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3D or Not 3D

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3D or not 3D?

That is the question we have been presenting to our clients in the last five years when receiving asset production briefs or creative proposals. Especially in these covid times which shifted everybody’s ways of working, it put greater importance behind the initial question as travel (and shoots) with a photographer, lighting expert, art director, client, and location owner, was far from ideal. 3D offered an alternative and much safer solution.

Demand for our 3D experts grew exponentially as clients still needed to reach and excite their customers. Our team expanded from one 3D expert to multiple professionals delivering projects, while working remotely.

3D services provide numerous benefits such as a much faster production process. 3D allows us to have high-quality models and photo-realistic visualizations of the product or scene, allowing greater reusability in post-production. Twist, turn, re-shape, animate, and add effects – the possibilities are endless.

A 3D Makeover of Captain Aquafresh

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A 3D animation of visual and brand experience of products for Captain Aquafresh, Voltaren, Physiogel and Polident denture fixative.

So, what are the key points of difference in comparison to traditional visual services?

Attractive visualization look and feel
Using 3D software to design the objects and models, we create an impactful visual and brand experience of products, relayed with relevant advertising messaging towards the viewers. Global to local (providing global messaging in a local language) becomes significantly faster too.

Freeing the creativity
Our creative solutions flourish with added dimension. Even the simplest object can be shaped or animated in such a way which was impossible for regular image visuals. This adds up to building a coherent dynamic story, with animated objects synchronized with different audio and visual elements.

Reusability, scalability, and versatility
Once finalized, 3D objects and projects can be reused for new iterations with unlimited customization and scalability for any channel.

‍Products on a white background, without distractions
Visualizing products on a white background can be useful for eCommerce or other interactive channels to fully portray the products to the customer experience and immerse themselves with the details such as shape, textures and color.

Visually untamable products
Some objects are not very camera friendly and or require more work to integrate them into the scene, background, lighting, or situation. Or maybe in photography they just lose some eye-catching features.

3D is a solution that through CGI (*computer-generated imagery) principles decrease the production process and increase control over different creative solutions and challenges to maximise representation of an item.

Physiogel Showreel Video

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A 3D animation with rotating Physiogel micelar cleansing water.

What are the main 3D production process steps that make all these wonders happen?

Mandatory Assets – assets artwork, with accompanying brand guidelines, physical product blueprints (product/packing measurements)

Modeling – the process of producing a 3D representation of any object or surface with the utmost accuracy

Texturing – defining objects material properties, adding labels, patterns, or colors

Animating – animating objects that appear in the 3D space

Lighting – creating the lighting, manipulating light colors, defining shadows, achieving the look and feel of the final scene

Rendering into 2D image – process of converting the 3D data, scenes and models into a final output, computer-generated image

Compositing – the art of taking live footage and blending it with computer-generated footage, adding special effects, environment creation, stage extensions, blue/green screen replacement

“So should you 3D or not 3D?” 2D and the more traditional methods are not dead and are still employed at CMG, but we will always look to see where we can deliver exceptional work, whilst also adding extra value and good to our clients’ businesses.

3D can achieve new levels of visual advertisement to help reach commercial targets, but increase ROI too.

3D or not 3D, let CMG increase the excellence in your world.