Did you know that 9% of all total carbon emissions come from the cement manufacturing industry? Cement will always be needed, but a lot of action is being taken by organisations to minimise that footprint.
Tarmac, a leading British Building Materials Company, held an event at one of its cement plants focused on this. Amongst other things, there would be a presentation showcasing a broad range of topics. This would cover the existing Cement Manufacturing process as well as the steps being taken to make the process more sustainable. Whether that's reducing waste, reliance on fossil fuels or reducing the carbon footprint.
What was the objective?
We were tasked with creating a series of 9x animated videos that would be used 'within' the presentation. The animated videos would need to clearly and concisely visualise complex processes, that would support live speakers. The animations would contain no sound and were entirely designed to facilitate ease of understanding. They would appear throughout the presentation, in selected areas only. The fun part, we had four weeks to do it from start to finish.
What were the challenges?
Unknown Timings
The presentation was delivered by a number of live speakers. Although a script was planned, it was impossible to determine how long each section would take. To handle this, each video was timed to match the intro to the section and then created as an infinite loop. This meant at the last minute we could adjust the videos from 30 seconds to 5 minutes if needed.
Accurate Representation of Complex Subject
It was vital for us to ensure that the content was illustrated and animated accurately. Throughout the project, we were in regular communication with the Cement Plant Manager to educate ourselves on the process from start to finish. This also ensured our visual representations would be accurate in what we were trying to showcase. Not only this, but it made sure our content visualisation was localised to the audience watching the presentation.
Brand Consistency
We had to develop a new style that would convey information clearly, without drawing too much attention away from the speaker. It also had to integrate with the appropriate Brand so it would feel seamless within the presentation. We initially underwent a concept development stage, which allowed us to create Design & Motion ‘rules’. This ensured that all of the final animations would be consistent, in both their look and movement.
Knowledge Level Diversity
The audience would include a broad range of knowledge levels, regarding cement manufacturing. As a result, the slides needed to cater to both those with extensive expertise and those with no knowledge whatsoever. This influenced the style we chose as it allows content to be very clearly laid out on screen and is great for communicating long processes.
Compressed Timeline
We were navigating a tight deadline, on a very technical project with no wriggle room. As a result, it was imperative that the workflow was meticulously managed to ensure the timely completion of each animation. To achieve this, we spent three weeks in Concept, Design and planning. This compressed the animation of all ten videos into one week. Doing this ensured that the speaker's script was as close to approved as possible. This means when it came to the animation stage, there was almost no feedback or amends required. Expectations had been clearly developed and approved over the previous weeks.
What was the outcome?
Managing the production process from ideation to final asset delivery, we collaborated closely with the clients to ensure that the loop animations accurately represented the cement manufacturing process. Despite the tight deadline, we delivered all the assets ahead of schedule.
Although the project required considerable research for our team to understand the cement manufacturing process accurately, we seamlessly integrated the client's brand and maintained a consistent style throughout the 9-loop animations. We also thoroughly enjoyed integrating subtle animated elements into each of the animations. This ranged from subtle movements in the machinery to more noticeable movements involving the vehicles or surrounding environments.
What were the Deliverables?
VIDEO CLIPS
Short video clips from the animation that could be used on social media for promotional purposes.
ASSET BANK
The client received access to a folder with high quality artwork extracted from the video to be used in other marketing channels.
OWNERSHIP
The client received ownership of all the artwork and assets, meaning they could receive all the files free of charge.
5 stars all round!
Great communication, creativity, collaboration, response times.
Wonderful team to work with and will definitely be using again in the future!
