Complex Processes Visualized with CINEMA 4D

An image says more than a thousand words.

Since movement can been added to any type of imagery, the still, explanatory image has been transformed into an animated infographic with which even the most complex process can be made comprehensible – and CINEMA 4D is an excellent tool for the creation of just these graphics.

Even if you might think otherwise, the world is not spinning faster – but the speed with which news and events are brought to our attention has increased dramatically. After something has been taken in visually, our brain separates the wheat from the chaff. What remains is a healthy porion of information that remains to be understood, categorized and, if necessary, retained. Retaining and understanding this information go hand-in-hand, because what is understood can be more easily retained and “memorized”. We are continually being confronted with complex processes of technological, economic or political nature that are often not easy to comprehend at first glance. Infographics make such complex processes visually appealing and easier to understand.

Those creating these graphics need a tool that lets them work quickly and intuitively in order to react quickly to news reports and to deliver fast results for news agencies and online news sites.

This is what the team at NewsLab does every day. Matej Husek, CEO of the Prag-based infographics studio, is certain that the need for visualized information will increase significantly in the next few years. He also emphasized: “Infographics not only have to present the facts correctly but also have to be created very quickly.” Pavel Kubes, acting director of infographics production, uses the recent earthquake in Japan as an example: “Only hours after the earthquake had occured, agencies want to have infographics. We don’t have a couple of days time to create our graphics. The results must be simple, understandable and, above all, available.”

As the news of the earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunanmi that partially destroyed the Fukujima nuclear plant hit the news tickers on March 11, 2011, NewsLab immediately began with their standard procedure in such cases. The team, consisting of 3D artists, programmers and journalists, got to work immediately. They started by conducting extensive research about the Fukujima nuclear plant and gathering as many available images as possible. Within four to five hours, a model of the outer shell of the nuclear plant was finished and a good vantage point was selected for the camera. At the same time, other team members created a model of the inside of the plant, which was to be used to show how such a nuclear plant works. After all scenes had been wrapped up in CINEMA 4D, they were rendered in less then 30 minutes using NET Render across a seven-workstation network. The rendered material was fine-tuned in After Effects and converted to a Flash presentation by the programming team who implemented scripts to make it interactive.

Fortunately, creating infographics for such a tragic event as the earthquake in Japan remains the exception and the deadlines are not always as tight. Other projects that, for example, illustrate technical procedures or visions of future products can be created under much less pressure. However, the methods with which these topics are researched and the material is created is no different from the methods used for the Fukujima presentation.

“The business of creating infographics has changed a lot in the past few years”, says Matej Husek. “When we began we did everything with vector graphics. 3D graphics has totally changed our approach and our product has become much more attractive for the viewer. Today we can present things that are normally not shown: oil leaks at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, space walks or the inside of a leaking nuclear reactor. This is what the public wants to see and this is what they appreciate about our work."

Info
www.newslab.cz/en/