CGIs are giving real-life models a run for their money.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea is the newest international brand to ride the trend of creating a CGI model to serve as their social media influencer.
We kid you not, Ikea’s newest ‘ambassador’ is not a real person.
Imma, who already has over 200,000 followers on Instagram, is the newest CGI It girl out there, following predecessors such as Shudu, Margot, and Zhi of Balmain, and freelance CGI social media influencer, Bermuda. She’s named after the Japanese word “ima,” which means “now” and it certainly reflects how very modern and now she truly is.
As the star of the “Happiness At Home with Imma” campaign, Imma shows what it’s like to live inside Ikea’s new Harajuku shop for three days, livestreaming the whole time.
Aside from the livestream, Imma posts her daily experiences on her Instagram account, and it includes a picture-perfect acai bowl, her latest lesson from her yoga teacher, and sleeping in—you guessed it—Ikea furniture.
She even has her own Twitter account, and she shares there how her fashion career has already taken off—she was even the cover model for CGWorld magazine once.
【表紙の女性、CGです】[本日発売] CG・映像クリエイターのための総合誌『CGWORLD 246号』★特集１：デジタルヒューマン最前線 ★特集２：インダストリー×XR https://t.co/efCIAUraa7 pic.twitter.com/QWL1fVyKII
— 3dtotal_JP (@3DTotal_JP) January 10, 2019
Created by Tokyo-based CG company ModelingCafe, Imma’s photos are actually rendered by placing her 3D animated head onto a real person’s body and background.
If this kind of trend continues for years to come, real models will probably be out of work sooner rather than later, which means they might have to look for regular people’s jobs. While it would mean less for the rest of us, we wouldn’t mind seeing gorgeous models work in our own offices.