Twinmotion Makes Generating Virtual, Photorealistic Worlds Nearly Effortless
Twinmotion, a real-time visualization tool that is powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine, is capable of not only generating 3D product photos of everything from shoes to cars, but it can even create entire photorealistic worlds.
The software was originally intended for disciplines like architects, urban planners, landscaping professionals, and designers to be able to work on renders of consumer products or provide visuals of spaces in a simple and intuitive system, but the platform has grown powerful enough to wholly replace most product photography, too.
In a recent demonstration of the software’s first major 2023 update, Twinmotion shows that it not only is capable of rendering entire buildings or fictional landscapes, but also can be used to generate photorealistic product photos of shoes, bags, or even cars.
Because the system is based on Unreal Engine, it has the ability to integrate features that already support the technology including the ability to scan an environment to create a digital asset. It also integrates Metahumans, a program that can create realistic-looking humans.
In the company’s first update of the year, it streamlined the user interface, added new and improved materials to make objects look more realistic, enhanced path tracing capability, added 1,000 new assets, and even created industry-specific templates that make creating new renders even easier.
The addition of templates and the expansion of available materials are of particular note because of how they affect the software’s ability to easily create photorealistic products. The company not only has added simple ways to jump right into making a basic product photo virtually, it can then be used to place that product in many different environments with complete control over the lighting and even the time of year — if a product is placed outside.
Twinmotion even has a new procedural cyclorama asset that can simulate curved backdrops.
“We’ve added 78 new materials to the Fabric, Leather, Plastic, and Metal categories. Hosted on the cloud, the new materials come with 4K textures, making them suitable for close-up camera views. While originally created for product visualization (they are tagged “prodviz” to make them easy to find), these materials will be useful across a wide range of industries,” the company says.
These new textures make it possible to generate a product photo entirely virtually and with enough detail to be used in catalogs or even advertising.
In the automotive sector, Twinmotion now has a way to create dedicated parameters and features for handling effects specific to car paint.
Basically, with the tools available in Twinmotion, it would be possible to take a product from the design phase through the advertising phase without stopping to actually photograph the product in reality — it can all be made digitally.
Twinmotion is currently available to download as a free trial for either MacOS or Windows. It can be licensed commercially for a one-time $500 upfront cost. It is free for students and educators.
Image credits: Twinmotion
