Novanta, based in the US are a technology partner to medical and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers around the world. They specialise in photonics, vision systems and precision technologies. Their components and subsystem solutions enable the manufacture, inspection and testing of many of the world’s most sophisticated products in advanced applications such as electronics, fine material processing, robotics, metrology and factory automation.
Feature Media has previously produced animations for Laser Quantum, a laser-based solutions company. Laser Quantum was then purchased by Novanta. During the buying process, Novanta told the marketing team at Novanta how impressed they were with the product explainer animations and believed they should be used as a sales tool going forward.
We were then approached by Novanta who wanted us to produce four 3d animations for them. These four explainer animations would be used to show the difference between a selection of the lasers Novanta produce. It was important that the animations were technically accurate as Novanta’s customers and target market in this instance are engineers. We used 3D animation for this project as it’s a great way to visualise the product, using photorealistic renderings, and demonstrate how a product works and its benefits.
The process started with getting familiar with each of the products. As this was a very technical product it was important that we fully understood the mechanics and how they operated. To do this we had initial video calls with Novanta engineers, and specialists on each laser. These specialists spoke to us about how each of the lasers needed to be positioned and what parts needed to be labelled.
We were in communication with both the marketing team and engineers throughout the project. It was important the animations had enough detail to showcase the products properly but simultaneously needed to be concise enough to work as a marketing tool.
To make the process more time efficient we sent stills for review before moving on to animation. 3D animation can be a lengthy process so receiving feedback on stills is important for efficiency.
Novanta provided us with the 3D CAD (computer-aided design) of all the lasers. These are files of 3D models. We imported these files into our 3d software, added an environment, lighting, textures and began to animate them.
In the animation where the difference between a two-axis and a three-axis scan head are shown the animation needed to demonstrate laser printing onto a 3D object. This meant using mathematics to get exact measurements so the animation was as accurate as possible.
The animations we produced now appear on the Novanta website. Novanta were extremely happy with the outcome of the project and have told us how much easier it has been in helping them explain their technology.
Novanta recently approached us again to help with rendering some stills out to create posters. This was an easy task for us as we always keep project files so we can easily make amends in the future if needed.
They have used the videos and screenshots from them in company presentations as well as tradeshows.