3D Animation
A little depth can add a lot of value to your video production. Unlike the limitations of live action or 2D animation, 3D animation allows you to explore otherwise unseen views of your products, while telling stories in an incredibly compelling way. Whether you’re embracing a 3D character animation to tell your brand story, or looking to develop a video game trailer for your new product launch - our keyframe wizards will dazzle your audiences with a stunning 3D animation. At Levitate, our seasoned producers will walk you through the 3D animation process - from the animatic to the final render. Have a question on 3D? No sweat - shoot us a question anytime!
.jpeg)
3D Animation Process
3D animated videos take anywhere between 12-16 weeks, depending on the complexity. Like all our videos, we’ll begin by writing a script. A script is like the foundation of your video - everything must be built around it. Once you determine that the messaging is perfect, we’ll begin by 3D modeling your product or character.
Our 3D artists use a variety of 3D animation softwares to create styleframes of your final product, including autodesk Maya, Cinema 4D, and more. From those models, we’ll render out a few still frames. These 3D styleframe renders will show you what the 3D objects will look like, and the environment they’ll live in. A styleframe is a picture that shows you what the rest of your video will look like. You can think of it like a test image - where we can explore what colors, styles, text, and compositions might work best for your video. The overall look and feel of your 3D rendered styleframes will help us craft the rest of your video. We’ll ask for feedback on these styleframes to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Once approved, we’ll take that style and apply it across a full storyboard.
A storyboard is a sequence of static pictures that show you what your whole video will look like. Our goal is to discuss the content of each frame so that any necessary changes can be made before animating. We may show you an animatic to help us understand time and pacing before animating. An animatic is like a slideshow of images, showing what your video could look and sound like. This helps us understand how fast or how slow a scene is moving, before we animate. Once approved, it’s time to make it move!
Our animators will begin the process of 3D animation. The next delivery you’ll receive is a full grayscale version of your video. At that point we’ll determine if the movements make sense, before we add lighting and color to the video. The 3D models may look odd before we add this lighting and color. From there, we’ll gather your feedback and apply it to the video.
This is the process of ‘baking the cake’ so to speak. We will export your animation from the program with all the proverbial bells and whistles, including expert lighting, texturing, and 2D graphics. Once this is done, we’ll show you a final pass of the animation before approval.
