Taking coffee product photography to the next level with CGI

How Japan’s #1 canned coffee entered the US market BOSS coffee recently went through an elaborate plan in January to hit the US market. When entering a new market you need a strong campaign that…

Taking coffee product photography to the next level with CGITaking coffee product photography to the next level with CGI

How Japan’s #1 Canned Coffee Entered the US Market

BOSS coffee recently went through an elaborate plan in January to hit the US market. When entering a new market you need a strong campaign that is going to set you apart. So, our client shared with us their ideas on how they wanted to market their product and want to utilize CGI Coffee Product Photography to showcase their products. They wanted to be known as a Japanese beverage that is targeted to healthy, active people. A can of coffee that is going to help people take on challenges and new experiences.

Coffee Product Photography gets easier with CGI

CGI (Computer Generated Images) technology has come a long way in recent years. With increasingly powerful computers, both hardware and software-wise, CGI images are beginning to resemble reality. If you take a look at our work for BOSS Coffee, real CGI coffee product photography, you’ll see that still images can look very realistic, especially for hard surface products.

CGI photography allows you to create all kinds of creative settings, from the safety of your office. One of the biggest advantages of CGI photography is that it brings versatility to the creative process. First of all, we don’t need to have the products in physical form. All we need are reference images and the dimensions of the products. This way, we can create them to scale in a fraction of the time of traditional product photography.

Coffee product photography for Boss Coffee
CGI coffee product photography for Boss Coffee cans created in 3D

If you or your agency is planning a coffee product photography campaign, you’ve come to the right place. By using CGI, we save time by skipping the real studio to photograph your products. We recreate the settings so we have full control over composition, lighting, background and depth of field.

You also have the advantage of unlimited modifications, as we can easily create renderings and videos animation from all possible angles, all with the convenience of powerful 3D software. So if you want to make small changes to the animation video for your product, for example, it’s relatively quick. That’s because we’ve already created the setup for your video, which is the most time-consuming process.

Creating Coffee Product Photography for your website

If you are selling any type of product, you need to pay attention to your website. It needs to be professional, eye-catching, and capture the interest of customers. So it’s no surprise that this applies to coffee products as well. Part of our project with BOSS Coffee was to create CGI images (banners) for their e-commerce website.

To meet our client’s expectations, we asked for reference images to better understand their aesthetic goals for the upcoming campaign. From this “mood board” we gathered that they wanted to market their products look “Japanese-like”, high-end, and geared towards active people. We then created a total of 4 banners for our client as requested.

Two of these were taken from an existing set-up we had created for their animation videos. As you can imagine, this saved us a lot of time as we didn’t have to create anything from scratch. That’s why CGI coffee, product photography is so popular with business owners worldwide – it’s really versatile and creative.

Coffee product photography for website
Coffee product photography for boss coffee website
Sakura for coffee product photography
3D setup with sakura for coffee product photography project

Labels and branding in Coffee Product Photography

As you probably know, BOSS coffee is a Japanese brand. As a result, they have different product labels for the US and Japan. Thanks to CGI, we were able to create the same images and animation videos for both markets. There was no need to reshoot – we just had to change the label on the 3D model.

This really shows how useful CGI can be in certain situations. If we had done the same campaign using traditional methods, it would have taken us significantly more time to complete. It’s especially important to capture the label of the product and bring it into focus. In coffee product photography, you have to capture the product so that the label is clearly visible.

Therefore, it is easy to understand that it needs to be bright and stand out from the rest of the scenery. This can prove challenging with steel cans like this, especially outside of the highly controlled environment of a studio.

Coffee product photography labels
Coffee product photography labels and design are much easier in 3D

Recycling Same Product Images for Amazon.com

As we mentioned earlier, part of the campaign was to create banners for the client’s website. Some of them we created from scratch, others we took from an animation setup. But BOSS coffee wanted to enter the American market, and there’s no better place to start than America’s sweetheart – amazon.com. In fact, over 95 million Americans even have Prime memberships.

That’s a whopping ⅔ of all Amazon shoppers in the US. So it’s also a place where you need to promote your product and make it pop. Luckily we had all the stills from the banners ready to go, we just needed to crop them to fit Amazon recommended dimensions.

