Services
3D Product Animation
I build product animations entirely in CGI: the product is modelled, lit and animated in 3D, so there is no shoot, no physical sample and no location. You get campaign films, social cuts and still renders from one asset set. I work as a single point of contact and scale up with a fixed network of animators, sound designers and compositors when a project needs it.
Written by Marco Mori, 3D artist, Lindau, Germany · Updated 2026-09-08
What does a 3D product animation project include?
A typical project delivers a master film, cutdowns for social, vertical and square reformats, and high resolution stills pulled from the same scene. The stills are usually the underrated part: once the product exists in 3D with correct materials, every key visual for print, e-commerce and out-of-home comes out of the same file.
What is included in the scope on my side is the full CGI chain, modelling or CAD cleanup, look development, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and grade. Sound design and original music come through my network rather than from me directly, as they did on BASF Design Fabrics, where the score was written by David Marquardt.
What do you need from the client to start?
- Product data. CAD in STEP, OBJ or FBX is ideal. Otherwise photos from six angles, dimensions and any design files.
- Brand assets. Logo files, typefaces, colour definitions, and the existing campaign look if there is one.
- Reference. Three to five films or stills you like, with a sentence each on what you like about them. This is worth more than a long brief.
- Formats and specs. Durations, aspect ratios, codecs, and where the film will run.
- The approval chain. Who gives feedback, who signs off, and how many people sit between those two. This single answer changes schedules more than the creative brief does.
- The deadline that actually matters. Air date, not the internal one.
How does the process work?
The numbered steps are in the process list rendered above the FAQ. In practice the discipline is simple: nothing moves forward until the previous step is approved, because a change to lighting after animation is cheap and a change to the product after rendering is not.
Selected work
- adidas ZK 2K Boost, 3D product commercial: three animated product films built on physics-driven motion, one of which passed three million organic views on adidas' Instagram.
- BASF Design Fabrics, material visualization: stylised animation for materials that are hard to photograph, where CGI is the only way to show behaviour rather than surface.
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, mixed reality campaign: product animation composited into filmed environments, the hybrid case between pure CGI and a shoot.
Why work with a specialist instead of a full-service agency?
| Specialist (me) | Full-service agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Who you talk to | The person doing the work | An account and project layer |
| Feedback loop | Same day, direct | Routed through a producer |
| Creative range | 3D, animation, FX, grade | Full campaign including strategy and media |
| Team scaling | Fixed network of animators, sound, direction | In-house departments on standby |
| Overhead | None | Structural, and it is in the rate |
| Best for | Product films, CGI-led campaigns, FX-heavy work | Multi-channel campaigns needing strategy and media buying |
If the deliverable is a CGI product film, the specialist route removes translation layers. If the deliverable is a full campaign across channels, an agency has infrastructure I do not, and I am often the 3D part of exactly that setup.
What else should I know before briefing a product animation?
Can CGI replace a product shoot entirely? For most product-led films, yes, and the comparison is worth reading in full. For anything that depends on a human performance or a real location, a hybrid is usually the honest answer.
What makes a product animation expensive? Simulation, geometry complexity, number of unique shots and number of reformats. Not duration. A 30 second film with one hero shot can be cheaper than a five second film with a cloth simulation. The cost drivers are broken down here.
Can the asset be reused later? That is the strongest structural argument for CGI. A product built once can carry the next campaign, the next colourway and the next format at a fraction of the original effort.
What if the product is a material, not an object? Then CGI is not just an option, it is often the only route. That was the whole premise of the BASF work.
Ready to scope something? Send a brief with product data, reference and the air date, and you will get a realistic schedule back rather than a pitch.
Frequently asked questions
What is 3D product animation?
3D product animation is a film of a product that was never filmed. The product is rebuilt as a 3D model, given materials and lighting, animated and rendered. The output is a video file, but nothing in it was photographed.
Do you need CAD data of the product?
CAD data is the fastest route and the most accurate one, because the geometry is already correct. If there is no CAD, I model from photos, drawings and dimensions, which adds modelling time and needs one extra approval round on the model before look development starts.
Can you animate a product that does not exist yet?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons brands book CGI. As long as there is CAD, a design file or reliable reference, the product can be animated months before the first physical sample exists.
How many rounds of feedback are included?
I plan two structured rounds: one on the animatic or previz, one on the graded output. Extra rounds are possible, they mostly cost render time rather than creative time, and I will say upfront which changes are cheap and which reopen the whole scene.
Can I get social formats and stills from the same project?
Yes. Once the scene exists, 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9 versions and high resolution stills come from the same asset. Reformatting is a reframe and a re-render, not a new production.
Which software do you use for product animation?
Houdini for animation, simulation and procedural setups, Redshift for rendering, Nuke and After Effects for compositing and grade. Client-supplied CAD is converted and cleaned before it enters the scene.
Do you deliver the 3D source files?
Source files and asset ownership are agreed per project. The default delivery is finished video and stills; handover of scene files or a rigged product asset is possible when it is part of the scope from the start.
How accurate are the materials compared to the real product?
Accuracy depends on what you can give me. Physical samples, material specs or a reference photo under known lighting get very close. Without reference, materials are art-directed to look right rather than measured.
Do you work directly with brands or through agencies?
Both. With agencies I plug into an existing creative team and deliver against their boards; with brands I take on the creative direction as well.
Where are you based and how does that affect timezones?
Lindau at Lake Constance, Germany, Central European Time. That overlaps with the whole European workday and with the US morning, and I work with clients worldwide.