Sure, but if that image shows a real product someone intends to sell, forget about it. At least for now!
AI can do impressive things. Those polished lifestyle shots and oddly beautiful concept visuals? Just look at this post's banner! For mockups, creative campaigns, or rough digital assets, AI is very useful.
The problem is the 'generative' part of AI.
If the AI only sees one product photo, it has to invent everything it cannot see like stitching, seams, logo placement, etc. Even when the service accepts more than one image, the same issue remains.
We tried several popular services that claim to generate 360 product views from 1 to 4 product images and fed them 360 product photos of a shoe from our past shoots.
It's probably the easiest product we've ever photographed in 360 degrees so the bar was low:
The results were fun. Some were even useful in a 'digital asset for a game' kind of way. But would we put them on a real e-commerce product page? No.
Exhibit A: pretty much everything is wrong here.
Because the details were not reliable, shapes changed, materials drifted, small product features disappeared or moved. Some surfaces looked plausible but wrong. And that is the whole problem..
Plausible is not enough when somebody is deciding whether to buy a physical product.
Exhibit B: best result so far, but look at the patterns, text, and missing details.
We have been in the 360 product image business for 15 years. The point of a 360 product view is to let a prospective buyer inspect the actual product from all angles, understand what they are buying, and make a more confident decision.
That is why 360 product views help with buyer confidence and they do reduce returns and increase sales if done right.
But this only works when the thing is accurate... and it's not:
Exhibit C: lots of crooked patterns and guessed details.
So the practical answer is simple. If you need a creative asset, experiment with AI. Have fun with it and put it to good use.
If you need a real 360 product view for e-commerce, photograph the product properly or render it from an accurate 3D model. Use the recommended number of 360-degree images, and WebRotate 360 software is here to help:
Get an instant 35% discount on the best 360 product view software. Ends Aug 5.
Real products still have to be photographed or 3D rendered. That's the part AI can't take.