In the industrial field, a patented equipment that embodies the enterprise's painstaking efforts is often key to opening up markets and winning customer favor. Industrial 3D animation, with its intuitive and vivid characteristics, has become an important carrier for showcasing equipment performance and highlights.
However, many machinery companies face a dilemma during promotion: they want to fully showcase the equipment's advantages through animation to attract customers, but they are also worried about exposing core sensitive structures in videos, which could be spied on or even copied by competitors. How to solve this problem and achieve a win-win situation of "showcasing highlights" and "protecting secrets"? Reviewing past cases from Xuncheng Technology, we found two typical examples that might hold the answer.
Case 1: Precision Transmission of Printing Press
Previously, Xuncheng Technology created a promotional animation for a printing press manufacturer in Shenzhen. A printing press developed by this company has a gear transmission structure that breaks through traditional technical bottlenecks, achieving precision comparable to servo-controlled transmissions. This technical highlight is undoubtedly the core competitiveness of the equipment. The company's management was eager to present this breakthrough intuitively to customers but was also concerned about exposing the details of the gear structure. After multiple discussions, an ideal solution was not found.
To solve this predicament, the Xuncheng Technology engineering team brainstormed. During the discussion, the question "Can gear precision be higher than that of a Swiss watch?" became a breakthrough inspiration. The precise operation of a Swiss watch movement is globally recognized as a symbol of high precision. If the operation of a watch movement is used to illustrate the working state of the printing press gears, it can allow customers to intuitively perceive the core advantage of "high precision" without directly exposing the detailed gear structure of the equipment.
Thus, in the final animation clip, the high-precision characteristics of the printing press gears were skillfully conveyed through dynamic visuals of a Swiss watch movement. After the final product was delivered, it received high recognition from the company's management. The animation successfully helped the printing press company clearly communicate the equipment's highlights to customers, becoming a powerful aid in their market promotion.
As a top global manufacturer of post-press equipment, Xuheng Precision has undoubtedly more stringent requirements for the confidentiality of its core equipment structures than ordinary companies. Therefore, when creating animations for their die-cutting machines, Xuncheng Technology adopted a display strategy of "focusing on functions, hiding details" for the equipment's heating device and die-cutting waste removal functions.
In the animation segment demonstrating the heating device function, the team used a panning shot with perspective. They first clearly indicated the position of the heating device within the equipment, then showed the temperature control zones, operation knobs, and working principles through multi-angle switching. The entire shot followed a minimalist principle, only presenting the external form and functional effects of the heating device to the audience. Core sensitive structural details were completely hidden, yet this did not affect the customer's understanding of the equipment's heating function.
A similar approach was applied to the demonstration of the die-cutting waste removal function. The animation simplified the equipment structure to its most minimalist form, removing all elements that might involve sensitive details. Only the key action shots of die-cutting waste removal were retained, ensuring that customers could clearly grasp the functional characteristics while preventing the leakage of core structural information.
Customized Delivery: Dual Versions Meet Different Scenario Needs
Considering the extreme information confidentiality requirements of some enterprises, Xuncheng Technology also offers a "dual version delivery" service: For core internal personnel, a "full version" animation including complete equipment structural information is provided, facilitating technical discussions and internal training. For marketing and promotion scenarios, a "sales version" animation, stripped of sensitive structures and focusing only on highlight functions, will be provided. Sales personnel can carry this version to visit clients or upload it to various promotional platforms without worrying about the leakage of core secrets.
From "analogous representation" to "minimalist shots" and then to "dual versions," Xuncheng Technology always puts customer needs at its core, balancing the relationship between "display" and "protection" in industrial animation creation. This ensures that equipment highlights accurately reach target customers while building a strong security defense for the enterprise's core technology.
Featured FAQs:
Q: How can animation videos avoid exposing sensitive equipment structures?
A: Some clients worry that animation videos might expose sensitive parts of their products. The following methods can be used to address this:
1- When clients provide product or equipment models, sensitive structures can be deleted or deformed. (Model simplification and occlusion, blurring and fading, color adjustment and blending)
2- Animation shots should be designed not to display the structures of sensitive parts, but to present them in an analogous way.
3- Divide the animation video into a full version and a sales version. The sales version, which does not contain sensitive parts, can be distributed externally. The full version should not be sent out externally but displayed when explaining to clients.
Q: Will using animation for equipment expose sensitive equipment structures?
A: No.
Equipment usage animations demonstrate the content of traditional paper operation manuals in the form of video animations (e.g., in a printing press, the paper feeding unit mainly explains how to adjust the baffle and register, and how to feed paper; the printing unit mainly explains how to ink, change plates, and adjust printing pressure, etc. These do not involve sensitive equipment structures). Machinery factories can also delete or deform sensitive equipment structures when providing equipment models.
The initiative always rests with the machinery factory.
Q: What is the appropriate duration for a 3D animation video?
A: The duration of a 3D animation video should be determined based on the product highlights you want to convey to the customer. Generally speaking:
1- For industrial products, 30-90 seconds is ideal for 3D animation. Multiple short videos can also be produced for the same product based on different application scenarios.
2- For small machinery and equipment, 30-90 seconds is ideal. For medium-sized machinery and equipment, 60-180 seconds is ideal. For large machinery and equipment, over 180 seconds is suitable.
The principle for video duration is to make it convenient for the customer to understand the content conveyed by the animation video.
If there are indeed many equipment highlights and the video duration is too long, it can be edited into a full version and a sales version. The sales version focuses on the equipment's highlights superior to competitors, while the full version is demonstrated when the client wants to understand the product in-depth.
About Xuncheng Technology
Founded in 2016, with 9 years of professional industrial 3D animation creation experience, its clients span various types of enterprises including startups, overseas clients, listed companies, and foreign-funded enterprises. It specializes in providing 3D animation creation services for machinery and equipment, high-tech industries, software development, and foreign trade companies. It offers a one-stop industrial 3D animation creative service from product sales to after-sales maintenance.
Provided nearly 3000 minutes of professional animation videos for over 200 manufacturing enterprises.
Whether at exhibition sites or during client visits; whether expanding into overseas markets or improving after-sales service, we firmly believe that through the power of design, complex products and machinery can be presented in astonishing 3D animation. This not only brings a unique visual experience to clients but also quickly captivates their hearts.
