The Forest Group – 3D Explainer

Forest Group UK
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  • SERVICES:
  • 3D Animation
  • Animation
  • Branded Content
  • Motion Graphics
  • Project Planning
  • Story Boarding

We knew from past experience that pre-production on a project like this would be heavy on logistics. A major part involved coordinating with Forest Group and Penn Studio to gather all necessary information, CAD data, and brand guidelines. Early collaboration was key, so we worked closely to align our efforts with the new website launch. With a clear plan in place, we created the narrative for the video, including the script and storyboard, and selected the voiceover.

Our approach

Forest Group approached us with a request to build an animation that raised their bar for explaining their various products to their market.

One critical aspect was that they had a family of products that all added to their proposition for drainage enhancement and environmental protection. This had to be front of mind in the development of this concept.

Then, when we understood that all of their products had one commonality; their specialist EPS bead. This was an obvious device to allow us to create an animtion that had this bead at the core of the message.

Flexibility

Forest Group are always evolving and as such we needed to build a video that could be expanded in the future, allowing new products to be integrated. So we needed to build this animation in a way that would allow us to add in additional products as and when they are introduced to the market and keep the video relevant and up to date.

Once the storyboard was finalised, we started on the draft video.

The Stages

We needed our bead (the star of the show) to be an exact match to Forest Group’s physical bead. We borrowed some of them to get a close up look and make sure it was a perfect match, blending materials and colours together to accuratly reflect this little hero in the virtual 3D world we were creating.

When it came to pulling this all together, we first produced an animatic sequence with the storyboard, music, and voiceover to set the pace of the animation. This allowed us to finalise the shot list and gather all assets for the video and website. After modelling the assets and getting final approvals, we animated each scene using custom controls for precise results.

The water simulation, a key feature, took 58 hours to simulate 268 frames. After multiple iterations, we achieved a realistic liquid interaction. With simulations and the working render complete, we moved on to texturing and lighting, using real products as reference and a clay render for environments. The strong blue from the brand guidelines tied everything together, creating a cohesive final result that integrated seamlessly into the new website.

The Result

This was a very involved project with various deliverables, dependencies and upskill. Thanks must go to Nick and Julie at Forest Group for trusting us to deliver, this one is certainly going in the “Showreel-Ready” stack of projects from this year. And also thanks to Penn Studio for working on this colloaboration.

Head over to Forest Group to find out more about their products and see our work in action.

It was impressive how quickly they dialled in to the qualities of our product range and visualised how best to present these.

The team quickly grasped the dilemma of how to approach and build a commercially business relevant marketing video to promote not only the “unique” products but also the concept / purpose of each individual product whilst showcasing our new branding within.

The whole experience has been seamless, professional, educational and dare I say a fun experience.

Julie Boon – Forest Group