Prepress
New service: 3-D visualisation for kitchen and furniture manufacturers
Thursday 18. March 2010 - If a company wants to present something new, it will always choose a special ambience in which to present it: the Côte dAzur becomes the backdrop for a next-generation model of car, or a high-tech household appliance is shown in a designer kitchen to celebrate its launch. But what the observer actually sees, is increasingly a virtual reality. Mohn media now has the expertise to offer these visualisations.
“You cannot tell the difference between the scenes shown and photos, even though they are generated exclusively on the computer. 3-D visualisation is starting to establish itself as a new sphere of work,” explains Sebastian Uhl, Sales Representative Pre-press. This virtual technology has been used in the automotive industry for some years and more and more sectors are now following suit. “This procedure allows companies to save time and money otherwise needed for elaborate model and studio setups, because you can even feature products that have not actually been produced yet – and all this without having to make any cuts in quality,” says Uhl, explaining the main advantage.
Bauformat Küchen, a German kitchen manufacturer, is one of the companies now relying on photorealistic 3-D visualisation produced by Mohn media for their catalogues. Mohn media currently sees the kitchen and furniture sector as the one with the greatest potential for the use of 3-D visualisation.
The work of the 3-D visualisation specialists starts with a scene in the kitchen, usually with the editing of the construction data received from the kitchen manufacturer. A second step sees the product surfaces acquiring realistic surfaces, such as wood, glass and metal. The setting, for example the entire architecture of the premises into which the kitchen is to be integrated, including numerous utensils that are of course indispensable for a realistic representation, is then added at the end. Even what you can see out of the window is simulated. And if the sun is shining outside, the effects of the light inside have to match it exactly. Uhl: “We are currently testing whether you can realistically add people to these virtual pictures using image composing. That would actually be the next step on the road to perfect visualisation.”