Benefits to go with iC3D for fast and accurate 3D visualisation:


• Real-Time 3D Packaging Ideation;
  from first idea to a finished package solution.


• Cartons, Flexibles, Labels, Bottles, Shrink Wraps, and Store Visualisation.


• 3D Prototypes Minimize Potential Packaging Problems.


• One Complete Solution - "All-in-One" -
  for Packaging Design, Modeling and Simulation.


• Image Based Lighting for 3D-rendering.


• Packaging 3D photorealism.


• "Smart Wrap" / Auto-Mesh-Mapping.


• Manages Unlimited Packaging Models and Materials.


• Rich Selection of Packaging Models and Templates
  Included in iC3D for Faster Model Generation.


• Import and Export of Models.


• Accurate, Web-based 3D Content Sharing.





Inspiring 3D creativity for packaging designers:

• iC3D workflow, in 7 steps,
  to quickly create realistic packaging prototypes

New Key Features in iC3D

iC3D New Key Features - Popup-window

iC3D comes in various flavors with
features for specific needs and requirements

       
       

Click on an icon for detailed information

Product Features and Comparison Overview

iC3D Suite vs iC3D Designer vs iC3D Modeller


(Click on picture for details

The main standalone application, provides functions for creating
models of cartons, POS, bottles, flexibles, tubes, sachets, etc., and
applying graphics onto the packaging in real time.

iC3D Suite is the first 3D real-time packaging design and visualisation
application that combines multiple packaging disciplines in one product.

Other software applications frustratingly separate design applications
into cartons or flexibles or bottles or store visualisation.
iC3D Suite encompasses these and more, allowing all these elements to be
seamlessly combined in the same 3D scene and visualised with colour accurate
materials using image based lighting (IBL) in simulated virtual retail environments.

iC3D Suite is also the first 3D packaging design and visualisation software
to offer the patented “Smart Wrap Mapping" technology which allows labels and
artwork to be placed accurately onto complex models without the need for tedious
UVW mapping of texture coordinates.
This makes it extremely fast and easy to learn and manage in iC3D Suite.

iC3D Suite comes with a direct link into Adobe Illustrator allowing 2D Illustrator
artwork to be directly mapped onto your 3D models as base artwork or as labels.

Output hi-resolution images or PDF proofs for mark-up or share your designs with
colleagues and customers using the iC3D Movie exporter, which creates portable
compressed movie files that can be shared or put on compliant websites.

iC3D Designer
The essential software portfolio for packaging artworkers and designers

iC3D Designer is a powerful, easy to use, packaging design tool
for Adobe Illustrator® artworkers and designers.

Reflecting the most pressing needs in packaging design visualization,
iC3D Designer offers an affordable selection of the most essential and
versatile capabilities for creatives.
It enables you to produce better artwork and 3D presentation material
for collaboration and approval with brands, stakeholders and production.

Save time, avoid errors and offer a unique 3D service to your clients,
without any prior 3D expertise.
With iC3D Designer you can build new business with minimal outlay and no risk.

iC3D Designer can be purchased on affordable monthly or annual subscriptions and
can be expanded with other software modules if required, including iC3D Modeller,
iC3D Ray Tracer, and the new iC3D Automate which allows large scale
“hands free” 3D rendering production.

For those requiring the capabilities of Shrink, Sealed Bags, Interactive Studio Lighting
or 3D printing, the full iC3D Suite application is necessary.

iC3D Modeller
The dedicated toolkit for packaging model development

iC3D Modeller is a dedicated toolkit for packaging model development.

iC3D Modeller is an inexpensive, modular solution that will save time,
avoid errors, and enable you to offer a unique 3D capability.




Does the missing model making capability in your existing
design software curb your creativity?

It’s a common complaint with many packaging design and
production systems, so it could surprise you to learn that
iC3D Modeller might be the solution to your problem.




iC3D Modeller fills a gap in the market for those wanting to design
sophisticated or unique models from their own desktop.

Combining all the features required for experimenting with
packaging shapes, it offers an inexpensive, easy-to-use design tool
for Adobe Illustrator® artworkers, designers and Esko Studio® users.

Any model can be created using IC3D Modeller and exported in
Collada file format. Then it can be imported into Esko studio tools
for a seamless workflow.

Key features including UVW Editor, Point Editor and Bump Displacement
allow custom designing of containers with elements such as
trigger sprays, caps, ring pulls.

iC3D Modeller has the full range of iC3D materials and textures
at its disposal and can be used for designing in plastic, metal,
glass, paper or carton and with liquid.

It can also be expanded with other software modules including
iC3D Designer, iC3D Real-Time Ray Tracer, and iC3D Automate.

