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- Beginner
- 8 weeks
Car Design and Automotive Styling
Car Design and Automotive Styling: Beginner
From zero to your first complete vehicle design: sketching foundations, proportion and package, digital rendering, 3D form, interiors and CMF, and a portfolio ready design project.
- Course
- Beginner
- 8 weeks
- 48 lessons
- Updated September 2026
What you'll learn
- Understand how a car genuinely gets designed from brief to production, and how exterior, interior, CMF, and digital studio roles connect
- Draw with confident line control, correct perspective, and accurate ellipses, the three fundamentals every car sketch depends on
- Construct a vehicle from basic forms and control proportion, package, stance, and the greenhouse graphic
- Draw a vehicle convincingly in side, front, rear, and three quarter views
- Render digitally with layers, and depict metal, glass, rubber, and plastic with believable reflections and highlights
- Design a complete vehicle exterior from a written brief, with research, ideation, refinement, and a final presentation sheet
- Read and apply surface language, including convex and concave forms, creases, and highlight behaviour
- Block a vehicle form in 3D and understand how digital and clay modelling fit into a real studio workflow
- Design an interior concept with ergonomic and package awareness, and build a colour, material, and finish board
- Understand how electric powertrains, autonomy, and sustainability are genuinely changing vehicle packaging and form
- Use Generative AI responsibly for research, mood boarding, and ideation support without outsourcing your design judgement
- Build and present a portfolio standard vehicle design project, defended in a live design jury
Skills you'll practise
- Car Design
- Automotive Design
- Transportation Design
- Vehicle Sketching
- Design Sketching
- Perspective Drawing
- Digital Rendering
- Photoshop for Designers
- Procreate
- Proportion and Package
- Surface Language
- 3D Modelling
- Blender for Designers
- Clay Modelling
- Interior Design
- CMF
- Colour Material Finish
- EV Design
- Mobility Design
- Concept Car
- Design Portfolio
- Industrial Design
- Beginner Car Design
Before you start
- None. No design, engineering, or art background required, and no prior drawing ability assumed, open to any student or graduate from any stream
- Paper, pens, and markers or coloured pencils for the sketching modules
- A computer, and ideally a drawing tablet or an iPad, for the digital sketching and 3D modules
- Free or trial software is sufficient throughout, no paid licence is required to complete the course
- Willingness to draw daily and to have your work critiqued honestly
Syllabus
Printable syllabus- 8 modules
- 48 lessons
- 8 assignments
Getting started in car design, sketching foundations, drawing the car in proportion and perspective, digital sketching and rendering, a minor project designing a vehicle exterior, form and surface and an introduction to 3D, interior and CMF and design thinking, and a major project building a complete portfolio standard design project.
Understand how a car genuinely gets designed from brief to production, and how the studio roles connect.
- The Ucanly Car Design Career Roadmap 202615 minPreview
- What Car Designers Actually Do All Day18 min
- How a Car Genuinely Gets Designed, From Brief to Production22 min
- Exterior, Interior, CMF and Digital: The Studio Roles20 min
- Design Language, Brand and Why Cars Look Like Their Badge20 min
- Ucanly Lab: Analyse and Decode a Real Car's DesignAssignment
Build line confidence, perspective, and ellipses from zero, the three fundamentals every car sketch depends on.
- Line Confidence, Control and the Drawing Habit20 min
- Perspective That Genuinely Works for Vehicles25 min
- Ellipses, Wheels and the Hardest Shape in Car Design22 min
- Basic Forms, Volume and Building a Car From Boxes25 min
- Light, Shadow and Reading Form on Paper22 min
- Ucanly Lab: Fifty Line Drills and Your First Form StudyAssignment
Control proportion, package, stance, and the greenhouse graphic, and draw a vehicle convincingly in every view.
- Proportion and Package: Why Cars Look Right or Wrong25 min
- The Side View, the Designer's Truth Test22 min
- Mastering the Three Quarter View25 min
- Wheels, Arches, Stance and Ground Presence22 min
- The Greenhouse, DLO and Graphic Details22 min
- Ucanly Lab: Draw One Vehicle in Four ViewsAssignment
Move to a digital workflow and render metal, glass, rubber, and plastic so a surface genuinely reads.
- Going Digital: Tablets, Software and Your Workflow20 min
- Layers, Line Art and Clean Digital Construction22 min
- Rendering Metal, Glass, Rubber and Plastic25 min
- Reflections, Highlights and Making a Surface Read25 min
- Backgrounds, Composition and Presentation Sketches22 min
- Ucanly Lab: Render One Vehicle From Line Art to FinishAssignment
Run a complete exterior design from written brief to final rendered presentation sheet.
- Minor Project: The Brief, Research and Mood Board20 min
- Minor Project: Ideation Sketching and Thumbnails22 min
- Minor Project: Selecting and Refining a Direction22 min
- Minor Project: Proportion Lock and Four View Development25 min
- Minor Project: Final Rendering and Presentation Sheet25 min
- Minor Project: Design Review and Mentor CritiqueAssignment
Understand surface language properly, then block your design as a real three dimensional volume.
- Surface Language: Convex, Concave, Crease and Highlight25 min
- Thinking in Volume: From Sketch to Three Dimensions22 min
- Digital 3D Foundations for Designers25 min
- Blocking a Vehicle Form in 3D25 min
- Clay, Physical Models and Why Studios Still Use Them20 min
- Ucanly Lab: Block Your Vehicle Form in 3DAssignment
Design where people genuinely sit, and understand how electrification and autonomy are reshaping vehicles.
