On your way to work or as you stroll any bustling street, you must have come across giant billboards displaying larger-than-life, life-like visuals.
This is the power of 3D billboards and marketers can attest to their effectiveness. They promise to get your target audience hooked making them the ultimate advertising cheat code.
What Are 3D Billboards?
3D billboards are interactive mediums often utilized to advertise outdoors since they capture the attention of target audiences with their life-like visuals.
These visuals appear to be popping outwards and this illusion is a consequence of the high-tech LED technology they utilize. As you approach a 3D billboard, you will notice that the visuals will appear to be extending beyond the display’s flat surface. This is what attracts potential customers.
Working Principle of 3D Billboards
If you frequently visit the mall, park, or stroll around busy cities, you must have come across billboards advertising movies where superheroes seem to be reaching out to you. This is 3D advertising at its best.
But are you aware of how these visually striking displays manage to create these illusions? Beneath, we attempt to answer this question by dwelling on the technologies these billboards exploit.
Technology Behind the Working of 3D Billboards
The secret behind 3D billboards extending images, which often seem to be reaching out to you or the outside world. This is often achieved using a number of distinct technologies key amongst them being:
· Anamorphic 3D (optical illusion-based)
This technology distorts your graphics at the creation stage. The visuals are created in a way that allows you to perceive them as 3D visuals whenever you watch them on a high-resolution LED screen.
These screens deliver your distorted images with depth and shading consequently tricking your brain into perceiving them as life-like visuals.
However, to experience the ultimate 3D experience when viewing graphics created using anamorphosis, you must pick the ideal viewing angle. Typical anamorphic 3D billboards combine 2D artwork with physical elements such as protruding structures and cut-outs to create depth and take the 3D effect to another high.
Advantages
- Offers a distinct visual experience.
- Are highly engaging.
- Anamorphic screens work well in both indoor and outdoor settings.
Stereoscopic 3D
This technology simply plays with your mind by utilizing depth to create illusions. It simply uses two graphics, which your mind perceives as one graphic consequently creating the illusion of protruding images. 3D billboards utilizing stereoscopic 3D technology tend to display visuals that appear to be receding into the background or protruding beyond the billboard.
Stereoscopic 3D exploits the way the humaneyes function. By offsetting one image slightly this technology creates a 3D illusion. Furthermore, it creates the illusion of floating images, which captivates the eyes of passers-by consequently turning them into your customers.
Advantages
- Unmatched visual impact.
- Extremely engaging.
- Does not necessitate specialized glasses.
- Makes your brand more memorable.
Autostereoscopic 3D (glasses-free 3D)
3D billboards reliant on autostereoscopic 3D technology utilize integral imaging, lenticular lenses, and parallax barriers to create the 3D effect. This technology exploits how your eyes perceive depth by attempting to deliver different images to each eye. The lenticular lenses direct slightly offset visuals to each of your eyes by refracting light.
Integral imaging on the other hand utilizes microlenses to record visuals from distinct angles before reconstructing them with 3D effect. Once you come with a certain range to a 3D billboard, you get to experience the full 3D experience. This explains the universal success of autostereoscopic 3D screens especially in advertising.
Advantages
- Do not require the use of 3D glasses.
- Incorporate interactive elements.
- Have the ‘wow’ factor.
- Make your content more engaging.
How Anamorphic 3D Billboards Create the Illusion
Marketers and advertisers seeking to capture the attention of onlookers and turn them into customers are swaying towards anamorphic 3D billboards. This is primarily because these advertising displays have the ability to deliver visuals that not only appear to be floating but also pop outwards. To understand how they achieve this, you must first grasp their primary features.
Anamorphic 3D Billboard Features
- High Resolution: For your viewers to experience the true 3D experience, you will need clarity and brightness and modern LED displays offer these in plenty. They are essentially ultra-high-definition displays that contribute greatly to the life-like portrayal of your content in 3D anamorphic billboards.
- Perspective Projections: These billboards deliver unmatched realism by creating an illusion of realism using perspective projection. That is, they rely on distorted content, which appears to pop outwards and float when viewed from a specific viewing angle.
- Motion Parallax: When watching an anamorphic 3D billboard, you will notice a shift in perspective as you move. This is because these displays utilize motion parallax to create a life-like illusion.
- Curved Display: The vast majority of anamorphic billboards are L-shaped or curved and this makes your images seem to be protruding on more than one plane. The L-shaped billboards are typically mounted on buildings’ corners elevating their realism.
- Lighting Effects: These screens also manipulate natural light and shadows to make smaller images appear bigger and more real. By playing with natural light, they manage to deliver immersive visuals.