For those requiring the capabilities of Shrink, Sealed Bags,
Interactive Studio Lighting or 3D printing,
the full iC3D Suite application is necessary.




If you struggle to get the model shape you really want,
let iC3D Modeller free you from your frustration.

iC3D Opsis - Safe and Secure Remote Sharing of 3D Digital Mock-Ups.

The on-line 3D model sharing service integrated into
iC3D Suite and iC3D Designer to easily and safely
share 3D models with project members and clients.

The world’s first realistic 3D packaging design sharing environment.

Global sharing of 3D packaging designs & digital mock-ups on
any web browser - interactively! Secure, accurate, web based
3D content sharing solution free to iC3D users via the cloud.

iC3D Opsis allows iC3D users to securely upload their
3D digital packaging designs to the cloud, while accurately
maintaining all special effects, environments, shadows, lighting,
transparency and backgrounds, environment effects,
including holographic and lenticular 3D-effects.
(Currently, and due to technical limitations in the 3D PDF format,
3D PDF files will not display as accurate compared to sharing
display via iC3D Opsis.)

Users can generate and export real-time, high-resolution 3D digital images
and mockups, and create and export portable, compressed animation files
for sharing or to put on compliant websites:

• Quickly communicate dynamic design content.


• Easily manipulate and revise designs on-the-fly.


• Uses secure high-bandwidth servers.


• 100% guaranteed network uptime.


• Store up to 100 iC3D models to the cloud.


• Delivers greater speed to market for your designs.

iC3D Opsis is ideal to shorten reviewing and proofing/approval processing.
A unique url is generated on each upload which can be emailed to
clients for them to interactively view, zoom, rotate and spin
3D content on any web browser.

This url can also be embedded into web sites to provide stunning
interactive 3D content with accurate colours, lighting and effects
which allow brands to showcase their products in the best way.

Demonstration of iC3D Opsis

Click on the packaging sample below to view a
virtual animation of the 3D packaging mockup in your browser

iC3D Automate - Automation of 3D Packaging Design & Mock-ups

In many packaging workflows a range of product “flavors” has to be developed.

Whether drinks, crisps, jam, tins/cans or baby food,
the process starts with the creation of a 3D model with applied
textures, artwork and subsequent iterative replacement of those
textures and artwork to develop the many different
flavors of the original design.

Iteration costs a lot of time and money and iC3D Automate
does away with it, completely.

iC3D automate offers industrialized production capabilities
direct from your desktop - connect seamlessly to the entire
workflow to produce visuals faster, error-free and hands free!

Separate standalone command-line-interface (CLI) / Hotfolder server
solution for automatic creation of modell variants by replacing the graphics
on existing models and generating all kinds of outputs such as images,
3D PDFs and more.

iC3D Automate is a companion command-line (CLI) based product
to iC3D Suite that easily can be integrated in any common
workflow production workflow, DAM/MIS solution or
automation tool (such as FileTrain, Switch, ...) with total
flexibility and can be configured to perform exactly
the type of automation one requires.

iC3D Automate increases product development speed,
reduces human errors during the visual development of
product variations and can help to reduce time-to-shelf
during product development.

iC3D Automate will open an iC3D Suite design file “hands free”
and run automated “actions” on it, ranging from replacing
textures or artwork, outputting high resolution images at
specific camera angles, generating 3D PDF files and
Collada files, and much more.

iC3D Automate Highlights

Render images - .jpg, png, .tiff, .targa

Define camera settings - Preset file usage, Pitch, Yaw and Zoom

Export other 3D file content - SAE, 3D PDF, or new iC3D file

Export iC3D file to iC3D Opsis - Standard or Ray Traced Photo Realistic output

Replace items in the iC3D file - Artwork & Textures

Dissect iC3D file information - Model information, Meshes used & Materials

Change base material of a model

Change spot materials for artwork

Merge two iC3D files together

iC3D Render Manager for
processing & export of hi-res image ray traced renders

iC3D Render Manager processes hi-res image ray traced renders
seamlessly in the background whilst you continuing to
work on your next iC3D project.

iC3D Render Manager processes rendered images in
hot folders on the local drive, or preferred network location.




4 Ways to Improving Ray Trace Rendering Time

Ray Traced rendering does take more time than just a
standard export or "OpenGL" method.
Even with this there are ways within the iC3D software to
improve the speed at which the images are processed.

Below we have some methods to improve your rendering time:

• Render Settings

The first method is setting up your Render Manager
configuration properly to optimize your time.

This would be by setting the "Adaptive Sampling" to "Fastest".
With this change from "Standard" to "Fastest" we have reduced time
from hours to 45 min, depending on the number of cores on the computer.





