How Danthree Studio creates virtual brand spaces with 3D visualisation

The CGI agency Danthree Studio develops photo-realistic and high-quality 3D visualisation for brands, online shops and planning offices in the furniture, home and living industries – virtual spaces with 3D-modelled products and objects for the here and now.

By DANTHREE STUDIO and Markus Hieke for

DANTHREE STUDIO

February 23, 2023 | 11:00 pm CUT

Danthree Studio's strength lies in strategic visual marketing consulting using CGI to conceive and create realistic and consistent spatial concepts for each brand

When people talk about the metaverse, the parallel world in the digital universe, there is always a central question: Why do we need it? Is it a game or in fact a consequential virtual extension of the physical self in this new completely networked world? One thing is clear: a virtual space in the metaverse does not need to follow any physical laws and, accordingly, it develops its own aesthetic system.

Photorealistic: Danthree Studio stages subjects with soft, natural-looking shadows and subtle imperfections such as wrinkles in textiles – just as if they actually existed

In the virtual space, the sky is the limit when it comes to creative possibilities, allowing incredible, often surreal things to be realised. Danthree Studios are not interested in the fantastic, however, but rather in accurately reflecting and reproducing elements from the real world.

One of Danthree Studio's clients is Interlübke - Berlin designer Hanne Willmann brought the CGI agency into play when preparing new catalog motifs

Using know-how from the physical world to create successful CGI images

Danthree Studio designs imaginary interiors, architecture and virtual objects with the help of 3D software. Their goal is to render their designs, including furnishings and shadows, as photorealistically as possible and in keeping with the client's brand and CI. Today, many companies understandably prefer this approach to visual marketing. Firstlym it is much more cost-effective when compared to elaborate photo productions in a studio or on location. Additionally, colours and the texture of the objects shown can be changed with just a few clicks.

The more material, color and texture details Danthree Studio is provided with, the more realistic the motifs later become

And with more and more higher-priced products being personally configured and sold online, it is important to present offerings in a precise and brand-appropriate manner. If, for example, manufacturers offer their sofas in numerous textile and leather options, the model does not have to be photographed numerous times. Rather, it is sufficient to place the texture as a rendered mask over the virtual wireframe model to get at least an overall visual impression of the desired product.

Once modeled, colors can be easily changed, arrangements can be altered at will, and natural 3D effects such as shadows can be varied

3D visualisation with strategic foresight

The art of creating so-called Computer Generated Imagery (CGI for short) requires, of course, more than simply a good knowledge of the software. In order to present a brand in the right light in the furniture, home and living sectors, the right advice and strategic foresight is crucial. This is precisely what Daniel Schuster's agency offers. Danthree Studio is not solely a CGI provider, It is location scout and set designer, lighting expert as well as photographer all in one – only in the virtual realm and without a camera. The design process also depends on know-how in the field of construction.

Danthree Studio sees itself as a consulting and creative CGI agency for visual

After all, the Danthree Studio team models every tiny detail of a real product on screen, a so-called digital twin, because it is a 1:1 replica of the real existing product as a photo-realistic 3D model. It counts therefore as a great advantage of Schuster's that he started his professional life as a master carpenter and interior designer before founding Danthree Studio, while also growing up in a family carpenter's workshop that is over 100 years old.

The proximity to practice helps him and his team to better understand the products with their materiality before they are reproduced three-dimensionally. Especially when it is not a matter of staging a room, but of modelling a single object in 3D in such a way that it can be presented afterwards, for example, as a photo-realistic 3D visualisation or 3D animation, or even as an augmented reality model.

A so-called wireframe model of each desired object is modulated on the computer, a 3D twin so to speak. Various material or color properties can then be superimposed

Working out brand identities

The fact that Danthree Studio has designed and created 3D visualisations for well-known brands such as Bora, Bretz, Emma, FSB, Interlübke, Jung and many more, speaks for itself. When German premium furniture manufacturer Interlübke was due to produce a new catalogue, Hanne Willmann brought Danthree Studio into the picture. The Berlin-based designer is helping Interlübke to carefully develop its brand identity and is convinced of the benefits of computer-generated 3D visualisations. ‘I've already worked with a few rendering providers,’ she reported during a visit to her studio.

‘And am really glad I found Danthree Studio. Because Daniel and his team take the time to work out the brand essence in a joint exchange'

‘And am really glad I found Danthree Studio. Because Daniel and his team take the time to work out the brand essence in a joint exchange, so that the 3D product visualisation ended up being a really good fit for Interlübke.’ She says that Schuster and his team also have a good feeling for realistic 3D image perspectives. ‘There are CGI agencies that try to squeeze as many elements and objects into a single image section, such as you would never see in a physical room, meaning you unfortunately quickly recognise that it's not a real setting.’ With Danthree Studio, however, it is actually difficult to distinguish the 3D visualisation from a real photo.

A trick to make it look as realistic as possible? Similar rules apply as in photography: tension is created through sharpness and blurring, foreground, middle ground and background

Visual marketing with CGI that inspires and informs

The fact that a closer look perhaps then reveals the rendering does not detract from the matter. On the contrary, it preserves the character of this still new art form, which, unlike photography, is still establishing itself. We have all seen old brochures and catalogues from the past from international design brands in which the furniture has been drawn in detail by illustrators. Just like these, 3D visualisations should inform and inspire.

Daniel Schuster and his team are location scouts, set designers, lighting experts and photographers all at the same time – only in virtual space

Danthree Studio sees itself as a consulting and creative CGI agency for visual marketing that works with its clients to design strategies tailored to their target groups and realises them with high-quality 3D visualisations or 3D animations. For brands and online shops from the furniture, home and lifestyle industries as well as for design, architecture or interior design office – for the here and now, for high-quality and creative visual marketing.

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