https://main--cc--adobecom.hlx.page/creativecloud/img/icons/3d-assets.svg | 3D Assets https://main--cc--adobecom.hlx.page/creativecloud/img/icons/stager.svg | Stager
Jan. 19, 2023, by Veepee
Veepee's Improved 3D Product Visualization for E-commerce
Learn how the design team at Veepee uses Adobe tools to create highly effective product banners.
Lucie
Lucie: Hi, I’m Lucie Gravellier. I studied visual communications for 4 Years in Paris. I have a background in print agencies.
I arrived at Veepee almost 11 years ago now. Here I discovered the digital universe. Originally, I made variations of designers’ creations, then I specialized in Oneday, and in 2018, I discovered the wine and gastronomy sector.
I create visuals that give context to the products we sell, so that our members can understand them in an instant. My goal is to give meaning to the visual, to create a story and to inspire the members of Veepee.
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle: Hello, my name is Emmanuelle Eschembrenner and I studied graphic design for 5 years between La Réunion and Paris. After an experience as a freelance artistic director, I have now been lead designer at Veepee for almost 10 years.
My team is made up of a dozen expert designers in the wine & food, beauty, children’s and everyday products sectors. My daily role is to ensure the link between the Veepee DNA and the universe of the brands we work with, in order to offer a clear approach to the offers that our members discover every day on the site.
I want designers to experiment, have fun and find meaning in a demanding and productive universe. Creativity, quality and expertise are our credos.
Veepee
Emmanuelle: Veepee is a digital e-commerce leader in France, offering brands at attractive prices in a setting that we hope will be differentiating and unique. We are present in more than 14 countries and 3 million members connect to our digital events every day.
More than 200 creatives (art designers, UX designers, shooting managers, etc.) are dedicated to creating images that will highlight our brands.
The Design Team
Emmanuelle: The Design team oversees creating event-driven showcases (no more than 8 days online) for leading brands in Fashion, Home, Wine & Food, Travel and many others.
For some of them, we ensure the creation of strong marketing messages, to propose an experience to the members that is the most attractive and desirable possible.
Our production deadlines range from 1.5 days to 2 weeks for specific marketing activations (banners, mini-site creation, newsletters, educational sheets etc.)
Moving to 3D Workflows for E-commerce
Emmanuelle: At Veepee, we are committed to staying connected to technical and technological developments to enhance creativity while ensuring the best use of our time.
Since the creation of the company, we wanted to highlight our offers by working on impactful images through photomontage and photo shoots. Our ambition is such that today we are looking for agile and qualitative solutions to create our visuals and 3D workflows seem essential to us in this quest.
Scaling Imagery Production with 3D
Emmanuelle: 3D allows us to combine quality renderings with production flexibility. The designers’ agility is reinforced, and we don’t need to solicit the camera crews whose schedules can be busy at certain times of the year.
This workflow can help us to work in anticipation (without waiting to receive the products), and tomorrow we plan to use this technology to create image banks of scenography adapted to each of our brands and categories, libraries of materials or graphic elements which will allow us to reinforce autonomy, agility and quality.
Achieving Visual Fidelity and Realism
Emmanuelle: The first projects are promising, we were able to experiment very quickly with the many possibilities that Substance 3D Stager offers. And thanks to Adobe’s support and guidance, Lucie was able to quickly grasp the tools and adapt them to our various creative ideas.
The next step will be to experiment again and again to be more and more precise in the rendering of materials and lights. The possibilities are almost infinite, practice and passion will be our best allies for the future.
3D Enhances Visual Storytelling
Lucie: I work sometimes with the shooting team or sometimes with a simple view of the product on which I must recreate everything. This is where 3D opened a whole new world to me. I find that I have many more possibilities. I can create a real “world” around my product. The little extra touch that works well is the light that is identical on all objects and the reflections that this creates. I can control each element, each texture, in order to create the most realistic scene possible.
Workflow Overview
Lucie: To work on a new project, I always start with a sketch of the final project. Then I look for the elements that I need in the Substance 3D Assets library. When necessary, I model the shapes on illustrator.
I also do a search for textures, and when I’m ready, I switch to Stager. I spend a lot of time on this phase adjusting my objects, textures and lights.
Finally, I make an export to Photoshop to position it in my template. Here I can balance the lights and the contrasts, and the last little details that could have escaped me.
Once satisfied, I export my files in jpg to integrate it on the Veepee site.
The Learning Curve
Lucie: Learning about Substance 3D Stager was quick. In under 3 months, I managed to make pretty scenes. Of course, it was even faster because I had some basic knowledge of Dimension and C4D. I quickly found my marks for navigation and shortcuts which remain accross all Adobe tools.
There are also a lot of tutorials, which helped me a lot for my first steps in learning and getting started with the tool.