The hardware is a very important item to consider for rendering.
This is why we also recommend having a separate computer to be
used for this operation. This way one can configure the hardware
properly for processing by making sure it has a good CPU with
multiple processors (cores) for processing the images.




• Adding Nvidia GPU

A second method is to add some additional hardware to the configuration.

By adding a Nvidia GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)
to existing hardware the speeds improve even further.
When adding this GPU to a Rendering Computer one can then
export High Res images using 32, 64 or 128 samples.
Whereas before the exports would be set at 512 or 1024 samples.
The overall quality though is the same because of
the iC3D processing technology.






• Distributed Rendering to improve speed even further

For the third method iC3D provides an option for distributing
the processing across multiple computers.

This is an add on option to the iC3D software that allows a user to link
multiple computers together using iC3D Render Nodes and establishing
their connection to the Render Manager as shown in the picture below.

With this method we can then take the same time as above and distribute
to reduce it to 10 min depending on the core speed of the computers.





• Distributed Rendering going even further with distributed GPU

For the fourth method iC3D could also distribute the rendering and
use a Nvidia GPU on the Rendering Manager Computer.

This allows the rendering to be expedited by the distribution as well
processed faster using the lower sample rate as described before.
Thus, the overall time is the fastest processing time you can achieve.

3D Model Creation

Model import:


Import models from all major 3D applications,
using the common cross application formats such as:

• Collada (DAE or ZAE)


• Modo (LXO)


• 3DS Max (3DS and ASE)


• Wavefront Object (OBJ)


• Lightwave (LWO and LWS)


• Milkshape 3D (MS3D)


• STL (Stereo Lithography 3D Printer files)

Most models are imported (where applicable)
with their materials .
Where a model is not available you can take
advantage of iC3D’s Model Generation Service
to create the model you desire from your designs.


Drag and Drop Model Library:


iC3D is delivered with an ever expanding
model library of common packaging models.

Your own packaging models can be added to
the model library for quick and easy access
when creating your packaging designs.

To use a library model it’s as simple as dragging
a model from the library and dropping it within the scene.

Model creation using Model Templates:


One of the slowest parts of packaging design
can be creation of models.
Especially if you need to keep changing
the model as your concept develops.

Model templates in iC3D makes
the creation/recreation process
faster for common models.

iC3D ships with a range of model templates ranging
from bottles, bags, magazines, and many common
flexibles types, like Gusseted Bags, Pillow Bags,
Sachets, Pouches, shrink wraps, and many more.


This collection of auto generated template models
is continually growing so if you don’t find the template
you are looking for we may be able to create it for you.

Model Object Editor:


The model editor allows you to manage
the multiple models and model components
that are often used to build up a scene.

The editor allows the user to interactively control objects,
meshes and materials within the scene, including the ability
to rename the scene components for better controls.


All relevant properties of materials
(such as shininess, transparency, colors, roughness,...)
can be edited in real time.

Materials

Material Import:


If you are creating 3D models in your favourite 3D application and
it supports the exporting of materials, then the likelihood is that
those materials and the associated bitmaps can be loaded into iC3D.


Material Creation:


Where you need to easily create sophisticated materials
like refracting glass or metallic effects like gold foil,
holographic or even lenticular 3D-effects,
the iC3D material editor is designed to simplify this process for you.

Once you have created the surface materials for your model
they can be easily applied to using drag and drop to
the correct parts of your model or by using the Object Editor.

Real Time 3D Environments

Real Time 3D Rendering:


The 3D environment generates the required 3D shaders on the fly
in order to correctly render all changes to models, materials and
environments on the fly.

No need to wait while your display updates,
changes are applied in real time, meaning you can
instantly tweak them to create the effect you are looking for.


IBL Lighting Model:


The 3D rendering model is based around Image Based Lighting (IBL)
which provides real time reflection of an environment onto a 3D model.

IBL uses HDRI or EXR environments to calculate
accurate and realistic lighting.

Like a ray tracer it calculates the correct amount of lighting to apply
and the environmental lighting influences on a per pixel basis
for every rendered frame, however,
unlike a ray tracer it is able to do this in real time.

Real Time Material Editing:


Open an objects material in the materials editor,
make changes and see those changes instantly
updated at full rendering resolution to the model.


HDR and EXR support:


Import HDRI and EXR format environments directly into iC3D
so your models are shown in the environment of you choices.

In addition use the environment as
a 3D background for your scene.

Packaging Types Supported

iC3D prides itself on supporting a large number of packaging type
or discipline under one application.

