2020 brought us the year of toilet paper shortage and online content surplus, and people got creative trying to figure out how to film virtually. Psst… do it with 3D animation! Somewhere right in between “it’s just the flu” and “here, have $1,200” of the Covid-19 timeline, the oil and gas company Fesco came to us with the challenge of showcasing their entire frac flowback and production testing product lines. Easy peasy. We’ll just hop on a plane to Midland, Texas with our drone… but things escalated kind of quickly. To protect the safety of our crew and client, the only viable option was to create an oil and gas animation. And boy, are we glad we did!

Fesco is a wildly successful all-American family-owned business with an even wilder backstory. Let us brag on them just a little. They are Texans through and through, and working with Fesco was smoother than smooth.

How oil and gas animations will make you rich

Do you enjoy routinely flying coach to Midland, Texas to give the same ol’ spiel to the same ol’ oil and gas big wigs? Rhetorical question, it’s okay, we know the answer. Are you one of the only engineers at your company that knows the intricacies of the tool you helped develop, and therefore, have now become the sales guy for it? Unless you really like airplane peanuts and wasting time, you or your sales team are probably not equipped with the right tools to sell your equipment. A picture speaks 1000 words, but 3D oil and gas animations achieve what words and images just never will:

1. We can show the impossible. Oil and gas equipment is complicated, not always available out in the field, and (let’s be honest) not always working properly. We physically can’t show how most products work with practical live-action film, especially if they’re thousands of feet underground. For most oil and gas or highly technical equipment, customers NEED to see the product and know its key benefits before they will make a purchase. Oftentimes (especially during a pandemic!) the only way to effectively do that is through 3D animation.
2. We can make it mesmerizing. This type of video could have absolutely been shot with a drone with a little less pizazz. However, when have you ever been on a frac site and your product looked this pristine and beautiful!? A drone can’t get these cool, dynamic angles, and 3D animation brings an element of magic in a way that real life just can’t. The “trick” to creating a compelling oil and gas animation is to simplify and stylize the story so that the visuals are as beautiful as the story is clear. The better-than-perfect renders that are achievable with 3D are unobtainable any other way. Creating memorable content through 3D animation boosts audience retention and brand awareness.

Recipe for the perfect oil and gas animation:

Step 1 – Script and Audio

The script is the most important part of an animation, yes, even oil and gas animations! A solid, quick-to-the-punch story is what will sell your product. Sometimes the gods bless us with a fully fleshed out campaign with perfect copy written for animation, but honestly, who has time for that? If you don’t have it all figured out, we get it. All we need are a few bullet points from you, and we can bring the rest to life! Take a look at how this Fesco animation started below!

With the script figured out, time to roll out the red carpet for “the talent”. We’re an animation studio in Texas, our client’s brand is built on All-American muscle, so hired the closest thing to Sam Elliott our budget could allow (he was busy, anyway). Our team listens to sometimes hundreds of auditions and provides you the shortlist of the top five or so to choose from, and we handle the rest!

Music can make or break a video, so we take very special care in selecting and editing songs that help drive the story, are on-brand, and capture the specific audience you’re targeting. Like the voice over, we spend time pouring over tracks to provide you a short curated list to choose from. And we never use the same track twice.

Step 2 – Storyboard

This oil and gas animation was all about showcasing each product in the system and how they’re laid out. We create a storyboard to help pinpoint what goes where and when. This proves to the client that we know the difference between a sand measurement tank and an in-line heater, and not only that, but that we know how to make them look GOOD and desirable to their prospects. This is where we solve problems with the sequence of events so as to ensure a smooth and impactful story.

Step 2 – Styleframe

Animation studios in Texas face a unique challenge. Because of such a heavy oil and gas influence in the work available, extremely creative and extremely logical ways of thinking collide. We have unique experience serving our customers by enabling engineers to visualize the end results early and often. Developing styleframes gets buy-in early from product designers, subject matter experts, and engineers- that way nothing is left up to the imagination.

Step 4 – Animatic

We’ve laid all the groundwork to officially start making it dance. The hard part is done and the long part begins. This is where we put our heads down and do what we said we were going to do: bring stuff to life and make your product look awesome! I know what you’re thinking. This doesn’t look awesome. You’re right, not YET! Creating this ugly 1990’s looking draft render saves time and money! This is yet again another opportunity that we give our clients to make adjustments before we spend too much time making it perfect and beautiful.

Step 5 – Rendering and Compositing

When the story is solid and the motion is accurate, it’s time to hit the “make it beautiful” button. Just kidding, this is a tedious and technical process where fine art meets computer science meets religion. Each second of animation consists of at least 24 still frames. So, an animation like this would have close to 4,000 frames played at 24 frames per second to give the illusion of movement. Once rendered, even West Texas looks like a desirable vacation spot!

Step 6 – Send it to the bank

Play this baby at your trade show and get ready to lose some personal space and see the insides of a lot of people’s gaping mouths. This particular piece meant the sales engineer could spend his days engineering new products instead of sitting on a plane on the way to meet yet another oil and gas tycoon for the day on-location. It meant not exposing the entire company to Covid. It meant the sales calls and the entire sales cycle could be drastically reduced because of a more efficient, visual presentation. Don’t just take our word for it, here it is straight from the client!