What is 3D Product Visualization? Various Sectors Benefits

Manufacturing and product design

Manufacturers and engineers often deal with complicated product components. And it is not easy to communicate the specifications and requirements through mere drawings and product images. With 3D product visualization, they can create accurate and easy-to-understand product replicas to communicate these requirements and specifications.

As these models are easy to customize, manufacturers can use them to make different variations of the product to test new design options and features.

Companies can also convert the models into digital prototypes to test for potential flaws and hazards. Because they can test digital prototypes, companies don’t have to make physical prototypes, which takes money, time, and effort.

Architecture, interior design, and construction

Industry professionals use product visualization to construct detailed and accurate visuals of their project designs. Realistic props help highlight the exteriors and interiors in a way that makes it easy to understand complicated site maps. Some companies use 3D walkthroughs to aid in the client’s visualization of the layout, interior design, lighting, and other project aspects. Clients can easily spot issues or request changes to the design that will suit their style and taste before construction begins.

By using product visualization, companies can also produce 3D-rendered images and videos for their marketing and promotion efforts. With these photorealistic visuals, it is easier to attract potential customers and investors before construction even begins.

Entertainment

Various entertainment industry segments have benefited from the 3D visualization process. Nowadays, you will see that many movies, TV shows, VR simulations, etc. use 3D and CGI elements. That is because they help create effects, stunts, and other-worldly characters that are difficult to do in real life or are too costly.

Gaming

The gaming industry has grown immensely over the years. Although video games have been around for decades, Atari’s Pong was the one that helped kickstart the video game industry upon its release in 1972. It was the first commercially successful arcade game. Pong is a simple arcade table tennis game with two rectangles for bats, one square for a ball, and a dotted line for a net. Although it isn’t (considering today’s standards), Pong set the stage for Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and many more games to come.

Nowadays, 3D visualization is making it possible for game designers to create photorealistic game assets with life-like textures and details. And with AR and VR in vogue, artists are encouraged to come up with game experiences that are more realistic and immersive.

Cinema and TV

Cinema and TV showmakers use this technique to make sets, character designs, vehicles, weapons, imaginary creatures, etc., that are otherworldly. Computer-generated elements are often used to bring to life imaginary creatures and worlds, stage dangerous stunts, or augment the viewing experience.

An excellent example of a movie using 3D elements would be James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). He used 3D imagery and advanced stereoscopic filming to materialize a new world, its inhabitants, weaponry, etc. Avatar was so revolutionary that it is still widely considered to be the best 3D movie ever.

Public attractions

Theme parks have been integrating new visual technologies to captivate customers for a long time. They’re now using 3D, AR, and VR to pioneer new ways to augment the customer experience, so they feel like coming back for more. Let’s look at the example of the Disney theme parks. They’re quite well-known for coming up with unique ways to entertain their visitors with the help of the latest technologies. They stop at nothing to make their customers feel like they have entered another world.

One of their attractions that uses 3D technology is Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. It’s a ground-breaking, trackless ride that takes visitors through scenes taken from a vast array of Disney shorts.

Museums, on the other hand, have struggled to get customers through the front door. Their biggest competition is no other museums, but entertainment options like Netflix and Candy Crush. So, many museums have taken to using 3D technology to attract more customers.

​Some general ways museums use this technology are:

• Using interactive 3D floor plans to help visitors navigate the museum.
• Educating visitors about exhibits with the help of interactive displays.

A shining example of this is the Paris Louvre’s Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass. It’s a VR experience where visitors can closely explore and experience Renaissance paintings in a digital setting.

Retail and eCommerce

Retailers and online stores find 3D product visualization super useful in many ways, particularly when it comes to marketing and promotions. In eCommerce, many sellers use 3D models to give customers a 360-degree view of products, so they get a complete mental picture.

Through 3D modeling, you can create a three-dimensional version of your merchandise for an interactive product visualization. Use product configurators and 360-degree views so customers know what to expect when they receive it in the mail. You can also elevate their shopping experience with AR and VR experiences that allow them to “try” a product before buying it.

Amazon and IKEA are some of the prime examples for this. Each company has its own eCommerce app that integrates 360-degree product views and AR. With this, customers get the ability to “place” products in their real environment to see how the products look.

Fashion, apparel, and jewelry

Trends in the fashion industry change several times each year. So, for them to compete with all the other brands, they must be able to create designs, manufacture products, and market them as quickly as possible. 3D visualization helps them achieve all these goals while also reducing costs and return rates.

Using this 3D process, designers can easily bring their concepts to life and get them to the production line quickly. Besides, designing using 3D product visualization leads to fewer flaws and defects, resulting in lesser material waste and return rates. Visualization tools like 3D product configurators allow customers to personalize the products.

Let’s look at Nike, for example. They have a tool called Nike by You, which lets customers personalize any Nike shoe of their choosing before purchase. Similarly, Japanese fashion brand Kashiyama allows their customers to create their own bespoke pieces before checkout.

Healthcare and life sciences

Using a combination of 3D visualization, MRI and CT scans, and 3D printing, device-makers can produce medical devices like pacemakers, implants, prosthetics, etc.

As this technique accurately accounts for an individual’s unique features, it leads to accurately designed parts and devices.

Apart from this, product visualization also helps developers in the medical field test digital prototypes of life-saving equipment on digital organs.