These include:
• Bottles


• Flexibles


• Magazines


• Packets


• Cartons/POS


• Bags


• Plastic Containers


• Tins/Cans


• Plus many more

All of these can have labels and or base artwork applied to them
- directly imported from within Adobe Illustrator.

Visualisation of Packages on Stacked Shelving Displays


It is possible in iC3D to display a shelf or display tray containing
different products so they can be compared together.

This is useful for the comparison of Competitive Analysis,
Version Comparison and Variant Comparison or for just
checking how many with fit in the tray.

This is simple process whereby:

• several SKUs can be selected,


• the number of items specified, and


• they will then be organised on the shelf automatically




Once placed on the shelf it is possible to interactive edit them,
for example changing the colour of the label.

Point of Purchase (POP) / Point of Sales (POS) Display & Animation


iC3D can create amazing folding carton Point of Purchase (POP) displays
comprising many separate parts which can all be animated to show
how the final display is made up and equally importantly how
it will look when finished.

Items created previously within iC3D can be placed on
the Point of Purchase display unit shelves and then accurately
visualised using the retail environments supplied.

Adobe Illustrator Plugin

Real Time Editing of AI Art:


iC3D Suite and iC3D Designer comes with a plugin for Adobe Illustrator.
This plugin allows you to connect iC3D to your copy of Adobe Illustrator.

When you create labels or base artwork within iC3D these are automatically
created in Adobe Illustrator, where you can add artwork to the Adobe Illustrator
document and it will appear on your label or model within iC3D.


Open in Adobe Illustrator:


The process also works in reverse.

You can select within iC3D Suite and iC3D Designer to open your
already designed label artwork (.ai and .pdf files formats supported )
and it will open this artwork for you with Adobe Illustrator and
create an iC3D label linked to it automatically.

Once opened the artwork will appear on you label which can
then be interactively positioned on your model.

Carton Folding/Animation

Import of Dielines


iC3D Suite and iC3D Designer comes with the capability to import
DXF and CFF2 dielines from a variety of CAD programmes,
such as ArtiosCAD as well as from Adobe Illustrator.

These dielines can be split, joined, cut and broken apart
as required directly within iC3D.

It is then a simple matter to create the required
cuts and folds, choose the substrate from the library
and generate the 3D model.

Artwork can then be added using the link with Adobe Illustrator
and either a freehand recording or an animation timeline movie
(aka "keyframe animation") can be created for export and comment.

Click on the image and then start the animation

Labelling in iC3D Suite and iC3D Designer

Add labels to Models:
iC3D’s Auto Mesh Mapping (Smart Wrap) software allows sliding labels
to be placed accurately onto complex models without the need for
tedious UVW mapping of texture coordinates.

As UVW mapping of a model takes often as much time as modelling
the model in the first place this can be a considerable time saving.

2D and 3D Labelling View:
Labels can be seen both in 3D on a model or in 2D using the separate 2D views.
These 3D and 2D Views can be exported to PDF to allow for accurate mark-up.

Gap Jumping:
iC3D’s Auto Mesh Mapping software can also be adjusted to jump gaps allowing
labels to flow smoothly over gaps like ridges in tins/cans or plastic water bottles.

Print Effects


iC3D labels and base artwork can have many effects applied to them.

In the Adobe Illustrator artwork, specify a spot colour to represent
where the effect should be placed, then select which effect to associate
with the spot colour. The rest is done automatically for you.

iC3D has many predefined effects but allows you to also design your own.

Predefined effects include:

• Hot and Cold Foils


• Emboss and Deboss


• Holographic


• Fresnel Lens


• Lenticular/3D


• Opaque White


• Metallic Inks


• Plus many more

SFX - Special Effects

Flexible Packet Filling:


All the flexible templates allow the packets to be animated from empty to full.
So you can see the effect on your artwork in different states of fullness.

In addition if you have a model that has two versions,
a full model and an empty version of the model,
you can create your own flexible models using the iC3D Flexible Model Editor.

Adobe Illustrator 2D artwork wrapped to flexible 3D objects
   

Filling Objects with Liquid:
Models that should contain liquids can also be filled with liquid
in order to see the effect the liquid has on the design.
The opacity and colour of the liquid can be individually controlled.

Real Time Shadows:
iC3D has the ability to cast real time 3D Shadows, on other meshes within the model,
creating an even more realistic rendered environment.

Reflections in the Floor:
Reflections of models can be projected in the floor plane to give
the impression they are sitting on a shiny surface.

Complex Scene Staging


All of the above comes together to allow the staging of complex
and dynamic scenes using cross discipline packaging type.

An example might be an accurate model of scotch could be
created and labelled then placed to an equally accurate model
of the box the scotch goes in.

