Best Practices – Digital Asset Guidelines – Rev 4 www.autocare.org | www.autocarevip.com | technology@autocare.org 33 8. 360 Degree Product Image Best Practices 8.1 Overview This section of the guideline focuses on 360 degree product images. The first few sections provide a general overview of 360 degree product images. The last few sections provide details on how to format, name, and distribute 360 degree images. Defining 360 Product Images These digital assets are the final output from the 360 degree product photography process. Here is a broad definition of 360 degree product photography: “360 degree product photography is a process of capturing a series of still product images on specialized equipment that rotates the product on one or more planes. The images are edited, formatted and integrated with a 360 degree product image viewer that allows the consumer to interact with the product, rotating it from various angles and zooming into it to see the product detail.” The difference between Single Plane 360 and Multi-Plane 360 Product Photography Single Plane 360 degree product photography is product photography on a single plane – the product rotates on a single plane while the camera takes pictures at specified degree intervals. For example, if you create a single plane 72 frame 360 degree image, the camera takes a picture every 5 degrees as the product rotates on the table. Multi-Plane 360 degree product photography is product photography on more than one plane. For example, you capture 72 images as the product rotates on one plane, then move the camera above the product X degrees and take another 72 images and so on. When the images are edited, formatted, and associated to the image viewer, the consumer can rotate the product along the sides and the top – this is a Multi-Plane 360 degree product image. Compared to Single Plane 360 degree images, Multi-Plane 360 degree images require additional specialized equipment, are only suitable for products that need to be viewed from all angles, and are much more expensive to create. For these reasons, more than 90% of rotating product images are Single Plane 360 degree images and we will not be addressing Multi-Plane 360 degree image requirements in this document. The difference between still and 360 degree product photography