Case Study CGI Retouching

Client Spotlight: Downright Delicious with Denny's

Client 

 

Product

Denny's Menu Items

What Was the Goal?

BluEdge Media was tasked with creating a realistic syrup consistency, highlight the thickness of the sauce, and overall display Denny's menu items as delicious, mouth-watering entrees.
 

How did BluEdge Approach This Project

Denny's creative team was looking to update their marketing materials and show off Denny's menu items in a more stylized manner, particularly on the menu covers. To achieve this playful, stylized look, it was determined that syrup would be used to interact with the Denny's logo and wordmark. The BluEdge Media team achieved this through the use of CGI.
 
In addition to creating digital syrup, BluEdge Media also worked to elevate the digital appearance of Denny's Pumpkin Pie Pancakes. Using reference images, we replicated the pancake, and then created a thicker, irresistible looking caramel sauce. We also color corrected Denny's other food items to ensure that everything appeared to be cooked to absolute perfection.
 
Syrup-Pour-
 
Each of these components were then composited together to create one cohesive scene. This proved to be quite challenging. Many of the requested interactions were not present in the original photography, meaning that are CGI artists had to create these items from scratch. Though this took several rounds of revisions, the BluEdge Media team ultimately were able to create exemplary syrup pours, refreshing Coca-Cola slashes, and toasty has browns, tempting tastebuds everywhere.
 
 

What was the Outcome?

BluEdge wanted to create a final mouth-watering presentation while also staying true to the vision of Denny's creative team. While we were very pleased with the end results, we did learn a lot along the way. In our final meeting with Denny's, we proposed producing action images through CGI in the future.
 
 
 

 

Takeaways from the BluEdge Team?

Through this experience, we learned that many of our roadblocks and challenges could have been eased had we produced action images directly in CGI at the beginning of the project. This helps our clients reduce their time and money spent on costly photoshoots and expensive retouching. It will also enable either us or our clients' internal creative team to get more mileage out of their assets. For example, had all action shots been created using CGI, they could have then been repurposed for web banners, social media, and even broadcast videos.