Creativity
In the hands of skilled artists CGI can deliver a world of possibilities that would often be stifled if they had to be captured for real.  In our CGI world anything is possible.  We can create complete environments where the laws of physics are put on hold. You want world where rain flows back from the ground and into the clouds, no problems.  The opportunities really are only limited by the imagination of the creatives involved in the concept.

Costs
CGI is becoming more cost effective all of the time but the important thing is to use it for what it is good for and as a part of an overall production workflow.
If CG assets are created well, they can be reused time and time again across different locations and creative ideas.  The creation of a good initial model is an investment that a company should consider across the lifecycle of the product, not just on that individual campaign.

When TJ consider a clients creative requirements we will always seek the most suitable production solution and will often combine CGI with photographic content to form the best possible final result.

Flexibility
CG provides the perfect environment where you are no longer restricted by the weather, seasons or availability of physical prototypes.  The Automotive sector has really pushed the adoption of CG over the last 10 years and the reason has been flexibility.

Flexibility to remove weather days from expensive shoots with many crew members. Flexibility to create multiple versions of a vehicle in different locations, in different colours at different times of the year without ever having to leave the studio. This flexibility has now transferred from Automotive to mainstream products.

Message Consistency
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of CG is in the consistency of message that its use can enable. Clients no longer think of print, digital and broadcast advertising as separate media.  We are all constantly connected as we go about our everyday life with digital screens, display panels and advanced mobile devices.

Using CG assets can allow you to extend common brand messaging across all of these media ensuring that your product or service is described with a consistent visual message.

Why use CGI? It can bring your ideas to life better than many other disciplines and more efficiently too.

For examples, read some of our ‘Making Of” case studies.

If you’d like to discuss an idea and see if this is the right method for you, just get in touch with one of the experts at Taylor James. You need not be fearful of the process, we will explain every stage and be there to guide and advise every step of the way.

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The lifecycles of global product development projects are continually being cut.  We are seeing shorter development cycles than ever before in the race to launch products and gain market share ahead of the competition. Manufacturerstherefore need to maximise the use of their design assets, even completing adverts for a car launch before a car has ever left the production line. Once the product designs are complete, a manufacturer’s marketing team needs to produce advertising material and go into audience testing fast, often long before a product is deployed.

Keith examined the steps that manufacturers need to adopt in order to produce product visuals and virtualisations indistinguishable from real photography. Comparing “As Designed vs. As Manufactured” data, there are subtle differences needed to take a CAD render and turn it into a piece of virtual product photography.

Taylor James has been working with automotive manufacturers who are leading this important process and “garaging” their design data for the purposes of marketing.  We are now seeing the same pressures that were experienced in the auto sector over the last decade spilling out into all areas of manufacturing.

To this end, Taylor James has developed a unique solution to deliver complex visuals for rapidly changing products and configurations. hydraGen™ is proving to be a real game-changer for our clients as it enables us to be more responsive to the inevitable changes that take place through their development cycles.  It also gives us the ability to produce assets of every version of a client’s product with different colours and specifications handled with maximum flexibility.

Jeffery explains “We understand what is needed from both engineering and marketing teams to maximise their ability to produce high quality marketing material across different media. With our unique process, we can meet this need with accuracy and efficiencies, creating world class digital visuals for today’s fast paced multimedia needs.”

Check out the Ford Focus 2015 visuals, and if you’d like to know more, give Keith a call on 020 7739 4488.

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The bold predictions of Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report, released in 2002, are being played out in front of our eyes. Technology’s infiltration into our environment and our almost constant interaction with visual messaging is changing, rapidly. As a content producer, Taylor James sees an increasing variety of needs for integrated, multi-platform marketing and social interaction. What does this mean for visual content production?

We have observed the effect technology has in advertising; not only in terms of the data that can be fed back to Brands, but also in the possibilities for creativity. Technology can provide valuable data, but also offers us a wealth of creative opportunity through new software and techniques, new hardware, and new methods of delivery. As on-demand entertainment quickly overtakes scheduled formats and the internet becomes imbedded in every electrical item we interact with, brands are rushed to adapt and innovate to stay competitive. The technologies that have been available for some time are slowly being utilised effectively. Simultaneously, agencies are applying fantastic creative concepts and high production values to ensure that messages are seen and heard above the sea of competition. Can storytelling and engagement win the battle against abrupt and intrusive? When will this spread to mobile and tablet?

