Product 3D animation for a headset

We created a product 3D animation for headphones and decided to share our process for others to see. With this article, we want to describe the various stages of work and illustrate our general process in similar projects.

Conceptualization

The project began by creating concept images of the headphones using the DALL·E AI image generator. The goal was to create a 3D advertising animation for high-quality and stylish headphones made of silver and gold metal and leather. Below are some creations from the AI image generator.

This is what we ultimately chose for the style of the headphones:

Modeling

AI image generators often produce somewhat inconsistent and even nonsensical creations, so it's usually best to use them only as inspiration or rough concepts. We adjusted the AI-generated concept slightly during modeling to better fit our vision. Creating the 3D model was quite quick and straightforward since the model didn't have complex shapes, and the concept image was sufficiently clear and cohesive. We used Blender as the modeling software.

After this first version, it was time to make the model a bit more interesting. Since this was a product animation, it was extremely important to make the headphones look as stylish and comfortable as possible. For this reason, we added padding to the headband of the headphones. As a final touch, we added a metallic logo to the headphones.

Texturing

Texturing was also done in Blender. We often use Substance 3D software for texturing, but in this case, we were able to easily create procedural metal textures using Blender's own tools, and the leather texture was obtained from the BlenderKit platform. In texturing, we mainly followed the materials from the concept image but deviated slightly from the AI-generated concept according to our taste.

Lighting

Lighting was primarily done using an HDRI texture from a photo studio. The color of the HDRI texture was adjusted slightly warmer to achieve the desired mood. In addition to the HDRI, small fill lights were used in some shots of the animation. The HDRI texture was animated to rotate slightly in some angles to make the scenes a bit more interesting and energetic.

Animation

Before starting the animation, an animation rig had to be built for the model. The animation rig used a combination of IK (inverse kinematics) and FK (forward kinematics). This phase took some time because we had to ensure that the headphones didn't stretch or otherwise distort when using the rig.

We usually plan our animations in advance using storyboards and/or previsualization, but in this case, the animation was executed more intuitively by planning the movements of the camera, headphones, and lights directly in Blender without prior visualization. This approach was mainly taken because the performance requirements of the 3D project were very low in this case, allowing lighting and camera angles to be designed with real-time responsiveness. The idea was first to create a shot where the headphones are lit with dramatic rim lighting, and then the headphones would be revealed with a rotation animation accompanied by full lighting. After this, some sort of exploded view animation of the different parts of the headphones would be made. Finally, the intention was to create 1–2 different animations if possible.

The first two shots were easy to make since the headphones, lights, and camera only moved slightly. The third shot/animation was a bit more technical, but with Blender's graph editor, the animation was made smooth and good-looking. Animating the exploded view was easily done using Blender's shape key function with the help of the graph editor. A couple of alternative angles and animations were also made for the exploded view animation, but they were ultimately not used. An animation was also made where the leather piece and logo are stylishly attached to the headphones, but this was also ultimately not used because it didn't fit into the final cut of the video. Creating a logical and clear narrative turned out to be a small challenge since, without precise animation planning in advance, it was difficult to assess how different angles fit together. However, the end result turned out to be very pleasing.

Rendering

Everything was rendered in Blender with Cycles. The virtual camera used 35mm, 50mm, and 75mm lenses depending on the angle. Of course, Blender's virtual camera doesn't have an actual lens, but the camera's field of view is determined in the same way. Animations were rendered out of Blender at 1920x1080 resolution, but 4K resolution could also have been used.

The rendered animation showed some noise on reflective surfaces despite Cycles' denoising function, but fortunately, this isn't very noticeable in the final video. This could have been entirely eliminated by increasing the samples in Cycles, but this would have significantly increased rendering time.

Post-Processing

Post-processing is usually the fun phase because this is where everything clicks together, and the animation reaches its final form. Post-processing was done with DaVinci Resolve. In post-processing, a background was added to the animation, colors were enhanced, and small effects were added. The background was made with a circular gradient and an animated noise texture. Effects like a slight glow and light beams were added, and the animation was finalized with light color grading where, for example, some contrast and saturation were added.

Below is the final product animation.