XO3D Studio · Guide
How to Review CGI Work.
What to look for at each production stage, so your feedback is useful, your revisions are purposeful, and the final output is what you actually need.
The studio behind this guide
Who you would be reviewing with
XO3D is a director-led product CGI studio, and the stages below are the ones we actually run: storyboard or animatic, then look-development frames, then two review rounds with the Creative Director attending. Worth understanding before you commission anyone, because the review structure is where most of the risk in a CGI project is either handled early or missed entirely.
How XO3D compares to the other five supplier modelsMost client feedback on CGI is either too vague ("it doesn't feel quite right") or too granular ("can we move that highlight 3% to the left"). Both create problems. Vague feedback generates multiple rounds of approximated revisions. Over-specific feedback on details that aren't visible in the final delivery wastes production time on changes that won't be seen.
This guide describes what each production stage is designed to resolve, and therefore what feedback is useful and what isn't at each stage. Getting this right protects your budget and produces better work.
Stage-by-stage review guide
What to focus on, and what to ignore, at each stage.
Storyboard Review
- What it resolves
- Shot selection, narrative structure, which features of the product are shown and in what order, overall creative direction of the film.
- What to look for
- Does this shot sequence tell the right story? Are all the important product features shown? Is the order of reveals logical? Does the structure serve the film's intended purpose (launch, technical explanation, investor pitch)?
- What not to focus on
- Exact lighting, material quality, camera movement smoothness, none of these are present at storyboard stage. The storyboard is a structural document.
Material Test Review
- What it resolves
- Whether the material reconstruction matches the physical product's surface behaviour under light, the specific alloy, finish, texture, and reflectance properties.
- What to look for
- Compare the render against the physical product or reference images. Does the surface behave correctly in light? Does the finish match the specification? Is the colour temperature accurate?
- What not to focus on
- Camera angle, composition, or background, these are not the subject of a material test. Focus entirely on surface quality.
Animatic Review
- What it resolves
- Exact camera choreography, timing, edit rhythm, product movement sequence, and structural relationship between image and sound.
- What to look for
- Watch it at full speed three times. Does the film feel like it has the right energy? Are reveals well-timed? Is any shot too short to read? Does mechanism movement match the correct operational sequence?
- What not to focus on
- Visual quality, the animatic intentionally uses rough geometry and no lighting. Evaluating material or render quality here is evaluating the wrong thing.
Final Render Review
- What it resolves
- Overall visual quality, grading, integration of all elements, camera, material, lighting, composition, into the finished piece.
- What to look for
- Does this meet the visual standard set in pre-production? Does the grade feel right? Are there any surface artefacts, rendering errors, or inconsistencies in the materials?
- How to give good feedback
- Reference specific frames by timecode (XO3D uses Frame.io for timestamped annotation). Describe what you see rather than prescribing the technical fix, "the highlight on the chassis edge feels too bright at 0:12" is better than "reduce the specular intensity by 20%".
FAQ
Common questions, answered.
How many people should be involved in reviewing CGI?
What's the best way to submit feedback?
Start the conversation
New to commissioning product CGI?
We will walk you through the review process before the project starts so there are no surprises mid-production.