Shell Energy (formerly MP2 Energy) was a very unique business at the time we put this together. The video had a very special purpose and that was to communicate internally and externally what exactly it was that this team did so well, why it was so unique in the space at the time, and how hard it was to do what they do. And when you are dealing with electricity, something you can’t see with the naked eye, it’s a challenge to be able to get live footage of all the stuff that goes into the electricity markets. So the creative decision was to create all of these assets in a unique isometric style that could carry through to the rest of the brand assets. we created this video to showcase that entire story, but the really cool thing was that we were able to use a lot of the assets and shots of them for sales pages throughout their website at the time. We created this video to showcase.And when you are dealing with electricity, something you can’t see with the naked eye,And when you are dealing with electricity.

Pre-Production

Concept & Scripting

The project kicked off with Shell Energy | MP2’s goal to create a three-minute animation, The Future of Energy. The mission: visually demonstrate MP2’s leadership in renewable energy integration and customer-focused energy management. Once the script was locked in, we dug into research to define a conceptual 3D style that would represent MP2 as a front-runner in renewable energy innovation. We referenced projects with clean, minimal aesthetics. From there, we curated a mood board that explored visual language grounded in white, blue, and green. White was used as the dominant tone for a clean, modern, minimalistic feel. Green underscored the renewable energy theme. Blue tied directly to MP2’s brand identity.

Together with MP2, we landed on an animation concept built around an isometric, grid-based cityscape. The design emphasized the interconnected nature of MP2’s energy management ecosystem. The story arc followed a transition from traditional energy models to modern, decentralized generation, all set within this conceptual yet cohesive city grid.

Storyboarding & Rapid Prototyping

Once the core concept was approved, we moved into Rapid Prototyping (RP). During early discussions, we aligned on constructing the central city from modular grid blocks. The layout was initially mocked up in Excel—each cell representing distinct zones: downtown high-rises, residential suburbs, factories, warehouses, parks, and renewable installations like solar farms and wind turbines. The grid system simplified city management, allowing rapid revisions and procedural updates. We planned to use MoGraph in Cinema 4D to populate and instance these blocks efficiently.

The RP phase was focused on basic geometry: tall boxes for skyscrapers, smaller ones for residential areas, and simplified placeholders for infrastructure. This early build let us visualize energy flows and camera paths through the city.Internal discussions were ongoing throughout the Regional Plan (RP), allowing us to make logical and realistic adjustments. For example, we clustered residential zones toward the outskirts and consolidated industrial areas in the center.

One major shift during RP came from MP2’s feedback on wind turbines. Initially, we featured offshore wind farms with flyover camera shots. MP2 requested we pivot to solar energy, which had stronger regional relevance. We reworked the RP to feature large solar panel fields in place of offshore wind concepts.

Another key iteration was the transition between the physical city scenes and data-driven holographic interfaces. We tested two themes: a clean white, blue, and green palette for real-world representations, and a darker, holographic aesthetic for data visualizations like Demand Response systems.

Early Visual Styles Explored

We ran look development tests on materials and lighting for both visual themes. For the holographic data scenes, we developed a custom shader—semi-transparent glass with outlined contours—using Cinema 4D and Redshift. City scenes were lit as daylight scenarios, with subtle gradients and soft shadows to enhance readability in isometric compositions.

Prototyping Animation Concepts

Camera movements were carefully mapped out during RP. We used continuous isometric flyovers and slow pans to maintain clarity in the dense grid. Internal and client reviews focused on showcasing scale without overwhelming the viewer. We also tested animated energy flows between city blocks using MoGraph effectors to represent electricity distribution through animated connection lines.

Client Feedback Shaping Direction

MP2’s product and branding teams provided frequent and detailed feedback. Revisions ranged from technical language updates (changing “Level IV QSE” to “Wholesale Market Participant”) to visual adjustments like reversing wall socket orientation. One internal decision was to streamline how energy concepts were shown—replacing separate floating blocks with a cohesive globe visual, symbolizing MP2’s integrated platform.

Production (Full Production / FP)

Look Development

Once the rapid prototype was finalized and approved by MP2’s team, we transitioned into full production with a locked-in visual direction. We carried forward the clean, minimalistic aesthetic established in the RP phase, maintaining a predominantly white environment with accent colors of blue and green. Blue reinforced MP2’s brand identity, while green emphasized renewable energy and sustainability. The focus during look development was on elevating overall visual fidelity while keeping the conceptual design language consistent.

