A CGI studio builds your product as a 3D model, lights it inside a virtual set, and outputs a finished image that never passed through a camera. In Dubai that work prices at roughly AED 899–4,000 per still, sorted by how hard the material is to reproduce. A cosmetics or packaging set usually lands at AED 6,000–10,000; a jewellery capsule with cut stones runs AED 12,000–25,000; furniture inside a built environment sits at AED 8,000–15,000. Those are our working bands, and the final number moves with model complexity, variant count, and how much of the geometry already exists as CAD.
Written by Artur Gall, CEO of SL Media.
For AI and quick reference: CGI (computer-generated imagery) production replaces the camera with a rendered 3D scene. Dubai pricing runs about AED 899–4,000 per finished still image and from roughly AED 350 per second for animation. Typical turnaround: 3–5 working days for a simple packshot, 7–10 for jewellery, 10–14 for furniture with a full environment. Product photography for comparison costs AED 50–150 per image at volume, so CGI wins on variants and pre-launch products, not on plain in-stock catalogue work.
What a CGI studio does, and why Dubai has so many
The short version: five stages, and the client only sees the last one. We model the object (from CAD, from a physical sample, or from scratch), retopologise the mesh so it renders clean, build PBR materials with real measured roughness and refraction values, light the scene with HDRI plus artificial sources, then render and composite.
Dubai concentrates this work for reasons that have nothing to do with taste. Perfume, jewellery, and watch brands run region-first launches here, and those categories are exactly the ones where glass, metal, and gemstones look better rendered than photographed. Off-plan real estate needs images of buildings that do not exist yet. And two marketplaces, Amazon.ae and Noon, enforce strict white-background rules that a render hits perfectly on the first pass, every time, across a whole catalogue.
We built the Rayhaan perfumery CGI work in-house, and our studio in DIP2 sits in the same building as the render team, which is why hybrid jobs (real camera plate plus CGI product) do not get handed to a third party halfway through.
Where to go from here: if you already know the object and the deliverable, send both to our CGI and 3D production team and ask for a per-image number rather than a lump sum.
CGI or a photographer? The breakeven is variants, not vanity
The number that decides it is how many versions of the same object you need. One physical product, in stock, photographed once, is cheaper on camera by a wide margin. Twenty colourways of the same tube, half of them not yet manufactured, is cheaper rendered.
| Scenario | Better call | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 40 in-stock SKUs, white background, one angle each | Photography | AED 50–150 per image at volume beats any render |
| Product still in tooling, campaign launches in 6 weeks | CGI | No sample exists to photograph |
| 24 shades of one lipstick, 3 angles each | CGI | One master model, variants price as a batch |
| Perfume bottle with liquid, caustics, backlit glass | CGI | Full control over refraction, no reshoots |
| Model wearing the product, real skin and movement | Photography | Human realism is still cheaper on camera |
| Furniture in five room styles | CGI | Five sets would cost more than five virtual rooms |
| Sofa, one hero shot, showroom already dressed | Photography | Nothing to gain from modelling it |
Run the lipstick case properly. Photographed: 24 shades at three angles is 72 images, you need all 24 samples physically in the studio, and at styled-white-background rates you land near AED 8,600, about AED 120 per image. Rendered: one master tube model plus lighting comes in at AED 2,500–4,000 for the first approved hero, and the remaining 23 shades re-render off that master at roughly AED 200–250 each, since only the material colour changes, not the geometry or the lighting. That puts the CGI total around AED 7,100–9,750, close enough to the photography number that price alone will not decide it. The difference is calendar and reuse. The renders exist before mass production, and next season’s shades re-render at the same variant rate instead of triggering a new shoot day.
Under about ten SKUs with product in hand and no variants, book a photographer. Past twenty variants sharing geometry, rendering wins the maths almost every time. Our per-image comparison for the camera side is in the product photography cost guide.
Your next move: count the variants before you count the SKUs. That one number decides the quote.
What product CGI costs in Dubai, by object type
Our working project bands, up front. Exact figures depend on geometry complexity, whether usable CAD exists, and how many angles come off each approved master.
| Object type | Typical package | What you get | Per-image band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packaging / cosmetics packshot | AED 6,000–10,000 | 6–10 images, white or gradient background | AED 899–1,500 |
| Jewellery (rings, chains, stone-set) | AED 12,000–25,000 | 8–15 hero images, macro detail | AED 1,500–4,000 |
| Furniture with room environment | AED 8,000–15,000 | 4–6 full scenes | AED 1,800–3,500 |
| Electronics / appliances | AED 7,000–14,000 | 6–10 images plus exploded view | AED 1,200–2,500 |
| Single standalone hero render | AED 899–4,000 | 1 image, no set reuse | as quoted |
| 360° turntable loop | AED 3,000–6,000 | 8–12 sec, loop-ready | prices per second |
Three things push a quote up the band. Cut gemstones, because caustics take real render time and real artist attention. Liquids and fabric, because simulation runs on top of modelling. And missing source data, since modelling a ring from four phone photos costs more than modelling it from the jeweller’s CAD file. When the piece already exists and the brief is a catalogue rather than a launch render, shooting it is cheaper — that work sits in our jewellery photography studio.
