Pre-Production

Project Foundation & Client Inputs

This project was built as an evolved continuation of a previously completed emergency response animation. It expanded on prior work, but with updated processes, newly deployed equipment, and a deeper focus on engineering accuracy. The foundation came directly from the client’s comprehensive reference package—including STEP files, high-resolution field photography, and narrated video walkthroughs from their engineering teams. These resources provided more than just visual references—they detailed function, purpose, and real-world positional data for the Q4000 deployment environment.

From day one, the goal was accuracy. Every asset had a real counterpart, and the client made it clear that engineering-level precision was non-negotiable. Layouts had to match reality. Equipment sequencing needed to mirror operational procedure. That demand shaped everything—from asset prep to environment building to how camera movement would later support technical storytelling.

Reference Gathering & Visual Research

Visual research focused on three key pillars: the Q4000 offshore rig environment, flare boom and water curtain deployment behavior, and real-world oil spill appearance and motion. For the Q4000, we combined past modeling data with updated photos to account for current structural details, wear patterns, and mechanical additions.

Fire and suppression behavior were another core research focus. We analyzed color profiles and plume characteristics of gas flares in offshore conditions—this directly influenced fire simulations later on. Oil spill visual references included sheen density, edge diffusion, light refraction, and the unique way surface tension creates ripple boundaries across oil-covered water.

We also researched tugboat maneuvering, shipping lane logistics, and staging zones on offshore decks. These details shaped how port ops and offshore interactions were staged throughout the animation.

STEP File Integration & Scene Planning

All core equipment assets came as STEP files—detailed CAD models that needed to be optimized for animation. We cleaned each model by reviewing polygon counts, eliminating non-essential geometry, and simplifying topology. Decimation and retopology ensured manageable UV maps and real-time preview performance.

Prep work included aligning pivots, creating clean object hierarchies, enforcing naming standards, and assigning shader groups. This made each model ready for animation and texture application later in the pipeline.

Scene planning started with a full blockout of the Q4000 deck based on client-supplied photo sequences. Most of these were captured from elevated walkways and crane lifts, offering clear visual context for equipment layout. From these, we inferred equipment groupings, spacing, and routing logic—building a field-accurate deck blueprint to guide later animation.

Rapid Prototyping

Layout Assembly with Full-Resolution Models

The RP phase was built for technical accuracy and animation rhythm—not render quality. Every model imported was cleaned and positioned using actual references. No placeholders, no proxies—only real geometry from the final set. Each piece of equipment was placed on the Q4000 deck to match field layouts precisely.

No textures or lighting were applied. Assets were grouped and color-coded to differentiate systems visually. Camera rigs and object movement were timed to the voiceover script, which was embedded directly into the Cinema 4D timeline to sync with camera beats and transitions.

The port and staging environments were also rebuilt here. Past versions were updated with the new models, and layout staging was realigned based on updated documentation.

Camera Blocking & Scene Staging

Camera paths were designed to flow continuously across the Q4000. One core shot featured a full-deck flyover with the camera stopping to highlight each piece of equipment in sequence. The idea was simple: don’t cut—glide. Let the viewer see the relationships between systems and get a complete picture of how the deck is staged for deployment.

Spline-based camera rigs with look-at constraints locked the camera to voiceover-timed targets. Keyframe interpolation was adjusted with easing curves to keep movement smooth and natural, especially during slow transitions between gear clusters.

Pipeline Flow Indicators

Even at the RP stage, we introduced early UI elements—specifically, flow indicators that showed how oil or gas would travel through the pipeline networks. These were simple but intentional: animated arrows following CAD-derived spline paths to preview system logic. They helped engineers and clients connect visual layout with technical functionality—building early alignment before more complex visuals came into play.

Validation & Internal Review

Internal reviews focused on layout fidelity and narrative flow. Once the first RP pass was built, it was submitted for client validation. Feedback came in focused on function—confirming correct equipment placement, deployment sequencing, and logical storytelling. No concern for visuals yet. This was about technical clarity.

