KIA
Concepts & 360
At one of the agencies I’ve worked for KIA was a major client. This means I’ve worked on many concepts, the real website and even a car configurator. However, the biggest project I’ve worked on for KIA are 360 degree animations of all vehicles. This page features both concepts, real material and the 360’s.
My Role
In general I was involved in the KIA project as a visual designer, creating content for the website and concepts for new features or a better quality experience. One of those concepts was to create 3D models of the cars, so the visitor could swirl the cars around and see all angles of the car. For this I was in charge of staging the models, texturing, lighting, rendering and the project as a whole.
My work included:
- Concept & Visual Design
- Content Design
- 3D texturing / lighting
- Animation
Why it was so special
KIA and the agency involved were constantly pushing the enveloppe. That is an awesome work environment – as it recognizes everyone in the team and offers everyone to contribute.
When presenting new ideas the word ‘no’ was not often used. So when I suggested to by the models online and texture/light them ourselves for 360 views – the word was ‘go’ instead of ‘no’.
As the texturing and lighting was new to me, it took me some time to create the right setup – making sure that the nice features of the car were highlighted. The final images were set up in the campaign image of the specific car.
What I’ve learned
During the creation of the 360 views of the car I’ve learned a lot about texturing and lighting. First it was important to make the car look realistic – so texturing was a big part of that. Second, lighting determines how the textures are represented, so I created a photo studio setup in 3D – with reflectors and various lights.
In creating the concepts and interfaces I’ve learned loads about branding. How subtle elements can clearly communicate the website as being KIA. Because there was lots of space to explore new solutions – I’ve learned a lot about what works online and what might not work as well as expected.
Main take-away: suggest new solutions. Brands and companies want to reach higher levels, you’re only really helping them by exploring new possibilities.