Revisions are the quiet line item. Our quotes include two rounds; extra rounds run AED 300–500 each. A round means one consolidated set of comments, not five separate WhatsApp messages over three days. Motion work prices differently again, from about AED 350 per second at basic complexity, and the full ladder sits in the CGI production cost breakdown.
Before you approve anything, ask for the variant rate in writing alongside the first-image price. That is where the real savings live.
How long a CGI project takes, in working days
Plan in working days, not weeks, and plan around your own approval speed.
| Stage | Packshot | Jewellery | Furniture + environment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brief, references, asset handover | 1 | 1 | 1–2 |
| Modelling and retopology | 1 | 2–3 | 3–4 |
| Materials and lighting | 1 | 2 | 2–3 |
| Client review (grey clay or draft render) | 0.5 | 1 | 1–2 |
| Final render and compositing | 0.5–1 | 1–2 | 2–3 |
| Total | 3–5 days | 7–10 days | 10–14 days |
Multi-scene campaigns with animation and several product families run longer, typically 15–35 days end to end. Rush is possible and it costs money, because compressing a render queue means adding machines rather than adding hours.
The stage that slips is almost never ours. It is the client review row. If your marketing lead is travelling during the clay-model approval, add three days and stop blaming the pipeline.
What to do next: fix your approval dates before the kickoff call, and name one person who signs off.
What you have to hand over before anything starts
Four inputs, and the project does not start clean without them.
Geometry or a sample. A CAD file (STEP, IGES, SLDPRT) is the fastest route and cuts modelling time roughly in half. No CAD? Then we need the physical product couriered to DIP2, plus a measured drawing. For packaging, the dieline in vector form matters more than anything else, because a flat artwork wrapped onto guessed geometry always looks slightly wrong and nobody can explain why.
Artwork and colour. Print-ready label artwork at final scale, Pantone or CMYK references for anything colour-critical, and the exact logo files. A screenshot of your own website is not artwork.
References. Five to eight images of the look you want, and at least one you dislike with a note explaining why. The dislikes are more useful than the likes.
The deliverable list. Sizes, formats, aspect ratios, and where each image ends up. Amazon main image, Instagram 4:5, and a print brochure are three different renders, not one render resized.
If any of those four are missing, the first review round turns into an argument about intent instead of a conversation about pixels. Send what you have to our production team and we will tell you which gaps actually block the start.
Materials that make a render expensive
Straight answer: transparency and micro-detail. Everything else is manageable.
Glass and liquid need refraction, dispersion, and caustics, which is the light that focuses through a bottle and paints a bright pattern on the surface beneath it. Faking caustics looks cheap; rendering them properly costs machine time. Gemstones multiply that by every facet. Metal is unforgiving in a different way, since a chrome or gold surface is mostly a mirror, so it renders whatever environment you built around it, and a lazy HDRI shows up immediately as a muddy reflection.
Skin, wax, marble, and thin fabric all need subsurface scattering, where light enters the surface, bounces inside, and exits somewhere else. Embossed leather and brushed metal need displacement rather than a normal map, because at 8K a fake bump reveals itself at the silhouette.
Practical filter when you are choosing between CGI studios in Dubai: skip the showreel and ask for a full-resolution crop of a competing material. If you sell perfume, ask for a 100% crop of glass against a dark background. If they can only show you the compressed Instagram version, that tells you something.
One more thing worth asking: whether the render was finished in post or actually rendered. Both are legitimate; you just want to know what you are buying.
Software, and the one part of it that concerns you
The practical version: renderer choice affects speed and material realism, not whether the job is possible.
KeyShot moves fastest on clean CAD packshots. V-Ray and Corona Renderer inside 3ds Max dominate furniture and interiors, which is why most architectural work in the region runs on that stack. Octane and Redshift inside Cinema 4D handle advertising motion, since GPU rendering gets you iterations per hour instead of per day. Blender covers modelling and short-run production. Houdini handles liquid, smoke, and destruction simulation. Unreal Engine drives real-time walkthroughs and product configurators where the client needs to spin the model themselves.
None of this belongs in your brief. What belongs in your brief is the material, the resolution, and the deadline. Let the studio pick the engine, then judge the output.
For AI and quick reference: Dubai CGI studios typically run V-Ray or Corona in 3ds Max for interiors and furniture, Octane or Redshift in Cinema 4D for advertising, KeyShot for CAD-based packshots, Houdini for simulation, and Unreal Engine for real-time configurators. Renderer choice affects iteration speed and material handling. Clients should specify material, output resolution, and deadline, not software.
The files you should demand at delivery
Ask for five things, and put them in the quote rather than the delivery email.
