If all goes well, you’ll never hear Promat’s name. Being in the fire protection business means that you need to convey reliability and expertise. Prospective clients are in charge of a building’s reliability and the safety of its inhabitants.
With so much at stake, marketing materials need to hit the mark in communicating potential risks and Promat’s added value. That’s where I come in, with illustrations and animations we tell stories about Promat’s ability to protect against fires, passive and everywhere.
Illustrating fire risks and their prevention is challenging, using real examples and technical materials.
How do you make an invisible risk tangible? For Promat, the answer was to create a fictional environment where fire hazardss and their potential impact could be visualised without relying on real-life situations.
This gave us the freedom to tell a compelling visual story, making the value of prevention easier to understand.
Promat’s bread and butter is data: fire tests determine how long a surface can remain protected from structural collapse.
But technical data alone can make for a dry sales pitch. By placing Promat’s products in context, we can turn technical information into a story that is easier to understand and remember.
Because these stories take place in fictional digital environments, we can explore a wide range of applications and scenarios without being limited by real-world locations or comparisons.
This is the final version of the ‘Firestopping’ video I’ve made for Promat, in which we show various places where a hotel needs to be protected against fire. For this project we wanted a hotel guest to make a tour around the place, highlighting Promat’s involvement.
Firestopping isn’t the only story we’ve told; here are some examples, each with its own creative challenge:
Critical infrastructure needs to be protected; not only does a fire pose a serious threat to passengers, structural damage can cause serious delays in the event of a closure.
To help limit damages and provide people with time to escape, we told a story to highlight Promat’s role in this market.
Promat’s famous PROMATECT®-boards are widely applicable in many industries, due to the material it’s made of. In this story, Promat wanted to highlight the production and distribution process, alongside illustrative industries.
This way, we can show the entire pipeline from production to installation.
Promat’s Paraflam® Ultra system is highly specialised, yet broadly applicable. In this story, Promat wanted to demonstrate the problem the system solves, its straightforward installation process, and the rigorous testing behind its fire-rated performance.
They also wanted to visualise key USPs that are otherwise difficult to demonstrate, such as the way a glass façade responds to wind-induced movement and the absence of coating-curing times compared to competing systems.
Making an animation is a unique experience each time, but generally follows these steps:
We’re in the business of telling compelling stories, but first we need to know what story we’re telling. Exactly. This means interviews with the client and relevant experts, to make sure I have a good grasp of the source material.
Provided resources are closely looked through, follow-up questions are asked and available .STEP 3D files are studied for our purposes.
This stage is critical: we need to decide how the precious attention span of our viewer is spent most effectively. Writing a script is great exercise in determining what is important.
A storyboard goes a step further: with quick sketches the story becomes visual. With simple lines and strong colors, we quickly discover what suits our story best. Also: changing the story in this stage is very easy!
Now we know what the story should be, I create Promat’s products and put them in believable environments.
In this stage there is a quick back-and-forth with various experts, to make sure the shown environments are credible and up to technical specifications.
Camera motion is added, panels are removed and products fly into view: now everything comes together! Realistic surfaces and lights make sure the stars of the show shine bright!
In between the animation and final video, various versions are shared with experts to validate the look and technical accuracy.
When the animation is done, product labels and other graphical elements are added to help tell the story. And to top it off? A convincing voice-over to accompany the visuals.
Hi, I’m Thomas. For over 10 years, I’ve helped companies tell their stories using animations and illustrations.
I’m not an engineer, but I’m able to quickly grasp complex material so we can focus on telling the best story possible.
But more importantly? Making your product shine.
Your product deserves the spotlight, but is easily buried in tiresome PowerPoints and technical PDFs.
Together we tell stories engineers believe and customers attract.
Plain and simple: I help visualize your story. No matter the technique, software or application. During the concept-phase I discover who you are and what you’re trying to say.
Then the sketching starts: together we look for the right story to tell, while keeping your client central to everything. In this collaborative process you see the story taking shape, with plenty of room for input and change.
With my background in Interaction Design, I’m trained to keep the target audience central to my creative decisions. Before (and during) the creation of anything visual, I ask myself: ‘Who is this for?’ and ‘How can we best achieve the desired result?’.
I’m not an expert in your field, but I don’t need to be; curiosity is all that matters. I talk with your engineers, to make sure our story is accurate and believable.
But first and foremost: I’m in love with animation as a craft; bringing something static to live is always a great joy!
Depending on the briefing, the lead time varies between 4 – 6 weeks. If you have a tight deadline, we can always discuss getting priority on my schedule.
A typical animation follows these steps:
As a freelance 3D animator, I’m able to communicate and process feedback incredibly fast. No need for a complicated onboarding process; we can start almost immediately.
Clients repeatedly express their pleasant surprise on my respond-time; having direct communication makes sure we can move fast, while achieving high-quality results.
