Pre-Production

Concept & Scripting

This animation was built around a straight-line instructional story—moving the viewer from hidden risk to real-world solution. The script kicked off with bold, question-driven 3D typography, spotlighting the central issue: diesel quality that’s going unmonitored. What followed wasn’t theory—it was proof. Animated evidence showed damaged parts, fuel contamination in layers, and chaotic tank mixing. From there, the branded mobile trailer and filtration system stepped in as the practical fix. The script walked the audience through each step: sampling, filtration, circulation, and optional additive use. Every visual was designed to serve that structure—making sure the risks made sense and the mechanics of the solution were clear.

Rapid Prototype (RP)

During Rapid Prototype, we modeled all equipment assets in Cinema 4D directly from the photo and video references WPP provided. This included the filtration equipment, trailer, filters, hoses, sample bottles, fuel injectors, and tank connectors. Each component was built for motion—not just static placement. Filters were designed with removable housings, valves were placed for articulation, hoses were engineered to link cleanly, and bottles were made for both fixed and animated use.

To confirm accuracy early, we created single-frame renders of every modeled part and sent them over for client review. This validated form and proportion before animation began. We also built out a rough previs of the tank system, showing the diesel-water-sludge separation. Spline-based hose geometry was prototyped here too, ensuring clean pathing in later cutaways and motion passes. The branded trailer was modeled and textured using the actual design materials—decals, logos, and paint schemes—so the asset would hold up under scrutiny and align visually with WPP’s real equipment.

Early Visual Styles Explored

Initial look dev in the RP phase centered on achieving a semi-photoreal feel—something grounded and real, but still easy to read. Even though final shaders and lighting weren’t in place yet, early test renders focused on making the forms readable and the materials believable. The layered fuel setup—diesel, water, sludge—was built for clarity first. Even without fluid motion, we made sure each layer was visually distinct. This clarity would become critical later on, especially in sequences that show contamination building and being stirred during refueling.

Core animation logic started taking shape early. We built previs passes to explore how the fluids would layer and churn, how the spline-based hoses would move, and where the best cutaway points were to reveal internal function. The trailer was lit with flat, environment-neutral lighting for flexibility, and we tested camera placements to get a feel for spatial logic—especially for the tank scene, where smooth transitions between static and turbulent moments were key.

Style Choices and Reasoning

The style we landed on during RP was chosen for one purpose: to tell a technical story cleanly and efficiently. We kept the industrial forms accurate but stripped away surface noise and visual clutter, creating a look that stayed readable in motion and direct in its composition. Each component had to do double duty—authentic equipment and visual teaching tool. The layered liquid system was built to prioritize contrast and legibility, and the branded trailer showed up early to establish the service’s identity upfront. Every design choice supported the end goal: to keep the story clear, technical, and aligned with the script’s step-by-step logic.

Production (Full Production / FP)

Look Development

With modeling locked and the animation structure dialed in, full production turned to refining shaders, lighting, and render outputs in Cinema 4D. Every surface was reworked to support a semi-photorealistic finish—clear enough to feel real, clean enough to stay readable. Metals like filter housings and fittings were treated with subtle specular reflections and procedural bump maps to give surfaces realistic detail without overwhelming the viewer. Plastics and rubber were shaded matte to create visual contrast against reflective parts. Sample bottles were textured using transparent materials with light refraction to show contents clearly, especially in side-by-side comparisons of fuel quality.

Soft area lighting was used throughout to create a neutral, studio-style look. This approach preserved object shape and clarity without introducing hard shadows or busy reflections. Backgrounds stayed dark and minimal—ensuring the viewer’s attention stayed where it mattered: the equipment and the overlays doing the explaining.

The tank sequence demanded more specific treatment. Diesel was shaded with warm amber tones and a translucent quality. Water had a cool tone with increased clarity and internal reflection. The sludge layer was trickier—it had to look thick, murky, and light-absorbing. After multiple shader passes, we landed on a matte, particulate-heavy material that clearly separated from the fluids above without adding gloss or transparency.

