A Complete Guide To 2D and 3D Product Animation Video

Play Video about Mizuno Ignitus Product Animation Video

Videos have quickly become one of the most popular marketing tools for businesses all over the world as they can be utilised across multiple platforms. According to a survey carried out by Wyzowl 86% of businesses are currently using videos for marketing (2022), with 88% of consumers saying they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s animated presentation.
In this blog post, we will guide you through the different types of product animation video including 3D/CGI, 2D and motion graphics, why they are beneficial for your business and why they are a go to for most businesses and also how to get started on creating one, from design and discovery through to final delivery.

Play Video about Mizuno Ignitus Product Animation Video

Are You Looking To Create A Product Animation Video?

What Is A Product Animation Video?

An animated video is a great way to advertise and explain your product in a quick and engaging way. A good quality product video not only shows off your product or service but can also help to highlight and grow your brand with your audience.

They can be used in TV commercials, on websites, on social media, and on pretty much any video platform that will support moving image playback. And with people twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content, including social media posts, blog posts/articles and any other pages, it makes them a very popular choice for our clients.

A product animation video can be created either as a simple hand-created 2D animation or for a more realistic photo-real finish 3D animation/CGI is used, alternatively, many videos will try to incorporate elements of both together often overlaying what is called motion graphics to help enhance a brand story or key feature which is often referred to as 3D motion graphics.

3D Product Animation Videos

CG/3D animation is often used for a product animation video where a specific product design might not exist yet or where the scenes are too complicated to recreate in real life. CGI sequences can be used to achieve a detailed often photo-real or hyper-real (not quite photo-real but realistic looking) visualisation of your product to ensure it stands out.

With the use of CG modelling, highly detailed complex CG assets can be created and viewed from any angle (or even multiple angles), with flexible lighting, and on any background. It is also possible to highlight specific technical key features of a product in high detail, such as liquids and particle systems, to demonstrate key features of the product (for example, a soft drinks brand that wants to promote a particular new flavour they are launching by simulating a burst of liquid exploding out of a can that you get from drinking the client’s new product), by specialist digital artists who work in these areas.

3D product animation videos are perfect for promotional campaigns on websites, TV advertising, product launches, billboards, digital signage at sports venues or promoting a product that is about to be launched.

3D Product Animation Videos Examples

Play Video about cuca beer liquid simulation

Cuca TV Commercial

Play Video about Chivas Taste product animation video

Chivas Taste Advertisement

Play Video about Philips IntelliSave Technical Product Visualization

Philips Intellisave Technical Animation

Play Video about Cadbury It’s time to Obey Your Mouth Motion Graphics Advertisement

Cadbury It’s time to Obey Your Mouth Animated Advertisement

2D Product Animation Videos

A 2D product animation video is a fun, colourful and vibrant style of video that provides a 2D visual representation of your product.

2D animation was historically used for creating many of the animated cartoon series we watched when we were children and is still a very popular visual way to create character-focused animated sequences because working in 2D gives you the ability to take any 2D hand-drawn illustration style and further animate it to create a unique visual style.

2D animation is often created using digital vectors in packages such as Adobe After Effects or hand-drawn frames which are then digitised and composited back together to make a moving image sequence, the main difference with 2D animation is that is predominantly all hand-animated to communicate a product message or visual effect.

Typically, less realistic than its 3D counterpart, 2D can give you a great sales tool and can be created quickly and effectively and can be further enhanced with background music, sound effects or voice-overs.

A 2D product animation video is great for advertising on most digital platforms and is ideal for a product animated demo, social media channels, promotional campaigns, corporate animated introductions and highlighting new products coming to the market.

2D Product Animation Videos Examples

Play Video about Tim Hortons Product Animation Video

Tim Hortons Product Animation

Play Video about Absolut Grapefruit Vodka Retail Point Of Sale Animation

Absolut Vodka Animation

Play Video about Skittles Motion Graphics Social Media Advert

Skittles Dips Animation

Play Video about Coca Cola POS product visualisation animation

Coca Cola Animation

Motion Graphics Product Animation Videos

Motion Graphics Videos are typically created by overlaying still or animated images with moving graphics in the form of text, visual effects and images to draw attention to a product or to explain a concept or story within your video. As they are less complex than 2D or 3D animation, Motion Graphics videos are generally quicker and cheaper to produce.

Motion Graphics provide an alternative to complex animations allowing you to take still frames or live-action footage and overlay them with animated graphics, titles and moving effects.

Alternatively, Motion Graphics can be added to 3d animated video backgrounds to provide a narrative to the project. Or for videos that may be at risk of being viewed as boring (think Health and Safety or corporate talking heads videos!) Motion Graphics has the ability to add brand identity to the production and become more interesting and engaging with vibrant and interesting graphics and look more professional.

