How to Brief a 3D Product Rendering Studio

The files needed for product CGI answer seven questions: what shape is it, what is it made of, what versions exist, how should it be seen, where does it sit, what do you need delivered and by when. A brief that answers all seven gives a studio what it needs to quote accurately.

The model has to match the product, so geometry comes first. CAD files are the most accurate. Dimensioned drawings work well when they show every view and the key dimensions. If you have neither, photographs with measurements can be modelled, though more checking is needed.

Say what must be exact and what can be approximate. A hinge may need to match to the millimetre, while the back of a panel never appears in a render. Telling the studio saves effort on parts nobody will see.

A product is its materials. The studio builds each material from a physical sample, a scanned swatch or a finish code, and checks the render against it. Send a sample for every finish where colour or texture matters, and a code reference for the rest.

Include the finish code or SKU that matches each sample, so the render, the file and the catalogue all use the same name. Note the sheen as well as the colour: matt, satin or gloss changes how a material reads under light.

The variant list is the biggest driver of effort, because each variant is a render to check. Fix it before work begins.

Each product needs a small set of cameras that show it honestly. The set depends on the product and where it will be used.

A background can be plain white for a catalogue, a brand colour for a social post, or a styled room for a dealer kit. Pick the scenes at the start, because room scenes are built once and reused for many products.

For room scenes, give the studio a style reference: the type of room, the mood, the furnishings and the lighting. Approve one scene before the rest are built, so decisions about style are made once. New products and new finishes can then be added to the approved scenes.

Say where the images will be used, in what sizes and with what names. We deliver 4K, print and web formats, and a clear naming convention prevents confusion later.

Take an illustrative door range (a made-up shape, not a real client). It has one door frame, ten finishes, two sizes and two hardware options.

The brief contains the CAD file for the door and the frame, ten physical samples with finish codes, the list of 40 combinations marked by which exist, five cameras (front, three-quarter, a hinge detail, a doorway in a hallway scene and an installation view), the formats for the catalogue and the website, and the delivery date. It names one person who approves each stage.

With this brief the studio can quote, build the model, create the ten finishes from the samples and render the approved cameras. The first test render of each finish is checked against its sample before the rest are produced.

Product CGI follows the same staged logic as architectural rendering, with checks suited to products. You approve the model before materials and the materials before the finished set, because changes are cheap early and expensive late.

Product CGI is scoped by the number of products, the number of variants and the number of scenes, not by a single image count. A single product in one finish on white is a small project. A family of products, each in many finishes and shown in several rooms, grows quickly, even though the model work is shared.

The sums are simple but worth doing before you ask for a quote. Multiply the number of products by the number of variants by the number of cameras to see how many images the range implies. Then decide which of those truly need to exist. A tidy variant list often cuts the scope without reducing what the brand actually uses.