- Interior Design: Where People Genuinely Live in a Car22 min
- Ergonomics, Package and Human Centred Design25 min
- Colour, Material and Finish22 min
- Designing for Electric, Autonomy and New Packaging25 min
- Sustainability, Materials and the Next Decade of Mobility20 min
- Ucanly Lab: Build an Interior Concept and CMF BoardAssignment
Run a full design project from user research to a portfolio standard layout, defended in a live jury.
- Major Project: Choosing the Brief and Defining the User20 min
- Major Project: Research, Benchmarking and Positioning22 min
- Major Project: Ideation, Exploration and Direction Selection25 min
- Major Project: Exterior Refinement and Three Dimensional Form25 min
- Major Project: Interior, CMF and the Portfolio Layout25 min
- Live Session: Design Jury, Portfolio and Your Roadmap to IntermediateAssignment
Hands-on work
Project 1
Ucanly Lab: Analyse and Decode a Real Car's Design
Module 1: Getting Started in Car Design
Project 2
Ucanly Lab: Fifty Line Drills and Your First Form Study
Module 2: Sketching Foundations
Project 3
Ucanly Lab: Draw One Vehicle in Four Views
Module 3: Drawing the Car
Project 4
Ucanly Lab: Render One Vehicle From Line Art to Finish
Module 4: Digital Sketching and Rendering
Project 5
Minor Project: Design Review and Mentor Critique
Module 5: Ucanly Minor Project, Design a Vehicle Exterior
Project 6
Ucanly Lab: Block Your Vehicle Form in 3D
Module 6: Form, Surface and Introduction to 3D
Project 7
Ucanly Lab: Build an Interior Concept and CMF Board
Module 7: Interior, CMF and Design Thinking
Project 8
Live Session: Design Jury, Portfolio and Your Roadmap to Intermediate
Module 8: Ucanly Major Project, A Complete Design Project
Who this is for
- Absolute beginners who want a clear, guided path into car design and automotive styling
- Students preparing a portfolio for transportation design or industrial design programmes
- Engineering, architecture, and product design students who want to move toward mobility design
- Self taught sketchers who can draw but cannot yet structure a complete design project
- Anyone from any stream who has always wanted to design vehicles and does not know where to start
About this course
Car Design and Automotive Styling with Ucanly, Level 1 Beginner, takes you from zero to your first complete vehicle design. This is an educational program in design and visual communication. Ucanly is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a partner of any automobile manufacturer, and all brand names discussed are referenced only for design study. Vehicle concepts produced in this course are conceptual design exercises only, they are not engineered, validated, crash tested, or homologated, and they must not be treated as manufacturable designs. Real vehicles require engineering, safety, and regulatory work carried out by qualified automotive engineers. Car design is one of the few careers where a portfolio matters more than a degree, and India's automotive and mobility sector is expanding into electric vehicles, new form factors, and design studios that hire on demonstrated skill. You will learn to sketch with confidence, draw vehicles in correct perspective and proportion, render digitally, and understand the surface, package, and brand thinking behind how cars actually look. In your minor project in week five, you will design a complete vehicle exterior from a real brief, with research, ideation sketches, a refined direction in four views, and a final rendered presentation sheet. You will then learn surface language, 3D form, interior design, colour material and finish, and design for electric and autonomous packaging, before your major project in week eight: a full vehicle design project with user research, benchmarking, a refined exterior in sketch and blocked 3D form, an interior concept, a CMF board, and a portfolio standard layout, defended to Ucanly mentors in a live design jury.
What you get
- Live mentor led Ucanly sessions plus self paced recorded content, fully online
- All practical work done through real design briefs, sketching drills, and studio style critique
- A minor project designing a complete vehicle exterior by week five
- A major project building and presenting a full portfolio standard design project by week eight
- Honest studio style critique on your actual drawings, which is how designers genuinely improve
- A finished portfolio piece laid out to the standard transportation design programmes and studios expect
- Ucanly portfolio review, design resume and interview guidance, and a personalized path to the Intermediate level
A Ucanly certificate on completion
Complete this course to earn a Ucanly certificate with its own page and QR code. Save it as a PDF, share its link, or add it to the certifications on your LinkedIn profile.
Certificate IncludedCertificate EligibleUcanly certificate
Frequently asked questions
No. Module 2 starts from line control, perspective, and ellipses, assuming no prior ability. Drawing is a trainable motor skill rather than a talent you are born with, and the course is built around daily drills that make that improvement visible week by week.
No. Ucanly is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a partner of any automobile manufacturer. Brand names and existing vehicles are referenced only as design study material, which is standard practice in design education.
No, and it is important to be clear about this. Vehicle concepts produced in this course are conceptual design exercises. They are not engineered, validated, crash tested, or homologated, and they must not be treated as manufacturable designs. Real vehicles require engineering, safety, and regulatory work carried out by qualified automotive engineers.
Nothing paid. Paper and markers cover the sketching modules, and free or trial software is sufficient for the digital sketching, rendering, and 3D modules. A drawing tablet or an iPad makes the digital modules more comfortable but is not mandatory to complete the course.
A transportation or industrial design degree is the most common route, and many studio roles expect one. However, car design is unusual in that the portfolio is weighted extremely heavily at every stage. This course is built to give you a portfolio standard project, whether you are applying to a design programme or building a case for yourself without one.
Both. Modules 2 to 5 build exterior sketching and design, and Module 7 covers interior concepts, ergonomics and package, colour material and finish, and how electric powertrains and autonomy are genuinely changing vehicle proportion and layout. Your major project includes an interior concept and a CMF board.
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