How smart does a design and production workflow need to be in packaging?
Or: When good is simply not good enough!
In what is currently our fifth technical tutorial, I would like to report on our everyday work in the field of packaging design and present a framework we have developed (including a workflow that is now standardized for us) that has once again pushed the boundaries of what is technically feasible and through which we would like to show how deeply anchored in our daily work is the desire to achieve the extraordinary and create extraordinary solutions that make it easier for us as well as our customers and project partners to implement print and packaging orders in a smart way and that create real added value for everyone involved.
Prologue:
I have now been active in the printing and packaging industry for more than 35 years and, as part of our full-service offering, I have delivered concepts and designs in really all specialist areas and all disciplines of packaging, some of which could be regarded as pioneering.
The reason for this: In my role as a designer for large alliances and associations in the printing and packaging industry, I was often the first to work with new finishing processes, new materials, new substrates and technologies - long before they were officially available - in order to test their use and application and, above all, the interaction with previously known finishing techniques, processes and technologies as well as materials and substrates, -The aim was to test, document and sample these new finishing techniques, processes and technologies, as well as materials and substrates, and to train the entire process chain, from brand owners and creatives, media producers and repro companies to printers and finishers, in the use and application of these new possibilities by means of elaborate tutorials.
I am therefore used to thinking through all processes in polygraphy across all printing and finishing methods, technologies, substrates and materials used long before print production, long before the planning and design process, playing them through in my head, analyzing possible problems and obstacles and coordinating entire workflows for maximum quality.
The problem:
The problem I very often encountered was in communicating and visualizing everything that had long since developed in my head into a finished design, a finished packaging project including all the finishes, effects, production parameters and further processing steps, and presenting it to my clients and all those involved in the production chain in a way that was comprehensible, visualizable and in all its glory long before production, so that they understood what I wanted to produce, why I wanted or even had to produce it that way, because it would not have been technically feasible otherwise.
So I was looking for a tool or workflow that could make my visions presentable. And in my own, almost pathological demand for quality, always on the lookout for the perfect solution, I was once again not satisfied with existing solutions on the market. Of course, I had long been familiar with all the tools and solutions on the market and had gladly taken the time over the decades to test and analyze all the solutions extensively.
What I was missing with all the solutions, however, was the ability to present my customers and clients with an almost perfect virtual copy - today we like to call it a digital twin - of my packaging designs in such a way that they were almost indistinguishable from the later real print product, that customers and clients could play with these packaging models in virtual space, view them from all angles and perspectives, regardless of the end device they used to access them, largely independent of the network quality they were currently using and without having to install special software or plug-ins.
And yet I wanted to ensure that such models were highly realistic images of the final packaging, that you could zoom into them until even the finest nuances of substrate unevenness, paint surfaces and microscopic reliefs, such as those created when using hybrid paint systems, could be made visible.
Only if all of this could be implemented, could be displayed absolutely smoothly in the highest quality, would it simply work without the viewers of these models having to worry about technical aspects, only then would I be satisfied with such a visualization solution. But precisely this, precisely this maximum quality, availability on all end devices, this fluid display of animations, this extremely high degree of realism, is what all available tools on the market lack, even today.
I was therefore aware that in order to achieve this goal, we would have to create our own workflow, if this noble wish could be realized technologically at all.
The solution:
What's more, this workflow not only enabled us to visualize every conceivable physical and visual property of almost every conceivable material and compress them in such a way that we were able to achieve the shortest possible download times (which, thanks to broadband networks, were almost no longer disruptive), we also managed to integrate augmented reality and even virtual reality into our workflow solution at the same time.
Our models created in this way can therefore also be viewed by users in almost photorealistic quality with all effects and in real size in free space. And the quality of our packaging models created in this way is so high that we have long been able to use them simply via screen recording even as video footage in 4K and 8K - yes, read correctly, 8K (!) - for complete video productions.
And all this simply happens in viewers' standard browsers. No plugins are required, no software downloads, no expensive end devices. The rendering of these models simply takes place in real time directly in the browser - regardless of whether desktop or smart device - we are compatible with almost 98% of all modern end devices.
Where just a few years ago rendering farms or immensely expensive workstations were needed to render videos (i.e. films without any interactivity) in this quality, we have managed to transfer this rendering process to the viewer's web browser as an interactive, immersive visualization thanks to our sophisticated workflows and the tools and frameworks we use. That's right: with our solution based on the WebGL standard, the browser of the desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet takes over the full rendering performance. And it does so with breathtaking detail and almost unbelievable fluidity - assuming modern end devices are used.
