Energy Animation

Every project that we produce is completely bespoke to the brief and the requirements, meaning we don’t have a single set cost to produce a video. A few factors that will influence the cost are how quickly you need the video, how long the video needs to be, and what design style you choose for the video. Creating a simple 30 second video using supplied photography and text will cost a lot less than a complex 30 second video using photorealistic 3D. The same photorealistic 3D animation might cost less than a 2D animation that uses custom characters. Ultimately, it depends on what you want. We’ve produced hundreds of videos over the years so we’ll be able to give you an estimate fairly quickly. We’ll also put together a proposal for you, so if you have a budget in mind or not, you can quickly see what different approaches to your brief and their indicative costs.

There’s no fixed production window that we have to produce animated videos. It completely depends on the size of the team on your project, the complexity of the animation and other variables like the design style. We say that 8 weeks is a nice sweet spot of keeping momentum but having enough time to properly review materials and get feedback from wider stakeholders if necessary. However, we’ve delivered projects in much shorter time, sometimes as little as a fortnight. If you’ve got a specific deadline in mind, just let us know and we’ll be able to tell you if it's feasible. Often for clients with a short production time, we just scale up the team, meaning we can get through more work quicker. We’ll also ask about any compliance, regulatory or legal checks that may need to be factored into the timelines. 3D Animation for the energy industry will take longer than 2D animation, so it’s worth keeping that in mind if you have an urgent deadline. Don’t hesitate to give us a call or drop us an email if you have a project in mind, or an idea you’d like to bounce around.

We often work in multiple languages for our clients. You get a much better experience and understanding for non-native speakers. There’s three approaches we have for multilingual projects. Firstly we can have the script translated, voiced in English (or your preferred language) and then use the translations as subtitles in a clear space at the bottom of the video. This is the easiest, fastest and most cost effective way. The second option is to not use a voiceover and just use text on screen. We have procedural software that will swap out the next depending on the language. This is a bit more immersive than the first option and is especially useful if there is content that is market specific. Finally, we can use the translated script to get a voiceover in each preferred language. This is the most immersive route, but there is an increased cost in the complexity it adds to production and the requirement of multiple voiceovers.

We deliver all of our animations in MP4 format. We can export high quality files for use in large applications like conferences or exhibitions. We will most commonly be required to export a web optimised version for digital uses like websites, social media platforms or intranet systems. We can export specific file types you may require for ESG reporting platforms or your company LMS (learning management system). We can also export in mobile-friendly formats for use on-site or in-field. If you have some specific in mind, we’ll uncover it during the briefing process and ensure we account for it in the final list of deliverables.

Energy infrastructure animations often include sensitive information, or information that is not yet in the public domain. For this reason, we build security into every step of our process. We have signed NDAs with you and with every member of your production team. We have access restrictions to file storage systems that mean only the necessary information is passed through the team to the people that need it. All of our communications happen through trusted platforms like Teams, and any files shared are password protected. Once the project is complete, we remove information from the cloud as standard, but we can also delete sensitive information that we no longer require. The best policy is to only share with us information that is absolutely necessary for the project, and to revisit the sensitive information shared once the script is written. This way we ensure the very minimum amount of sensitive information is shared and stored for the project to meet the objectives.

Throughout the production process, we’re guided by you and your technical team to make sure that everything we create is on the right track. It starts with a script to get the words right, and then we move onto style setting. We’ll create two levels of the storyboards; the sketch storyboard and the final storyboard, which show you exactly what’s going to happen on-screen. If there’s a requirement for reviews with multiple stakeholder groups (such as ops, HSE, engineering, etc), these storyboards act as the perfect review tool. At every important step we present our work to you, gather feedback and incorporate any changes you may have, before moving on to the next step. This ensures that the subject matter in our energy company videos is completely accurate throughout the process, from scriptwriting through to modelling and animation.

When working on energy company videos, it’s critical to create authentic communications in the look and feel of the brand. We’re used to working with some of the largest companies in the energy industry (and others) and the brand guidelines that shape those visual identities. We’ll review your guidelines and ensure any visuals we create are compliant. For example your brand might restrict the use of characters, or have a specific character style to use. We’ll then create a project-specific style guide that sets out exactly what the final animation will look like, stress-tested across a handful of different frames. This means you can review and approve the final design style before we create the full storyboard. One of the key benefits of animation is that you can create a video that is completely unique to your brand; your fonts, your colours, your logos, everything is designed bespoke to you.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to energy training videos. When it comes to training, especially effective training, there is context that needs to be kept in mind. We’ll always try to define success for your project so we know exactly how effective the training has been. For technical procedures like maintenance or operational tasks, we recommend 2-4 minutes. This will keep people engaged but give you enough time to explain in detail. For safety or emergency procedures it can be much shorter, anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on how much information you need to give. Keep in mind that this should be very specific information that gets straight to the point. For a comprehensive training video explaining system overviews, complex infrastructure or broader topics then somewhere from 5 minutes upwards can still be very effective. For on-boarding or learning programs, it's best to create modules or series of videos rather than one long video. Think of the Netflix approach, it’s much easier to watch multiple episodes of a series than a single film - especially a longer film. This approach improves retention of the audience, enables a flexible learning schedule, creates easier navigation for the future and helps to make the content more updatable and manageable, giving a longer shelf life.

