Creating over 1000 furniture models in one month for an AI-based startup
Back in January, we came into touch with a new potential Client from the USA. They're a startup in the 3D housing space with a really interesting application. The user can pull out a phone and scan the bathroom using the app’s camera. After a short wait, the AI system in the background generates a digital twin version of the scanned bathroom.
Then, the user can see a complete 3D overview of the bathroom, and each furniture piece—bathtubs, shower cabins, toilets, tiles, lights, and mirrors—is clickable and interchangeable with other products from their catalog. The user can then place new products in the bathroom, preview them in 3D, and then purchase the very same product!
The Challenge
Okay, that works pretty well - so what was the issue?
Our Client explained that in 4 weeks they have a huge conference, where they are showcasing this product, and for that conference, they want two things:
- To add an additional ~1200 furniture pieces, roughly 700 models, and 1200 textures.
- To work on the Unity part of the solution and improve visual fidelity and performance
Once we learned that, we understood that we had to act quickly. The later we start, the less time we have, but the first and most important question has to be answered:
Can we do this?
The Solution
First, we had to see if this was doable, so we took some time with our 3D Team Lead and gave him a list of all the real-life pieces we had to remodel to see how much time, on average, we'd need to create one model. After a day-long review, we figured that we needed a team of:
- Six modelers in the best case and eight modelers in the worst case scenario
- One skilled Unity Tech Lead who has experience with visual aspects of development
We created our proposal immediately and started organizing a team to see if we could get that many people on the project tomorrow.
We internally organized a Unity Tech Lead and four artists within a day. They could start ASAP; we just needed confirmation from the Client.
As we were polishing the agreements with the Client, we started searching for 2-4 more artists in our external talent pool network, Marble Up, to see if we could get some freelancers to jump on the project. We solved that challenge in two days.
We now had a team of six ready to start and two additional modelers on standby, just in case.
The Work
And it was on! Race against time, organization, and production.
As we were organizing very quickly, once we started the work, we figured out that each model needed to go through additional export layers, which meant that each model took more time than expected—turning the first week into an immense under-delivery.
After communicating the issues with the Client, we introduced the two more standby artists, acquainted them with the workflow, and kicked off the second week. This was better. We knew how to handle this.
Each week presented its challenges, but the Tech Lead worked closely with the team and Client to make sure that the process was as streamlined as it could be because each deliverable went through several phases:
- Finishing it and marking it as done
- Doing the internal QA to make sure quality and technical fidelity are there
- Approval for Client's QA in their environment
- The final export of the deliverable
Among all these steps, our Unity Tech lead was going back and forth with helping the artist team deliver everything within tech guidelines and limitations. It simultaneously worked on the code and with Unity tools to figure out how to achieve higher visuals with fewer mobile hardware resources spent.
And all went well.
We can't share much, so here's a sneak peak:
The Conclusion
The conference ended well with all of our deliverables.
Our daily stresses about reaching daily deliverables goals also disappeared, and our artists took some time to relax.
This was one of the most complicated challenges we ever solved, not because of the technical aspects of the tasks but because of organizational elements. We had to be fast, reach clear goals at maximum speed, and not compromise quality at any step.
We're looking forward to the next such challenge! If you have it, contact us at office@marbleit.rs
