How to choose a CGI studio (and what to ask before you sign)

Every CGI studio's showreel looks good at reel speed. Thirty frames of somebody else's best work, cut to music, tells you almost nothing about what happens when your product, your deadline and your legal team arrive. This is the checklist we would use if we were on the other side of the table.

1. Look at one film, not the reel

Pick a single project on the studio's site and watch it at full screen, paused. Look at the product: does the material behave like the real thing? Glass should refract, brushed metal should have direction, liquid should have weight. Look at the edges where the CGI meets anything real. Then ask who on the team actually made it. Studios are made of people, and the people who made the film you liked may or may not be the ones who will make yours.

2. Ask how they start

A good CGI studio asks for the brief, the product files, the brand guidelines and the placements before it quotes, and it will talk you out of ideas that will not survive a phone screen. If the first conversation is only about price and turnaround, the studio is selling render time rather than a film. Ask what their previz step looks like: the expensive decisions in CGI all happen before rendering, and a studio that shows you camera, blocking and timing early is protecting your budget.

3. Request the files, not just the video

Ask to see a project's still frames, a wireframe or a look-development test. Real production leaves a trail. A studio that can send you a clay render, a lighting study and the final frame has a pipeline; one that only has the finished video may be reselling work. Our own project pages carry sketches and behind-the-scenes frames for exactly this reason.

4. Understand what you are buying

CGI quotes should list the deliverables in crops and durations, the number of revision rounds, who owns the 3D assets afterwards and whether the product model can be reused. Reuse is where CGI beats a photoshoot: once your product exists in 3D, the next campaign starts from a finished asset instead of a hire budget. Make sure the quote says the asset is yours.

5. Red flags

Unlimited revisions (nobody offers that and survives). A reel of famous logos with no project pages behind them. No opinion about your idea. A quote that arrives before anyone has asked what the film is for. And in 2026, a studio that cannot tell you plainly where it uses AI: every film in our library carries an AI flag or a 'no AI used' stamp, and you should expect that clarity from anyone.

6. What a fair timeline looks like

For a single-product social film, two to four weeks from approved concept to masters is normal. Broadcast spots, multi-market campaigns and anything with heavy simulation take longer. If a studio promises a week, ask what is being skipped; if it asks for three months, ask what is being padded.

The short version

Judge one film at full screen, ask how they start, ask for the working files, read the quote for asset ownership, and expect a straight answer about AI. If you want to run that test on us, the library is open and the call is free.