We have very talented wordsmiths and copywriting experts who are well versed in writing for animated videos. Our team has a long background in creating animated energy videos and we have some brilliant partners who specialise in turning highly complex, often scientific information into easier to understand and digest materials. It’s also key to work closely with your team to ensure any materials we create are highly accurate and we bring the animation expertise to ensure that the visual storytelling captures the audience as intended. Most of our clients have the scientific experts with technical materials already developed, but need help to translate it for a wider audience.

As part of any of our projects, you have complete access to the files we create in the production process. We just ask that we can use any non-sensitive information as part of our own marketing efforts, helping to create the case studies that you can find on our website. In the final stage of the production process we can hand over source files allowing you to make any future updates yourselves. Please keep in mind that we may use specific, licensed software, plug-ins, extensions or effects that we cannot share due to the copyright of the creator. It can also be very challenging for other artists and in-house teams to pick apart complex files as they’ve not been involved in their creation. We have specific ways of working that allow us to be extremely creative and efficient when creating files, but they may be different to how others are used to working or setting up files. Often it’s more efficient for us to update files, but you are in no way restricted to only use us to do this in the future.

Our process is designed to move forward efficiently and effectively so we can deliver the most value to our clients. At every stage of the process, we’ll present our work, discuss it, and have a feedback window for you to properly digest the work and gather feedback from any other stakeholders that may be involved or need to be consulted. We’ll then incorporate the feedback by updating the design (or task) to reflect the change. This is what we refer to as a round of amends. For the majority of our clients across the majority of our projects, this is plenty - and for this reason we include a round of amends per stage as standard in our projects. If you had a second round of revisions, we’d most likely be able to accommodate those changes. Typically these are minor changes as we’ve already been through a round of revisions. Once you’re happy, you approve the task and we move forward to the next stage. If you wanted to go back to a stage once it had been approved, we’d handle this on a case-by-case basis. It’s hard for us to include this into our pricing as it may be a small word change to the script which has little impact on the work completed, or it might be changing an entire paragraph which means re-storyboarding. We’ll always have the conversation with you before making any changes and discuss any potential extra fees. It’s very rare for the scope to change during production.

2D animation is generally quicker to create and more cost effective due to the reduced complexity in the production. 2D is perfect for explaining high-level concepts and/or processes, like energy systems, flow diagrams or company communications. Complex subject matters can still be produced, but in a stylised manner rather than a realistic one.

3D Animation for the energy industry works particularly well for technical equipment or infrastructure projects, showing the audience inside machinery, viewing complex installations or understanding relationships between components or facilities. The level of realism it provides has an obvious advantage for training and maintenance usages, but this comes at both a financial and time cost. 3D animations are typically more expensive to produce due to more specialised skills, more creative tasks and longer creative tasks.

We’ll create a ‘main’ animation and then reduce that down into various formats and lengths that are suited for social media. It’s crucial that this is a consideration from the start so that we can create modular content that makes the editing process simple and easy. We can also design the storyboard in such a way that enables easy formatting for different aspect ratios. This is much harder to do once all the assets have been created, so please let us know as part of the briefing stage. It’s also worth mentioning that social media may have a different audience or context to your ‘main’ animation, and it might not make sense to simply shorten the main animation. For example, a slow, emotive animation for your website might not work on social media where viewing time is much shorter and the first few seconds are critical to hooking the audience’s attention. There are other nuances to social media like subtitling that are worth considering as part of the briefing process.

Our process is designed to ensure that our energy company videos are fully compliant and meet their intended requirements and objectives. We do this by having regular check-in meetings to present work carried out at each stage. Having your HSE team involved in these presentations, or in the key presentations (like scriptwriting) will enable us to ensure the accuracy of the information within the animation. If you have specific messaging like PPE requirements, safety or disclaimer information, or other crucial areas that need to be highlighted in the animation, be sure to let us know in the briefing section so that our copywriting team can factor this into the scripts. Making sure animations meet company compliance requirements can also impact timelines, so be sure to factor this into your expectations, have the relevant parties involved and bought-in to what you’re doing, and let us know so that we can have the materials ready for any checkpoint dates.