Definitions, workflows and best practices for visual product marketing in the furniture, home & living industry - compact, easy to understand, with project references.

Glossary for 3D Visualization, CGI & Brand Communication

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What is Digital Asset Management (DAM)?

A DAM is your brand's "asset hub": this is where media is centrally organized, indexed, versioned and assigned rights. This allows teams to quickly find the released images, videos and 3D assets - and play them out consistently across all channels.

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What is Ambient Occlusion (AO)?

Ambient Occlusion (AO) enhances contact and corner shadows in 3D scenes. The result: more depth and realism – ideal for emphasizing details in CGI renderings.

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What is augmented reality?

Augmented reality brings digital 3D objects into the real world. Find out how AR works, why home & living brands benefit from it and which tools & devices will be state of the art in 2025.

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What is Brand Experience (BX)?

Brand experience describes all the sensory and emotional impressions that people gain of a brand across all touchpoints - in-store, online, on social media, at trade fairs, in AR/VR and even during unboxing. In the home & living context, material, light, space and interaction have a particularly strong impact on perception. 3D/CGI makes these impressions consistently scalable.

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What is Global Illumination (GI)?

Global illumination refers to indirect lighting in 3D scenes - light is reflected multiple times on surfaces and also colors surrounding areas. The result: realistic room ambience, natural color bleeding and soft shadows, just like in photography.

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What is HDRI / Image-Based Lighting (IBL)?

A displacement map is a height or vector texture with which a render engine displaces real geometry - in contrast to bump/normal maps, which only fake surface light. The result: measurable reliefs, sharp silhouettes, realistic edge breaks.

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What is Mixed Reality?

Mixed reality (MR) links the physical environment with interactive 3D objects in real time. The article explains the technology, fields of application in home & living marketing, differences to AR/VR and Danthree project examples.

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What is OpenUSD (USD)?

OpenUSD is an open 3D ecosystem for the description, composition and exchange of complex scenes. It enables layering, variants and collaborative work across DCC tools - more than just a file format.

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What is Physically Based Rendering (PBR)?

Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is a rendering approach that describes material properties according to physical rules. Using standardized maps (e.g., Albedo, Roughness, Metalness), an object reacts consistently to light in every scene. The result: realistic, repeatable CGI materials – ideal for e-commerce, configurators, and print.

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What is Ray Tracing?

Ray tracing is a rendering process where light rays are virtually traced from the camera's viewpoint through the 3D scene. This creates physically accurate reflections, shadows, and refractions – without a real photo set. For brands, this means consistently photorealistic CGI images and animations, flexibly scalable for e-commerce, print, and interactive experiences.

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What is rigging?

Rigging is the process of equipping a 3D model with a controllable skeleton (joints/bones) and controllers so that parts move realistically. Constraints (FK/IK) and skinning are used to limit movements and cleanly deform the mesh - the basis for product demos, animations and interactive viewers.

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What is Subsurface Scattering (SSS)?

Subsurface scattering describes the scattering of light inside a material before it emerges again - making plastics, wax, soaps, ceramics or marble appear soft and believable. SSS prevents the "plastic look" and provides natural halos on edges as well as softly brightened shadows.

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What is Texture Baking? (Map Baking)

Texture Baking (Map Baking) means: light, shadows, or details are calculated once and saved as textures. The result: faster renderings, a consistent look – ideal for web, AR & pack shots.

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What is Tone Mapping / ACES (ACEScg)?

Tone mapping translates scene-referred renders into the display area so that contrasts, highlights and colors look natural. ACES/ACEScg provides a standardized pipeline (IDT → ACEScg → ODT) that keeps looks consistent across render, video and web - fewer correction loops, more brand stability.

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What is USDZ?

USDZ is the preferred 3D format for Apple AR. It bundles geometry, materials & textures in one file that can be opened immediately in Apple's AR Quick Look - ideal for furniture & interiors. Here you will find definition, advantages, export rules, comparison to glTF and a practice pipeline.

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What is UV mapping (UV unwrapping)?

UV mapping - also known as UV unwrapping - transfers the surface of a 3D model into a 2D coordinate system. Clean UVs are the basis for sharp textures, AO, normal and light maps without seams or bleeding.

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What is visual storytelling?

Visual storytelling turns products into protagonists: with coherent imagery, 3D renderings and a clear narrative, you can create emotion, strengthen your brand identity and increase conversion. Here you can read how it works - including workflow, quick tips & FAQs.

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What is the albedo / base color map?

It describes the color-pure surface without shadows and gloss and forms the basis for consistent product colors in the PBR workflow - from renderings to web/AR viewers.

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What is a 3D product configurator?

A 3D product configurator turns static articles into interactive experiences: Customers select color, material and size variants in real time - directly in the browser. Find out here how brands can use it to increase sales, reduce returns and seamlessly transition to virtual showrooms or 360-degree tours.

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What is a 3D Virtual Showroom?

What is a 3D virtual showroom? - An interactive brand world in which customers can experience, configure and directly purchase products. Find out the definition, business benefits, technology, workflow, best practices, FAQs and further links.

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What is a displacement map?

A displacement map is a height or vector texture with which a render engine displaces real geometry - in contrast to bump/normal maps, which only fake surface light. The result: measurable reliefs, sharp silhouettes, realistic edge breaks.

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What is a lightmap?

Normal Maps add fine folds, pores, or fabric textures to your 3D model – without geometry overkill. Learn how they work, when they make sense, and how we work with them at Danthree.

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What is a Metalness Map?

A metalness map uses a black and white mask to determine which parts of a 3D model reflect like real metal. Used correctly, it is the key to physically correct PBR materials - from chrome frames to stainless steel kitchens.

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What is a Normal Map?

Normal Maps add fine folds, pores, or fabric textures to your 3D model – without geometry overkill. Learn how they work, when they make sense, and how we work with them at Danthree.

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What is a render engine?

A render engine translates 3D geometry, materials and light into finished images or animations. The article explains how it works, the market leader in 2025, selection criteria and shows specific Danthree cases - compact, practical and without technical jargon.

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What is a render farm?

A render farm is a network of many computers (nodes) that processes render jobs in parallel - ideal for large image series, animations and campaigns. It drastically reduces render times and makes 3D production plannable.

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What is a roughness map?

How rough is concrete, how reflective are glass fibers? Roughness maps regulate the micro-scattering of light and make PBR materials credible. Find out how they work, workflow tips and typical sources of error.

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What is glTF?

glTF is the JPEG of the 3D world: small file size, PBR-ready and ideal for web & AR. Learn about the structure, advantages and how to export models losslessly in glTF.

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