Computer generated images or CGI make visuals even more effective. This is why at Impala Services we have a dedicated 3D team that focuses on CGI Photography.
The most elementary use case: CGI enable you to make your product look better. Computer generated images can be edited to a far greater extend, and doing so requires less time and no more, often much less, money than it would with traditional imagery.
A less well known application: CGI can speed up your supply chain. We produce virtual prototypes. You refine those virtual prototypes with us and together with the manufacturer. The result: By the time the first physical object gets produced, most of the kinks are already ironed out. This saves you time, money and headaches. It also saves you superfluous emails, misunderstandings and long waits from one physical prototype to the next — because you refine the virtual prototype before the factory builds anything at all. This simplifies matters during the best of times. It does so even more under Covid-conditions, where travel across the Chinese border is all but impossible and mailing services are also showing signs of strain.
A large part of what makes CGI effective is that you can use them in so many different contexts. Computer generated images and 3D models can cover everything from augmenting and replacing traditional product photography to producing animations and building virtual prototypes. A further application are AR-applications that, for instance, let your customer see a digital piece of furniture in your physical environment before you decide the purchase.
Many clients start out by using CGI to replace traditional product photography. Usually, this requires no additional costs over the expenses that a more traditional approach would incur, but it saves time and increases your options. Companies have well established work flows, and if traditional product photography is a part of it, they usually hesitate to change the process. Once they do, however, they typically see the benefits that CGI does bring. A case in point: We had a client who only opted for CGI for one particular project — in that case, the client’s deadlines were such that traditional product photography could not get the job done punctually. With CGI, less time was required, the result was better, and the client built on that initial success. By now, the client is using CGI and 3D models made by Impala Services for most of their product photography and animations and, while doing so, built up a database of CGI. Most recently, they started using this for AR-applications.
This is the beauty of CGI. You can use computer generated images exclusively for product photography, or you can expand their use to other applications at any time. Any combination of use cases — one, some, all — can make sense, depending on the nature of your business. You can enter this ecosystem from any direction. The elementary application remains: Making the product look better and the process to do so simpler, faster and less expensive.
