BeanBox’s Top Ten Product Animation and Visualisation

This list will be constantly updated as we continually scour the web for gorgeous and creative 3D Product Animations. Click on the pictures to view the animation.

1) Mercedes-Benz Oil

This animation is gorgeous from the beautifully crafted story to the way each individual oil droplet is animated! It tells a story about the history of the product and takes you into a world made of the product. The animation is so well done that it fully encapsulates you for the full 1min 40sec. Not only does the story take you through several different environments/worlds, but each of the worlds are made of oil. For the people who have never animated 3D fluids, be assured that this is no easy task! This animation executed the fluid animation perfectly and makes it look so natural and effortless. However, I’m sure this was a real source of headache for the animation team.

Even thought the product is essentially very boring, this animation makes it interesting and beautiful. Exactly what a 3D Product Animation should do!

2) Infiniti Blue Essence

We have seen many many car visualisations, and even though most of them are beautiful, few are like this one. Most car adverts usually show the car from the off set and have it drive around some nice scenery (boring…zzzzz….zzz). This product visualisation is different. The brilliant use of lightning, lighting, colours and other effects, slowly reveals the car. The concept is simple but the execution is spot on. The music and sound effects makes it feel dramatic and important (even though it is only another car advert). Controlling and animating the special effects must have been a real challenge. Getting it all to come together and look perfect must have taken even longer.

3) Minn Kota Fortrex

This 3D product animation is awesome, completely over the top (typical of the Americans) but done so well! There is so much going on in this animation. The action packed assembly of the product component by component, the beautifully animated 2D infographics, the completely unnecessary sparks and water splashes, the subtle camera flicks and distortions, the over-the-top salesman voice over, the list goes on. All this for a fishing rod? We still don’t know what the product is but we keep coming back for more. Thumbs up to the animation team.

4) Asus

This 3D Product Animation is drop dead gorgeous! It is simple but so sophisticated. It shows what great directing can achieve with such a simple concept. The end animation looks simple and straight forward but we know it must have taken a long time to perfect each of the elements and to make sure everything fit seamlessly together. The modelling work alone would have been time consuming because both the exterior and interior components had to be modeled to a very high level of detail and shaded to perfection. We love the clever small touches like the light shining off the edges to give the product definition and a sense of anticipation as the product is revealed slowly, bit by bit. We love the clever use of the laptop to form the watch hands which then leads to the message “2 sec responsive”. Other features and benefits of the products are subtly but sophisticatedley drawn out unlike other 3D Product Animations that prefer the sledge hammer approach. The music is captivating and elegant to reflect the product’s persona.

5) Nike CTR360

Shoe adverts are like car adverts, there are so many of them and they all look the same…including this one. However, it doesn’t make this animation any less beautiful and gorgeous. The slow motion is nicely executed, the sound design is excellent, the animation and shader work on the glass is good and the rendering is photorealistically perfect. But at the end of the day, it’s just another well animated shoe advert showing a shoe kicking something…but yet it is still so beautiful to watch!

6) Leaf – Under the hood

This is probably one of the best use of a “blow up” animation to show how a product is made up. However, this animation goes beyond this and takes you into the world of the Leaf camera. There is some excellent animation work here to keep you engaged and educated on the inner workings of the product. The rendering is photorealistic but I guess it has to be at this level of excellence. We love the subtle use of lens flare which is refreshing in this era of overused and overpowering lens flares in our movies, music videos and adverts!!! Please stop with the lens flare….

7) Leupold

This animation is very similar to the Minn Kota Fortrex animation except it is less over the top and more sophisticated. It has beautifully smooth camera work and very well executed infographics. The visualisation makes the product appear high tech and sophisticated when in fact it is a boring torch light!

8) Sony Style – Transformation

We have seen a few of these Product Animations that transform one product to another (in the style of Transformer the Movie) but this is one good example. The modelling and rendering is very good and the animation is what makes it stand out. The transformation animation is very slick, smooth and totally believable. Even the small touches like the the 2D text transformation really adds to the overall animation.

9) Bathstore Atlas

This is such a simple Product Animation but done so well. It’s a great example of a non 3D Product Animation utilizing live footage with simple but effective 2D infographics. The live footage is beautifully shot, so clean and crisp. The 2D infographic is simple but obviously well thought out and executed. You know exactly what the message is within a few secs. This is a much more engaging technique than text on a screen! The voice over is spot on with an air of grace and sophistication.

10) Bibo Water

This Product Visualisation is very similar to the Bathstore Atlas. It uses 2D infographics tracked to live footage. The messages of the infographics are so clear that not even a voice over is required. The live footage is well shot and well edited to make the whole visualisation engaging and interesting to watch.