On average 40% of all online traffic is driven by portable media devices such as Smartphones and tablets – this means that also 40% of all adverts are experienced through mobile sites. Tablet sales are now outstripping sales of laptop and desktop computers. Despite this, mobile display accounts for less than 10% of the display advertising spend in UK and lower in the rest of Europe. Many advertisers fear the complexity of cross platform delivery despite the high demand, but the drivers and rewards are too great to ignore. We are increasingly being asked to produce broader campaigns with messages running across Broadcast, Print, Digital, Interactive, App Development etc are more frequent. Unified messages and with unified visual identities. Costs can run high when multiple production studios are trying to produce multiple creative pieces, all across multiple platforms. Duplication of work is likely and controlling the unified visual identity can be difficult.

This experience was echoed by eminent photographer, Tim Flach, when he approached TJ to discuss the latest needs with a group of students who are about to launch into their own creative careers. We collectively discussed the increased demand of our clients wanting to reuse assets in as many ways as possible. Maximising the potential of your assets by repurposing them for different media makes financial sense, especially when dealing with the vast number of increased media formats that can be required for a successful ‘Through the Line’ campaign.

But what counts as an ‘asset’? By definition an ‘asset’ has intrinsic value to its owner. So almost any digital content generated during the creative process counts; a Photograph, a CG Model, Typography, Artwork etc all can be repurposed and reused in many different ways across multiple platforms.

New technology offers us wider scope for creativity with less complexity. Why just take a photograph? If you have a digital display, of any form, why not have the image move, why not ‘fly through it’? By controlling your assets from a central management hub, we can also offer flexibility, save time through eliminating errors, but also ensure consistency across multiple types of media – a key requirement for brands who are communicating product and brand values across multiple platforms.

The technologies that drive user based feedback are well established, but will undoubtedly become more efficient and potentially less transparent. Awareness of these methodologies rarely sit well with consumers and as this increases with the general public there is potential for increased privacy demands.

Technologies associated with content creation and production are becoming more efficient, more diverse and ultimately provide a greater output for less outlay. It is no longer about being a master of a niche tool, but in the innovative way you blend tools, approaches and creative thinking, to deliver visual messaging that works. All this may seem obvious and a little ambiguous, but in an exciting time of diversity it’s prudent to stay broad and agile in our intelligent approach to creative production.

Innovation and creativity will always remain at the heart of visual content creation, and the sensible way to approach any campaign is to maximise your assets and seize opportunities as they arise.

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One point, though, has consistently achieved consensus across the advertising industry – in the future print will stand out more. It will be appreciated, valued and personal.

And because print can contain that emotional connection, the important messaging that advertisers want to emphasize will become more powerful and the level of creativity will be even more sophisticated.

But is that really true? We’ve heard this line many times before, and it’s been under the spotlight once more at this month’s ‘Cross Media 2013’ conference in London. Why is it that print in general has got the ‘Master of Sentiment’ stamp? Is it because to the pre- .com generation it reminds of how we used to make hand-drawn party invitations and pass round secret scribbled notes to our friends in school, because there was no BBM. Or how we wrote all our essays by hand, and how it was cool to write with a pen with 5 colours. In the 20th century, a teen’s most important information hub was a magazine.

Is that how the new generation will remember print? Probably not. These sentimental values associated with print will most likely only have the impact on those people who saw the transition into digital, and had their first smartphone after the age of 10.

Who knows what our children will value the most. Maybe it will be print. But at the moment digital is the new medium. And everyone wants to be a part of it.

In our opinion, print will never go away. And by recent industry projections, it’s not expected that the use of print will see much decline versus digital in the foreseeable future. The quality, speed and flexibility of the printed medium has improved immensely, enabling us to package brand messages in a more attractive format. More fundamentally, brands wish to express themselves in every way possible, and people seek different experiences.

We’d like to think print is getting smarter. It can form a powerful component of a campaign that embraces all possible communication channels. It can be tied closely with digital, but as Ian Sullivan, CEO of Paperhat Consorcio, states “the challenge for brands is to integrate their marketing across online and offline channels and maximise ROI across competing budgets.”

At the Cross Media 2013 show, the feeling was one of waiting for the digital hyperbole to pass, then marketers will realise they can use print in conjunction with their online campaigns. And if you can find a way to measure it, it stands up against social media. Print advertising and digital marketing work when they come hand in hand.

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