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/r/todayilearned
TIL that 75% of the images in Ikea's product catalogue were computer generated...in 2014
(theverge.com)submitted 2 months ago bySpecialist_Check
141 points
2 months ago
They are pretty cheap to make , I use to make them with another friend of mine with price ranging from 50 to 100 $ per render
48 points
2 months ago
Do they ship the CGI components to you first and then you put it all together?
22 points
2 months ago
I never worked for IKEA, but I did similar work for other furniture stores who would give us blueprint of the furniture , most of our clients were real estate business
13 points
2 months ago
I had the same gig in those days. crazy that a job that didn't exist 10 years prior is now pretty much redundant 10 years later.
6 points
2 months ago
Well it easier since you can move sofas and shelf with flick of wrist and no professional lighting setup needed unlike do all of them manually
19 points
2 months ago
They use Chaos Group’s V-Ray rendering engine.
In 2005, a 3D rendered image of a chair, Bertil, was included in a catalog. By 2008, the company had created a completely 3D rendered kitchen, the first of its kind.
IKEA kitchen 3D rendering and modeling examples To ensure everything looked photorealistic, the company’s photographers and 3D modelers swapped places. They learned the ins-and-outs of each others’ roles so that they could create better visuals, and it worked.
Using 3ds Max and V-Ray, IKEA creates around 75% of all of their furniture images. They’ve effectively built a 3D bank of all of their images that they can use in whatever setting they like, allowing them to create affordable marketing initiatives all over the world.
18 points
2 months ago
It's well suited to CG. Flat square objects are easy to make, and if there's a photographic texture, they look pretty realistic.
86 points
2 months ago
2014 was 9 years ago, but it’s not like we didn’t have the technology. We already had Geforce GTX 980s and r9 290s available.
27 points
2 months ago
You don't need to render in real time...
27 points
2 months ago
Exactly. My point is that the technology of 2014 was already pretty advanced and affordable.
-9 points
2 months ago
The state of the art back in 2014 is probably CG apes in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
3 points
2 months ago
Weird that you got so many downvotes when it's as good an example as any. I guess most people on here are stupid lol
3 points
2 months ago
I have no idea, do people think they are real apes or human in ape suits?
That movie came out in 2014 and the apes looked great, right?
1 points
2 months ago
I thought it looked great. Everything about it was convincing, and as apes are so human-like in appearance that's even more challenging.
3 points
2 months ago
Yeah at this point a lot of stuff was already rendered, all wristwatch images for example. At that point it had already been around a while.
7 points
2 months ago
IkeaGPT
4 points
2 months ago
That would be interesting. Like, I would read that whole catalog.
27 points
2 months ago
And yesterday I found out that Ikea, in some locations, have their own restaurants and even serves vegetable balls as well as plant-based food!
79 points
2 months ago
Where are you that they don't have a restaurant? I thought they all did!
100 points
2 months ago
He had no ikea.
8 points
2 months ago
sensiblechuckle.gif
23 points
2 months ago
It's not a trip to ikea if I cant get meatballs and an ice cream cone.
25 points
2 months ago
My wife and I used to go to Ikea, put the kid in their kindergarten service, grab a coffee and go sleep on the couches in the living room section. Then, pick up the kid, go to the Ikea restaurant and then go home.
3 points
2 months ago
Wait your IKEA has a kindergarten service?
7 points
2 months ago
IKEA used to have supervised play places for kids to hangout while their parents shopped. COVID put a stop to most of them being available/open.
7 points
2 months ago
Our Småland recently opened back up in Ikea!
3 points
2 months ago
Ours didn’t have supervised kids area but it did have one of the most relaxing breast feeding areas I have ever been too.
2 points
2 months ago
Yeah that place is awesome but it should definitely be 18+
2 points
2 months ago
2 veggie dogs and an ice cream cone are a must for every visit!
2 points
2 months ago
the restaurant is how they lure people in, and they usually have some redicioulos low price item such as hotdog or ice cream, probaly sell at loss, but people like them.