Our workflow is organized in such a way that as soon as the first designs are available in Illustrator, we can also create the first 3D models in the shortest possible preparation time. A little more effort is required for the first models, as the exact structural design as well as all planned finishing processes, substrates and materials have to be defined. However, this only takes a few minutes and as soon as the first version of such a packaging demonstrator has been created, all further design changes are imported into the model at the touch of a button, which makes it much easier to make changes to the design or the materials used.
Where are the limits?
In fact, there are virtually no visual limits any more. With this workflow, we really can visualize everything that is physically and optically reproducible. Translucency, refraction, reflection, Fresnel effects, iridescence, glow, luminous surface structures, anisotropy and much more - everything is available. The finest paper surfaces including structure and drawing, lacquer surfaces, embossing, metallization, matting, holography, high reliefs, transparencies, opacity, pearl effects, even crazy modern finishing techniques such as multi-layer polymer applications for doming, or even less well-known techniques such as cast & cure, flocking and much more can really be realized in breathtaking optical quality and detail via our workflow. Right up to visualizations of the final packaging or labels including the contents of the final product or on the final bottles and other containers and packs. Even physical laws such as gravity, mass, density and acceleration can be realized using our models.
And all this from the moment the first design drafts are created. This means that we are able to provide our customers and clients as well as all those involved in the production and decision-making chain with such a highly realistic model from the very first draft in order to check the final end result in advance, view it online from all angles, simply place it virtually on your own conference table using augmented reality or test its effect at the POS in the highest quality live on site.
Our models are therefore integrated into our standardized design workflow and are used for the coordination and approval process right from the initial presentation. The analog twin is only produced once the digital twin has been approved. Sounds like science fiction? Well, a little.
But for us, this is now the central core component of our conception, design, pre-press, coordination and production process. If there are changes to the design, there is also a new, modified model for review. And of course we also use these models ourselves for internal quality checks.
We often design super elaborate packaging, for example, where the complex design structure means that the substrate thicknesses used and how precisely the perfecting register is set up on the printing press often play a role.
With folding cartons in particular, where we have conjured up a kaleidoscope effect in the design, it often comes down to micrometers in production, as small planning, production or set-up errors can add up to large errors.
With folding cartons in particular, where we have conjured up a kaleidoscope effect in the design, it often comes down to micrometers in production, as small planning, production or set-up errors can add up to large errors.
Unfortunately, what we cannot currently offer - and this will remain a limit of what is technically possible for a long time to come - is of course multi-sensory technology. We will not be able to integrate the feel of the final packaging, how it smells, how it sounds when used or opened, or even how it tastes, into our models so quickly simply due to the lack of such output options. But we don't want to replace the final packaging with our models - that wouldn't make any sense at all - we simply want to deliver added value for our customers in the highest possible quality and performance, which only a few competitors apart from us can certainly offer at this level of quality.
Further use of the Digital Twins:
Of course, this is also a huge advantage of our smart workflow and our 3D model frameworks - as soon as the packaging is approved for production, the high-quality 3D models are of course already finished and can be used immediately as images or videos for marketing purposes, integrated as real 3D models in all their glory on websites, landing pages or even in apps, used to produce special AR or VR apps, which we of course also offer, and much more.
And yes, of course our models are also fully animatable, can be viewed with different interactively selectable design variants or even in completely different environmental scenarios and lighting, and we are even able to create fully dynamic, interactive 3D galleries based on our models. On request, we can even connect to existing ERP and CRM systems or store and eCommerce solutions.
And of course we can do all of this with more than just your own designs. If we have the production data including all finishing forms for a print job and know which printing and finishing processes are planned, which substrates, inks, varnishes, foils, embossing and so on are to be used, we can also create our hyper-realistic 3D models.
This is why we have been offering this service to other agencies, designers, manufacturers and brand owners for some time now and have already been able to save a number of print jobs before the start of production, as the models then revealed planning or design errors which, without our input, might only have become apparent during or after production and would therefore have caused immense costs.
And of course, our workflow can be used to display more than just packaging and labels or other print samples. Complete machine systems including production workflow animations, exploded views or even immersive videos, for example for use on touchscreens at trade fairs, as integrations into websites or as stand-alone landing pages or apps, can also be realized here at any time.
As I said, we always try to avoid, shift or clearly cross boundaries in our work ;)
Conclusion:
With maximum ambition and unbridled will and based on our many years of experience and expertise, we have realized a dream that initially seemed unattainable and developed a high-quality, smart workflow that has not only achieved all the goals we set ourselves, but also delivers added value that we didn't even have on our wish list at first.
Of course, we would be happy to present our workflow to you in more detail or show you the fantastic possibilities of using our hyper-realistic 3D models.