For materials and textures, we balanced a highly stylized, minimalistic aesthetic with subtle touches of realism. Every building and city structure was modeled with clean, geometric forms. We layered in photorealistic details—rooftop HVAC systems, antennae, solar panel arrays—to ground the visuals in reality without straying from the minimalistic design. Trees and patches of grass were placed strategically across key city blocks to introduce natural elements into an otherwise clean, abstract environment. These photorealistic trees acted as visual anchors to reinforce the renewable energy narrative.

We also built a dedicated shader library to support the holographic elements featured in several key scenes. The holographic shader was designed with semi-transparent surfaces in a light blue hue, highlighted with glowing outlines. These shaders were applied to conceptual representations of power meters, residential homes, and MP2’s energy grid interface—distinguishing the "behind-the-scenes" energy flows from the physical infrastructure within the animation.

Design & Animation

Full production involved heavy asset development, with over 37 unique city blocks modeled and textured. Each block was manually built to fit into the larger grid layout meticulously planned in Excel during RP. Each Excel cell represented a specific city block type: downtown high-rise clusters, suburban neighborhoods, municipal zones (schools and libraries), industrial facilities, water treatment plants, and renewable energy sites like solar fields and wind farms.

We leveraged Cinema 4D’s MoGraph system extensively to populate the large city environment with repeated elements like solar panels and wind turbines. MoGraph’s procedural controls allowed us to easily adjust asset placement and scale across the entire grid layout. This workflow gave us the flexibility to rapidly iterate in response to client feedback without the need for time-consuming manual repositioning.

Animation development expanded on the camera movements explored in RP. Continuous camera rigs enabled seamless flyovers of the grid city, with complex camera paths emphasizing the interconnected nature of MP2’s energy ecosystem. We designed fluid transitions, flying from one energy solution to another without visible cuts. Camera speed and alignment were carefully tuned to ensure smooth transitions and support the conceptual narrative.

Secondary animations brought depth and motion to the environment—rotating wind turbines, electrons represented by flowing energy lines, and dynamic UI graphics that reacted to data inputs. 

One of the more technically demanding scenes was the flyover of MP2’s expansive solar field. This sequence leaned into photorealism with high-detail solar panels and realistic ground cover, including grass and terrain variations. Unlike the conceptual city scenes, this scene featured more complex lighting, reflective surfaces, and dynamic shadow casting to enhance depth and scale.

Style Choices and Reasoning

All style decisions adhered strictly to MP2 and Shell Energy’s brand guidelines. The minimalistic palette—dominated by white with accents of blue and green—was both strategic and aesthetic. It conveyed modernity, clarity, and a focus on renewable energy.

Clean white environments represented MP2’s tangible, real-world energy assets, while darker blue holographic elements conveyed the abstract, data-driven systems operating behind the scenes. This dual-style approach helped viewers intuitively distinguish between physical infrastructure and virtual intelligence.

Texturing choices further supported brand alignment. Solar panels were consistently treated with a deep blue hue, standing apart from white building structures. Green spaces were kept lush and intentional, reinforcing sustainability and future-focused thinking.

Technical Details

The modeling pipeline was built around Cinema 4D, with MoGraph used for efficient duplication and distribution of assets. All 37 city blocks were manually modeled to ensure thematic consistency and variety across the grid. Redshift was selected as the rendering engine for its speed and quality balance, leveraging GPU acceleration to handle complex scenes with heavy geometry and intricate shaders without compromising on image quality or render times.

Lighting was crafted to enhance the clean, modern feel—most scenes featured an even daylight scenario to avoid harsh shadows and ensure all elements remained legible. In scenes featuring holographic interfaces, we switched to darker backgrounds with subtle rim lighting, making semi-transparent elements stand out against the scene.

Holographic shaders were developed using Redshift’s shader nodes, combining layered transparency, emissive edges, and Fresnel effects to add depth and realism to the conceptual representations.

UI elements, data visualizations, and dashboard overlays were animated and composited in After Effects. The layer-based approach allowed seamless integration of text callouts, charts, and data-driven animations onto the 3D sequences. Simple expressions and controllers in After Effects were used to synchronize UI animations with underlying 3D renders.

Unique Animation Techniques

A key animation technique was the procedural control of window lights across residential and commercial buildings. This simulated demand response events in real time. We developed a custom shader and controller that allowed windows to dynamically switch on and off—demonstrating MP2’s ability to manage energy demand during peak load periods. This was a highlight in scenes showcasing blackout prevention and energy balancing.

Collaboration & Revisions

Full production included regular, structured review cycles with MP2’s product and leadership teams. Key feedback included revisions to visual metaphors—replacing offshore wind turbines with land-based solar farms to reflect Texas’ energy landscape. MP2 also requested adjustments to on-screen labels, such as updating “Level IV QSE” to “Wholesale Market Participant.”

