Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 25, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
In only six months, MACKEVISION visualized more than 350,000 different environment, interior, and vehicle images. The result was a new generation of vehicle visualization in the configurator, with such high visual quality that it was almost impossible to distinguish photographs from computer-generated images with the naked eye.
With a wide range of vehicle and equipment images, the Mercedes-Benz web configurator offered the German market a new dimension of possible combinations after its relaunch in April 2008. From vehicle models and wheels to individual design packages and specific interior components, a great many configuration variants were presented photorealistically. Using vehicle photography, it had previously been almost impossible to achieve such configuration depth for individual vehicle models while maintaining the highest image quality.
In just six months, Stuttgart-based 3D and CGI (computer-generated imagery) specialist MACKEVISION produced the visual content for most of the vehicle portfolio on the Mercedes-Benz website, http://www.mercedes-benz.de. A total of 350,000 images were created for the A-, B-, C-, CLC-, CLS-, ML-, SL-, SLK-, and GLK-Class, covering the respective equipment variants and different viewing perspectives: front, side, rear, and interior.
Depending on their positioning, the vehicles were staged against different backgrounds, such as a futuristic waterfront promenade, an urban green space, a Mediterranean coastal region, or impressive mountain landscapes. The backgrounds were photographed conventionally from various perspectives, then retouched in the studio according to individual requirements and expanded with 3D elements to create virtual sets. Finally, the individual vehicles were integrated into the images afterward using CGI.
Compared with conventional background photography, this approach offered maximum flexibility for adapting the overall image composition optimally to the customer’s requirements during the image-design process. Image elements could be added or removed simultaneously from multiple viewing angles, lighting situations could be adjusted, and even the camera perspective could be changed afterward. Such interventions had previously been possible only to a very limited extent, or not at all, in conventional photography and retouching.
