She’s got the whole world in H.E.R. hands! Nokia’s new product needed a proper showcase. The HET NET Engine Room Solution, or HER for short, helps Internet providers quickly and easily determine the best locations to deploy Ultra Dense Networks. This is especially important to meet online traffic demand in heavily populated urban settings. CRM Studios had previously successfully helped Nokia feature their products in creatively innovative ways, and was ready to tackle this challenge.

The visual demands of this particular corporate marketing video had more to do with showing how the product determines locations than simply displaying a bunch of product shots. We wanted to take an innovative, fresh approach to demonstrating the system. We needed to be able to virtually fly over a large city (Chicago, in this case) and then zoom into specific intersections.  Having a spokesperson interact with a translucent, tabletop 3D model of the city seemed to be the best way to demonstrate.

Conveying the Message

It was essential to find on-camera talent who could take direction well since he or she would be interacting with 3D visual elements and dynamic graphics that wouldn’t be added in until after the shoot.  We would film him or her on our green screen soundstage, then have our animation department composite them into a virtual set they had created using 3D graphics via 3Ds Max and After Effects— complete with an “interactive” tabletop map of the city.

A big challenge for this video was matching our animation of the city with some previously created product-specific animations.  It would require some manipulation of color and texture on our model to achieve the desired effect.  Additionally, it was important to find the right level of transparency in our 3D graphics so that both the talent and the city could be easily discerned. In other words, this project required the perfect blend of art and science.

Mapping the Approach

All of the data related to the site survey were generated by the product’s creators and supplied to us by the client. CRM Studios needed to determine the best order to present it and choose which information to convey with 3D graphics. 

Once the order was determined, we focused on dividing the display data between the back wall and a heads-up display between the talent and the camera.  The layering of data via 3D Graphics was inspired in part by the movies Iron Man and Minority Report.

This corporate marketing video using 3D graphics was very well received and celebrated by the internal team at Nokia, who would be using it to market the product.  It was also honored with a 2016 Telly Award. This project represents a true collaboration between the client, Nokia, the agency, NextWave Creative, and the video production company, CRM Studios.

If you’re looking to collaborate on a creative and innovative marketing video, contact us today to get started.