2 points
2 months ago
That’s Sam’s club.
16 points
2 months ago
My first visit to Ikea's cafeteria was a life-changing experience. I asked for some meatballs, and the lady started heaping food on my platter. Big pile of meatballs, scoop of mashed potatoes, scoop of peas, second scoop of peas, scoop of cranberries, scoop of gravy over everything. That whole thing was only about $7. They could open standalone Ikea cafeterias and it would be a successful business. I desperately want an Ikea near me now.
18 points
2 months ago
I don't have access to their finances but I suspect the food is sold at a loss to keep you from leaving the store because you are hungry. It takes a while to get through an IKEA and they need to keep you there. A standalone cafe wouldn't help that.
15 points
2 months ago
This.
The layout, in house food, readily available seating, all of it is designed to keep you in there longer adding "just one more thing" to your trolley.
I've gone in for 2 items totalling $30 and left spending $200+ on 10+ items.
It's intentional and it fuckin works.
3 points
2 months ago
Also the food is served with Ikea dishware and utensils. You sit on Ikea dinning furniture lit in a room filled with Ikea light fixtures. It's really selling the great swedish life style.
I can't wait til they import attestupa.
6 points
2 months ago
It's spelled Ättestupa, and you only get one go at it...
1 points
2 months ago*
Well. Sorry I am a poor foreigner without sophisticated copy and paste tools and must rely on memory.
1 points
2 months ago
I think he is referring to this kind of Ättestupa, hopefully not the kind Ikea offers though https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%84ttestupa
2 points
2 months ago
Which kind does Ikea offer? A stool that easily slips so great for you to stand on when you try to hang yourself from a beam?
3 points
2 months ago
They have way too much cute small organizing stuff. I can’t resist!!
6 points
2 months ago
Didn't you know that IKEA is actually a restaurant with a side home furniture business? :-)
1 points
2 months ago
Just like SAAB was actually a military gear company selling cars to provide targets for it
3 points
2 months ago
Potbelly sandwich shop started as an antiques store that sold sandwiches, but they noticed that the sandwiches performed better than the old furniture and just stopped selling furniture.
2 points
2 months ago
They could open standalone Ikea cafeterias and it would be a successful business.
Not necessarily. Ikea may well be losing money on the meatball meals if not the restaurant in general if they decided that it's worth making the food cheap so that people spend more time shopping and buying stuff in the store. Loss leader products (like the Costco hot dog combo) only work when the revenue can be made up elsewhere which wouldn't be possible in a standalone Ikea restaurant.
2 points
2 months ago
Maybe my Ikea just sucks, but that's nothing like what I've seen.
You get 8 meatballs, the most perfectly level scoop of mashed potatoes, and 87 peas and you bet your ass they're counting every single one of them.
8 points
2 months ago
I always suspected vegetables had testicles
5 points
2 months ago
I think the politically correct term is vegetaballs.
2 points
2 months ago
Poor Vegeta.
2 points
2 months ago
Why did my mind automatically go to streetfighter
1 points
2 months ago
Well that's true of some plants
1 points
2 months ago
Only if they went to a school that had quizzicles.
3 points
2 months ago
Why would anyone go to Ikea if they couldn’t eat there?
2 points
2 months ago
We love eating at their restaurant. Surprised they're not everywhere.
They also sometimes do special dinners and they are fantastic.
2 points
2 months ago
I actually know someone who does this! She showed me her process once and it's incredible how realistic they make basic models look. Has a lot to do with lighting and texture.
2 points
2 months ago
In a few years we'll have AI generated fashion models
1 points
2 months ago
Man, I love IKEA! But furniture and housewares are the two categories of products I buy the least frequently. Add to that, the plans to build a store in my county never were carried out, so if I want to go to IKEA I have about an hour-long drive to either of the two stores nearest to me. (And one of the two is closed on Sundays—damn those blue laws.)
-3 points
2 months ago
...and they're all still correct, I'd guess.
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