Cave

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of Phantom Power. We are a music and sound production studio for several mediums.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cave?

I hire Cave when I need assistance in creating album artwork. We’ve also worked together on animations for social media and YouTube channels.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Through all of our engagements, Cave has done an excellent job of storyboarding and sketching ideas. They have a great style and tend to execute advanced 3D modeling and animations for us promptly.

Recently, they completed the album cover for a collection of heroic theme songs. They did a tremendous job of animating pieces of fabric and creating a 3D character model that really pops.

What is the team composition?

I usually only work with Raphael (Creative Director, Cave).

How did you come to work with Cave?

I’ve known one of the owners for several years, and we’ve worked on several big projects together, including movie campaigns and studio logos.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $1,000 on every album cover and animation project. I believe I get high-quality work for a reasonable price.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our most recent project spanned about two weeks in May 2019.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

In the year or so that we’ve worked together, they have helped define our brand visually. I receive a lot of positive comments from employees, competitors, and customers that our visual style really stands out.

How did Cave perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very responsive. We communicate easily through phone calls and emails, and they’ll usually send files for us to download and review.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cave has been great about giving us practical solutions that fit our budget. Raphael is one of the best creatives I’ve ever worked with. His ability to create fire or fluids—challenging concepts—is impressive.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

My projects are smaller than most, so I’m not really pushing the limits of what they can do. I simply hope that they can continue to grow and get bigger projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I found it worthwhile to listen to their guidance because they know what they’re doing.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We manufacture and sell phone cases direct-to-consumer online.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Cave?

We had no 3D rendering team and used Cave for end-to-end services (model creation, lighting, texturing, etc.)

What was the scope of their involvement?

End-to-end from ideation of the visuals to delivery of the rendered 3D assets.

What is the team composition?

A project manager and a 3D artist.

How did you come to work with Cave?

They were contracted for a small portion of a video project we worked on and identified them as talented 3D artists, through completion of their role in the video project.

How much money have you invested with Cave?

$50,000 USD to date.

What was the month and year that you began working with Cave? When was the project completed?

We’ve completed various projects with them. The first was in September of 2018. The most recent is still ongoing.

Completion of project varies depending on whether we’re working with them locally or remotely. Local completion of a complex project can be as quick as 2-3 days. Remote completion of a similar project is 2-3 weeks.

What is the status of this engagement?

Ongoing and positive.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Cave’s assets power the customer-facing product previews, enabling a photorealist representation of what the product looks like before customers purchase on our eCommerce project.

How did Cave perform from a project management standpoint? How responsive were they?

Extremely responsive. They were always available within a few hours, regardless of the time of day or day of the week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Agility in making adjustments to output, as well as raw talent in tackling complex photorealist 3D rendering issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’re the gold standard for what they do.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more detail you provide, the quicker you can see your project to completion. Don’t leave anything up to uncertainty. Cave will execute exactly what you tell them to, no matter the complexity.