Making your next 3D project good, fast and reasonably priced
Let’s imagine a scenario: you’re thinking about taking a virtual leap into 3D, but you’re nervous:
- How much is it going to cost?
- Is it going to be ready in time for that imminent campaign launch?
- All the above, plus can it be done to a high standard?
All valid concerns, but we’re here to tell you that incredible results can be achieved using clever tricks and tech. At Proctors, we’ve honed workflows that make budgets work harder and help keep costs low. Now, there’s a fair bit to it (and we’ll get into that) but at its simplest, what it really boils down to is this: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. To avoid TLDR*, we’ll give you some top line good practice tips straight out of the gate.
Good 3D practice in four bullet points
Getting the most from 3D in your campaigns is dramatically improved by observing these basic principles:
- Embrace AI – personally, I think it’s probably more useful in 3D production than most fields.
- Use existing manufacturing models – it’s the easiest way to keep budgets lean.
- Build a library of your models – this also goes for materials, textures and lighting. And be sure to create a logical archiving system: Dark_Grey_Bumpy_Laptop_Material™ has had its uses across multiple projects (with minimal tweaks), but it’s useless if you can’t track it down quickly.
- Bonus tip: use GLTF or FBX – both are great formats for moving assets between different software and platforms.
So that’s a good start, but let’s delve a little further into the specifics of our RRR approach.
Reduce - the AI advantage
(AKA Transformers – assistants in disguise)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, in particular Diffusion Transformer (DiT) models, have been creating a lot of noise (and then turning conversation-starting images) all under the moniker of generative content. But there’s another much less in-your-face - and I would propose, more useful - revolution going on. AI that can be your reliable, efficient and cost-effective 3D assistant.
We use AI to reduce the polygon count (total number of surfaces) of 3D models. And this can often be achieved with a few mouse clicks, not the usual days of manual optimisation – for many situations it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference.
On top of that, we can now use AI to generate textures. Tools built into Blender iterate through hundreds of examples before we’ve even loaded our usual go-to texture sites. And that's before we even get to Ubisoft's new free CHORD AI model for generating PBR textures from images. It's currently only available for non-commercial work, but you can guarantee an open source version will be following soon.
What about converting still images to 3D models? It’s far from perfect, but it can be a great place to start. Using it as a starting to point for you basic proportions, you can then re-topologise (draw over the top) a nice accurate 3D model. It’s kind of like quickly sketching in pencil to get the shape and proportions right and then doing fine pen work over the top. And to be honest, if the model isn’t the focus of your film then you can often sneak it into the background and it’s perfectly usable straight out of the AI.
Or simply using AI to ‘denoise’ (remove the grain) from your renders, meaning you can render to a lower quality, therefore it’s quicker, and have little to no perceivable difference from a longer high-quality render that doesn’t use AI noise reduction.
The results?
- The ability to iterate quicker
- Faster render times
- Lower processor requirements
- More responsive interactive experiences (making them smooth instead of laggy or prone to skipping)
- Longer-lasting device batteries
- Smoother server operations (quicker to download and quicker to start working on a user device)
We appreciate AI can seem like a bit of a marketing buzz word at the moment (who knew a mattress needed AI?), but when used as a personal 3D assistant, AI is offering real world benefits. It can make your work look better and heavily reduce production times and costs, all while using tools that are surprisingly cheap or free.
And one last sales pitch, we can help you run lots of this locally. No changing terms of service and expensive user agreements. And most importantly, none of your data being sent to external companies.
Reuse - making your manufacturing model productive
Essentially, there are three types of 3D models:
1. Interactive
- Lower quality (fewer polygons)
- Used in computer games and other types of interactivity (think XR and inline, etc.)
- Can be rendered (and therefore viewed) in real time
- Lower processing requirements
2. Photo-real
- Higher quality (more polygons)
- Used in stills, film and TV
- Must be rendered offline (normally a long wait before you see the final picture or video)
3. Manufacturing/CAD
- Can have very high polygon count
- Designed to a fraction of a millimetre for precision engineering
- Less suitable for rendering (no textures)
- Primarily used to define shape (i.e. for use with injection moulding or CNC machines)
Often, you already have the 3D files for your manufacturing products. Using a combination of manual work and AI, we can convert these files into photo-real and interactive-ready models in hours, not days. This negates the need to create a 3D model from scratch. Having a high-quality model to start from saves a huge amount of time, particularly when combined with AI to take some of the optimisation off your hands. Throw in a combination of AI texture generators and you're halfway towards your finished production.
Recycle – cataloguing and interchange
You booked the shoot, gathered the team on set, ironed out the perfect edit and finally published your new video on all your social platforms. So, the last job is to save the final film, delete all the other files and forget about it, right? Wrong.
All too often, this is the way we see 3D assets being treated: created for campaigns and then being buried on a hard drive never to see the light of day again. In the same way you’ll re-edit your films for different channels, or use pieces of footage across different films, 3D files should be thought of in the same way.
3D recycling in practice at Proctors
Before we moved into our lovely new offices in Bristol, we created a quick walkthrough animation to check the proposed layout from the building plans. We modelled it super quickly, creating a massive file of a few gigabytes – rendering times were not a concern here.
A few years later, we ran a CSR campaign talking about some of our activities. We wanted to put our office model online and make it interactive so people could explore our building and find out more about what we had been up to. We knew even the most hardened CSR fans wouldn’t wait for a few gigs to download so we needed real-time rendering that was super responsive. Using a combination of AI and manual optimisation we took our existing model of a few gigs down to a much more mobile and internet friendly 10mb.
Three 3D case studies
Here’s some ways we put this pipeline into practice for our clients:
Panasonic
For the launch of a flagship laptop model, we quickly removed the internals (essentially anything that wouldn’t be visible from the outside) from a supplied manufacturing model. Then we ran it through an AI model to automatically reduce the polygon count with no visible difference. Re-using the manufacturing model meant we could move to the texturing and animation stages near enough instantly, removing the need to eat up budget on modelling the TOUGHBOOK from scratch.
Prysmian
Again, a manufacturing model was supplied, helping to speed up what could have been a long 3D modelling process.
Epson
For this project, the manufacturing model wasn’t available. Instead, we utilised AI to turn one still image into a 3D model. The model was far from perfect, but as a starting point with the rough dimensions it proved invaluable in reducing 3D modelling time.
The bottom line
3D doesn’t have to mean expensive, slow, or one-and-done. With the right workflows, you can:
- Cut costs without compromising quality
- Launch campaigns faster
- Build a reusable library of digital assets that deliver value far beyond a single campaign
At Proctors, we help brands, manufacturers, and B2B businesses unlock the full potential of 3D - turning what could be a one-off cost into a long-term strategic investment.
If you’d like to talk to us about the potential of 3D for your business, get in touch with us at marketing @proctorsgroup.com.
