Team
Thomas Howcroft
Founder and Creative Director
Engineering precision with cinematic craft. Producing premium product CGI for marketing-led, high-end brands.
LinkedInFocus
- Product CGI & launch visuals
- Visual strategy for marketing teams
Expertise
- Engineering-to-visual storytelling
- High-end rendering & creative direction
Speciality
- CG launch kits (stills + film + systems)
- Explaining complex tech clearly
Engineering-led realism · Campaign-ready visuals · Senior client partner
About Thomas
Thomas is the Founder of XO3D, working at the intersection of engineering accuracy and premium visual craft. Day to day, he shapes how we translate complex products into launch-ready imagery and film, guiding creative direction, ensuring technical fidelity, and helping marketing teams communicate value quickly and clearly.
He cares about three things: precision, clarity, and impact. That means visuals grounded in real engineering intent, elevated with cinematic lighting and detail, and delivered in a way that supports campaigns across web, social, sales, and product launches. Whether the goal is to explain how a technology works or to elevate perceived value through premium imagery, Thomas focuses on creating content that performs commercially as well as visually.
Collaborative and hands-on, he works closely with clients through each stage of production, aligning stakeholders early, keeping feedback loops tight, and ensuring every deliverable meets the top-tier quality XO3D is known for.
What Thomas leads at XO3D
- Translating technical products into clear, high-impact visual narratives
- Creative direction and quality control across stills, film and launch systems
- Engineering-accurate workflows from CAD/reference to final deliverables
- Helping marketing teams define deliverable sets that support campaigns
- Keeping projects efficient through structured reviews and fast feedback loops
- Building XO3D’s standards for premium realism and consistency
Background
After graduating in 2013, Thomas began his career as a CAD engineer, building a strong technical foundation in SolidWorks before focusing on visual storytelling through KeyShot and high-end rendering. He later lectured in 3D rendering at the University of Hertfordshire, mentoring artists and refining the practical workflows that bridge engineering and marketing.
Inspired by the creative ambition he encountered at Jensen Consulting, Thomas went on to establish XO3D as a specialist studio producing premium 3D product imagery and animation for marketing-led brands. Today, his work centres on combining engineering-grade accuracy with cinematic craft, creating launch visuals that elevate products, strengthen campaigns, and help ambitious teams bring new ideas to market with confidence.
Beyond XO3D
Thomas also runs TomHow, an independent SEO and AI-search visibility consultancy. There he helps B2B brands stay findable, understood, and cited as search shifts toward AI-generated answers. Both practices share the same principle: technical precision in service of clear commercial communication.
Expert sessions
Recorded answers to questions buyers ask, published as essays:
Quoted on
- 3D Creative Studios: A Guide for Marketing Professionals
- 3D Modelling Services
- 5 Animation Production Stages: Triumphs & Trials Unleashed
- Animation Studio Nightmare: Avoiding 10 Common Mistakes
- CAD to CGI
- CGI Solutions
- CGI vs Product Photography
- Exploded Views: Every Part, Rendered
- Furniture and Interiors CGI
- Furniture Rendering Guide
- How to choose a CGI studio
- Is a configurator worth building?
- Jewellery Animation
- Jewellery Rendering Guide
- Product Animation
- Product Animation Guide
- Product CGI Films
- Product CGI Stills
- Product Configurator
- Product Interactives
- Product Launch Animation: A Playbook for Tech Brands
- Product Visualisation
- Sony WF-C710 launch visuals
- Studio, platform, VFX house or agency?
- What Is Augmented Reality? Product, Retail and Brand Uses