SLB The Well Performance Gateway: 3D Wellhead Animation

Wellheads were the product SLB chose for its first animation after the rebrand from Schlumberger, and its customers thought they already knew them. Petroleum engineers, field operators and decision-makers see wellheads everywhere, and SLB wanted them reminded that it makes wellheads, and makes them better, now with digitalization and automation built in, so the 77-second 3D film from Motion Giraffx was built for trade show screens and product demo presentations.

There is no narrator. A white sphere rolls along a curved architectural surface, and the wellhead assembles from an exploded view as flanges, bolts, bodies and valves lock together. Lines of type call it the gateway for equipment, for fluids, and now for data. Abstract digital blocks and processor graphics stand in for automation, the finished assembly appears against a wide screen cycling through sea, coastal and desert settings, and three wellheads on pedestals lead to the SLB card.

We leaned on metaphor instead of literal signals. The rolling sphere and changing settings suggest data, time and range without ones and zeros or clocks, and the near-monochrome palette set a motion language for SLB's new brand.

A product everyone recognizes needs a fresh angle before it gets a second look. We found SLB's in 3D animation, and a familiar product of yours may have one waiting there too.