Then a glass of scotch with its ices is added to the scene
and the materials for the glass and ice are applied.

Then liquid is filed in the bottle and glass to represent the scotch
and the background is changed to grouse moorland.

The result is a complex scene which can be saved and exported
as a high resolution render or as a 3D model for others to view.

The labels and artwork used in the generation of the scene
can also be output with screen shots of the scene automatically
to a PDF for collaborative review and mark-up.

Export Features

Hi Res Export:
High resolution renders can be exported to be further
adjusted in Photoshop.
The exported images can be specified to contain an
alpha channel so the models can be divorced from their
backgrounds so they can be placed in other scenes.

PDF, 3D PDF and U3D Files Export:
An auto generated PDF containing several screen shots
of the 3D scene as well as 2D renders all the labels and
base artwork in the scene, can be easily exported to
allow for easier collaborative review or mark-up.

U3D files created in iC3D can be inserted into PDF documents
to allow users to interact with Adobe Acrobat 3D content and
to spin and view 3D object from all angles.
In addition, complete 3D PDFs can be created directly within
iC3D and published or emailed to clients for them to comment
in Adobe Acrobat.

iC3D Opsis Export
Models created in iC3D can be uploaded for viewing and sharing to
iC3D Opsis thats is integrated into iC3D Suite and iC3D Designer.

Collada and STL Files Export:
Models created or edited in iC3D can be exported with their
materials in Collada and STL (Stereo Lithography) format to
most leading 3D printers.
This takes “Rapid Prototyping” to new levels as you now have
the ability to deliver virtual 3D via email and follow up with
printed 3D samples in the post.

Models created or edited in iC3D can be exported with their
materials in Collada and STL (Stereo Lithography) format
for editing in other third party 3D applications.
They can then be reimported as Collada and STL files
back into iC3D if required.

Augment Export - Augmented Reality (AR)
Models are easily exported from iC3D to Augment,
the augmented reality environment, for an enhanced 3D experience.
An Augment export button is integrated in iC3D,
making it very simple to upload 3D models to
Augment (as Collada files).

Movie Export:
A Quick Time Movie (MOV) file where all model movements
can be exported to allow the 3D content to be viewed on
other devices and platforms, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad.
The Movie exporter uses high quality video compression to create
iPhone and iPad compatible movies.
The user can also manually animate the object during the recording,
to zoom in on a certain section or spin the objects
so they can be viewed from all sides.

Dynamic Backgrounds

Real-time merging of 2D photo images with 3D designs

System Requirements for iC3D:

Apple Mac

Apple software:

• OS: macOS X 10.12 or later



Apple hardware - Minimum:

• CPU: Multi-core processors (quad or more)


• CPU: iC3D is optimized for Apple’s
  silicon ARM processors
  (M1+,... technology)


• Memory: 16GB+ RAM, 500GB HDD


• Graphics - Minimum: Nvidia or AMD GPU
  with at least 2GB VRAM


• HD Monitor (1920 x 1080).
  Ensure latest video drivers are updated/installed



3rd Party Software:

• Adobe Illustrator version CC2014 or later



PC

PC software:

• OS: Windows 10 or later



PC hardware - Minimum:

• CPU: Multi-core processors (quad or more).


• Memory: 16GB+ RAM, 500GB HDD


• Graphics - Minimum: Nvidia or AMD GPU
  with at least 2GB VRAM


• HD Monitor (1920 x 1080)
  Ensure latest video drivers are updated/installed



3rd Party Software:

• Adobe Illustrator version CC2014 or later

User Interface/Languages:

English, French, German, Spanish, Italian,
Japanese, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese.

User License:

Floating license, for 1 concurrent user.

Typical use case where iC3D Suite
makes a difference and solves your critical challenge.

"The Crunch for U.S. Food Companies":
Changes to the Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP).

The new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
packaging rules (May 20, 2016)

Rules that undoubtedly will kick off a worldwide overhaul,
as consumer advocacy groups outside the U.S.
lobby governments or more standardized,
consumer-friendly nutritional labeling.

This will lead to a rise in compliance-related costs
throughout the supply chain;
brand owners, package designers, printers,
and converters.

Like the older version,
the new NFP may not be re-sized, legally.
This means that years of package design optimization
will have to be discarded and new designs
created for millions of packages.

Nutritional claims made outside the NFP
will also have to be changed.

New label / What's the difference?

Fortunately, with iC3D,
the design and ideation part of those costs
can be controlled.

Only iC3D provides immediate visual feedback on
these design challenges and possible solutions.

In iC3D, PDFs of both
old and new Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP)
can easily be applied to virtual package models
in real time.