Client feedback drove a few key changes: repositioning gear, adjusting camera linger time on critical components, and adding movement cues like crane pivots or pipeline connectors. We kept visuals intentionally minimal to allow us to iterate quickly and keep feedback cycles tight.

Scene Variants & Transition Setup

RP also defined the visual geography of the entire animation. We staged multiple environments—port, highway, offshore rig, and underwater views—ensuring continuity from one to the next. Camera positions and transitions were aligned carefully to allow seamless movement between scenes.

We also blocked out where speed ramps and timelapse transitions would appear—especially for sequences like port crane operation. Animation curves were plotted with acceleration in mind, creating clean zones for future retiming in Full Production without reworking motion logic later.

This phase locked in narrative structure, scene transitions, and technical framing—setting a stable foundation for everything to follow in final rendering and simulation.

Full Production

Texturing & Material Development

This phase zeroed in on realism—texturing every asset with the goal of full visual and engineering fidelity. With layout, camera work, and VO already locked, Full Production shifted focus to finishing the visuals and aligning every detail to real-world references.

Texturing began with the full suite of PTS emergency response equipment. Using the client’s reference photos, each piece was shaded and surfaced to replicate actual conditions in the field. Materials included wear, smudging, metal reflectivity, safety stickers, and mechanical grime—everything visible in warehouse and port documentation. PBR workflows were used across the board, with diffuse, roughness, normal, and metallic maps authored for each major asset. A conceptual human figure was placed throughout shots to help reinforce equipment scale and real-world proportions.

Internally, assets were staged and tested across multiple scenes to ensure shader consistency. Redshift’s material override previews were used for validation before final render.

Lighting Setup

Lighting was layered with precision. HDRIs formed the daylight foundation, while targeted area lights highlighted key gear and spatial zones. Shadows, reflections, and bounce light were tuned scene by scene. All assets needed to feel naturally lit, grounded, and fully visible—no blown-out edges or murky drop-offs. Occluded and interior deck spaces were treated with soft fill lighting, balanced to retain shape and detail without flattening depth.

Environmental Detailing: Q4000 and Ocean Assets

The Q4000 rig and surrounding environment were heavily refined. Deck surfaces, tank textures, railings, and support structures were modeled and shaded using industrial references. Vessels like tugboats and tankers were textured and lit to feel part of the same world—matching sea reflections, light falloff, and color tone.

Ocean shaders were custom-built using layered noise maps for displacement, foam simulation, and dynamic reflections. An overlay system simulated oil behavior, combining animated masks and UV layers. The water shader pushed further: multi-channel displacement, alpha blending, and specular stacking created a photoreal effect. Animated texture maps drove the oil shimmer, stretch, and interaction with underlying waves.

Fire & Fluid Simulations

Fire simulations were built in Houdini. Fuel sources came from geometry on flare booms, with custom velocity fields used to shape flame direction and turbulence. Pyro solvers managed flame heat, flicker, dissipation, and volume. Post-solve noise and disturbance fields sharpened movement realism. Final VDB sequences were exported to Cinema 4D and rendered using Redshift volume containers, with fine-tuned values for blackbody intensity, scatter, and density falloff.

A dual-volume setup was used—high-res for the fire core, lower-res for the broader smoke cloud. Redshift AOVs isolated fire glows for compositing, while heat distortion was simulated in post using displacement maps animated to flame turbulence.

Water curtains were simulated using X-Particles and standard emitters in Cinema 4D. Emitters followed spline guides, tracing hose paths. Turbulence, gravity, and wind modifiers gave motion to the spray. Colliders mapped to the Q4000’s surfaces produced bounce and deflection. Spray and mist were rendered using low-opacity volumetric and Redshift sprite reflections.

Mechanical Animation & Timelapse Scenes

Port crane sequences used IK-rigged arms with spline-IK cables and soft-body physics. Payloads were constrained to spline tips, letting them swing and settle under load. Animation layers split out real-time motion from sped-up sequences for the timelapse. A control rig managed motion pacing, while water shader time remapping animated wave speed to match time-lapse movement.

