Greaves Best Design

Product Design Vizualisation

How did you get into 3D CGI?

It's only really been in the last 5 years that non-specialists within the product design industry have woken up to the value of their 3D data as a means of creating great visuals and communicating the details of their design intent. Visualization also became hugely accessible with the introduction of software like Hypershot, and for me this was a great opportunity to communicate what Greaves Best Design do more effectively, whilst using data we already generate as part of our regular development process.

What type of 3D work do you?

The vast majority of our 3D work is done to be released to manufacturing vendors. We try and avoid a lot of visualization until we're reasonably happy that a concept is feasible. Recently we've found that when presented with a photo-realistic image, clients can be easily fooled into presuming a project is almost complete, when in fact there maybe be very few of the functional elements resolved! That said when you are confident of the design you are presenting, visualization can really help get decisions made. 

CGI has also helped us diversify our business a great deal, we now pick up a lot of contracts for creating marketing material which would have traditionally gone to specialists.

What’s your main 3D app and why?

We mostly use Solidworks. It's a very popular platform for product development and a lot of our clients use it or integrate with it easily. From a visualization point of view, I'm starting to get into Modo as I love the idea of creating nice smooth "props" for scenes very quickly, they're beginning to integrate with NURBS a bit more easily to!  

What are your main renderers and why?

Keyshot is our mainstay for now, it's so easy to suck manufacturing data in an have a great visual out in no time. I'd like to get into more specialist software, but our core business is developing products so setting aside the time to learn a more complicated packages is not our priority.

How did HDR Light Studio fit into your workflow?

We were looking for more control over the composition of our images, and relying on HDRi libraries just wasn't giving us the flexibility we needed. I'd find myself spending hours looking for the right HDRi and rotating it endlessly round the model. Now we have a quick and easy-to-use tool that gives you unrestricted control of how the lighting interacts with each specific scene.

What are the main benefits of using HDR Light Studio?

HDR Light Studio allows us to really show off the details of our design by placing highlights exactly where we want them, whilst at the same time bypassing the frustration of searching for a stock HDRi that might barely do the job.

Would you recommend HDR Light Studio to other 3D artists?

Of course, I already have!

 

For more information on Greaves Best Design visit their web site at: www.greavesbest.co.uk