Design & Animation

Every animation move was built to support the explainer’s logic—showing process, not spectacle. Hose cutaways were animated using boolean modifiers, allowing for precise reveals of internal fuel movement. We showed dirty fuel entering the system and gradually emerging cleaner, mapping exactly to the script’s step-by-step explanation of progressive filtration.

Key components like injectors, filters, and bottles were pulled into After Effects using Element3D. This made it possible to texture, light, and animate them in post—speeding up iteration and giving us full control over how they integrated with graphics and titles. Element3D also meant we could relight or reposition these objects on the fly, without going back into full 3D rendering.

The branded trailer was animated to highlight its operational use—hose deployment, tank connection, and flow activation. Movements stayed slow and deliberate, aligning with the narration’s instructional tone. Camera moves followed suit: wide or orbiting shots built context, while push-ins and detailed cuts tracked transformation and design.

Style Choices and Reasoning

The visual style built during full production carried forward the RP phase’s goal: maximum clarity, minimum clutter. Every shot was designed to help the viewer quickly understand the function, process, or transformation on screen. The aesthetic was intentionally industrial—clean, sharp, and accurate. There was no drama added, only clarity reinforced.

Filtration gear was presented with a restrained realism—nothing was exaggerated, and nothing was out of place. All animation was tied directly to storytelling. Fluid flows followed believable paths, but they were shaded and timed for instant recognition.

The decision to composite key components in Element3D wasn’t just for speed—it was a stylistic choice too. This approach gave titles, injectors, and bottle assets the same lighting and depth cues as their 3D surroundings. Bold, extruded white titles with soft shadows matched the feel of the environment. These weren’t floating UI elements—they had weight and presence, reinforcing that everything on screen was part of the system being explained.

Technical Details

We used Cinema 4D’s standard renderer across the project. It delivered clean, controlled results—especially important when handling transparency, reflections, and cutaways. Lighting setups used large softboxes and controlled falloff to highlight volume without casting harsh shadows.

RealFlow handled all the fluid simulations—both inside the fuel tank and within the hose system. The most complex challenge was simulating how diesel, water, and sludge interact under turbulent refueling. Each fluid required its own physics profile: diesel and water needed distinct densities and light behaviors, while sludge had to simulate mass and cohesion.

RealFlow simulations were run repeatedly to get this behavior right. Once we nailed the interaction, the simulations were cached, meshed, and brought back into Cinema 4D for final shading. These meshes were rendered in passes—reflections, shadows, refractions—and then layered in After Effects for precise control over glow, depth, and atmosphere.

Unique Animation Techniques

We used boolean-based cutaways to show what was happening inside the hoses and filtration components. These reveals followed the narration, visually syncing with each step of the fuel cleaning process. Inside the tank, camera angles and motion tracked how turbulence spread sludge into the diesel layer during refueling, showing the contamination risk in real time.

Using Element3D to animate titles and assets gave us 3D parallax and depth without sacrificing speed. Titles had dimensional lighting, moved naturally within scenes, and adapted easily to layout or framing tweaks. This hybrid workflow gave the final video a polished, unified look—without locking us into the full 3D render loop for every adjustment.

Challenges and Solutions

Simulating the dynamic interaction of diesel, water, and sludge was the project’s toughest technical problem. All three fluids needed to react differently—blending under pressure but staying readable. RealFlow’s defaults didn’t cut it for sludge, which needed to feel heavy and resist movement without becoming static. We solved this by giving sludge a higher viscosity, treating it as a thick mesh object with realistic cohesion. We also introduced turbulence via controlled injectors to agitate the mix without losing clarity.

Lighting and texturing the layered fluids created another challenge. Diesel and water required transparency with readable boundaries. Sludge needed to stand apart without flattening into a black mass. To manage this, we tuned each shader carefully and handled glow, bloom, and depth effects in compositing—ensuring every layer stayed legible and visually distinct.

