SLB - Deka Diamond Technology
The Client
Schlumberger (SLB)
Sell Me This Pipe
How do you make an animation about a cylinder compelling?
That was the challenge in this 3D animation for SLB's Harbison-Fischer Deka diamond technology. Harbison-Fischer is a pump brand that SLB owns. The product is literally a diamond-coated metal pipe.
The schedule was tight. The whole project, from start to finished film, took a few weeks, and the film was made for a trade show.
Taking something inherently boring and making it sexy and informative is very Motion Giraffx.
It's very much a "sell this pen" exercise, only the pen is a metal pipe.
A Film Built on Effects
A pipe has no face, no gestures, and no story, so the film is effects heavy. Motion Giraffx packed it with particles, effects, and dynamic animation.
The frames below appear in the order they play, starting with the blue pumpjack that opens the film against a washed-out landscape. An orange glow moves through a glass cylinder, and a corroded pipe wall shows holes worn through.
Then diamond particles gather on the pipe end and the threads, followed by a magnified look at the coating.
Two Meanings in the Tagline
Near the end of the film, a tagline appears above the pipe, and the team is a little proud of the line it wrote:
"Be brilliant under pressure."
Maybe it's corny. It also carries two meanings, and both of them refer to the product.
Brilliant means smart. Brilliance is also one way diamonds get graded.
Under pressure points to where the pipe works. It's made for going around curves in the well, the spot under the most literal pressure. Pressure is also what makes diamonds in the first place.
The Product Claims on Screen
The pipe in this film is a pump barrel, part of the pump that lifts oil up from the bottom of a well. SLB's Harbison-Fischer Deka diamond technology page describes Deka as a diamond coating for these barrels. SLB lists two uses for it: wells with heavy wear and corrosion, and wells that bend instead of going straight down.
The film makes its own claims about the coating, in text that appears before the tagline. The frames below show two of them.
- "Unmatched resistance to" appears above a cutaway of the pipe, with wear, corrosion, and delamination below it.
- "Run deeper," "Produce more," and "Operate longer" appear beside a thin pipe bending through a gap between two rock blocks.
SLB also hosts the Deka video on its site. For another industrial 3D animation shown at trade shows, see the Well Performance Gateway animation.
Turning a Plain Product Into a Memorable One
Plenty of products look plain, like a coated pipe or a fitting, and the parts that matter are often hard to film. 3D animation can show their wear, material, and performance up close.
Motion Giraffx builds product demos and trade show media for exactly these cases, including ones with tight schedules. If your product is hard to talk about, tell the studio about it.