Why CGI? Part One
Traditional photography or CGI? At Pix-US, we hear that question almost daily. The truth of the matter is that your product and desired end result will determine the answer. Although traditional photography could be the right fit, there are many short- and long-term reasons to choose CGI. Here, we examine just a few of them in the first part of our series on the case for CGI.
Dollars and Sense
One of the immediate, and largest, savings generated from the Pix-US process is that the hard-prototyping cycle can be beaten or eliminated. Photo-realistic, print-quality images can be produced long before products are available for shooting, and the required architecture needn’t be built in the real world or in a studio, keeping the project both green and on budget. Add the savings realized in not having to ship all of your product (your products move as CAD files via email or ftp) or salvage product at the end of a project, and the advantages become even clearer.
Versatility
Cutaways and exploded product visualizations don’t require destroying anything. If you need different views that emphasize other features, they can be produced without a lot of grief. Unlike traditional video methods, exploded views can be mapped and executed until the final refinements exactly match the production needs. And, since these are digital files, they’re stored for future use and changes when the need arises, a process that simply doesn’t exist with traditional capture methods.
Investment
Virtual Sets. That’s the name of the game. They exist, and they have for a long time. There’s no need to tear them down to make way for a new project that’s coming in behind yours. Or at any time! They’re sitting there, painted, lit, rigged, and waiting for re-use.
Simply getting an actual camera back to the same spot on set is nearly impossible. Yet with Virtual Sets your starting point for changes and re-use are where the project left off before. Change the color way? Okay. Move the camera into a tight corner? No problem. In fact, both cameras and lights can be positioned into places that are actually impossible in the real world, giving you more versatility overall. And what would we do on location facing an ugly staircase at the side of the room you needed to shoot into? Nothing! But with CG, we can design the perfect staircase and place just so.
For more about the advantages of CGI, stay tuned for part two of our series. Closer to getting started? Contact us today for a complete rundown of the process, from concept and design to final file delivery.