Cables deformed in response to dynamic loads, bending under equipment weight. These motions were baked and ramped to match sped-up sequences. The result was a believable, time-lapsed portrayal of heavy lifting without sacrificing realism.

Projection Mapping Techniques and Hybrid Animation

Projection mapping was key to building time-efficient, visually rich highway transport shots—giving us the best of both worlds: photo-based realism and full animation control. This hybrid approach blended high-resolution imagery with 3D geometry in a 2.5D space to deliver cinematic movement without the overhead of full environment modeling.

The foundation was a high-res aerial photo of an actual highway. This image was camera-mapped onto simplified 3D road geometry inside Cinema 4D. That geometry was shaped to match the road’s contour and elevation, giving us realistic parallax and camera motion while preserving the visual integrity of the original photo. The projection camera was matched exactly to the original shot’s angle to lock in seamless alignment.

Every car in the source photo was manually cut out. The cleaned version of the road became the projection base, while those vehicle cutouts were brought back in as 2D elements in After Effects. Each one was animated using bezier paths to simulate real highway behavior—lane changes, acceleration, variable spacing. These were actual vehicles from the original image, so lighting, color, and shadow were already baked in—no need to fake it.

To layer in CG content, 3D semi-trucks carrying PTS emergency equipment were modeled, textured, and rendered directly into the scene. HDRI lighting and directional sunlight matched the tone of the photo, and Redshift handled the rendering—delivering photoreal materials, shadows, and contact lighting. The trucks moved on the same pathing as the photo-based cars, scaled and placed for accurate grounding.

Shadow passes were rendered for each CG truck and composited beneath them in After Effects. These subtle touches—like simulated lens artifacts and trailer heat shimmer—made the transition between real and rendered vehicles invisible to the viewer.

This method gave us speed and flexibility. When the client requested timing changes, traffic density tweaks, or adjustments to how the equipment moved down the road, we made those changes directly in After Effects—no need to re-render from 3D. The projection mapping workflow gave us film-quality realism with fast-turnaround edit control, making it one of the most efficient and authentic sequences in the entire animation.

XRef Optimization and Scene Management

Managing high-resolution environments and complex technical assets across multiple scenes required a streamlined, performance-focused approach. To keep everything running smoothly without sacrificing fidelity, the entire production pipeline was built around Cinema 4D’s XRef (External Reference) system.

Each major location—Q4000 deck, port facility, offshore rigs, and highway sequences—was developed as its own master scene. Within those, major elements like cranes, tankers, barges, or equipment groups were broken out into separate subfiles. This modular structure made it possible to manage updates, streamline collaboration, and keep file sizes in check without breaking the connection to the full scene.

The XRef workflow gave the team freedom to iterate quickly. Artists could rig a crane or revise the texture on a tanker in isolation, without ever touching the main animation file. Once an update was complete, it could be relinked via XRef and automatically pulled into the master scene—no reimporting, no manual alignment. This non-destructive pipeline kept changes organized and fast-moving.

For performance, a proxy layer was added on top of the XRef system. Each high-res asset had a proxy counterpart—low-poly geometry with matched scale and animation pivots. While animating or syncing to VO, the scene ran with proxies active. This kept viewports responsive and playback fluid, even during complex sequences with dozens of animated objects.

When it came time to render, proxies were toggled off and the high-res versions reactivated. Redshift handled final output using fully textured and shaded geometry, with all XRefs baked into the render cache. Because object hierarchies and origin points were preserved, things like cryptomatte, object ID, and material ID passes worked consistently across every render.

Version control also became simpler. When an equipment model was updated—whether it was a geometry tweak from a new STEP file or a shader adjustment—it only needed to be changed once. That update then flowed through every scene that used the XRef, keeping asset consistency tight across the full project.

This layered system of XRefs and proxies allowed for maximum flexibility without compromising final quality. It let the team move quickly in the early stages—blocking, staging, animating—while making room for full-resolution visuals and simulation accuracy in the final phase. It was a production pipeline designed to scale with the complexity of the project, balancing creative exploration and technical control at every step.

