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Those who haven’t yet considered 3D technical illustration or animation as a potential marketing solution – and instead rely simply on video or photography – will benefit from this quick mention.

3D Technical Graphics and Animation from CraneDigital
3D Technical Graphics and Animation from CraneDigital. Though this image was not airbrushed, it was built as a 3D model, from scratch, by holding the actual object in hand, measuring, and observing every detail. This illustration is not from the manufacturing CAD file.

In the real world, it’s often impossible to visualize how something works. Our eyes stop at the exterior shell of the object, unable to penetrate and see what lies within.

3D Cutaways are an excellent way to explain your product’s features, benefits and value proposition. By either ghosting away the exterior shell or slicing away a portion, details previously invisible are now visible.

I learned about cut-away illustration many years ago when upon discovering the work of David Kimble, the famous airbrush artist responsible for so many automotive masterpieces. Inspired by his work, I set about to create my own version of such illustrations. One of the biggest differences in how David created his art and what we do at CraneDigital is the computer. David did all of his illustrations by hand, painstakingly drawing and airbrushing every detail.

Before moving to the computer in the early 90’s I too was an airbrush illustrator. But eventually the computer became the sensible choice for the technically complex illustrations I kept finding myself working on.

David Kimble
David Kimble stands alone atop the world of automobile art. His famous illustrations for automotive giants served as early inspiration for what CraneDigital now does on the computer.

Sometimes you don’t want to show something specific – for example, a proprietary modification you’ve made to your product. 3D Animation can easily omit whatever intellectual property or features you wish to protect.

HACH Scanning Spectrophotometer
  • At CraneDigital we’ve been creating 3D cut-away illustrations and animations for years. Inspired by early artists working before the computer with airbrush and traditional drawing methods, we moved to the computer to perfectly leverage size and scale relationships – and every nuance to perfectly present each object.
  • Ultimately, if the goal is complete flexibility in marketing, an object trapped in CAD is a bit like having built a ship in a bottle. We’re experts helping move your CAD data set to a more suitable high-quality illustration and animation environment.