Forcade Associates can provide publication quality illustrations using either photography or computer graphics. We have over 20 years project experience at studio and location photography and over 10 years working with 2D and 3D computer graphics.

3D computer graphics is an uncompromised alternative to studio photography. Not only can we duplicate the form of your product, we can mimic its various materials and even (if you desire) its imperfections such as dirt, smudges, or scratches. The resulting illustration looks natural and realistic.

CG offers all of the same lighting and atmospheric flexibility of photography with many advantages. The process is very similar to traditional studio photography, the most outstanding difference being that the computer artist must first build each photo subject using 3D geometry.

We create each 3D model from your dimensional drawings and develop each individual part to produce an efficient wire frame representation of your product. These initial modeling costs are often offset by the time and expense of building or repairing existing product prototypes or by eliminating the need for extensive photo retouch.

The model is then seamlessly textured with custom designed virtual materials such as anodized aluminum, stainless steel, or muralized paint, for instance. Each virtual material is precisely designed to reproduce the same properties of color, texture, shininess, and transparency as its real world counterpart. The wireframe textured model is then placed on a virtual set using many of the same lighting and camera techniques we use in our photo studio. We can also add atmospheric and optical effects such as lens flares, smoke, or fog.

Given the desired reproduction method such as offset lithography or a web page, the resulting virtual camera view is rendered to create a high resolution digital file or bitmap. This is then color corrected as needed and added to a page layout for the final printed piece. We can provide the finished digital image, color separations, the page layout with image or the finished printed piece.

We also routinely use computer graphics in combination with studio photography because of the speed with which we can create additional product views such as this exploded view. This image combines 3D computer imagery with composited studio shots of the speaker's electronics.

Like the product shot, the exploded view was rendered to a high resolution file, color corrected, and used in a page makeup program to illustrate a four-color product brochure. Computer graphic imagery enables us to save our clients time and money while providing photographic quality illustrations.