Adam Wist is a technical draftsman and independent specialist in the field of animation and visualization using KeyShot to create highly detailed visuals and photorealistic representations of diesel engines.

Adam Wist

Modeling/CAD software used
Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks

“After a week and half the engine was complete – all textures and materials were created and the print in DIN A3 format was lying on the table.”

Creating graphical representation of large engines was once an extremely time consuming task. When Adam began his career as an apprentice at MTU-Friedrichshafen, creating technical documentation for various in engineering departments, 3D prints of engine cutaways would be created by hand, using a combination of vanishing point perspective and elliptical stencils, then copied onto a special foil with ink rapidographs. The whole process would take as long as three months to complete.

It was good training, however, and he decided to spend his evenings familiarized himself with 3D software at the Multimedia academy. “After school the instructor came to me and said, ‘Hey, you’re good. I’ll give you a chance and offer you an internship at our firm.’ Here, I worked on a very large project in full production for 6 months.”

A year later, in 1998, he landed a large contract himself and since then has been working as a freelance consultant. With his experience and creativity, Adam soon grew a large and happy client list and a successful independent career. This was elevated when he was introduced to KeyShot with a project for ncd nietfeld GmbH, conceptual design and engineering firm in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

“I was asked to complete a visualization of a diesel engine in just 14 days. I didn’t know Pro/E or KeyShot at the time. Then, it happened. After a week and half the engine was complete – all textures and materials were created and the print in DIN A3 format was laying on the table. My colleagues where absolutely amazed.”

Adam takes an artistic approach to the images he creates, using the experience from laying out illustrations by hand to create the compositions that make for happy clients. “When I present the final images, the clients are totally amazed. ‘Unbelievable – where did you photograph it? It hasn’t even been built. That’s impossible!’ My response? Yes, it is possible. KeyShot makes it possible.”

MTU_Detail

All images: modeled in Pro/ENGINEER, rendered in KeyShot. Image: Adam Wist, ncd nietfeld GmbH, courtesy Tognum AG