Post-Production & Delivery

Final Compositing & Color Grading

Post-production took place entirely in After Effects, where rendered passes from Cinema 4D and Element3D were composited into a unified, branded visual system. Color grading focused on clarity and tonal consistency—pushing contrast just enough to keep details crisp, without drifting into over-styled territory. Lighting from the render stage was largely preserved, with subtle tweaks to exposure, curves, and saturation made per scene to keep the look consistent and clean.

Dimensionality was reinforced through light vignettes and atmospheric layering. Soft shadows helped separate overlapping objects, and exposure control ensured that hardware and text elements stayed clear and anchored in the frame. Every layer—hardware, fluids, UI—was integrated into a single system designed to feel cohesive and technically fluent.

VFX Enhancements

Where physical simulation wasn’t practical, visual effects filled in the gaps. The condensation effect inside the tank—called for in the script—was built from layered fractal noise, masked and animated to rise subtly from the base of the tank. This gave the illusion of internal humidity without needing full simulation. These effects weren’t aesthetic flourishes—they supported the narrative, pointing to the invisible risks tied to poor fuel hygiene.

Glow and bloom were applied with discipline. White 3D titles and key fluid highlights were treated to subtle glows that helped them stand out without overpowering the scene. Motion blur was kept light and context-aware—used only on fast transitions. Lens blur was added selectively on titles and UI to maintain visual consistency with the 3D renders.

Infographics, UI Overlays, Data Visualization

Every label—Sludge, Water, Condensation, Fuel—was introduced as a UI overlay in post, using a strict design system: white all-caps sans-serif text, precise alignment, and thin connector lines. These elements were styled to feel like they belonged in a diagnostics interface, not as editorial graphics layered over footage.

3D question prompts at key narrative points—like “Do you take fuel samples every year?” and “Introducing the diesel fuel polishing plan”—were built and animated in Element3D. These titles had real weight: dimensional depth, extrusions, and shadows matched to the scene’s lighting direction. Animated zooms and smooth easing gave each phrase a sense of importance without distracting from the hardware visuals.

For the damaged injector and dirty filter shots, overlays were treated with extra care. A light grain pass and isolated shadow layers were added to create visual separation from the darker background. This made surface damage and contamination visually obvious, even at a glance.

Brand Consistency

WPP’s brand identity was locked in across every frame. The mobile trailer matched real-world designs down to logo placement, paint color, and decal accuracy. Contact info—“Call 713-434-2300”—was integrated in multiple places using the same font, position logic, and visual treatment each time.

The closing scene followed WPP’s structured brand format: logo centered over black, backed by a final call-to-action rendered in the same 3D text system used at the open. This gave the piece visual symmetry and reinforced brand recognition from start to finish.

Delivery

The final output was delivered in 1080p ProRes. That choice preserved everything that mattered—smooth gradients, sharp overlays, and subtle textures. It was optimized for both digital and large-format playback, ensuring it held up whether viewed on a laptop or a trade show screen. The format kept color and detail intact while avoiding artifacts in complex layers like fog or fluid simulation—ensuring the story stayed clean, credible, and on-brand.

Transcript:

Are you servicing your generator? 

Do you take fuel samples every year? 

Sludge and poor-quality diesel could be damaging your fuel injectors, pumps, and diesel generator.

Introducing the Diesel Fuel Polishing Plan from Worldwide Power Products. Call us today at 713-434-2300 for more details and schedule a FREE fuel sample and consultation.

You see … If your fuel isn’t circulated regularly, many damaging things can happen to your equipment. 

Fuel sludge can settle at the bottom of the tank; 

Condensation can form and run near the bottom of the tank; 

And, when your tank is refilled, this sludge and water layer churns and creates an environment for hazardous fuel use. 

You could even have regulatory issues if you aren’t sampling your generator fuel regularly. 

All of these can be costly consequences. 

The company you trust, Worldwide Power Products now offers the Diesel Fuel Polishing Plan. 

Available on different levels for different needs, we sample, filter, and circulate the fuel; we ensure that the fuel is not causing equipment damage and in some cases, we introduce additives to the diesel to extend its useful life. 

Have peace of mind. Call Worldwide Power Products at 713-434-2300 to schedule your free consultation and fuel sampling today.