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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