EcoShot walkthrough for Walmart suppliers
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    • EcoShot walkthrough for Walmart suppliers


    This 15-20 minute article will walk you through the 3 steps to create a presentation quality EcoShot:

    Each step progressively improves the quality and reduces any image imperfections. The staged approach provides you with faster feedback cycles and helps you to keep costs low.

    To get started quickly, we have provided a link to download an EcoShot-Walkthrough.BW file in your Welcome email. Please download and open this file. It contains a 3D outfit already prepared and styled for you on an EcoShot scanatar. Once opened, please:

    • Ensure the Metail EcoShot Lighting.hdr is selected (Exposure set to 0 and Rotate Image set to 180)
    • Select the snapshot labelled front-walkthrough-1 (3D -> Snapshots)
    • Select the M-V0-front camera to see the outfit from the same view that will be used for the EcoShot image

    A) Draft: The first step towards creating an EcoShot

    Before requesting an EcoShot image, we recommend you create a free Draft. The Draft uses the same technology as VStitcher's V-Ray Real Time Render but gives you a preview of the EcoShot by rendering the outfit on top of the model photograph (left image below).

    The Draft allows you to check that you are happy with how the 3D outfit is styled in the EcoShot. This lets you save time and money by avoiding requesting an EcoShot image until you are happy with the styling and appearance of the 3D outfit.

    Create a Draft now for the front-1-walkthrough snapshot by using the VStitcher Menu bar to select:

    1. Plugins → EcoShot → Draft or
    2. Plugins → EcoShot → Save Draft if you want to save the Draft image in a particular location.

    Below is an example of a Draft:

    Note: You may see imperfections in the Draft including:

    • Misalignment between the garment and the model's body
    • Unexpected grey shadows
    • Mistakes to garment layering around the model's hands
    • Model's underwear showing through

    These imperfections stem from the difficulty of perfectly aligning the 3D scanatars with the 2D model photographs. However, all imperfections can be progressively removed as you first create an EcoShot Automated image and then request an optional Manual Finish upgrade for a presentation quality image.

    B) EcoShot Automated: An interim stepping stone towards quality

    EcoShot Automated images provide a step up in quality and may be suitable where speed of response or lower costs are more important than a perfectly finished image. Delivered in around 10-30 minutes, watermark-free and at a resolution suitable for viewing on Ultra HD screens, they allow you to take on board late changes and feedback ahead of internal collaboration meetings. They also let you select the shoes the model wears in the EcoShot image.

    Note: Unlike Drafts, EcoShot Automated images incur a cost. You should therefore first check you are happy with styling and appearance of your 3D outfit in the Draft to identify any potential issues before incurring costs.

    Create an EcoShot Automated image now by using the VStitcher Menu bar:

    1: Plugins → EcoShot → Request Image

    This will open a new pop-up for requesting the EcoShot:

    2: Using the variant drop-down menu, you can choose what shoes you would like to appear in the EcoShot. Please select barefoot for this initial request:

    3: When you click on 'Request EcoShot', a V-Ray 3D scene will be uploaded to let us produce a high resolution V-Ray ray trace render of your 3D outfit. You can close or minimise the window and the upload will continue in the background. Once it has completed, you will see the following message in the log:

    4: After Metail produces the high resolution V-Ray ray trace render, our automated post processing combines the render of your 3D outfit with the model photograph to create the EcoShot Automated image. You will receive an email once this is complete. To save time we have already uploaded a copy for you. Please visit the Image Hub now to download the EcoShot Automated image.

    5. Under the Completed tab, please find your request and press the three dots to download your EcoShot image.

    Note: Although the automated post processing reduces the imperfections that may be present in the Drafts, some may still be present to different degrees. This may mean that an individual EcoShot Automated image may not be suitable for your use case, especially if it is for presentation to retailers or consumers.

    Some EcoShot customers have found any remaining imperfections in EcoShot Automated images sufficiently small and infrequent that they can retouch the images themselves in Photoshop before sharing externally. For customers who do not have internal Photoshop resource available, EcoShot offers an optional Manual Finish upgrade service that users can request on an individual EcoShot basis.

    C) EcoShot Manual Finish upgrade: Presentation quality images

    Metail's ambition for EcoShot is to the Automated images of presentation quality by improving the automated post processing techniques. In the interim, the optional Manual Finish upgrade can always provide you with a presentation quality EcoShot. This upgrade option passes the EcoShot through a human quality control step and a post processing team who will manually retouch any remaining imperfections for you.

    When you request a Manual Finish upgrade, there are a series of Standard Fixes which are always applied to the EcoShot including:

    • Ensuring the model's body is always aligned to the garment
    • Removing any unexpected grey shadows
    • Fixing issues around the model's hands and arms
    • Removing any jagged edges or holes caused by the outfit simulation or ray trace

    There are also a series of Optional Common Requests that you can easily select when requesting a Manual Finish upgrade including:

    • Smoothing creases and wrinkles in the outfit
    • Making the background transparent
    • Changing the image resolution

    Finally, you can also use the Manual Finish upgrade to submit Advanced Retouching requests you might require.

    Note: You can typically expect to receive your EcoShot Manual Finish image within:

    • 1 UK working day if only Standard Fixes and Common Requests are asked for
    • Up to 3 UK working days if you also include an Advanced Retouching request

    You can now create your first EcoShot Manual Finish image via the Image Hub by:

    1: Pressing the three dots besides your EcoShot Automated image and selecting 'Request Manual Finish' option:

    2: The 'Request Manual Finish' pop-up that appears lets you select Optional Common Requests and add Advanced Retouching comments. The link in the popup provides visual examples of the fixes and common requests but for this walkthrough, please leave the Optional Common Requests and Advanced Retouching blank before pressing 'Send Request'.

    3: You will receive an email once your EcoShot Manual Finish image is complete (typically within 1 UK working day if no advanced retouching is specified).

    Note: To save time we have already created the EcoShot Manual Finish image so you should be notified it is ready to download from the Image Hub shortly.

    You may have noticed that like regular model photographs, EcoShot images are 2D rather than 3D. Therefore, if you have a front view EcoShot and would like to see the back of the outfit, you will need to create an additional back view EcoShot. This requires selecting a 'back' or 'reverse' pose for the scanatar in VStitcher. We'll now do this for the EcoShot-Walkthrough outfit by:

    1: In VStitcher's 3D window, select the 'contrapposto-back-01' for Bea's scanatar.

    2: Select the M-V4-back camera view to align the Browzwear 3D window with the camera view used for the EcoShot.

    Note: Each EcoShot scanatar pose is associated with either a front or back camera view. M-V4-back is for any pose names containing the word back (e.g. contrapposto-back-01). M-V0-front is for all other poses.

    You can now repeat the process to create a presentation quality EcoShot:

    🍾🎉 Congratulations on creating presentations quality EcoShot images! 🎉 🍾

    You now know how to:

    • Select the correct scanatar pose according to the view you want in the EcoShot
    • Use the Draft to check the 3D styling before incurring costs
    • Create an EcoShot Automated image: the stepping stone to quality
    • Request a Manual Finish upgrade to create a presentation quality EcoShot

    You are now ready to create EcoShot images for the outfit you chose before the start of the trial started. Begin by:

    1. Choosing which one of our EcoShot models is right for your outfit
    2. Selecting a pose in VStitcher
    3. Dressing the chosen scanatar's pose with your outfit

    Once dressed, you can repeat the steps above to create a presentation quality EcoShot. If you have any questions, contact us at any time via the chat feature in the bottom right hand corner of the Image Hub.

    We can't wait to see the EcoShot images you create! 🙌