3 Reasons to Outsource Your 3D Assets for augmented Reality (AR)

by Nikhil Bafna February 11, 2020

What is Your Content Supply Chain Strategy?

With the expansion of available 5G bandwidth poised for take-off, manufacturers, retailers and product marketers everywhere are feeling more pressure than ever to embrace the exploding opportunities supported by the integration of augmented reality (AR) within their sales processes.

New AR-based tools enhance the shopping experience, engage and excite customers, and accelerate the sales process by helping buyers visualize products in entirely new ways that are revolutionizing the way business is done. Market leaders are acutely aware of the coming sea change and have been plowing ahead to gain ground and position themselves at the forefront.

As an example, apps such as Wayfair’s Room Planner 3D, Ikea’s Ikea Place, Amazon’s AR View, and Houzz’s View in my Room 3D (part of the Houzz App) to name just a few are paving the way to the future by revolutionizing the home furnishing category shopping experience; allowing customers to view furnishings and décor in their own homes, virtually, before they buy.

Furniture 3D Rendering Example-1

Living Room Set by Halo Renders 3D Artist

In particular, by offering the ability to view large furniture items in the home—with no heavy-lifting or expensive shipping required—these new tools not only enhance and accelerate the buying process, but also herald new potential for reducing costs inherent in product return and exchange cycles, while simultaneously fostering new efficiency in product supply chains.

The home furnishings category is only one small star in a vast AR universe that shows promise in every direction. From medical devices to food and beverage, to apparel—to virtually any product that exists in a three dimensional form—the benefits of visualization tools that showcase products like never before and reduce if not eliminate barriers of time and place seem limitless.

As speed and bandwidth constraints are inevitably eased—making way for market leaders to charge ahead—consumer expectations will inevitably soar. What should stakeholders do now to best prepare?

What the Market Is Telling Us

Some of the toughest challenges marketers face today include content supply—i.e. the ability to scale—and cost. We hear this from our own prospects on a regular basis.

Today, 3D artists produce most 3D assets for AR/VR manually. While parametric modeling programs like Revit, AutoCAD or Rhino for example can be used to quickly generate 3D objects from CAD, STEP, or STL files, no matter which technology is used these initial 3D models require additional fine-tuning to achieve photorealistic results. Highly skilled 3D artists produce the best 3D models.

Keeping up with 3D model creation for a never-ending stream of fresh products demands a robust budget—and a highly skilled technical team. While it can be tempting to develop 3D asset creation resources in-house, with rapidly advancing technologies and shifting skill-sets an inherent component of this swiftly evolving discipline, outsourcing to a dedicated third-party provider may make more sense. We think so.

Here Are 3 Reasons Outsourcing 3D Asset Creation Makes Sense:

Number 1_ ABILITY TO SCALE– By outsourcing your 3D asset creation needs to a third-party team of dedicated, skilled talent, your ability to scale is no longer limited by your own ability to develop, manage, hire, train for—and keep up with—this complex, fast-evolving discipline.

By utilizing a best-in-class service provider whose core competency is visualization, such as Halo Renders, top talent is available to you from day one—and you can rest assured that staying on top of state-of-the-art technologies is our lifeblood.

Halo Renders has the capacity to take on all your 3D asset creation needs, allowing you to rapidly scale up production as needed—or scale down if fewer resources become necessary—adding valuable flexibility and efficiency to your operations.

"We make it easy for both small and large entities to get started. We offer a trial pipeline at any scale, allowing our clients to test the integration of our services into their own work processes, and prove out our models and turnaround." says Nikhil Bafna, founder, Halo Renders.

COST SAVINGS – Finding a high-quality 3D asset creation partner who can deliver models at a competitive price is just the start of your savings. Reducing your own overhead costs including hiring and training, employee benefits, office space, investment in the latest technologies and more can quickly add up to big potential savings—which creates room to seek out high-quality outsourced teams.

Halo Renders is known for its modern facilities, highly-trained staff, and high-quality deliverables. Our dedicated, U.S.-based customer service teams ensure your projects get the attention you need. With Halo Renders, lowering your costs doesn’t mean lowering your standards.

IP SECURITY - Safeguarding your IP is a primary concern for any entity considering outsourcing of any kind, and product related IP is no exception. Working with a third-party provider who understands the risks and has developed internal controls that prevent IP related security issues is of paramount importance.

When you work with Halo Renders, you can rest assured that protecting your IP is our top priority. We’ve created a secure work environment with built-in procedures and mechanisms to prevent breach of IP – from key-coded entryways to internal servers incapable of downloading, you can rest-assured your assets will be protected!

"In addition to building IP protections into all points of our work process," adds Bafnia, "we also offer White Label service agreements - which makes choosing our services an easy decision for marketing and creative agencies."

Speak with one of our 3D AR/VR asset creation specialists today to learn more about working with Halo Renders!
Contact us here.