Shannon McGarry
Elevate your design and manufacturing processes with Autodesk Fusion
Congratulations to Michael Provost, the winner of the Fusion 360 model of the month for October. hear more from Michael and his use of Fusion 360.
Greetings Fusion 360 users! My name is Michael Provost and I am from Lincoln, Rhode Island. I was a designer at Hasbro for over 24 years. I left Hasbro 5 years ago to work at Kent International. Kent is one of the largest mass market bike suppliers in the US.
I started using Fusion 360 about 6 months ago. I had absolutely no 3D design or rendering experience. I’m a simple, old school, pencil and paper product designer who had been using Photoshop and Illustrator for over 20 years. I don’t know why, but I was on a personal quest to teach myself a 3D program. Fusion had a free 30 day trial plus it was Mac based. They also have fantastic online tutorials, so I decided to give it a try.
To say that when I started using the program it crushed me, is an understatement. The interface itself was more intuitive than almost all other 3D programs, but I simply could not grasp thinking and designing in that environment. I forced myself to stick with it and now consider myself pretty good at using it as a design tool, while at the same time knowing that I have only scratched the surface of the vast capabilities of Fusion 360.
I have been a bike and car fanatic all my life and designing in the toy industry has given me a solid sense of product design. I designed the Brembo brake and rotor because I have an intimate relationship with their products. They have been on almost all the cars I’ve owned and I currently have 2 cars that have Brembo brakes on them. I knew the product pretty well so I thought I’d use Fusion to render one out and learn more about the program in the process.
My advice to first time users or beginners would be to always remember that the smallest of details will make or break your design and your rendering. I almost always start with a sketch. The feeling of pencil to paper always gets my creative juices flowing. You should also have a firm knowledge of your subject matter if you want your renderings to be believable. Use reference when you need it. Remember, absolutely no detail is too small. Never try to fake it. Fusion 360 allows you to create something that is visually stunning and manufacturable if you need it to be as well. 
I’d be remiss if I didn’t take the time to thank the Fusion 360 team for developing a fantastic program, providing great tutorials and always being there when I have questions.
Please feel free to check out my other designs here.