Premier Messaging needed a slick Website and complementary
brochure. Although I quickly found a suitable CD of royalty free
photographs for the project, I couldn't find a good looking phone
that was both modern, had a cord (cordless phones tended to look
too much like cellular phones), and still looked like a residential
phone.
So, unable to find what I wanted in the realm of stock photography,
I turned to online 3D resource vendor, Turbo
Squid. I quickly found a model/mesh for sale, bought
it, and set about modifying it in Strata 3D Plus 3.5.
The poly count was way too high, so I
killed the body and recreated it using paths drawn in Illustrator
and skinned in Strata (similar to spline surfacing in other apps).
I then created texture, bump, and reflection maps in Photoshop.
I'm particularly happy with the way the textures combined on the
buttons: I was able to achieve exactly
the look of soft, rubbery buttons that are actually on my own home
phone. This look is apparent in the larger view, and in the printed
version.
The finished render was created using Raytracing with no oversampling
and a width of 2,000 pixels. The printed brochure was 400 dpi, and
the extra resolution (about 500 pixels) was needed in case I needed
to do any manual clean up.
All in all, it took longer than I would have preferred (this was
the first time I had used Strata 3D for a professional project),
but I was pleased with the final render. The phone definitely captured
the look I was seeking, and the flexibility of 3D made it easy to
rotate the phone until we got exactly the angle I wanted.
View Web Samples Here >>
View Print Samples Here >>

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