Coffee product photography for Amazon
coffee product photography helping to sell products on Amazon

Testing on Amazon showed the CGI images achieved engagement rates more than twice the average of the top performing 20 posts with traditional photograph (5.25% vs 2.26%)

Make your Images move with 3D Animation

One of the perks of CGI coffee product photography and videos is that they can be done remotely. We create the 3D models and place them in desired scenes and setups. For the first 3D product animation, we wanted to let the US market know that this is the same canned coffee they would find in Japan. So we combined Japan’s most famous elements, the Sakura tree, and the traditional Shoji door.

We placed the product in direct focus, with these two elements behind it, reminding the viewers of its origin. For the second one, they wanted to focus on something else entirely. The key focus is that this coffee can contain a blend of 7 different types of coffee beans all from Guatemala. We placed the 3D model on a background full of coffee bags and beans. As for the ground, we used the iconic burlap bag texture with a big “Guatemala” inscription.

The video begins top-down, with the viewer seeing the top of the can and the inscription. Then, it quickly switches to horizontal view, capturing the viewer’s attention. For this part, we animated 7 coffee beans swirling above the can, making the viewer think of the 7 different types of beans used for this blend. The fact that this video got so popular that the cans sold out after the campaign premiered proves how amazing this project was.

The purpose of the third and last animation was to communicate that this brand of coffee is reliable. So, we animated a scene of a Japanese side road with a vending machine sitting at the end of it. Vending machines are a very common sight in Japan and it’s where most people buy their beverages. We animated a whole day cycle. Even when the sun was down and the lights out, the vending machine was still there. This signifies people’s 24h need for coffee and the brand’s reliability.

We really enjoyed working on this project and helping a brand expand its market is always an interesting thing to do. This project really proves how effective CGI coffee product photography was for this client. Not only did they enter a whole new market, but they also managed to sell their whole stock over one video!

Leading up to the launch of a new product in the US, our team faced a challenge to create new and engaging content with limited time and budget. We also had little source content and no access to the physical products. We reached out to the Welpix team and they created a beautiful CGI model of our product within a day using only our product images. From there, Martin and his team astounded us with the flexibility and creativity available through CGI modelling, putting our product in scenes that we could never have achieved with a real studio. The result was a portfolio of excellent images and videos used on our product pages and advertising to engage our customers. I highly recommend the Welpix team for their speed, skill and creative talent. I look forward to working with them

Owen Devitt
Boss Coffee

FAQs

What are the key considerations for creating a visually appealing coffee product photo?

Lighting, composition, background, and editing are key considerations for visually appealing coffee product photos. Good lighting and a well-thought-out composition can highlight the product and a simple background can make it stand out, while proper editing can enhance the overall look.

Can you share some tips for capturing the texture and color of coffee in product photography?

To capture texture and color, use diffused lighting and experiment with different angles. It always depends on the product, but CGI will always give you more flexibility and options with metallic packaging like cans.

What are some common mistakes to avoid in coffee product photography?

Common mistakes to avoid include using wrong lighting, ignoring  color theory and contrast, using wrong tool, and skipping the post-production.

How can I create a cohesive look and feel for a series of coffee product photos?

To create a cohesive look, use consistent style in lighting, background, and editing, use a similar angle and composition, and choose a consistent color palette.

Avatar for Martin Pitonak

Martin Pitonak

Martin Pitonak is a creative professional and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience in the creative industry. His passion for helping businesses in all areas of visual marketing sets him apart in a variety…

3D Product modeling
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3D product modeling
The process of creating a 3D model of your product, from images
3D Product modeling
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3D product modeling
The process of creating a 3D model of your product, from images
3D Product modeling
1. Component
3D product modeling
The process of creating a 3D model of your product, from images
3D Product modeling
1. Component
3D product modeling
The process of creating a 3D model of your product, from images
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Wide range of creative styles to cover all your produt photography needs
Catalog
Minimalistic
Simple props
Custom
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Choose creative style
Wide range of creative styles to cover all your produt photography needs
Catalog
Minimalistic
Simple props
Custom
2. Component
Choose creative style
Wide range of creative styles to cover all your produt photography needs
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Choose creative style
Wide range of creative styles to cover all your produt photography needs
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Choose creative style
Wide range of creative styles to cover all your produt photography needs
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Choose creative style
Wide range of creative styles to cover all your produt photography needs
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Choose creative style
Wide range of creative styles to cover all your produt photography needs