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The
savings far outweigh the cost, which is going down daily, as the power
of the workstation increases.
Below are case studies that will show how even small designs can be improved
and in some cases, saved from major problems, using low cost, simple 3-D
models.
No
Job to Small/Display Booths in 3D
Gulfstream Racetrack needed a display booth design. We were
called in by the small shop, that had the account, to help with the presentation.
They were having trouble getting the final approval to start building.
It seems that the rendering that the shops' in-house designer did, while
quite good, still did not convince the Gulfstream people that the final
product would look like the rendering. These concerns and the consequent
indecision, had been going on for weeks.
Solution
 We
took over and came up with two, more viable designs, modeled in 3D. The
total budget was under $5000, including the design. Shown here are the
color renderings we made. These were created in six hours, and immediately
emailed to the client. Upon seeing the 3D models, the client called back
and by the end of that day we had the green light, and the check was in
the mail. The total cost to the shop for the completed design, including
color renderings and construction drawings was $250. Total value of resolving
an issue with a demanding, but important client, Priceless!
 Univision
Networks
We were given
the task of designing a studio set for the Ver Para Creer show, which
airs weekly to an international audience. The Art Director at Univision,
sketched out an idea for a bank of video monitors arranged in the shape
of half of a sphere. This set piece needed to rotate back and forth, with
a self contained motor and was to be constructed with the ability to be
broken down, and fit into a 20' truck. 
Shown here, are the color renderings of our 3-d models, for the proposed
project. As with most design challenges, there are many ways to achieve
a desired goal. We developed two completely different ways to make this.
One design was similar to the way a artificial Christmas tree is assembled
in vertical sections, which would store in a small area. The second would
break into quarter sections, and would be much cheaper to build. Univison
decided to go with the second design. The construction drawings were completed,
and sent to Univisions' contract shops for bids. The bids returned
in a range from $60.000 on the high end, and $45.000 for the cheapest.
 Univision
felt these were inflated, but had little recourse, as the shops were adamant
about the estimates, and the bids were firm. Univision returned to us
and reluctantly asked for help in cutting parts of the job, to get under
budget. The shops had indeed over priced the job, claiming  that
the rigging of the motor and drive unit would cost around $12.000. They
also had over priced the material costs and labor, due to excessive "padding",
to the tune of about $8000. But how were we to rebut the shops' claims
that they were not overcharging, and that these were legitimate estimates?
Solution
We quickly rendered an animation to show the simplicity of our design,
and that is should be no more than $1000 to rig the motor and attach a
crank arm between two disks. Since the design was already modeled in 3-d,
outputting the animation took only five minutes. The finished animation
was then emailed to all of the shops, in gif format so it played right
in Outlook, no player or plugin needed. The small file, of only 160k,
could be downloaded in 33 seconds, with a 56k modem.
In a matter of minutes, the shops were calling and were more cooperative
with our view of the pricing, feeling confident enough to significantly
lower their bids, after seeing the animation. This resolution was accomplished
in less than one day, and all the parties involved were satisfied. Buy
the way, the final cost of the job was under $20,000, and is still in
use over a year later, with no problems. That was a savings of almost
50%
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