Why Car Companies Still Spend Thousands On Clay Models | Cars Insider 

Spending thousands on a clay model isn't really expensive for a car company that makes millions each year, plus it helps designers to come up with a better final design so why not

As a designer, CAD models are limited in utility. Nothing can replace a physical 1:1 model, and clay is the cheapest and easiest way to do that for something the size of a car.

I think what's missing in the key takeaway is that the clay model is scanned, processed and fed back to the computer to update the CAD model.

It actually blows my mind to find out that every car manufacturer doesn't have their own wind tunnel.

I always thought the clay modeling was the coolest part of car design. VR is good for working out technical things that aren't necessarily visible, but nothing will replace being able to physically be in the same space and touch the object you are interacting with.

It must be a great feeling to see your design as a car designer, out in the real world, in production and being driven.

I remember hearing about, this may be a few decades ago, a car company would make half a clay model and put a mirror on the missing side to mirror the clay model, so they can get an idea of the whole car without spending the time making both sides. But it seems that car companies today can quickly make a whole clay model of the car. I remember seeing clay models in a Mazda ad.

Nothing beats seeing concept designs in full scale. Digital is more on the technical side that engineers need for production and safety data.

Still it's very cool that artisanship is still thriving in new age industries. I think it's an important part of human history and should be preserved!

Nice thing about clay is that it can be scanned very consistently with 3D scanners, and used to adjust the geometry in CAD. Other materials are a lot harder to scan. Particularly metallic materials.

Wow Just looking at that clay model on my remote screen looks amazing. The teamwork needed to build that work of art is incredible. Good Job Everyone!

It's been a big surprise to discover thqt BMW actually did a clay model of their last uber-ugly front design....and apparently, they loved it!!!

Big old companies still do clay modelling but smaller/younger companies rarely do, I was surprised that Lucid did. I worked in powersports oem accessories with Honda, Polaris, BRP, Arctic Cat now Textron, Suzuki and Yamaha and I remember the designer from Arctic Cat coming to see our prototype lab and being stunned that we had made a life size model of his SxS out of cardboard and PVC pipes to fit our accessories, he said it was the first time he saw the vehicle outside of a computer.

I have been retired after working for GM for many years and I still get exited when I see a clay model. It was a fun but rigorous career with many 24 hour days getting ready for shows. This was a great video explaining the process very correctly. Thanks for doing it.

2:18 good to see Tommy Wiseau is placing his talents within the automative industry

Even as an Mechanical Engineering student, CAD is amazing but nothing beats having a 1:1 model you can form yourself.

In my opinion clay is the most reliable, easy to refine and basically a perfect way to design cars

Thank you for this. Very informative. I wouldn't have known this process exists had it not been for this video. 🙏

I always wanted to be a car designer, ever since I was a kid. I found out that it's easier to get into the NBA, than it is to become a car designer. Years ago I read in a car magazine that the Pininfarina Mythos was so complex and complicated (in 89') that the Italian designers completely abandoned their computers and just sculpted it by hand. I would love to do this job for a living. Thanks.

It’s great to see that traditional modelling techniques still play a key part in the design process - you really can’t assess a complex form on a screen, no matter how advanced the tech gets - full size models are often the only tangible way that a form can be assessed and honed.

Brilliant video. As an IT lecturer I use clay models as an example of nonfunctional prototypes all the time in Systems development. This video will certainly come in handy when demonstrating such next time. Thanks for sharing.

As a CNC programmer, these models don't become reality overnight. Clay must be a wonderful material to machine and really fast but requires some finishing by human hands.

Part of this is helpful because they can see it and get a feel for what they want to make. This also just gives the care a human feel and cooler touch

The most amazing part of all of this is the amount of people from designers, engineers, upper management, and so on that allowed that hideous grille on the bmw to end up on the production models. They had it's final look right there in clay. Could have fixed it in 5 minutes.

I'm lucky enough to have had the oportunity to work in such a studio alonside automotive designers. I design electronics and sometimes when doing something new and limits are pushed we have to work alongside for a while to mesh the ph. Design with the electronic devices. It feels like living in the movies sometimes.

It boggles my mind that a human can make a model like this millimetre symmetrical. Such complex curves to judge by vision and feel!

Well done video , keep up the good Work car insider.

Wow so General motors came up this technique. That is so amazing, now everyone bases their cars modeling around this method.

I don't care how much improvement is made, clay modeling remains a strong bond in vehicle design

As a 3D artist I do designs that look good for what perspectives I need them. Weird angles sometimes make it look bad. Cars are massive objects that people look at every day from all possible angles. Everyone has that one thing that has this one spot that isn't nice to look at.

