A few years ago I began noticing that 2D thumbnails had certain limitations with regards to realistic industrial design projects. In response, I started to develop a spline-based workflow which offers many advantages over traditional thumbnails.
I’m currently working on a brand new Gumroad project that will show this workflow. If you’d like to see how I approach traditional 2D thumbnails in the meantime, you can check out my previous Gumroad tutorial HERE.
Below is a really basic version of the spline workflow from some years ago that I thought I’d share to keep my blog posting regular 🙂
1. Spline cage to establish functional form
2. Extracting abstracted linework
3. Block values and character for context
4. Colour palette and aesthetic tweaks
5. Balancing and tweaks
Extrapolated model based on concept