Post-Production & Delivery

Compositing Pipeline

All Redshift renders were brought into After Effects for compositing. Each shot went through color balancing, grading, and enhancement using LUTs, curves, and color correction layers. Particular care was taken to match tone across daylit port sequences, interior rig shots, and offshore environments.

Map Overlays & UI Design

Map transitions used layered parallax between coastal terrain and cloud decks. Foreground, midground, and background elements were separated in Z-space. UI overlays indicated location, context, and equipment type—animated in clean vector style, matching PTS’s brand system. Motion was subtle, but purposeful.

Equipment Showcases & Depth Compositing

Showcase scenes were driven by full 3D camera and null data from C4D. Equipment positions remained locked as overlays and depth effects were added. Z-space cloud elements were used to occlude and reveal, with atmospheric perspective added through DOF blur and color falloff in post.

VFX Enhancements: Fire, Water, and Atmospheric Effects

Fire and water renders were enhanced using glow, bloom, chromatic aberration, and displacement effects. Heat haze was animated using fractal-driven displacement.

Hose spray got screen-mode light shafts, tracked particles, and velocity-driven blur with opacity falloff tied to emitter pressure.

Typography, Motion Graphics & Logo Integration

Typography was engineered for legibility and brand compliance—white sans-serif, clean shadows, and subtle motion. PTS logos were animated with segmented reveals. Backgrounds used animated textures—moving gradients, digital noise, and subtle ripples—to match the marine/technical tone.

3D Data Integration & Enhanced Annotations

Final callouts used tracked nulls from C4D. Titles followed camera pans and locked to equipment in 3D space. Each component was labeled cleanly, timed to VO, and animated in with engineering-style precision.

The master version was delivered as a 1920x1080 H.264 MP4.



Transcript:

If there’s an incident in the Gulf of Mexico, PTS is the only company in the world with a high-volume, portable, modular, 3-phase processing system for Emergency Response.  

This package can be installed on any MODU vessel to safely handle flow and capture well control scenarios and minimize damage to our environment.

PTS is proud to be a service partner for the HWCG consortium, providing a deep-water well containment solution. Production Technology & Services, Inc. - Ready to Respond.

The PTS Emergency Response Kit is a dedicated, high-rate, portable, severe-service well testing and water treatment package, versatile enough to go anywhere, anytime in the Gulf of Mexico.

From our response facility in Broussard, Louisiana, our staff is continuously available to rapidly mobilize the emergency well response equipment and service personnel to respond to an offshore incident. 

The equipment is transported to the port, loaded onto marine support vessels, and brought to the response vessel. The PTS equipment is loaded onto a MODU such as the Helix Energy Solutions Q-4000, rigged up, commissioned, and ready to process 130,000 barrels of liquids per day and 220 million cubic feet of gas per day.

At the incident site, the capping stack and riser are lowered into position. Once the capping stack is landed, the diverter valves will be closed, and the well flow will go up the riser to the PTS well test and water treatment package.

The liquids flow to the PTS kit, which includes the: Flowhead, Choke header, HP Separator, Oil and water to the Heat exchanger, and then the Intermediate Pressure Separator, Low Pressure separators.

From the low-pressure separator, oil is sent to the oil tank, water to the water tank, and gas is flared from all separators.

From the water tank, the water is pumped through the water treatment units and to the water polishing unit.

Clean water is discharged overboard. 

From the oil tank, oil is pumped to the heat exchanger and then through the flexible flowline and stored in the tanker.

The solids are separated from the flow stream and deposited in cuttings boxes for offloading and shipping to a disposal facility.

The oil is sent to tankers, the gas is safely flared, and the clean water is discharged overboard.

The well fluids are safely handled, the environment is protected, and the well is safely controlled during the well control process.

High volume liquid and gas processing. Skidded, Modular, the only emergency response package of its kind in the world. And ready. Always Ready.