Developing innovative design concepts faster with SOLIDWORKS® Visualize.
Create realistic 3D renderings of innovative industrial design concepts quickly and easily for presentation to clients, promotion of new concepts, and marketing of products.
Implement SOLIDWORKS Visualize 3D photorealistic rendering software.
ZAMAK design® is a leading French industrial design studio that is driven by the creativity of four experienced designers: Nicolas Michel-Imbert, Florian Foizon, Damien Esclasse, and Arnaud Perez. Formally trained in industrial design, these four professionals also bring diverse expertise and multidisciplinary skills to creating innovative solutions to their clients’ product development challenges. Working with an established network of partners that specialize in engineering, set design, CAD, web development, and consulting, ZAMAK ensures that client projects are consistently and successfully brought to fruition.
ZAMAK has developed a clear and effective methodology for establishing a constructive dialogue throughout the creative process. An important aspect of this process is the quick development of initial industrial design concepts as high-quality photorealistic renderings, according to Hardware/Software Manager Michel-Imbert.
“Our strength is the ability to design a variety of different types of products, ranging from paper clips to commuter trains to even architecture,” Michel-Imbert explains. “For all of our projects, we need to show design concepts as realistically as possible, going beyond sketches and 3D mock-ups, to provide clients with high-quality, photorealistic renderings, so they can thoroughly visualize and understand exactly what we are proposing as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.”
Until 2012, ZAMAK utilized the Keyshot® rendering package to render and present design concepts to clients. However, the firm determined that the Keyshot solution did not allow it to efficiently and easily create high-quality, photorealistic renderings for any type of project. “We needed software that was not only fast and easy but also produced great render quality,” Michel-Imbert recalls. “We wanted a solution that could adapt to the many different types of projects that we undertake without losing render quality or performance. That’s why we decided to look at other available solutions as potential replacements for Keyshot.”
ZAMAK evaluated Maxwell®, Octane®, Flamingo®, Lumion®, and SOLIDWORKS Visualize rendering solutions before standardizing on SOLIDWORKS Visualize software. The firm chose SOLIDWORKS Visualize because it’s fast and easy to use, and produces renderings of superior photo quality.
“SOLIDWORKS Visualize is the perfect balance of quality, speed, and ease,” Michel-Imbert stresses. “Some renderers are fast but output low-quality images. Some produce great quality but take six months to learn. Others are easy to use, but take four hours to render an image. SOLIDWORKS Visualize provides the right combination of quality, speed, and ease of use, and is the best renderer for supporting our business.”
Since implementing SOLIDWORKS Visualize, ZAMAK has saved substantial amounts of time on every project, amounting to hundreds of hours in time savings annually. “SOLIDWORKS Visualize gives us great flexibility for rendering, letting us change colors and materials—as well as add or remove parts and lighting—very quickly,” Michel-Imbert notes. “This saves a lot of time because the software is like having a photographer, painter, and materials specialist at the same time.
“Much of the speed of SOLIDWORKS Visualize stems from linking important capabilities with an easy-to-use interface,” Michel-Imbert continues. “The fact that we can turn objects around with all of the camera settings— change colors, materials, lighting, and geometry— without losing render quality is innovative, helpful, and invaluable to our design process. The ratio between the possibilities that we can offer in a short amount of time is just amazing.”
Some renderers are fast but output low-quality images. Some produce great quality but take six months to learn. Others are easy to use, but take four hours to render an image. SOLIDWORKS Visualize provides the right combination of quality, speed, and ease of use, and is the best renderer for supporting our business.
ZAMAK places such a high premium on render quality because it enables the firm to more effectively communicate design concepts to customers, allowing it to close more business more quickly. “We begin a project by drawing some sketches and developing some 3D models, but the SOLIDWORKS Visualize renderings are what we show to customers,” Michel-Imbert says.
“It’s important to be able to show customers and buyers how the finished product will look,” he adds. “This is why we need more than just speed in a rendering solution. We need to be fast, but we also need quality renderings to convey innovative ideas to clients.”
In addition to saving time, SOLIDWORKS Visualize software helps ZAMAK save money— both in terms of developing design imagery and reducing prototyping requirements and associated costs. “Because we can produce high-quality photorealistic renders quickly and easily, we’re saving time for our firm and our customers,” Designer Foizon points out.
“SOLIDWORKS Visualize is saving us thousands of euros for each product development project—tens of thousands of euros each year—by condensing design cycles and reducing the number of prototypes that we need to make,” Foizon says.