The MP2 team was diligent about design accuracy, requesting changes down to the orientation of wall outlets and providing reference materials to ensure technical fidelity. They were also focused on maintaining a conceptual yet accurate representation of the entire energy ecosystem.

Several iterative passes were made on the city layout to ensure a realistic distribution of residential, commercial, and industrial zones. Client feedback resulted in reconfiguring the placement of downtown high-rises, with residential areas and green spaces radiating outward.

Challenges and Solutions

One of the main challenges was managing the scale and complexity of the grid city. With over 37 unique blocks requiring manual modeling and texturing, asset management was critical. Using MoGraph for procedural placement and Excel-based layout planning enabled efficient design changes without slowing production.

Rendering was another key bottleneck. The complexity and high level of detail in the scenes led to long render times. We optimized Redshift settings—balancing sample rates and texture resolutions—to reduce render times while maintaining image quality. Render jobs were staged over multiple days to meet production deadlines while maximizing efficiency.

Post-Production & Delivery

Final Compositing & Color Grading

Post was handled in After Effects. We composited 3D renders with UI overlays and data visuals. Final color grading enhanced clarity and vibrance while keeping the clean minimalistic style intact. The layer-based workflow in After Effects allowed us to quickly turn around client-requested edits, like callout adjustments and data label tweaks.

Infographics, UI Overlays, Data Visualization

Custom UI widgets were built in After Effects to visualize key metrics like energy consumption, battery storage, and Demand Response activity. These overlays were integrated into holographic house scenes and power meter visuals, adding depth to MP2’s energy management narrative. Final edits included syncing on-screen titles with the voiceover and fine-tuning callout timing.

Ensuring Brand Consistency

We checked typography, color palettes, and on-screen graphics against MP2’s brand guidelines. This included late-stage updates to ensure consistent use of the Shell | MP2 combined logo across all scenes.

Client revisions in post focused on clarifying callouts, color accuracy, and syncing graphics to narration. We implemented these efficiently with After Effects’ precomp structures.

Throughout the project, we stayed locked in on MP2’s vision: a clean, forward-looking energy provider. Every phase—concept, prototyping, full production, and post—was a deep collaboration between our team and MP2’s, ensuring technical accuracy, visual clarity, and brand alignment.

Transcript:
It’s not new news: there’s a big macro shift in how energy is generated and how we receive it.

Historically, electrons have been generated in a hub and spoke model -- from far-flung single points and distributed to customers. 

Today, the adoption of new energy technologies is happening at an incredibly fast rate and changing how customers power their lives. Yet, people will always want to consume the electrons they need, to live the way they are used to. One of the key roles of tomorrow’s utility is knowing how to manage the power flows into and out of people’s power meters. 

MP2 is doing this today. 

And what we’ve learned is that to manage a customer’s power flows AND be able to provide the best rate for them, we needed to be experts in everything related to how that electron is generated and used. 

This includes:

• Commercial rooftop solar

• Residential rooftop solar

• Demand Response programs with thermostats and battery storage

• Electric Vehicles (EVs) & other transportation

• Battery Storage

And here’s the thing about a modern electricity provider: You can’t “do” just one of these. They are all intertwined and all work together. And you can’t just pick this stuff up. 

You have to be a retailer, you have to be a wholesale market participant.  You have to know each of them inside and out. You have to be able to calculate and show how they work together. 

And, the economics of each of these things change constantly.  All of this stuff lays onto the current MP2 platform. It’s the platform and the approach of being able to touch all of these aspects. It’s complex “stuff.” 

MP2 is doing that stuff. And we’ve simplified it. 

As one of the largest retail energy suppliers and the largest demand response provider in Texas and manager of wholesale generation assets, a 24/7 scheduling desk, and a complex C&I retail billing platform, we're able to take all these pieces and scale them instantly downstream to a residential consumer's meter, where inflows and outflows are no different than that of managing a complex industrial facility.

At the end of the day, the customer is going to get smarter plans, a lower rate, enhanced reliability, and greater de-carbonization/greenification of their power usage. 

At MP2, we’ve had one focus since we started: first-class customer service. And if you break that down, it means that we’ve needed to be at the forefront of the changes in the energy landscape. 

Today, it is MP2’s vision to be the best renewable power company on the planet. We are leveraging Shell’s balance sheet and commitment to new energy including Shell’s pledge to invest in electrification investments including EVs, renewables, & battery storage. 

The expertise, the commitment to customer service and the leverage -- that’s what continues to build the MP2 Energy of tomorrow.