Alice Clarke, Orbital Vision sales and marketing director shares her thoughts on CGI and more.
Where do you see CGI and the furniture industry going in the years ahead?
The use of technology is only increasing within the interiors world. From 3D product configurators and AR to 3D-walkthroughs of showrooms, the industry is gearing up for a new age of selling. We’ve been working hard over the past year developing our 3D product configurator, Envision. This has increased our clients’ sales by an average of 30% and has had a great impact on their online presence. Envision allows users to endlessly customise a product. The size, body fabric, piping, buttoning, leg colour and scatter combinations can all be changed to fit your own personal style.
Envision uses 3D, 360 models, so users can see every detail of a product, at any angle. You can also view products in your own home with our app-less AR feature, so you can test out whether a product fits the space without having to make a purchase – which means customer expectations are better managed, and our clients see a reduction in return rates.
How simple is the process of a project?
Very simple. From start to finish, our accounts team are always here to answer any questions or queries a client may have – and there’s never a stupid question. Most clients have never worked with CGI before, so we break things down into stages; your models, fabrics and roomsets are all worked on by the team who specialise in that area. At Orbital, we keep it simple: we just need the overall dimensions and a few reference images to build a model (no line drawings, complex dimension requests or physical samples needed). For roomsets, you can choose one of our various stock roomsets, or we can build something bespoke to you – just send us a reference image or brief showcasing your desired look and feel.
How has your team changed over time? Is the company still UK-based?
Our team has only grown since starting Orbital Vision. All our staff are based at our Long Eaton studio, all are full time and committed to providing the furniture industry with the best CGI imagery out there. As our team are based in the UK, we know our clients’ target audiences and styles down to the finer details.
What are the biggest struggles for retailers and manufacturers?
It’s been a ‘chicken or egg’ situation for some time now. Manufacturers don’t sell direct so don’t feel that they should provide the imagery, and retailers don’t often have the budget to shoot products. We’ve found that over time retailers are becoming more reliant on manufacturers to provide them with the assets they need to sell their products. Of course, if you sell into multiple stores, shooting one product in multiple styles and fabrics is a task that’s just impossible for manufacturers to complete. The imagery provided to retailers is often bland and basic to ensure it can be used by everyone. Product pages become uninspiring, and customers can easily back-search via an image to find the best and cheapest deal on a product, meaning retailers lose out on sales.
To combat this, we’ve been working with some of the UK’s largest manufacturers to build the UK’s sofa population in 3D form. We’ve just introduced our newest service, ‘Get A Room’, where in three steps, you can have your own exceptional imagery. We have so many assets on file, these are signed off by the suppliers themselves, and are ready for retailers to make the most of. Retailers can come to us to get their own bespoke shoots created, all in 3D and at a much cheaper rate than photography. Choose your model, fabric and desired lifestyle setting to create your own photorealistic imagery.
As everything is existing, imagery can be created in a matter of hours, rather than days – allowing websites and socials to be populated instantly.
Do you still feel there’s a stigma around CGI in the furniture industry?
As time goes on, CGI is becoming the best and most popular option for imagery within the industry. This isn’t just down to cost – the sheer number of assets, combinations, and the creative freedom that comes with doing a lifestyle shoot in 3D rather than in real life, has turned people away from photography and towards CGI. The most common reason for people being hesitant to jump into the world of CGI is that they’ve had a bad experience in the past or have received a rather expensive quote. Our main aim has always been to supply the industry with the most photorealistic, and affordable imagery. We are open and honest when it comes to whether something would be more cost effective to photograph. We’ve always received excellent feedback, and often clients will drop photoshoots for CGI altogether. As technology develops, CGI is only getting better and more realistic.