Would you find it unusual to find that a commercial photography and film studio could be a Pro/ENGINEER user? Believe it or not, it’s fact and not fiction!
TRG Studios, based in Cleveland Ohio, is one such studio. TRG studios is well known in the industry for being able to photograph the objects that other studios find quite difficult—in particular, those with shiny metal and reflective surfaces.
Many of TRG Studio clients (as well as most companies) need highly realistic product photographs well in advance of product availability. Until recently, the only way to obtain photographs was to have wooden or SLA mockups made. This is both time- consuming and expensive.
A Model with a Model. This image was created by merging a photo shot with a human model posed appropriately, then merged into the rendered image of this medical device. (Click image to see enlarged image and original photo of the model posing for this shot...)
What we did at TRG was combine our expertise in lighting with a toolbox of applications that starts with Pro/ENGINEER and goes through a workflow of modeling, animation, rendering, and retouching software.
The process starts with receiving a native Pro/ENGINEER file from a client. When native files are not available, .stp or .iges files are acceptable. TRG uses Pro/E not only to convert the files to formats used by other software, but to also isolate components within the product so they are able to receive the proper textures and colors later on. While much of the software used in the process is fairly well known in the industry, it’s our experience in lighting products that provides an edge in producing images that are indistinguishable from conventional product photography.
Moen faucet.
We call this our CGI Photography service, which allows us to create product images without actual products or prototypes. The images are more consistent, since the lighting is saved as a stage and can be retrieved at any time in the future. Another advantage is that the images require none or very minimal retouching. With conventional product photography, retouching product surfaces—especially on prototype products—often costs more than the actual photography.
TRG Studios’ collection of surfaces and textures has grown since the launch of CGI Photography. Surfaces such as brushed aluminum, wood, molded plastic, glass, rubber, and fiberglass are just a few of the hundreds of surfaces and textures cataloged and archived at TRG.
Gerber Flik (click image for a more detailed view)
The high-resolution, photographic quality renderings produced can be further modified using QuickTime video or QuickTime VR clips. Once the product is rendered, it can be shown to move or the camera can move around it in a video. Both of these video formats are more cost effective to produce using CGI Photography over conventional product photography.
You can also view product videos developed from model data.
Other extremely beneficial capabilities include creating exploded-view and cut-a-ways. Both are easier to create through CGI Photography and CAD files than exploded view product photography or actually cutting a product. It’s also possible to combine people and other images into CGI Photography. Conventional photography is used for the people and backgrounds, but the CGI image is composited into it, using lighting on the computer-generated product that matches the original scene.
A CGI photograph of a wheel for an automobile can be placed on a tire, and then on a vehicle to give the impression an actual wheel was photographed on the vehicle. Additional advancements have included applying flat graphics to 3D surfaces, such as decals to a helmet.
TRG Studios continues to offer conventional photography and video services to clients, but with the introduction of CGI Photography, it can offer an alternative that few commercial photography studios can offer.
For more information, please visit TRG Studios online at www.trgstudios.com.