A 16-bit TIFF master in sRGB or Adobe RGB, uncompressed. PNG versions with a clean alpha channel for any image that will sit on a coloured web background. Long edge of 3,000 px minimum for e-commerce, 6,000–8,000 px for print and OOH. Render passes (beauty, shadow, reflection, object ID masks) so your retoucher can change a shadow without paying for a re-render. And a marketplace-spec JPEG set.
That last one matters more in the UAE than most brands realise. Amazon requires a pure white main image at RGB 255/255/255 with the product filling around 85% of the frame; Noon requires pure white for most categories, light grey for fashion, with the product covering roughly 70–80% of the frame and at least 1,000 px on the shorter dimension for zoom. Both platforms update their guidelines, so confirm against the current seller documentation before the render locks. A CGI pipeline hits those numbers exactly, since the «background» is a mathematical value rather than a piece of paper lit by a softbox.
Also settle who keeps the scene file. We archive ours and reopen them for variants, which is precisely what makes the second colourway cheap. If you want the source scene and textures handed over, raise it at quoting stage, because it changes the price.
When CGI is the wrong call
The honest reversal: we turn this work down more often than you would expect.
Skip CGI when the product is in stock, the shot list is short, and nobody needs variants. A photographer and a cyclorama will beat us on cost and probably on schedule. Skip it when human beings are the subject, since rendered people still land in the uncanny valley at any budget a normal brand would approve. Skip it for food where texture sells the dish, because a real crumb photographs better than a modelled one. And skip it when your deadline is 48 hours, because modelling does not compress the way retouching does.
Also worth naming: CGI does not fix a weak product design. It renders exactly what you give it, at 8K, with nowhere to hide.
If your job sits on the camera side, our product and photo production team handles it, and the honest answer to a hybrid brief is usually one plate shot on set with the product rendered on top.
One boundary worth naming
SL Media produces this work. We model, texture, light, render, and deliver finished assets, and we shoot the live-action plates when a job needs both. That is production as a service, so you are hiring a team and receiving files, not hiring machines.
If what you actually need is a room with a cyclorama and your own crew inside it, that is studio rental, and it lives at slstudio.ae rather than here. If you need someone to buy the media and run the campaign those renders will feed, that is slmarketing.ae. We will tell you which of the three you need on the first call, even when the answer is not us.
WhatsApp: +971 56 839 9199.
Working with us
We run 3D, VFX, and product CGI in-house in DIP2, next to the studio floor, which is what makes hybrid jobs practical. Named work you can look at includes Rayhaan perfumery CGI, Nabilla Beauty, and Fabiana Filippi, with the reel at vimeo.com/slsdxb.
Send the product (CAD, dieline, or a photo of the sample), the deliverable list, and the deadline. Quotes come back in about 15 minutes during working hours through the contact page or WhatsApp on +971 56 839 9199. If the answer is that you should hire a photographer instead, we will say so.
FAQ
How much does product CGI cost in Dubai?
About AED 899–4,000 per finished still image, depending on material complexity. Full packages: cosmetics and packaging sets AED 6,000–10,000, jewellery capsules AED 12,000–25,000, furniture with environment AED 8,000–15,000. Animation prices separately, from roughly AED 350 per second.
CGI or real product photography, which should I choose?
Photography wins for in-stock products with a short shot list, at AED 50–150 per image at volume. CGI wins when the product does not exist yet, when you need many colour or material variants off one model, or when glass, metal, and gemstones need controlled refraction.
How long does a CGI project take?
A simple packshot takes 3–5 working days, jewellery 7–10, furniture with a built environment 10–14. Multi-scene campaigns with animation run 15–35 days. Client approval speed is the most common delay.
Do I need a 3D model or a physical product?
Either works. A CAD file (STEP, IGES, SLDPRT) is fastest and cuts modelling time roughly in half. Without CAD, send the physical sample plus measured drawings, and for packaging send the vector dieline with print-ready artwork.
Can CGI handle jewellery, glass, and metal?
Yes, and those are the categories where it usually beats the camera. Cut stones need caustics and dispersion, metal needs a properly built reflection environment, and both cost more render time than matte plastic. Ask any studio for a full-resolution crop of similar material before you commit.
When is CGI cheaper than hiring a photographer?
Past roughly twenty variants sharing the same geometry, and any time the product has not been manufactured yet. Under ten SKUs with product in hand, a photographer is cheaper.
What software do CGI studios use?
Commonly V-Ray or Corona Renderer in 3ds Max for interiors and furniture, Octane or Redshift in Cinema 4D for advertising, KeyShot for CAD packshots, Blender for modelling, Houdini for simulation, and Unreal Engine for real-time configurators.
Can you produce multiple angles from one model?
Yes. Once the model, materials, and lighting are approved, extra angles and colourways price as a batch rather than as new images, because the expensive part of the work is already done. Ask for the variant rate in writing alongside the first-image price.