Designers Want More 3-D and AR/VR Projects

Creating captivating visual media products can be time-intensive. If technology could reduce that labor burden, creative professionals would rather work on projects centered around emerging technologies than spend their time coding, according to a recent study.

In an August survey by Pfeiffer Consulting and Adobe of 75 professionals in design, illustration, imaging and graphics from the US and Europe, about seven in 10 respondents said they would like to do more 3-D and motion graphics work if it were made easier for them. Another 14% of respondents said they want to do more work in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Just 8% desired to do more coding.

Use cases of 3-D in media and marketing include display ads that have interactive 3-D widgets embedded into them, ads that appear as if an object is moving off the screen and toward the person viewing the ad, 3-D filmmaking and 3-D printing where printed models are used in brand activations. AR and VR are used in products like Snapchat lenses, mobile video games such as Pokémon Go and VR headsets.

One thing that could free up designers’ time so that they can work more on 3-D and AR/VR projects is artificial intelligence (AI). AI can improve productivity and save workers time by automating rote tasks and helping people quickly make sense of massive data sets. More than half of the respondents in the study by Pfeiffer Consulting and Adobe said that AI will be extremely or quite important for creative professionals.

In a July survey by Wrike and EdgePeak Consulting of 1,552 people who work in design, art and film production, 85% of respondents believed that AI will have a significant impact on their creative output in the next two years. No other emerging technology was expected to have an impact this big.