Motion Graphics Product Animation Videos Examples

Play Video about Martell POS product visualization animation comp

Martell Motion Graphics Advert

Play Video about Prada Olfactories advertising visualisation

Prada Olfactories Motion graphics Advert

Play Video about Johnnie Walker Retail Point Of Sale Animation

Johnnie Walker Motion Graphics Advert

Play Video about Prada Candy product visualization animation

Prada Candy Motion Graphics Advert

Why Use A 2D or 3D Product Animation Video For Your Business?

There is no question that video is an incredibly powerful marketing tool. According to Statista the number of digital video viewers is expected to reach nearly 3.5 billion by 2023. In today’s fast-paced world young consumers (and a lot of older consumers) do not want to waste hours sifting through text-based information on a web page to find out ‘what you offer and why it could be of use to them. That’s where animated video comes in, which is designed to stop your viewer from scrolling past your static images and text adverts with content that is easily digestible and captures your audience’s attention. Add to this that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% when reading it in text (Invisia). Then product video’s really are a no-brainer and are here to stay!

2D animation and Motion Graphics videos can make product advertising more engaging, professional looking and appealing to your audience. They are also highly likely to be shared across social media platforms and more likely to lead to conversions when you have created good-looking content. Motion Graphics can also be an ideal choice for trying to simplify complex ideas such as in explainer videos or product features.

A 3D product animation video can provide your audience with a detailed and realistic, close-up view of your product from multiple angles even before the product is made. Ideal for new products that are in the last stages of manufacturing and can be used prior to a physical product launch or as product videos to use on your website along with longer form videos for showing on your company’s YouTube channel.

How Long Should A Product Animation video For Your Business Be?

The length of your 2D or 3D product animation video depends on the platform you will be using it for, so it is important to decide where it will be used before commissioning an animation.

The most commonly asked for video lengths are:

For Broadcast TV adverts the most common length in the Uk is 30 seconds long, however, you can on occasion create ads that are 10, 20, 40, 50, or 60 seconds in length.

How To Make A Product Animation Video?

At Imaginar, when discussing product animation videos production with our clients, we will always guide them through the following stages of production to ensure we tailor our project to meet the exact needs of your brief and brand and create premium quality, engaging animated videos:

1. Design and Discovery

The first step in our journey with you is to fully understand WHAT is the story you are trying to tell in your video (your script) WHO are your audience and HOW are you going to be showing the video. Once we understand this, we can explore the best routes to achieve this within your criteria. This will provide the foundations on which your video will be created.

2. Pre-Production – Storyboarding

Once the initial design and discovery stage is completed, we will move to pre-production. This stage consists of animation and creative direction, style frames, creating storyboards, animatics, and scratch audio to agree on the overall look and feel of your video (we don’t move into the production stage before this is approved by the client).

3. Production

Once the animatics have been approved we will move into the main production stage. Here our production teams will set to work on creating your product animation videos based on your locked down animatic with pre-defined review stages through the project.

4. Audio Design

Animation works best with audio included, so we work closely with our clients to create audio background music, sound effects and voiceovers where required.

However, we actually separate out the audio stage into its own project as we find it easier because often a client will want to book their own VO artists or may want to purchase stock audio where they need to agree on the usage rights with the particular supplier. We will then work with the client where possible to master the audio supplied to match the video edit should they not wish to create the audio files with us in-house.

5. Post Production

Post production is the final stage of assembling the animation together which involves rendering out the final animation frames and passes (Passes: are layers of visual effects that are composited together to make up a final video frame) adding visual effects (which could be smoke, explosions) or motion graphic overlays. Which are then composited together into the master edit file.

6. Layoff

This is the stage where we export out a final ‘Mastered’ version of the animation in the required formats that the client wants to publish the animation on.

This stage has become important because our clients often want to deploy content in different formats and lengths, so we must know at the start of the project where the animations will be used. We can then create a master file that allows us to take the relevant crops and export the relevant file formats.

At Imaginar we have spent 15+ years working with agencies and brands direct, to really understand what they are looking for when it comes to product videos. Today we have removed the challenge of having to find the right expertise to work with for each video by collating a team of specialists in each area, covering motion graphics, 2D animation, 3D animation/CGI, liquids, visual effects, environments, characters and automotive and audio designers making us the go-to production partner for many global brands and agencies who have called us a ‘safe pair of hands’ when it comes to looking after their projects. Take a look at our other product visualization services here.

If you have an animation project coming up we would love to talk to you. You can contact us using the form below giving a brief outline of your project, or alternatively you can call us for a chat on 0207 042 9994