawing software to generate further possibilities. The final approach was determined through traditional 2D sketches, of which the line work was traced as flat strokes in Gravity Sketch, before extending into 3D frames. After fine-tuning with the last as a reference, the Gravity Sketch SubD surfacing tool was brought in to build the final shoe. After the model was completed, it was exported to Rhino 3D.
“From the moment I learned about Gravity Sketch, I knew that this cutting-edge design tool would bring my ideation efficiency to a whole new level.”
Francisco Bernal
College: Fundación Universidad Autónoma de Colombia – Colombia
Major: Industrial design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: 3D footwear designer at Adidas / Puma / Salomón / Fila
Francisco is a freelance footwear designer using advanced 3D modeling and computational design skills to convey his designs. He has a strong focus on footwear innovation and workflow improvement.
Francisco’s footwear workflow
Francisco uses Gravity Sketch to explore different forms and shapes of his designs. He uses AI tools like Midjourney and Vizcom to look for iterations on ideas. In Rhino or Grasshopper he develops NURBS modeling and parametric design to achieve complex shapes. For the final stage he uses Keyshot to render and visualize the product.
“It inspires me to continue pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation in the field of footwear design”
Gaston Flores Gomez
College: National University of Córdoba – Argentina
Major: Transportation design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: Exterior designer at Ferrari / McLaren / Cupra
Gaston is from Argentina, with a true passion for transportation design. He takes influences from art in his work, and strives to think and design outside the status quo.
Gaston’s transportation workflow
For this project, Gaston tested his workflow to generate a concept in just two weeks. He did a quick one minute sketch on paper and then wanted to see how his loose 2D vision worked in 3D; he built out the concept model in Gravity Sketch to express his vision, before using Keyshot to create renders and videos of the final design.
“The design process is more exciting than ever.”
Jennifer Ellison
Portfolio | LinkedIn | Instagram
College: University of Cincinnati – DAAP – US
Major: Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: Jen has recently secured a role as incoming junior designer for Can-Am Off Road Vehicles (BRP)
Jennifer has always loved creation and observation, pursuing design with the intention of exploring every possible avenue. She has discovered many design interests, but has developed a true passion for mobility design. This is where she intends to make her career – connecting people through movement, responsible design, and doing her part to inspire the next generation of designers. Jen believes that designers should never lose that wide-eyed, child-like curiosity, and wants to always continue being a student to the talented people around her.
Jen’s transportation workflow
Jen initially used Gravity Sketch in her workflow for scale validation to establish the vehicle package. Jen then moved back and forth between hand sketching and VR, eventually establishing a tight wireframe model within Gravity Sketch. She surfaced her wireframe entirely in Gravity Sketch, and created several iterations of exterior surfaces, bringing screenshots into photoshop to iterate and refine further. Friends and professors hopped into VR to leave some notes by their favorite models, and I chose a final direction to model to completion. She then built a rough full-scale model of the vehicle for guests to sit in, so that when they put on the VR headset, they would be perfectly placed inside the vehicle.
“It was so incredible to be able to showcase my work in this way, as well as through the presentation room that I later created in Gravity Sketch.”
Lukas Howell
College: Savannah College of Art and Design – US
Major: Industrial design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: Anything creative at companies like Oceanco and Sinot
Lukas Howell is a 4th year Industrial Design student, with a minor in marine design. With a natural curiosity and love of learning, design for Lukas is all about exploration, and looking at the world from a different perspective.
Lukas’ industrial design workflow
Lukas’ design process begins with Photoshop for initial ideation. Once a sketch is selected, he transitions to Gravity Sketch, where the sketch lines are transformed into a 3D model, focusing on the creation of foundational surfaces. Finally, he sends the model to Blender and adds the finishing touches, such as refining the design, applying textures and materials, and generating high-quality renderings.
“Gravity Sketch has become an indispensable tool in my design process, serving as a primary platform for transforming initial ideas into three-dimensional representations.”
Michael Stevens
College: Queensland University of Technology – Australia
Major: Industrial design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: Footwear design in performance and innovation
Michael has recently completed an internship with adidas AG as a footwear designer in the Sports Specialist team; he’s now continuing research into sustainable innovations in footwear design and manufacture through to the completion of his degree. He’s set up a footwear design group and consultancy, HIDDEN FACES alongside colleague Jake Day.
Michael’s footwear workflow
Michael starts his workflow with rapid ideation sketching on paper, then refines this direction in Autodesk sketchbook. Once he has a lateral view, he imports the images along with a last into Gravity Sketch, tracing key lines over the images, before mirroring and pulling points out to a desired proportion. He then develops the model further with the surfacing tool. The concept model is then exported into blender in low poly format, to be subdivided and refined where necessary – in this particular project computational design elements were implemented to create surface textures and volumetric latticing. The final outcome from blender is then exported for rendering and 3D printing.
“With Gravity Sketch, my designs feel ‘digitally hand-crafted’, I can embrace a sense of wabi-sabi as I crawl over volumes and forms iterating on what I find.”
Seán Dwyer
Portfolio | Linkedin | Instagram
College: University of Cincinnati DAAP – US
Major: Industrial design
Graduating: 2024
Dream Company and Role: Future Craft at Nike ISPA
Seán Dwyer describes himself as a multidisciplinary designer, specializing in innovation and storytelling. With a deep passion for all things design, his focus is on execution and attention to detail within a workflow.
Seán’s footwear workflow
Seán uses Gravity Sketch to explore a form in 3D, and often tries 3D printing or hand modeling alongside it. He then takes the subD meshes to Blender or Rhino for further development and rendering.
“I start with a pivotal idea or story, and refine it through research, including reaching out to professionals for feedback.”
Taylor Chen
College: ArtCenter College of Design – US
Major: Transportation design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: Automotive exterior designer
Taylor centers his designs around storytelling, with a focus on problem-solving for existing challenges and opportunities within design. He pairs this with a strong sense of aesthetics to create designs that are as much about form as they are function.
Taylor’s transportation workflow
Taylor’s design process involves ideation, sketching, and 3D modeling in Gravity Sketch, before exporting to Blender for refinement. This approach allows him to create high-quality designs that are both efficient and effective.
“Gravity Sketch has been an invaluable tool throughout my academic journey, enabling me to bring my visions to life with its intuitive and immersive design platform”
Thomas Wiwchar
Portfolio | LinkedIn | Instagram
College: Carleton University – Canada
Major: Industrial design
Graduating: 2023
Dream Company and Role: BRP; Speculative Vehicle Design, or ILM; Art and Design Department
Thomas loves exploring new workflows with the latest tools in the AI and VR spaces. His design process often involves analyzing problems and working through possible solutions by sketching many iterations and building prototypes. His work includes a diverse range of materials and textures for contrast tactually, as well as visually in the product.Thomas’ industrial design workflow
Thomas’ industrial design workflow
Thomas was able to plan out the complex multi-interrelated-part aircraft in full scale 3D space using Gravity Sketch. From there he finished the surfacing in Fusion 360, before rendering in Blender and Unreal Engine.
“Gravity Sketch was a critical tool in the development of my capstone project”
View more of Thomas’ work on his Coroflot profile
Source: core77