01 The brief
Volume One release a new colourway roughly every six weeks. Each release meant a studio booking, a photographer, a stylist and a fortnight of lead time — for images that were obsolete by the next drop.
Volume One
A product catalogue with no photographer, no studio and no reshoots.
Running right now
volumeone.example.com
Every product image on their store is a render from this project.
· What it moved
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0
Catalogue renders
Every SKU, every crop
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- 0 %
Cost per release
Against the photoshoot it replaced
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0
Days to redo a range
Previously a fortnight
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0
Weeks to build
02 What we did
We built the products instead of photographing them. Every SKU was modelled once, with materials scanned from the real thing rather than approximated, and lit in a virtual studio that matches their old photographer's setup closely enough that the two are interchangeable on a product page.
The useful part is what happens next. A new colourway is a material swap, not a shoot: the full 240-image catalogue re-renders overnight, in every crop and aspect ratio their channels need, without anyone booking anything.
We handed over the scene files and a short guide, so their in-house designer runs it now.
03 How it landed
The first release under the new system cost 71% less than the shoot it replaced and turned around in four days rather than a fortnight. Nobody on their side has been able to pick the renders out of a lineup.
· The work
What it actually looks like.
· How it ran
Start to live, in order.
The whole thing took 5 weeks, with Volume One in the room for every phase.
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Week 1
Reference
Scanned materials and measured every product in the range by hand.
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Weeks 2–3
Modelling
Built each SKU, matched against photographs of the physical item.
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Week 4
The studio
Recreated their photographer’s lighting so old and new images sit together.
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Week 5
Handover
Scene files, a render queue and half a day of training for their designer.
What Volume One said
The 3D product renders replaced an entire photoshoot budget. Nobody can tell they are not real.
· Still running
Go and use it yourself.
Every product image on their store is a render from this project.
Next project
Halo Health
· More work
Other things we shipped.
Same studio, same thread, different problem.