End-to-end CGI production for the launch of Onyx Coffee Lab’s Cafe Expressions ready-to-drink line — high-poly product models, a real-time web interactive, and a full suite of social and website video content, all built before a single physical can existed.
Overview
Onyx co-owner Jon Allen came in with a clear goal: the most impressive product page possible for the Cafe Expressions launch. The challenge was that the product was still in manufacturing — there were no cans to photograph. Everything needed to be created from scratch in 3D, matching real-world can dimensions precisely and rendered at high enough resolution for use on printed packaging.
The project broke into three interconnected pipelines: a high-poly Cycles render pipeline for still and video marketing content, a low-poly real-time model with custom materials for an interactive web experience hosted in Spline, and a dedicated web and social content pass covering multiple formats across all five SKUs.
Part 01
High-Poly Model & Renders
The high-poly model was built to exact real-world can dimensions, with label geometry, surface detail, and material properties tuned for photorealistic Cycles renders. Outputs needed to hold up at large print sizes — packaging, marketing collateral, and hero web imagery — so density and accuracy were non-negotiable from the start.
The cans didn’t physically exist yet. Every still, turntable, and set render had to be convincing enough to stand in for photography.
Part 02
Low-Poly Web Interactive
A separate low-poly version of the model was built for real-time use on the Cafe Expressions product page. Exported as FBX, it was brought into Spline where I built out the material setup — matching the brand palette across all five SKUs for a clean, real-time look. From there, the web developer took the hosted model and wired it into a scroll-driven animation on the page, with all five cans rotating and moving as visitors scroll through the product section.
Part 03
Web & Social Content
The final content pass covered a full range of formats for Onyx’s website and social channels — single-SKU hero shots, multi-can set renders in a styled environment, format-specific cuts for Instagram, and per-flavor transition effects. The closing piece in the sequence — the Final Shot — was built specifically as the last video on the Cafe Expressions scroll experience, rendered in three passes to give the team maximum flexibility.
