Coffee CGI artwork — ingredients as the product
Can the ingredients represent the actual product without packaging? We asked ourselves this question and tried it out — with positive results. Coffee itself not only smells wonderfully aromatic, it also looks fantastic. We therefore used creative advertising photography to turn the actual substance into a surreal eye-catcher.
Watch how this coffee CGI artwork was made
The result was a composition built in the photo studio with coffee beans in a glass. We digitally removed the glass in post-production, leaving only the beans. We then added a label as a 3D rendering, mounted a Coffee2Go lid, and placed the surreal product image in a tropical scene — done.
This coffee CGI artwork we created entirely by manual retouching — before the time of AI. A Wacom graphics tablet and Photoshop were the only tools. Furthermore, it demonstrates exactly why craft still matters in the age of AI — the YouTube video shows the full creation process from studio shoot to final scene.
This coffee CGI artwork is a reminder of what creative retouching can achieve without any AI assistance. The craft is in the decisions — which beans, which light, which composition makes the viewer stop. If you want to understand where retouching sits today, our piece on whether retouchers are dead puts it in context. See also our Power-Up Ad and Fresh Colors ad concept for more concept-driven retouching work. Surreal imagery, absurd concepts, and craft that predates the AI era — that is the thread connecting all three. We still believe that kind of work is worth making.
* Affiliate disclosure: The link to the Wacom graphics tablet leads to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn a small commission if you purchase through this link — at no extra cost to you.
