This was one of my favourite projects of 2021 so far. I worked with great team on an interesting early research project, as part of Capco Innovation Labs division. We worked on creating Proof of Concept of a platform that helps automate repetitive and manual checks, as part of Know Your Customer process inside financial industry. At the end of this project, I have created a showcase promotional video highlighting how the platform would work.

Whole project was done by a small and agile team consisting of:

• Project Manager
• Developer
• UI and UX Designer
• Motion Designer

Clay render and initial export from Blender

In this project, I used Blender for the first time in a production environment. I have used Blender in the past, while doing tutorials to get myself familiar with the software and just experimenting. But on this project, I used it for the first time, where I had to create assets, particles and  animations in 3D and bring them into After Effects for final compositing.

Multipass compositing in After Effects

To bring animation from Blender to After Effects, I have used a simple JSX export plugin, to get the camera, lights and selected Empty / Null data. It worked perfectly and I was surprised how easy the process was.

As for compositing, I have exported EXR sequence with a number of passes, using Eevee render. Additionally, I have exported extra Freestyle pass, that let’s you add outlines and cartoon-like drawings on top of your render. It was  great way to add micro-contrast and details in the relatively simple scene.

I used multi pass export method, to fine tune colours, shadows and blend contrast to my liking in the final video. Additionally, I have replaced simple grey “floor” with a white looped texture I have made earlier, to match the rest of the video.

Bender does not come with MoGraph Tools or Effectors like Cinema 4D. It has various Modifiers and number of add-ons that helps with motion graphics creation. For opening shot of “growing” buildings, I have used a simple node set up in Animation Nodes.

Animation Nodes let me create an effector-like control with falloff, which allows me to animate all the buildings procedurally, with a single Null and 2 keyframes.

Final 3D shot

As a last detail, I added a simple particle system emitting coins. In After Effects, I have designed and rigged 3D “Point Tracker” template, which was responsive to the text length and position as well.

To add extra information in time with voiceover, I have created flexible text rig templates. They are made from 1 composition, using Master Properties. Easy to use and they let me easily modify text and position of tracker.

This simple, but effective rig is more flexible, due to built in “left-right” switch. I can simply reverse direction of the text underline, but animation always stays the same.

Multipurpose text template trackers

Big part of this project showcase, was research and uncovered pain points. Our Project Manager wanted to showcase them in the video. However, when I was working on the motion part, research was still being conducted and not finalised.

To avoid delays, I have created flexible template rig, that used CSV spreadsheet to populate the text fields. All the fields are responsive and fast to render. Simply, I had to replace temporary spreadsheet with real data, and After Effects populated all the content for me automatically.