Panasonic

Since users would surely be looking for different products and use cases, we crafted four different environments corresponding to four different contexts in which these products would be useful. The client provided assets for each of the more than 30 products we used, and we then had to optimize them to ensure a smooth experience. In parallel, we created the four rooms from the ground up, iterating until they would be identifiable enough – while avoiding being too literal.

Clicking on a product would then allow users to access the data associated with it. This would include a short description of the product, as well as pictures, videos, and technical documentation. Related products are also put forward so users would be guided to their next waypoint.

Building an environment is no easy task, let alone four. In each of the four rooms, the user is guided along a camera path that is constantly changing orientation so they would always see the upcoming products, and could access them by clicking on them.

All the 3D fine tuning was well worth the time and effort, we now have an intuitive navigation (simple scroll and click) making a rather complex environment a joy to spend time in!

The number one challenge we faced was undoubtedly to optimize extremely detailed assets without compromising on the quality. Imagine a studio camera where every knob, button or port needs to be seen by professionals, while having to keep a low polycount to ensure that the whole platform could still perform with an optimal frame rate.

Reducing the polycount on such complex objects was only made possible by our very talented in-house 3D Artists, and at the end of the journey both the client and users were happy to find that the products kept their identities and level of detail, while still being easy to manipulate and fast to load.