Shaping Ideas in 3D

In marketing, great visuals are essential. This is true across the board, but it’s uniquely important in food marketing, where capturing the sumptuousness of a strawberry or the irresistibly craggy texture of a potato chip is key to making mouths water. 

Ingredient’s visuals team excels at creating beautiful images, whether of a single tomato or an entire tablescape. One of the tools they use to create these images is 3D modeling. 3D modeling allows the team to move quickly with fewer resources to create hyperrealistic images. And that’s just the beginning. Once they create a 3D model, they can iterate in limitless ways — want to see a product or package tilted to the side? Or hopping up and down on a table? Or crosslit instead of backlit? 3D modeling makes these effects easy to do with no new photo shoot or big resource investment required.

We sat down with Senior Creative Director, Neil Bertucci, and Senior Designer/Photographer, Matt Palmer, to talk about Ingredient’s 3D modeling capabilities, the benefits for clients, and a special 3D tool — photogrammetry — that allows our team to create the most realistic 3D blueberries you’ve ever seen. 

What is 3D modeling?

Matt: 3D modeling is the process of creating three-dimensional images and animations from two-dimensional images.

Neil: For example, take a can of soda. We can take photos of the can from different angles, render them as a three-dimensional image, then iterate on it. For example, let’s say a client has 12 different flavors of soda. We could create a single 3D image of the can and wrap the 12 different flavor graphics around the can, versus having to photograph all the different flavors. While this adds a little time in post-production, it saves a lot of time and resources during production. 

Matt: We can iterate in other ways, too. We can rotate the can 360 degrees, turn it on its side, make it look like it’s suspended in mid-air, or duplicate it 100 times and make it look like cans are everywhere.

So one of the benefits of using 3D modeling is saving time and money? 

Neil: Yes, it takes a much smaller crew to create a 3D model than it does to execute a full photo shoot. Plus, once we’ve created a 3D image, we can always go back to that image and update it; no need to have a new photo shoot with all the resources that’s required. 

Can you use 3D modeling to create animations? 

Matt: 3D modeling is great for creating loops and reels without having to rent very high-end cameras and equipment. I can quickly create loops for Instagram stories. I can have the product hopping up and down or rotating 360 degrees, or I could duplicate the product and then create a loop of, like, 1,000 potato chips falling from the sky.

A lot of times clients want product shots for selling on Amazon or other retailers and 3D modeling lets me just swap out the label on a can and create, say, two dozen images in an afternoon. The images look incredible and, because the base model is the same, it brings an element of consistency across the client’s SKUs.

Why not just use AI?

Matt: AI generates a generic image; it’s not identical to the product or packaging. And there’s not an easy way to art direct AI images. Art directing is easy with 3D modeling. 

Neil: In the landscape of AI and fake-generated content, our 3D modeling capabilities really stand out and set our clients’ products apart from the rest.

Tell me about photogrammetry.

Matt: Photogrammetry is just one tool in a toolkit of 1000 different ways to model objects. It’s used for very specific cases. 

Like what?

Matt: Photogrammetry is the best choice when modeling objects with a lot of color and texture — like fruit or popcorn or potato chips — because it uses photos of the actual object, say a blueberry, to create the exact texture of the blueberry. It allows you to capture all the natural variation of the blueberry so it looks hyperrealistic. 

Neil: What’s unique about photogrammetry is that we’re actually using hundreds of real photographs and stitching them together. So customers are seeing a client’s actual product, whereas AI is pulling information from 10 million different images to recreate the object. 

It sounds like 3D modeling offers almost endless possibilities, with a lower barrier to entry. 

Matt: In many ways, that’s true. When I create a 3D model of a client’s product or package, I can quickly generate images based on what they want. For example, if the client wants to see the product in moody lighting, or crosslit from the side, or lit from overhead, or all of the above, I can do that easily and send all the options to the client, who decides on the final images. Traditional photography requires setting up a new scene for each iteration — moving lights around, changing out props and having additional people on set. 3D modeling is more efficient and a lot quicker. 

Neil: With 3D modeling, we can build whole worlds — worlds that aren’t always possible with photographs. We can place real objects in unreal or surreal environments. We can experiment. Honestly, if the client can dream it, we can do it.