Anyone else using AI to visualize their mods before buying?
Full context, I've been using photoshop for 20 years, and worked in the off-road industry for 15 of them. I ran a marketing agency for the aftermarket off-road world for years, and had a good eye for media of all kinds. But since high school, I've always instinctively photoshopped wheels, lift, tires, bumpers, lights, basically any exterior mod before spending a dollar. I even did renderings for clients with deep pockets when I worked at a Jeep shop (it worked really well to get them to start the build). Even did a few SEMA renderings for pitch decks that ended up getting sponsors on board for the build.
Problem is, that process is grueling. It can take me 2 days of squinting at my screen to get something that looks passable. Just sourcing the right images and getting colors/lighting to look decent takes hours.
I needed to do one for my new Shelter Green 801A a few months ago. I really wanted machined KMC Forged wheels (had them on the Bronco Raptor before this), and wanted to upgrade to 37's. But since we're talking about $5,000+ in mods here, and every other Shelter Green truck seems to have bronze/black wheels, I just had to be sure.
So I did a rendering, except this time, I used AI to add real parts to the build. The render came out awesome, and after the truck was finished, it actually looked pretty close to the AI output! Only inaccuracy was the wheel size, I think. They look too big to be 17s.
After showing some buddies and industry friends, they urged me to show them how to do it. The problem is, it took a TON of prompt engineering, sourcing the right images, and using the right image generation model to do it. Stuff that most of my caveman friends have no idea how to do.
So THAT lead me to spending the next 8 weeks building a web app to make it easy for anyone to visualize their build before adding mods. I called it "Modwiz", and as soon as I started showing people, it got a ton of traction via social media. I opened a beta waitlist, and got 250 signups in the first week.
I launched the site last week, giving every new signup 400 free credits = 16 renderings. It still has a long way to go until I can get some manufacturer's onboard to provide their data and have a way to "build" your truck with their parts, but all the wiring is there to make that happen. For now, you can upload reference images of parts you want, and add a photo of your rig, and it'll get pretty damn close.
Check it out at https://www.modwiz.io/
TL;DR: I built an app to help people make better mod purchasing decisions by using AI to help them visualize things they want to change on their trucks before committing.