Being able to do this better and with more finesse in AR and Vr will be a great goal for designers of those systems!

1:27 that shape is so pretty

BMW spends on clay models to better understand how big of a grille a passenger car can hold. Rumour has it in future front grille will be the most expensive component of BMW cars in future

I didn't even know this was a thing. So cool!!

Very instructive. Thank you

People live their lives in their cars. And sometimes, the most insignificant detail can be the difference between a person buying a car or not. Particularly when it comes to luxury cars, as those people can afford to be more choosy. With billions of dollars in yearly sales on the line, producing a completed car without first making a physical/tangible model would be the biggest possible mistake.

Oh god designing is not easy task wonderful jobs done by this people ❤️

I could swear this video showed Art Center College of Design corridor. I went to ACCD for automotive and product design. Best memories of my entire life. I STILL use the Chavant clay for my projects...! The guy who taught ME the clay was same guy who did the clay on the original Shelby Mustang. Joe was his name. Super tough to get anything higher than a 'C' in his class...and I got a B plus. ..Thank you, Thank you.

I'm just watching this and all I can say is cars are beautiful, all of them, big and small, they are just amazing.

I found the component of taking the model outdoors, to see how natural light interacted with design, pretty much amazing and never would have thought that to be so crucial in the design process. Hmm - who knew. . .

2:08 - "it is what it is"🤣

This is so fascinating!

I know nothing about the production of cars. For some reason this video was suggested to me and I’m pretty blown away. I had no idea clay modeling was a part of the process. How cool!

I still want to see how a car design goes from clay model to stamped sheet metal. No one ever shows the process of how the actual molds are made.

I wonder if a combination of 3d printing and clay modelling makes this process more effective

I worked at a university wind tunnel and auto companies would sometimes contract to do aero testing. The clay models were 3/8 scale, about the size of refrigerators, which seemed to be sufficient for aero testing. The models were mounted on a balance system to measure the forces of the wind. Our wind tunnel was the right size for that and cheaper than one that could test full sized cars. The clay modelers had professional art training, and some would make beautiful sketches during the test runs to pass the time. Then they would run back into the test section to make changes for the next set of runs. The smaller models allowed quicker changes than full size. They did do testing on some full-size models at other wind tunnels. The clay was special for industrial modeling with oil and sulfur in it as the binder. It was put on hot and it scraped very nicely when it cooled down. They had a clay extrusion machine with lots of different dies to make all sorts of clay trim pieces. Some of the modelers were of Italian origin. Sometimes they would sing opera in the tunnel. The echos were great.

Very interesting! I didn’t knew this 😀

Aircraft had external molds made of the model. These molds were made of plaster and represented the outer mold line of the craft. Kept for reference purposes, these molds were large, heavy, and difficult to store, but it was done.

Amazing talent on the part of the artists

Had no idea that this was done in the auto industry. Good stuff.

Wow that's cool, didn't even know that there is a clay model!

Car companies have every chance to make a good car and still end up making things like the new bmw 2 series, bmw ix, or the hyundai ionos

There are still people who prefer the feel of a paper when reading vs digitally. Techology sure has provided more option for decision making

This is a fun and satisfying job. IMO

This is pretty neat and cool.

Perfection requires the artist's eye, always. I wonder if anybody made a clay model of the Pontiac Aztec.

CAD and the other tools we use can easily get in the way of the design process. Being able to iterate in seconds by adding or removing material is invaluable.

Amazing how they can create though perfectly smooth and curvy parts of the body in clay

this looks fun. can't believe people can make lots of money doing a job that is so much fun!

Clay model still stands out in 1:1 scale over 3D print and/or VR models main reason is that if you want to make some changes or modify the surface, you can do it instantly on the spot, easier and more efficient (sanding plastic parts is pain and the dust is hazardous, while it is hard to modify miniscule changes in 3D model VR like mentioned in the video) other aspect is that, compared to 3D printer, clay model is way quicker to execute and finish, also cheaper (both materials and time-to-cost aspect) (excess clay/the model itself can be recycled and reused instantly) if you ever handled 3D printed parts then you must know how "smooth" the surface is, yes? applying chemical on 3D printed parts to smoothen it will also smoothen those supposedly sharp edges details :)

Never stop using the clay. I truly believe it makes for a better nicer car. And the manufacturers can correct mistakes easier.

Exactly, the last mile will always be human handled because of finesse and personal care, well said!

