Combine 3D in explainer and product videos with 2D at low cost

Elaborate 3D animations are often indispensable for explanatory films and product videos. To create them cheaply and sustainable, they can be cleverly combined with 2D animations. A few tricks ensure a surprising result.

Experienced motion designers can achieve a lot even with tight budgets and low power consumption. After all, it’s supposed to be about easy comprehensibility. Crisp graphics and elaborate animations take second place, so to speak.

50,000 euros per minute 3D

The explanatory filmmaker has to be careful: The more „colorful“ and playful the visual layer, the more easily it distracts. Users find it harder to understand the content and retain it poorly.

Classic 3D productions are also expensive, time-consuming and the energy-hungry renderings pollute the environment. One minute of fully animated 3D can cost around 50,000 euros. Few customers can afford that. Under these conditions, are 3D techniques even an option in an explainer film?

The limits of 2D

It can make sense to create an explainer video at least partially in 3D. Let’s assume that the functionality of a complex F-3000 milling machine is to be explained: Quickly, the F-3000 could be created and animated as a 2D illustration based on existing photos.

But now it happens that it has to be shown from different perspectives. The machine as a whole has to be explained, as well as the milling head and its rear side. The illustration effort suddenly skyrockets, because the same parts have to be drawn again and again in new views.

From a certain complexity, 2D animation also reaches its limits in terms of effort. It could still be difficult to explain to the viewer where exactly the back of the milling head is in relation to the front of the F-3000 just shown, for example.

Three-dimensional explanation please

Here it makes sense to make a 3D model of the machine. At first, this may take longer than just creating an illustration. However, this model can then be shown from any perspective. And with the help of camera movements, spatial relationships can be precisely conveyed.

But what happens to the remaining elements that appear in the film? There is not enough time or money to create all the backgrounds, icons and characters in 3D. Rigging, texturing, shading and rendering for days is rarely a realistic option.

Here, a middle way offers itself as a solution. The F-3000 becomes 3D, everything else can remain 2D as long as both worlds harmonize. And that can be achieved with just a few days of extra work.

As if from a single mold

One option is the „toon shader“, which gives the model a flat color fill and outlines. These give the impression that every frame of the 3D sequence has been drawn. Compared to photorealistic renderings, the render time is also kept within limits here.

Another option is to adapt the illustrations to a 3D look by using slight color gradients, although the illustration effort can quickly increase here.

With either method, it makes sense to find a balanced level of detail. 3D models can be kept to a low-poly look. Details should only be added where they are needed.

Simple updates

Additional design tools can be used to reinforce the impression that the two worlds are actually one: for example, adding slight film grain, lens flares, or a vignette.

And when the successor to the F-3000 is launched, the F-3001, the 3D model can be revised, re-rendered and the film updated with relatively little effort.

Efficient and sustainable

Whether it’s a 2D explainer film, 2D product video or a combination of 2D and 3D – we produce your animations and the entire video efficiently and sustainably, thanks to our qualifications and experience.

Test us. Let us advise you or get our proven briefing tool for free and without obligation.