3D Animation in Ireland

3D animation from a Dublin studio

3D animation builds objects as models in three dimensions, so the camera can move around them, through them and inside them. That makes it the right tool when your audience needs to see a physical thing properly: a product from every angle, how it fits together, what happens inside a machine. We make 3D animation in our Dublin studio for businesses across Ireland, alongside the 2D animation and motion graphics we are better known for.

3D product animation

Product animation is the most common reason Irish companies commission 3D. A product turns slowly in clean light, opens up to show its parts, then reassembles with the features labelled. It works on a product page, at a trade stand, in a sales deck and on a launch campaign, and it never needs a photographer, a studio or a sample shipped across the country.

If your engineers already have CAD files, the model exists and half the work is done. We clean it up for animation, add materials and lighting, and build the film around it. Without CAD, we model the product from drawings and reference photographs. Either way you sign off the model before any animation starts.

Technical and machinery explainers

Some things cannot be filmed. The inside of a pump while it runs. The order in which a machine is commissioned. How a component sits inside an assembly that will never be opened. 3D animation can cut away the casing, slow everything down and show the sequence step by step, which is why it is so useful for training, sales engineering and tenders.

This sits naturally alongside our explainer video work. The script and storyboard process is the same. The difference is that the visuals are built as models rather than drawn.

3D characters and mixed 2D and 3D

3D characters suit mascots that need to appear in many poses and scenes, and brands that want a more dimensional look than flat illustration gives. Plenty of good films mix the two: a 3D product dropped into a 2D illustrated world, or 2D labels and callouts layered over a 3D render. We decide that with you at storyboard stage, based on what the film has to explain.

3D or 2D animation?

We will always give you a straight answer on this, because the difference in cost is real. Every object in a 3D scene has to be modelled, textured, lit and then rendered frame by frame. A 2D scene is drawn once and animated.

So choose 3D animation when the physical object is the point. Choose 2D when you are explaining an idea, a service or a process, which covers most public sector, health and training work. If you are unsure, send us the script or brief and we will recommend one, even if the answer is the cheaper option.

How a 3D animation project runs

It starts the same way as every video we make, with the script read against the clock at around 130 words a minute and a storyboard showing what is on screen at each line. Then we build or prepare the models and send you stills to approve. Then camera moves as a rough preview, so you can see the timing before anything is fully rendered. Then materials, lighting and a final look frame. Only after those sign offs do we run the full render, add the voiceover, music and any 2D graphics, and deliver.

That order matters more in 3D than anywhere else. Changing a camera move in a rough preview takes minutes. Changing it after the final render means rendering again.

3D animation services across Ireland

The studio is in Smithfield, Dublin 7, and most projects run online with reviews over a shared link and a call. We deliver in whatever formats you need: landscape for your website and YouTube, square and vertical for social media, looping versions for exhibition screens, and stills pulled from the render for brochures and product pages.

Pricing depends on how much has to be modelled, whether CAD is available, how realistic the finish needs to be and the running time. Send us the files or a description of the product and we will come back with a price and a schedule. For everything else we make, see our video production in Ireland page.