Product Visualization and Rendering
Imagine trying to sell or market a physical product that you don’t have a prototype ready for yet. Sounds difficult, isn’t it? No worries, a good product render can create a positive impact and generate excitement for the viewers. It is a well-known fact that visuals are the single largest influencing factor on purchasing decisions. Photo-realistic images can add 3D realism to 2D print projects and presentations such as ads, point of purchase displays and product logos.
Why is it important?
The art or rather I can say, the science of using computer generated graphics in making the product look as real as possible is known as ‘Product Visualization’ or ‘Product Rendering’. It is an inexpensive way to visualize architecture and products realistically. This technology provides high levels of photorealism so that a product can be viewed before it is actually manufactured. This saves expenses on prototyping time and gives the users a chance to observe the physical conditions like texture and materials which would have been otherwise difficult to see in 2D views.
With the advent of immense computing power at affordable capex, computer animation can be created by a small team of skilled resources. It can serve the need of an organization in a number of ways, and can also have some specific, measurable effects on a company’s growth. Research points out to the fact that interactive 3D product presentations create a greater impact as compared to still images. 3D visualization positively impacts the buyer behavior, including the amount of time spent exploring products and purchase probability.
Using a 3D STEP file — a kind of ‘wireframe’ model and following the production pipeline — the principles of projection views, including an extensive process of lighting, shading, texturing, and finally rendering the scene, photo-realistic images can be created. These renderings look so realistic that they are near impossible to differ from an actual photograph of the product. We can tweak materials, colors and lighting to get the desired output with the target design in mind and its proposed environment without ever producing a prototype.
Product visualization plays a key role in product lifecycle management. The high level of photorealism in rendering supports functions ranging from design and styling to sales and marketing.
How is it done?
Primary source input are the CAD-drawings and models. They have several advantages like the possibility of 3-D modeling, rapid prototyping, and simulation. The product source file is shared by the stakeholders in either native CAD format or *.STEP. The geometry is imported into the rendering application (Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Fusion360, SAP VEA or KeyShot). Lighting setup is made based on the environment (interior or exterior) that the final render is based on. Materials are created from scratch or materials available in library are modified as per our need. These materials are then applied to the model geometry. Textures if any are applied using correct UV mapping techniques. The viewing angle is locked and then rendered. Multiple render passes can be used depending on the detail that needs to be shown. Rendering is a time-intensive process. So, it is really important to have all the stakeholder specifications agreed and freezed upon before the final render. It also helps to alter the workflow process to reduce time in case a revision is needed later.
What softwares are used?
There are a number of applications that are available to make product renderings. Nowadays, even the native CAD program have built in renderers that enable quicker workflow to visualize the product. These in-built renderers lack precise lighting and texture control when compared to full blown renderers like Mental Ray, V-Ray, Redshift, etc.
The rendering application is able to run the rendering engine. One application can run more than one rendering engine. E.g. 3ds Max (application) can run Mental Ray, V-Ray as well as Arnold (rendering engines).
Who is the target audience?
Product visualization serves to engage a wide gamut of target audience — from Engineering teams to end users and consumers. For product companies, the target audience is the buyer, so product viz. provides persuasive visuals to attract the buyers. Service companies can use it to demonstrate ‘how-it works’ visuals of the product, which helps in seeking valuable feedback on product function and usage. This way the potential flaws and setbacks in the development process can be identified beforehand.
For product design analysis, visualization enables design engineers to simulate and assess the product performance before the product is put into manufacturing, leading to changes in design, better understanding of product functionality.
Product visualization helps businesses to elevate their product designs from concept to reality. It is an important part of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). It enables visual presentation of concepts to investors, simulating the performance to analyze it and communicating the functionality of a product without prototyping it. Thus, saving time and cost with the first-time right approach.
