The Brief
ICE Benevolent Fund has been supporting over 30,000 civil engineers and their families since 1864. They’re all about helping ICE members tackle life’s challenges while nurturing their personal development. As a result, we were absolutely thrilled when they came to us in search of a brand new animated video to showcase exactly what they do and what support is available to their thousands of members.
The Ben Fund, as it is known for short, provides many amazing services for members offering counseling, grants, unemployment support, expert advice and more. But the fund felt that it had an image problem, in that it seemed slightly outdated for its younger members. With our help and guidance they were seeking to shake things up with a fresh animation that would not only pack a punch, but also look great too.
The desire was an exciting brand video that would captivate a younger audience at the beginning of their civil engineering career. While their main focus was on a brand refresh to appeal to this younger demographic, the aim was also to remind long standing members of the support available to them.
For the start of the project we had a bit of a conundrum! Initially, ICE were unsure of whether to opt for 2D or 3D animation. As a result we decided to present them with options for both.
For the 2D animation version we created a central character based around their hat hard logo. While for the 3D option we moved away from character animation focusing instead on a yellow brick road to drive the narrative forward.
At The Animation Guys we find that many of our clients are unsure whether to choose 2D or 3D for their project. But there is no one right answer. The choice depends on the specifics of your project and what you are hoping to achieve. For us there are benefits to both!
2D is often the most cost effective solution for a project, taking less time to produce and allowing our artists to create highly expressive and emotive characters for an audience to connect with. With 3D animation the process is more complex but creates a whole new dimension and depth to your final video that cannot easily be achieved using 2D methods.
As civil engineering is centered around building and design it only felt right that the 3D option came out on top. In particular utilising it for the assets on screen from the bricks to the bridge really added a sense of realism and immersion to the final video. The 3D animation gave us the ability to render and add lighting effects to the bricks much like with a recent engineering animation project that we worked on. Ultimately this gave the finished project a sleeker and more professional look, which our clients loved.
Not your typical corporate video, ICE wanted to add a bit more personality to the project. With this in mind, we decided to have some fun and added some tongue-in-cheek gags throughout the video.
The yellow brick road was chosen to demonstrate members winding their way through life’s obstacles, with ICE Benevolent Fund by their side. Reinforcing the notion that ‘the small steps we take today pave important paths for us in the future’
How the bricks came together to form the yellow brick road was incredibly important to the narrative and overall timing of the piece. It required a high attention to detail from our skilled animators to get the movements just right.
This was essential for the animation to flow from each point in the narrative, ultimately ending with the path leading to the Ben Fund and their hard hat logo in all its shiny 3D glory. This project goes to show that you don’t need an enormous budget to create a highly polished 3D animation explainer video that perfectly and uniquely communicates your brand’s messages.
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