Energy Networks Association - UK’s Smart Grid
Team Effort
This was a team effort over at Grizzle between myself, Freddie Littlewood and a little splash of youth from young talented motion designer Iain Greenfield.
Freddie took care of the awesome 3D Beaver characters, something which, if you put a gun to my head I could do, but definitely out of my comfort zone. It’s good to have friends in high places. And Iain came in for a bit of extra help on some scenes towards the end of the project. Bringing with him as he always does, unbound enthusiasm - just what you need 5 months deep into the project!
3D Environments
My role was the environments, and wow, is it fun now that Quixel Megascans is on the scene. The goal visually was to create this miniature world where the Beavers could live as if they were inhabiting the complexity of a human-sized world, where the size of a telegraph pole might be the same as a fallen twig.
Around the same time, this awesome DeadMau5 music video came out made by Nick Denboer. They’d used Cinema 4D and rendered in Octane, which is exactly our workflow, and at 2 minutes 22 seconds, you see them flying around this cool forest-floor-type world where the characters were minimized. It was spot-on reference — Nick is an absolute motion design monster, and his work is soooooo nice.
Beavers: The perfect analogy for Smart Grids
Beavers are the perfect analogy for the change we need to implement in our electricity grids - they work together to manage the flow of water in their aquatic environments, and as a result create a much more resilient world for themnselves.
The structures that beavers create—ponds, wetlands, and dams—provide resilience to ecosystems by storing water, preventing floods, and creating diverse habitats. Similarly, smart grids introduce resilience by decentralizing energy distribution, allowing localized generation and storage (like batteries and demand response programs) to prevent blackouts and ensure stability during peak times.
Shout out to a brave Client
It was great working with the Energy Networks Association (ENA) and deciding not to go with the usual ‘what is a smart grid’ type video, but instead embracing the Beaver concept.
Although I really don’t think it is actually a brave move to do what they did, many clients feel brave when they’re stepping out of the cmofort zone. I feel it’s a brave move not to try and engage with the audience. Doing what everyone else does—following the usual path—is far riskier, because it means you're competing with so much material that essentially looks the same.
And finally, the little Bee Guy
We initially considered using Bees as a metaphor, but when the Beaver idea came up, we knew we had to run with it! That said, I'll leave you with the solar-panelled Bee concept we developed early on. We’ll definitely keep this little guy for a rainy day :)