Industrial 3D Animations Explained with Real Case Studies
Contemporary factories not only design the equipment, but they also demonstrate how it is supposed to work well before a cut is made in the steel. Andrew Vakulich, the Head of the 3D Animation department at Chudovo, just had the opportunity to show us 3 projects in which their team brought complex mechanical concepts down to the ground of clearly understood and stimulating motion. Based on the experience of Andrew, the following article details what goes on and how industrial 3D animation manifests itself in real shop-floor equipment.
Why Industrial 3D Animations Matter
Engineers, buyers, and maintenance crews, unlike with static CAD screenshots, have an equally clear picture of what is going on: with 3D industrial animation, no protective covers, no guess game.
- Training and HSE – demonstrate safe disassembling processes without stopping on a production line.
- Prototyping – visualize prototypes even when you do not have a prototype yet.
- Trade-show demos – these are held in the format of inside-out reverse explosions that an eye passing by can catch.
- After-sales service – hand technicians a looping clip that they can watch on site.
The outcome is a common language that slices through jargon, speeds up approvals, and reduces physically costly mock-ups to a bare minimum.
Case Studies
The three projects below are organized in a consistent breakdown pattern, thus allowing you to compare needs, scope, and outcomes against each other.
Case Study #1 – Industrial Pump
Customer: Pleuger Industries GmbH
Place: Hamburg, Germany
Industry: Fluid Engineering
During this project, the team made a 3D industrial animation of a water-cooling pump, including a reverse-explosion opener.
Project goals:
- Draw traffic to the Achema stand of the company.
- Explain the cooling flow to the service-technician training.
The artists of Chudovo recreated geometry based on photos and STEP files, used shaders of stainless steel, and recreated the laminar flow of water (none of the artifacts of air bubbles were present). A timed camera run took the pump apart in the air, showing the sets of impeller, shaft, and bearing, and then reassembled them. The project spanned 5 months and included storyboards, physics tests, client approval, and the final 4K render.
As a result, the video was used as the launch video for Pleuger’s latest model and was also incorporated into an e-learning module for use by field engineers.
Client review: “Chudovo has professionally done the work and delivered the best quality of the project on time and within the deadline.” – Anton Schneerson, VP, Flacks Group.
Case Study #2 – Glass Bottle Sorting Machine Prototype
Customer: Confidential packaging startup
Place: Stuttgart, Germany
Industry: Food And Beverage Automation
The team made high-fidelity 3D modeling and a movie preview vignette of a high-speed glass-bottle sorter at a raw stage of CAD design. The capital raised on assets was to validate ergonomics and pre-sell the concept to a pilot customer.
Project goals:
- Present modular conveyor logic in a practical sense to the investors.
- Clearances on bottle-handling are stressed before the mechanical design freeze.
Beginning with STL part files, the team assembled complete machine geometry, colored parts to delineate process zones, and cut-through shots depicting star-wheel transfers. To do so, short cinematic loops (15 to 30 s) were combined and exported to a pitch deck and a web landing page.
Multi-language call-outs (EN/DE) were optimised as a separate render pass by developers, too, which allowed the new business to localise content on a pitch-by-pitch basis without rerendering. Real-time WebRTC weekly sprint demos allowed founders, the mechanical lead, and Chudovo artists to iterate in real time on star-wheel timing and sensor placement.
As a result, the startup received an answer to the seed fund in half a month after a demo road show.
Case Study #3 – Industrial Washing Machine
Customer: Zippel GmbH
Place: Bavaria, Germany
Industry: Equipment Used in Surface Treatment
Our team created an industrial 3D animation of a rapid-turnaround chamber washer.
Project goals:
- Create a 90-second English promotional video within three weeks.
- Prove cleaning throughput by accurately simulating high-pressure spray bars, basket rotation, and steam extraction.
- Send further silent loops to be used as booth back-screens and an in-house training portal.
- Offer light WebM variants of the marketing site, and not recreate them.
STL data was converted to Blender; missing material colors had to be re-selected based on reference photographs. Fluid simulation indicated the use of detergents and wash and rinse stages, which used timing cycles provided by Zippel engineers. The tight reviews that were implemented after every 72 hours helped to maintain the schedule.
As a result, the clip attracted continued foot traffic in the booth and yielded qualified RFQs on the first day. German and Russian versions came next.
Even early fluid simulations helped indicate a dead zone in the spray pattern, which led to the re-angling of the nozzle, which, in turn, prevented a change order of €7,000 in hardware after launch.
Client Feedback: “This work ensured the uniformity of approach on different engagements.” – Anton Schneerson, VP, Flacks Group
Lessons Learned from the Field
According to Andrew Vakulich, the Chudovo team learned the following lessons.
Lock engineering early
A half-hour meeting with a lead designer can save days of re-rigging.
Photorealism vs Budget
Glossy chrome doubles the rendering time, and should be avoided on all models save those that are presented to the buyer.
Water Sims and particle Sims
Pumps lose bubbles, but the fluid in the real world does not. Size the physics to the tolerances of the machine.
Deadline Tactics
The three-week sprint by Zippel was a success due to delivery staging in the following format: geometry, then textures, and lighting.
Final Thoughts
Whether it is a submerged pump hundreds of meters down the mine or a bottling machine not yet designed beyond a whiteboard, industrial 3D animation makes complicated hardware easy to tell a story about. The above three instances depict the power of a well-disciplined pipeline, sound physics, and well-developed goals in converting bare CAD to finance-applauding, personnel-educating, and product-accelerating assets. With these lessons, take it further on, and before one bolt is tightened, make your machines talk their language.