3D explainer animation for Panasonic Avionics. Produced, designed and animated by Dreaming Fish Productions.
The client and the brief
Panasonic Avionics provides, amongst many other services, mobile and WiFi services onboard flights operated by various airlines around the world. DreamingFish has worked with Panasonic Avionics for a number of years, producing various videos for their customers. We were excited to dive into this project as soon as it landed. This time, they were looking for a way to promote and explain the WiFi and mobile services offered onboard their customers’ airlines. Their thought was that if they could put an explainer video on the inflight entertainment (IFE) screen, this would be watched by every passenger and boost take-up of the services.
The main challenge was ensuring the animation was high-quality enough to sit comfortably alongside other adverts for perfume, watches and alcohol etc. Simultaneously, the animation also needed to be generic enough that it could play on any airline with simple rebranding/ language changes. The brief involved the idea of being connected enabling you to escape. We loved this idea. We all choose to connect so that we can escape from real life, from the mundane, from worry, from ourselves. The idea of ‘escape’ kick started not only the script but the look and feel of the video too. “Being connected – as escapism.“
The design
Generally, most explainer animations tend to be 2D, but we felt that a 3D approach would work best for this ‘premium’ video. Our initial mood board and concepts featured 3D mobile devices, tablets and laptops along with images that conveyed holidays and travelling. The film had to feature icons, so we designed these with a metal texture in a 3D space; giving them that high-end, premium feel.
The production
Alongside the development of the design approach, we worked on the script. As there was no voiceover, the onscreen text carried it all. “Sit back, relax and escape from it all” was a key line in the script which tied in the overarching ‘escape’ theme. We opened with a scene of multiple mobile phones forming a canvas, which added scale, suggesting a shared experience for all passengers. We set this against a star-filled night sky which looked very cool. If you watch carefully, you’ll see the night slowly transitioning to morning throughout the video. This was a way of acknowledging that planes fly around the clock. The night sky also allowed for simple rebranding without any need for large-scale background colour changes.
After signing off the script and design approach, we jumped straight into storyboarding. This stage requires our designers, (in this case the lovely Josh) to design all the assets they will need into the frames. This makes sign-off easier, as our clients know exactly what they will be getting from the finished film. It also means most of the design work is already complete, speeding up the overall animation process.
The 3D explainer
The animation itself was relatively complex. The 3D sections were built in Cinema4D and rendered in Octane; whilst the whole animation was composited in After Effects. Josh also designed the animation to be easily rebrandable and simple to translate into other languages. The finished animation is epic and the client couldn’t be happier!
Words from the client
“Working with DreamingFish is a real pleasure. They are great partners with a responsive and flexible team, who always go the extra mile to meet our needs. DreamingFish’s fresh and creative approach has helped us bring our Marketing videos to a new level of design and engagement.”
• Panasonic Avionics
