Why CGI? Part Two

Traditional photography or CGI? At Pix-US, we hear that question almost daily. Although traditional photography could be the right fit, there are many short- and long-term reasons to choose CGI. In part one (post below) of our series, we talked about versatility and some of the ways CGI can save resources. Here, we discuss ease of use, creative control, and post-production benefits.

Easier to Use
How many times have you gotten your images back from a photo shoot only to find that your product is covered in dust that requires hours in post-production to clean up? In the CG world our sets can sit forever without an accumulation of dust. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little grit and grime in your work if it’s appropriate. We just have to plan for it and add it into the texture files as we go.

Just Science
Want your images to look like they came from the real world? The one we actually live in? Well that’s what this process is all about. With the Pix-US process, we can follow the laws of nature, how the light falls, how gravity works, or we can take artistic liberties to help illustrate the story we are trying to tell. We can place the camera in unexpected places, even seemingly impossible places. We are able to control all elements of time and space for the image in order to create the most believable, or the most unbelievable visuals you can imagine.

Remember that files produced for engineering purposes can have elements that depend on things like gravity or materials expansion to fill out curves and need some gentle nudging to make them look just right. They’re great for work on the factory floor but they’re just not very pretty. But all of that said, great CAD files generally produce great results.

Post-production
We rely on the very best post production techniques and practices to make the images really shine. The compositing of live photography of organic props and fabrics, flowers and food items, clothing or people enable us to include real-world elements that are too time consuming (and less than cost-effective) to build in CGI. It only adds to realism and improves the final product.

How Do We Start?
CGI isn’t a one-size-fits-all dream world. It takes hard work and planning to bring an image to life. We need information about your goals for the image, such as who your audience is and what your intended outcome is. We can work with you to create your budget as well as the look and feel of your image to help insure that it is everything you want it to be. Pix-US has many tools besides just the creation of CG images to help sell your products. We are able to design, deploy, and manage large-scale databases of images to run product visualizers.

The real beauty of the Pix-US process is the end of it all. The environments, lighting, and products are saved in a format that allows for repurposing over and over at only a small portion of the original cost. What other process allows you to pull last year’s work out and start from where you stopped without ever having to actually build or ship your product?

Is CGI or traditional photo the right process for your project? We’re here to talk you through it. Each one is different. Each one has a different objective. Knowing the advantages and pitfalls of each process can make project completion much easier. That’s why we’re here. Contact us today for a complete rundown of the process from concept and design to final file delivery.