Production houses/agencies/studios are common when it comes to the creation of photos, videos, graphics, copy, campaigns, etc. for consumer-facing or B2B content. In addition, these entities competitively bid amongst each other on projects, are fairly high-cost and don’t follow a standard set of processes and procedures from agency to agency. This leads to uncertainty and unpredictable deliverables for the end client which results in one-off projects that are over-budget, late and sometimes completely miss the mark.
Furthermore, many production houses are not structured to align their practices with how a B2B business needs to operate in order to remain streamlined, efficient, and profitable; resulting in most content creation efforts being reactionary and disjointed rather than proactive and streamlined. And most importantly, content is not being produced and output in ways that allow for it’s ingestion into new technology experiences such as AR, VR and MR.
Our content production offerings are comprised of 5 different areas of practice:
CAD to CGI
Computer-Aided Design to Computer Generated Imagery is the technical term for the conversion of engineering data into photo-realistic visuals. The benefits of this process and it’s output are endless, but include: reduced time and cost in shooting photos and videos, ability to visualize a product before it is produced and lifetime re-use of the 3D model for additional derivatives.
The deliverables for this area of practice are typically a collection of 2D renders that either make up a 360° spin set, individual renders from a specific angle or perspective to highlight a feature of a product, animations showing a process or procedure, cutaways that reveal internal components or design details, or environment shots that place a rendered image into a real environment in lieu of a photoshoot.
Graphics / Iconography
Many B2B companies use ISO symbols, icons, and graphics that are then printed and placed in or on their products and/or embedded in documentation for the end-user. In many cases, a company may also create their own library of business-specific symbols, icons, and graphics that are unique to their needs based on use case and the type of product that they produce. In both cases, this content is typically saved in legacy formats, overly generic/descriptive and not in a format that is easily digestible by modern technology.
The deliverables for this area of practice are typically a library of .svg, .gif or animated .gif files that follow a standard naming convention and are stored in a central repository for easy access and use. These files can also be reused within the CAD > CGI process to give a rendered product more realism by including labels or films containing these graphics as needed.
Videography
While the creation of video is somewhat subjective, consistency and standardization can be established in various areas of the process. This is especially true when scripting, shooting, editing and storing product walk-thru’s, instructional training videos, and other technically-aimed materials. In addition, there are very few set standards for the creation and production of video assets for augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality headsets and hardware.
The deliverables for this area of practice are standard video outputs (.mov, .mp4, .wmv), but may be expanded to include proprietary formats that are able to be ingested by AR/VR/MR hardware and software.
Photography
Photography is also a somewhat subjective practice, but can be prescribed some forms of standardization and consistency, especially in the areas of product and procedure photography intended to be used for training and learning purposes. Putting parameters around this deliverable and producing consistent outputs has the same benefits as all other types of content in terms of reducing cost, reducing time and increasing reusability across an enterprise.
The deliverables for this area of practice are standard image outputs (.jpg, .png, .tiff) but may be expanded to include proprietary formats that are able to be ingested by AR/VR/MR hardware and software.
Technical Writing
One of the most difficult and variable types of content to standardize is technical writing. This is due to the extreme variance in subject matter from company to company as well as human interaction with the content itself. However, there are ways in which to standardize both processes and outputs so long as they are accompanied by a complimentary content consulting arrangement that defines end-to-end aspects of a content readiness plan.
The deliverables for this area of practice are typically words stored within document files such as Word or PDF. However, the ultimate goal is to drop pieces and chunks of content into an organized CMS so they can be easily tagged and organized for ingestion by various delivery mechanisms now and into the future.