8. 3D CAD

It is normal for the designer to work with a 'wire-frame' drawing when actually working on a design.

The picture below shows a wire frame of a face.

This wire frame can then be used to create a computer game character or a character for a computer generated movie. It could also be used to design a new pair of glasses and ensure that they fit comefortably on different face shapes.

Once the designer is happy with the wire frame, they can then tell the application to make it look solid.

This is called 'rendering'. It is very helpful to see a 'rendered' image so people can see what it will look like. The house below has been 'rendered' so that you can get a better idea of the final design.