Ford Sculptor Uses Virtual Reality to Revise Clay Vehicle Models

Ford sculptor John “Rex” Allen described a process that moves from a physical clay model to digital scanning and headset-based refinement, then back to milling and hand finishing.

Allen has worked at Ford for 24 years and in clay modeling for about 40 years. Allen described a roughly 20-minute scan followed by headset-guided changes to the digital form; the team then mills the updated surface over several shifts and shapes it by hand.

Allen recalled that a sculptor once spent roughly a fortnight on a full-scale model. He said he can now complete a design theme in five days. Because those estimates describe different outputs, they do not establish a like-for-like 50% reduction in the time needed for the same task.

Ford designers use mixed reality to inspect concepts digitally ahead of physical prototyping. Digital exploration has compressed certain steps from months to weeks, and clay models and physical prototypes continue to be part of Ford’s design work.