Furniture Models

Every furniture retailer, manufacturer and marketer strives to find the best furniture 3D models for promo visuals. The usual approach here is either searching for free stuff on the web or ordering custom 3D objects from a CG studio. Considering the amount of free 3D objects all over the Internet, downloading them seems to be a smart economy solution. However, it’s not clear whether these models are good enough in terms of quality or require the modification? On the other hand, working with a professional studio, marketers can expect high-quality furniture models by default. But it also seems to be more time-consuming and expensive. So how to choose the best option and win from this decision?  

We have selected 5 main criteria by which we compared free vs custom models. Take a closer look at them and draw your own conclusions!

#1. Quality

Let’s be honest, when it comes to free services or products – what kind of quality a customer can expect? Yep, the same with free 3D furniture models – they are most likely to have poor quality despite looking nice in the preview. After downloading a 3D object, users often discover that it’s not well-made, poorly detailed, or lacks polygons so its texture is not smooth enough. 

Ordering a 3D model from a CG studio, on the contrary, one can stop worrying about the quality. Of course, it all starts with choosing the right contractor, based on the portfolio of a company. A far-sighted CG studio values their clients and reputation and, therefore, does the job at the highest level. Thus, there’s a guarantee that their 3D furniture models are made professionally and are of high quality.

#2. Speed

One of the first thoughts that cross the customer’s mind is that working with a 3D studio is too time-consuming. Mainly because of negotiations with managers, the approval of the task, and making models the whole collaboration looks like a long and burdensome process. Therefore, downloading free 3D product models from the Internet seems to be much faster and easier since no extra people are involved, hence, delays are excluded. 

However, it can take days and days for marketers to scour the web to find a free model that looks like the original furniture piece and is of good quality. Moreover, after the most appropriate model is found, it probably still requires customization, which again takes time. As a result, ordering accurate furniture 3D models from the beginning turns out to be a good time-saving solution.

Of course, the studio’s turnaround time depends on the complexity of the model, but 3D artists can create a simple model in few hours if provided with a detailed brief. And while studio specialists are doing their job, a marketer can focus on their business chores instead of searching through the websites with 3D furniture models.

#3. Customization

The most important bonus of custom 3D furniture models over downloaded ones is that this 3D object will look 100% like the original product. It is enough to just provide CG specialists with drawings, sketches, and references, so they will create a high-quality photorealistic 3D model based on this data. Surely, the more informative is the brief, the more accurate is the final 3D model.

When downloading free furniture models from the web, marketers must be ready to face the necessity to re-make them. The thing is, the chances that a free model will look the same as a product itself, are slim to none. Every furniture piece has its own design features or a variety of materials compares to standardized free 3D objects – it means somebody still has to customize them later, using 3D software. Therefore, marketers have to contact a 3D artist to change the materials and colors, remove or add design elements and so on. Obviously, it is easier to order the necessary model from a 3D studio in the first place, and CG experts will make furniture models of any complexity according to the drawings.

#4. Future Usage

After downloading the free model on the Internet, a marketer can only pass it on to 3D artists to make a single visualization. To create a full scene for a room set, they have to search around again and download more and more models of decor from the web. After doing so, they have to hire a CG artist once more to create lifestyle renderings. Moreover, in order to make an interactive 360 view model or an animation, one has to search for individual specialists, because not every modeler or 3D artist is an expert in all CG services.

When ordering a custom 3D model from the studio – good news everyone! – it will be stored on the server in the project folder where only CG artists and marketers have access. Any time a marketer needs to use their 3D object again, they can to find it in a few seconds to set up a new task for 3D artists. Whatever is the project – a 360 product view, 3D animation, or a lifestyle scene, – a CG studio can appoint the best expert for this particular work who will do a quality job. Thus, a marketer will always have a 3D model at hand for any use without extra hassle.

#5. Client Support

When downloading free furniture models from the website, the marketer gets no feedback and doesn’t know whom to ask questions about the model, whether someone from the support will answer. Of course, one can try to find the creator of the 3D model. However, it can take hours or even days to get in touch with them to clarify the information about a 3D object. Surely, not every freelance 3D artist is ready to chat with random customers about their old models. So, to put it simply, a website is just an impersonal service. 

Ordering a custom 3D model from a CG company, on the other hand, a marketer can always communicate with the project manager for any questions and requests. Becoming a client of a studio, a marketer or a manufacturer gets access to the special CRM system, where they can talk to specialists, ask for and clarify any information, as well as send additional materials for the project. 

After all, personal contact is always a win for any type of customer, because skilled specialists can figure out the client’s needs, offer alternative solutions, take the initiative and respond urgently if the initial design has been changed. From our experience, studio 3D artists often become an important part of the team for many manufacturers – since clients are sure they can always count on them and trust even with the most complex tasks.

In this article, we didn’t consider the financial aspect, because, at first sight, it seems obvious that free 3D objects cost nothing and a 3D studio charges for making custom furniture models. However, after reviewing the list of criteria, it becomes clear that downloading free models is not the best option for responsible projects. 

First, one needs to spend hours or days searching for the right model. After that, they still have to customize the 3D object and hire additional experts for different types of 3D solutions. But the most frequent issue is poor-quality of the free models, that looked OK in a preview but are a mess when working with them. In such cases, marketers have to pay for adjustments, or take the 3D model as it is.  Surely, marketers don’t have much experience in CGI, so only CG specialists can tell the difference in advance. However, using low-quality furniture models is risky for marketing and can do damage to the company’s reputation. So isn’t it better to pay once but get a guaranteed result?

The custom 3D objects are made by skilled specialists accordingly to the drawings and the brief – so 3D model’s quality and compliance with the real object are 100%. In addition, a CG studio’ experts always stay in touch with the client, ready to hear them and help, and provide the best models even in urgent situations.

Download CGIFURNITURE price guide and learn the costs of top-tier 3D visualization projects of different scales!

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Searching for the most winning solution with 3D furniture models? Contact us for 3D modeling services, and we will make high-quality and multi-functional 3D objects to elevate your marketing content!

Irene Lewis

Content Writer

Irene is a content writer. She previously worked for interior and chess magazines. When not writing articles, Irene finds great pleasure in collecting Star Trek memorabilia, reading Medieval poetry and playing banjo.