Didn't know that this was a thing at all (farthest thing from a car person), and it just seems so interesting that cars, objects that look and feel so mechanical and machine-made, are actually technically handmade

This is the mechanical implementation of the agile/spiral model which is popular in software development. The mechanical team can make changes to a physical object based on testing, the same way programmers can easily update their software from feedback.

But what if they made some changes to the clay model, how do they import/implement those on the digital one? Do they scan the clay model afterwards?

I saw the thumbnail and thought: what a cool cake! 😂😂🧡

Wow interesting! Never knew about it

Now if they could only do the same when designing the engine and drivetrain so that we can actually work on them without the dexterity of an octopus and not require we remove 2 dozen parts that would be great.

Great video❤️ I hope everyone gets rich

that was a fascinating 5 mins well spent

It looks like a work of art

I'm trying to imagine the car designers who spent days and weeks carefully tweeking and sculpting a clay model for it to end up being a Chevy Aveo or Dodge Journey

On the other hand, a Chinese EV company simply used a Lexus compact SUV to “build” their first car.

it is very satisfying and soothing to see clay work 😅

Good video!

when working with 3d software everything on the monitor always looks super cool, that's the problem. I remember 20 years ago a marble fountain that I had personally designed and made to cnc how horrible it was, I couldn't even believe that I had created such an abomination 😰

It wasn't really mentioned in the video, but I'd also imagine it would be a lot easier to collaborate on a physical design than a digital one. You can have different people, with different skillsets and abilities, working on different parts of the car simultaneously. Obviously you could split a car into different parts and have people collaborate on that digitally, and perhaps even sync it up in real-time in the viewport, but physical is probably far more flexible in that regard.

So satisfying

Clay is my favorite material for developing prototypes and product designs. I like using Plastalina, and then making a mold and casting a wax or in mineral resin. Don't get me wrong, I love 3D modeling - but many times you get the right proportions and beautiful subtle details when you've worked it by hand. Also, clay sculpting is a sensory skill. Many times you pick up on the details of your form that your eyes become useless and have to feel it out.

You can't possibly justify hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of commitment on a clay model when your product is just another generic car that looks like literally every other car on the market.

How do they keep it from drying out? Do they store these once done or trash them? I imagine these could be wealthy collectors items or museum pieces.

This is very satisfying

Fascinating

One day, you’ll be able to touch a 3D model like you do with real clay in VR.

I love having an official come out to say "yo it's just not the same" It sounds to me like the only part of this that wasn't actually possible with a digital render was the wind tunnel, and even that is something that physics simulations are going to continue to improve with. Other than that this whole video feels like a bunch of people going "I really like it and it's what I'm comfortable with", which is a totally fine answer, I just don't understand why they need to pretend like "there's no way a computer could adjust the model by a millimeter"

Thanks Mr RU-vid channel my question about this has been answered by this channel

Ngl this is so dope

Basically, to give you the full rundown in as short a time as possible: Double triple-check every part of a design. Touch is a much more sensitive perception than view.

It’s the same concept on why we don’t have an actually accurate flat “globe” map. You can’t take a 3 dimensional sphere with details on all sections of it and make it into a square map. Or even a round flat map. Even though we live in the 3D world, and inter act with it, we still do not fully understand how to take a 2d object and make it 3d flawless without some adjustments.

The key is quick iterative design and being able to make changes in a physical space really quickly

I do this for a living, and it made me laugh that they showcased the epitome of bad clay modeling practices. 0:40 You would be under threat of being fired if you "pat" the clay onto the model, and not "push" it into the model. When the clay cools, and if you pat, whole areas of the clay can lift off and scab. I bet every clay modeler that watched this video caught the same thing. Fail!.. lol.

Makes sense that a 1:1 model would be needed early in the design process, and one made of clay is probably as easy to modify and affordable to completely redo as they can get right now. I’d be interested to see if some type of extrusion technology will supplant this in the coming decades. Even then, I’m having a hard time imagining it being more affordable or easier to work with than clay and CNC.

Amazing

Who else looked at the inside of the car in the thumbnail and went "cheese"

Love to be able to destroy one with a sledge hammer, seems like it would be fun

How do the get the hand adjusted proportions and shapes back into the CAD model?

It's a cool job for sure

The best idea about money is; make it, invest most of it and manage whatever that remains expecting huge returns in nearest future. Investment is the best!

Yes, let's spend thousands and thousands to make our care look virtually identical to every other car of its class.

Nothing beats being able to see a full scale model.