Neon (Omnicom Health) for NeuroTech Pharmaceuticals — Medical Device CGI Production · 2024
Encelto: CGI vs. Photoshoot
NeuroTech needed complete product imagery of Encelto's full cold-chain shipping kit, down to a surgical delivery tool smaller than a coin. I made the case that CGI would beat a traditional photoshoot on cost and flexibility, then built the entire kit in Cinema 4D from the real shipped product, measured with a digital caliper and microscope for exact accuracy.
Challenge
NeuroTech had originally planned a traditional photoshoot for Encelto's entire physical kit: the outer insulated shipper, the branded corepack, the inner containers, and the precision surgical delivery tool at the center of it all. The client wanted that photoshoot; I argued for CGI instead, directly to them. A shoot covering that range of scale, from a shipping box down to a component smaller than a coin, would mean specialized handling for a temperature-sensitive product and a full re-shoot for any future spec or angle change. I made the case that a CGI approach would give the client more flexibility going forward and let us capture angles that would be difficult or impossible to get in a real photoshoot, then had to prove the models could actually hold up next to reality.
Approach
NeuroTech shipped me the real product suite. I modeled every piece in Cinema 4D directly from the physical parts, using a digital caliper and a digital microscope to capture exact dimensions down to fractions of a millimeter, a level of accuracy a reference photo alone can't give you. Each component went through the same pipeline: measure the real part, build and validate the model in clay/untextured form against those measurements, then texture and light it to match studio product photography. The final suite covered the full unboxing sequence: the ThermoSafe insulated shipper, the NeuroTech-branded corepack, inner and outer containers, and the delivery tool itself, entirely rendered, with nothing photographed.
Impact
The client greenlit the CGI approach over the photoshoot they'd originally planned, and the assets shipped for final use in their marketing materials. I didn't have visibility into performance after delivery, so this one isn't a metrics story, it's a craft one: models accurate enough, at small enough scale, to replace photography outright and win that argument in the room.
