Knowledge base · from our own projects
3D visualisation
3D visualisation makes products and spaces visible without photographing them. It pays off as soon as a product has many variants, does not exist yet, or is too large to bring to a studio. In projects by THE REAL MAG. it delivered savings of 50 to 80 per cent on photography costs.
3D visualisation is not a prettier way of photographing. It is a different cost structure. A photograph costs money per shot; a 3D model costs money per model, and after that every variant is virtually free. Where that break-even point lies is the only question that really matters.
When 3D beats photography
Four situations in which the answer is almost always 3D.
The product does not exist yet. For a machine builder THE REAL MAG. visualised a pellet press before the prototype was finished, so it could be shown during a livestream event and in sales conversations. Photography cannot do that by definition.
The product has too many variants. At a trailer manufacturer the entire product line was built in 3D and used for both visualisation and the website. Saving on photography and transport costs, 70 per cent.
The product is too large or too expensive to move. Getting an excavator or a pellet press to a photo studio costs more than the 3D model does.
The situation cannot be photographed. For a packaging producer THE REAL MAG. built virtual environments usable worldwide, without location scouting. For a producer of wooden panel material, a 3D house model with cutaways delivered images that could not have been made photographically.
What it delivers in figures
The publicly published cases of THE REAL MAG. show 80 per cent cost saving on product photography at a ceramics manufacturer, 50 per cent saving on photography and 75 per cent on film production at an engine manufacturer, 70 per cent at a trailer builder, and tens of thousands of euros at a producer of safety footwear.
Those percentages are about the photography costs, not about the whole marketing budget. Do not treat them as if your total costs drop by 80 per cent.
When you are better off carrying on with photography
With a small range that rarely changes and that fits on a table, photography is faster and cheaper. A 3D model only earns itself back from a certain number of variants or repetitions onwards. If you photograph eight products once a year, keep doing that.
What you will find here
What it costs, how the trade-off against photography works out exactly, and where projects run aground in practice.