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ThreeKit Launches Virtual Photographer Software for E-Commerce

Furniture World News Desk on 8/9/2019


ThreeKit, an online product visualization company, recently announced the launch of Virtual Photographer, a software that creates product images for e-commerce that look real but are completely computer-rendered.

Traditionally, product photography involved sending products to agencies or studios for a labor-intensive photoshoot, having the products shipped back, and then post-processing the imagery. Not only is this method costly (often $100 to $400 per photo), it’s time-consuming and requires extensive coordination. Virtual Photographer is more flexible, efficient, and cost-effective.

Retailers and brands use the Virtual Photographer as part of their digital image creation internally, with no need to involve an outside agency. The software’s intuitive design allows any brand to use its own teams to reproduce consistently high-quality, high-detail, highly customizable images for thousands of different products.

The Virtual Photographer platform can even integrate with existing in-house photography teams by automating repetitive tasks. Rather than spending hours resetting products and shooting standardized packshots, photographers can focus on more creative aspects of their work, such as shooting lifestyle imagery or directing angles and lighting.  

With Virtual Photographer, brands eliminate the high costs and inflexible nature of traditional product photography and gain a competitive advantage through:

Impeccable quality: Because Virtual Photographer creates photos 100 percent digitally, the images are often sharper than photos shot by a camera.

Dramatically reduced project time: ThreeKit completed 50,000 photos for a client in one week, a project that typically takes over a month with a team of five photographers.

Major cost savings: Photos made using Virtual Photographer are 1,000x cheaper on a per-photo basis than traditional product photography, with an average cost of 1¢ per photo.

Limitless options: Furniture retailers once could only feature one or two photos online to represent a whole product line. With Virtual Photographer, they now can create images for every single unit available, growing their product showcase from 30 percent to 100 percent.

Ease of use: Merchandisers can use the product with no need to bring in outside developers or agencies.

Assisted growth: With no more than a CAD file, Virtual Photographer can automatically create images of new products without investing in prototypes. Companies can use this to streamline their product launches or quickly add new fabric options to an existing sofa or chair.  

The software is based on the same technology that ThreeKit founder and Chief Technology Officer Ben Houston developed for Hollywood visual effects used in over 100 films and TV series including Harry Potter, Silicon Valley, and Game of Thrones.

“Traditional product photography has been slow to adapt to the quickly changing nature of e-commerce,” says Houston. “As the industry grows and customers come to expect high-quality product imagery not as an amenity but as an industry standard, businesses need to prepare by ensuring they have access to on-demand imagery creation that is highly detailed and customizable.”



About ThreeKit: ThreeKit is the only software platform that enables companies to let shoppers customize their product with the colors and features they want with just a single design. When shoppers can see products represented as realistically as possible, they are more engaged, their trust is higher, and they are more likely to have the confidence to buy those products. Using technology developed by 15 years of experience creating visual effects for blockbuster films, ThreeKit’s platform creates 2D, 3D, and augmented reality visual assets, and allows those assets to be sent to stores in just a few clicks.

Earlier this year, ThreeKit raised $10 million in investment led by serial entrepreneur Godard Abel. Brands that currently use ThreeKit’s technology include Crate & Barrel, Steelcase, and CIROC UK. The company is headquartered in Chicago with a technology innovation center in Ottawa. For more information, visit Threekit.com.