FoMoCo4eva

I was wondering does anyone here know where I could get some kind of program that you can design cars with...or even if they are around. I'm interested in that kind of thing as in a career but dont really know where to start.

To Aussie Falcon (or anyone else), with the M3/T-Series you did, did you just use Paintshoop Pro, or did you use some kind of program? It was a good effort.

IPhido

J-type, I belive he does his by hand then scans them in and touches them up.. most of the modified photos are done using Adobe Photoshop, get a hold of this program. Its a good start. You could try Illistrator or a vector based program as well.

If you accually want to design cars, try getting a Cad program, (autocad etc) or at a pinch artistic 3d renders can be used such as 3ds MAX, Lightwave, Softimage... Not good if you are working out technical details, great if your just styling..

You can try applying for work experience at ford/Holden (pref after you have tried stuff yourself). But really any design studio is a start, the basic concepts of style and styling are simular for clothing, electrical equipment, funiture.

It can be a long road, try starting with small stuff. For example buy a remote control car and try working with its mechanicals and style a body over it. Get a portfolio together, show it around, peoples opinions are easy to get, but they are still worth something.

The Stylist

I'm currently using program called PhotoExpress 2.0 - don't laugh it came with the computer.:D
Though there are definatly better programs around, my advice is (if you have not had much drawing/design experiance) to start out by sketching on paper 2D drawings etc... then start on 3D sketches - the more practice the better, photoshop programs should come after you are confident that you're quite good with just sketching.
Sculpture experiance will also help.

I'd suggest you visit www.cardesignnews.com and get some more valuable info from there.
If you have contacts in the industry then use them, I was fortunate to get some feed back from the late Geoff Lawson about five years ago which was quite helpful.

FoMoCo4eva

thanks for the advice..

ive got a choice of engineering/commerce or public relations for uni next year..

ive asked for about work experince at Ford, but cos of the Av there is some secuirity lock down or something:-(, they said they will try and fit me in asap but I dont know when that would be
which is fair enough i guess

where the heck would i get a cad program from though????
my computer probably wouldn't be good enough anyway

Aussie Falcon

I use Paint shop pro if I need to do a quick edit, resizing or cropping. For bigger stuff I use Corel Photopaint. It's a steep learning curve with complicated programs like Corel and Photoshop. You can download 30 day trial versions of this software from the corel and adobe websites.