Hedlundgruppen
Internship
3-Month Internship at Hedlundgruppen
During my internship at Hedlundgruppen, I was tasked with refreshing their website, with a particular focus on creating a dynamic, engaging banner animation that visually communicated the essence of their brand.
The main challenge was developing a clear concept, selecting and integrating assets from their existing product line, and presenting them in a way that reflected different seasons of the year — all while maintaining brand consistency and visual appeal.
It all begins with an idea.
The Idea of this project was to create an environment that could be decorated with products from Hedlundgruppen and their collection. To bring the concept to life, we first designed and positioned the camera to prototype the idea and help the client visualize our vision. Once the previsualization was complete, the client immediately saw the potential and got on board. While we worked on major improvements to the space, we asked the client to start planning which products they wanted to include and where they should be placed.
The way we positioned the camera was key to our concept. It allowed for seamless transitions between different seasons, using changes in lighting and products to showcase the scale and capabilities of the company. This approach was designed to fully convey the potential of the space and inspire future buyers.
Inspiration
Since we were creating a highly tailored environment based on both our needs and the client’s input, we didn’t rely on reference photos for the actual design. However, we did use inspirational material to guide the overall feel and ensure realism—incorporating elements like window structures, wall panels, and common imperfections such as uneven surfaces, dents, and cracks.
Adding some simples textures was always helpful in conveying our workflow and proving that things change quickly overtime. It also helped us bridge an understanding of what is a big or small request or small. Colors and lighting changed multiple times throughout prodction.
“Good Enough”
In the first two weeks, we aimed to achieve 80% of the results in just 20% of the time. This approach helped us quickly lay the foundation, while also highlighting how challenging and time-consuming it can be to refine the final 20%. On the upside, it allowed us to make "good enough" decisions early on and minimized surprises for the client down the line. Our biggest challenge was creating products from the client’s catalog in a way that delivered clear, high-quality results—without falling behind schedule.
Photoscanning vs modeling
Due to the large number of assets required, we had to strike a balance between what was best modeled and what could be scanned. Given our equipment limitations, we found it most reliable to avoid highly reflective objects. Scanning proved most effective for fabric-based items or assets where the texture would be too time-consuming to create through traditional texturing methods.
Rendering
When it came time to render, the large number of objects and lights competing for pixels caused significant noise in glossy materials and degraded overall image quality. Combined with long render times, this presented a major challenge. To meet our deadline, we had to reduce the total sample count—balancing render speed with acceptable noise levels.
Our solution was to split the lighting into separate layers, minimizing competition for pixels and compositing the final image in post. However, we discovered that each lighting layer placed inconsistent demands on VRAM, which was already limited. As a result, render times varied dramatically—some frames took just 2 minutes, while others required up to 30 minutes, depending on the VRAM load.
The VRAM issue wasn’t fully resolved until later, once we had gathered enough data and had time to investigate. However, it proved to be a valuable learning experience—highlighting the importance of monitoring VRAM usage and how significantly hardware limitations can impact the final result.
23min 4096 samples (normal)
6min 512 samples (split)
Repeating the steps until completion
As the Christmas season wrapped up, we transitioned to the next season with a new set of instructions and creative wishes. We carefully balanced the client’s vision with what was realistically achievable in production. This collaborative workflow kept the client involved throughout the process, providing full visibility into the final result.
As a bonus, we also produced close-up shots for each season, giving the client the flexibility to decide how and where to use them.
Results:
3D artists: 2
400 hours total
320 hours modeling, texturing, scanning, simulation and lighting
40 hours troubleshoots & adjustments
40 hours post & re renders
while the bulk of renders happens at night we still have to factor in render time when it comes to setting up composites, wips and troubleshoots