Are you looking for a new photoshoot location for your new collection? Then why not try a virtual studio instead of Cape Town, again? Innovative solutions are in especially high demand due to Corona Virus and for environmental reasons.
Digitalization has changed the fashion industry.
An industry that thrives on short seasonal cycles and is producing trends faster and faster can now take advantage of this digital transformation to make internal processes more efficient and cost-effective. The success of collections is also heavily reliant on a time-to-market that should be as short as possible. However, this is hardly feasible when you factor in traditionally expensive and time-consuming international travel and on location photoshoots. On the other hand, great photos are essential. Fashion is all about aesthetics and depends on emotions. Visual content introduces new trends, equip the webshop and create lookbooks and catalogues.
That’s why we at the M+M Group have developed a virtual photo studio in which photorealistic images can be created. What’s more, our virtual studio enables maximum creativity and flexibility – all without travelling and unnecessary contact.
The locations for the virtual studio are defined in advance together with customer as part of the creative process and then created using CGI. Whether it’s a South African beach, Broadway or sand dunes rolling endlessly into the background, thanks to CGI there are no limits. In addition, our onsite creative team in the virtual photo studio aren’t bound to reality either, and they can make use of interactive illustrations, grey shades or other imaginary elements to enhance the background.
During the following photo shoot in front of a green screen in our studio, the lighting between the two elements is adjusted interactively and everyone involved can track the position of the model in the virtual space using the so-called “Live View” on a reference monitor and let their creative juices flow. In this way, they are immediately able to see what the end product will look like.
Sample motifs – finalized (with the kind support of OTTO Studios).
Brands which already work with virtual photo studios particularly value the faster time-to-market through the creation of efficient workflows and the elimination of international photo shoots, as well as the potential for creative innovation. A further plus point is the ability to reuse a virtual location whenever you want. If parts of the collection are finished later, the set is available again at the push of a button. Furthermore, this new way of content production is far more environmentally sustainable due to the elimination of so much unnecessary air travel.
Moreover, to take advantage of this new photo production process no further in-house digital development is required on the part of the fashion houses themselves – they only have to use our virtual studio. Therefore, the process can be used by any fashion company, regardless of their level of digitalization.
The virtual studio also offers new possibilities in the field of e-commerce photography: Lots of webshop operators are looking for new opportunities to display their products in more varied ways, for example positioning the models shot in the studio in interesting locations and backgrounds. Of course, this has to happen easily, quickly and cost-effectively.