Understanding the Working Principles
· Use of forced perspective and angles
The lifelike visuals that catch your attention as you stroll busy streets are products of 2D artwork distorted innovatively. Viewing these distorted graphics from certain angles allows you to experience the full 3D effect. This is essential an optical illusion that tricks your mind into thinking that you are watching a real-life object. If you miss the right viewing angle, you will find the projected visuals distorted and nonsensical.
· Displaying the Content
3D anamorphic billboards simply display 2D content but due to your unique biological makeup, you view the content as 3D. However, to experience this, you must choose your vantage point carefully.
These billboards are designed in such a way that sees you when you view them from a specified angle, you get to experience the full 3D illusion with extended images. Once you deviate from this vantage point, the visuals begin to appear flat and deformed.
· Tailored Content Designed for Specific Viewing Points
The immersive and lifelike marketing visuals displayed by 3D billboards are products of fabricated 2D content viewed from very specific vantage points. First, you create the 2D graphics and then distort them to replace the flat appearance with a protruding illusion. Advanced three-dimensional billboards boast of protruding physical structures, which take the level of 3D effect a notch higher.
Technical Process in 3D Billboard Working Principle
If you have come across a 3D billboard, chances are you have stopped in your tracks. These displays deliver dreamy visuals that are virtually lifelike but how do they manage to achieve this? Here is the technical process they adhere to.
· Designing the 3D content
Designing 3D content for your billboard displays begins with the creation of a storyboard, which helps you plan ahead. Now comes the time to take advantage of the numerous 3D modeling software available. This software will help you create your marketing visuals including characters and objects. Using the software, style your visuals by adding texture until you generate your desired effect.
When creating motion images, you will have to create skeleton structures by rigging. This process will leave you with the structure that will facilitate the movement of your visuals. After animating your content enhance the 3D effect by deploying proper lighting. To elevate the appeal of your content, make use of software such as Adobe After Effects to append special effects.
· Displaying the Content
The success of 3D billboards in delivering highly captivating and engaging advertising content lies in the creation and display technologies involved. These billboards are essential ultra-high-resolution displays fitted with high-level graphic processing units that enable them to display 3D visuals.
The content you view with 3D effects is simply two slightly distinct graphics distorted to appear as one image. The billboards focus your attention on a certain vantage point, and once you consume the content from this angle, the images appear to be floating or popping outwards.
· Viewer Interaction: How Placement Affects the Experience
Viewer interaction is essential in marketing since it makes your target audience feel like they are part of your brand. Part of the continually growing success of 3D billboards lies in their unmatched viewer interaction. They accomplish this using techniques such as;
- Head Tracking: Autostereoscopic 3D billboards display content whose perspective seems to shift as you move. This is because they exploit head-tracking cameras, thus enabling them to modify the 3D effect accordingly.
- Haptic Feedback: Contemporary 3D billboards boast haptic technology, which makes you feel like you are receiving physical feedback once you touch the screen. However, this is not common in most 3D displays.
FAQs
1. How do 3D Billboards Trick Eyes?
3D billboards simply take advantage of your binocular disparity. They present two distinct visuals, each targeting one of your eyes. Once your brain consumes these visuals, it perceives them as one hence creating the illusion of floating images or protruding graphics. However, this is only possible from a specific viewing angle.
2. What Software is used in 3D Billboards?
Innovative software continues to pop up with each passing day and this has greatly eased the process of creating and showcasing 3D content. To design 3D visuals, you can count on Blender,3ds Max, and Autodesk Maya among other designing software. For rendering you can utilize V-Ray, Octane Render, or Arnold, while Adobe After Effects would come in handy when compositing and adding special effects.
3. Are 3D Billboards AI?
Three-dimensional billboards are not artificially generated but modern versions have incorporated AI, taking your user experience to a whole new other level. For instance, AI tools can be integrated into your 3D billboard to help you analyze your target audience’s behavior.
4. How do 3D Billboards Create Optical Illusion?
The reason you see floating images or graphics that are seemingly reaching out to you is that 3D billboards create an optical illusion. They accomplish this by targeting each of your eyes with a slightly distinct image. However, your brain is tricked into perceiving these slightly distinct images as one.
Conclusion
3D billboards have proven that the success of an advert lies in the impression left in your mind. These innovative displays utilize innovative storytelling and optical illusion to give your viewers an experience of a lifetime. So, as you look to take your brand’s prominence to the next level, let 3D billboards lead the way.
More resources:
Times Square 3D Billboards – Source: JYLED
3D Advertising Billboard Examples – Source: JYLED
Digital Billboard – Source: WIKIPEDIA
