๐ŸŽฌ 1,000+ Projects Delivered โšก Fast turnaround, deadline never missed ๐ŸŒ Global Clients: USA, UK, DE, FR + more info@lucidmotionstudio.com
Manufacturing, Industrial & Automation

You already own the 3D model.
Marketing just cannot use it.

Industrial and technical animation for machine builders, automation suppliers and manufacturers. We work from your CAD, so the film shows the actual product rather than an artist's impression of something similar.

STEP, IGES, JT and native CAD Exploded views and cutaways Assembly and service sequences Trade fair loops Multi-language service content
1,000+Projects delivered
From your CADNot from a stock model
24 hoursTo a written quote
NDA firstBefore any file moves
Relevant work

Product and technical work from our portfolio

Published pieces from our library closest to this market, labelled by the kind of work rather than the client name.

Seven step container product animation by Lucid Motion Studio
Featured · Process animation

7 Step Container Video

A seven-step industrial process shown as motion. The format most technical teams commission first, because one film has to carry the sequence and the detail an engineer will check.

  • Written from material you supply and one conversation with your team
  • Storyboard review before animation, so a correction is a document edit
  • Delivered in 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16 with a captioned silent cut
See the full portfolio
Product animation3D product animation by Lucid Motion Studio

Product Video 01

Product animation. Exploded view of an industrial product.

Product animation3D product animation by Lucid Motion Studio

Product Video 03

Product animation. Second piece in the same visual system.

Process animationRecycling process 3D animation by Lucid Motion Studio

Recycling

Process animation. 3D sequence of a recycling process.

Machine animationEltzam 3D technical animation by Lucid Motion Studio

Eltzam

Machine animation. 3D animation of an industrial machine.

Assembly sequence

Machine assembly sequence

Assembly and installation animation. Reserved for an approved case study.

Trade fair loop

Trade fair stand loop

Trade fair and stand loop. Reserved for an approved case study.

See the full manufacturing portfolio

Case studies are added here as clients approve them.

Why the explanation stalls

Machines are hard to explain. Animation makes them clear.

Three problems show up in almost every industrial brief that reaches us. None of them is solved by a photograph of the machine.

01
Inside a sealed machine

Gearboxes, pumps, valves, hydraulic circuits and tooling interfaces do their work behind a housing.

02
Hazardous or extreme environments

Furnaces, cleanrooms, explosive atmospheres and high-voltage areas are not places you take a crew and a lighting rig, whatever the marketing calendar says.

03
Too fast or too slow for a shutter

An injection moulding cycle is over before the eye registers it.

What we produce

What we produce for manufacturing and industrial teams

Six formats, grouped by the job they do. Most teams start with one, then reuse the same visual system across the rest. Format detail sits on the 3D animation and training video pages.

Format 01

Exploded view and cutaway

Parts separated in space, housings made transparent, assemblies opened up.

Format 02

Assembly and installation

Step by step, in the right order, with fasteners and tools shown.

Format 03

Maintenance and service

Wear part replacement, cleaning intervals and fault diagnosis, produced once and reused for every technician who joins after it.

Format 04

Machine demonstration

The equipment in operation, at the speed and angle that make the mechanism legible, without shutting down a production line to.

Format 06

Technical sales and tender support

The visual that goes into a proposal for equipment that does not exist yet, so a committee can picture what they are approving.

Format 07

Operator and safety training

Correct sequence, correct guarding, correct behaviour, in a form that works for a multilingual shop floor.

Why manufacturers brief us

Engineering-led work, without an engineering delay

Your CAD is the starting point, not a reference we work around.

๐Ÿ“

CAD is the starting point

We prepare, clean and texture your geometry ourselves.

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Technical review before animation

An application engineer marks up the storyboard and the sequence description first.

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Built for a global installed base

Minimal baked-in text, voiceover on its own track, editable callouts.

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One partner, several outputs

Sales film, exploded view, service sequence and stand loop from one production, so they look like they came from the.

How it works

From CAD file to final cut

Five steps on every project, with the technical review built into the middle.

Discover

We take your CAD, your drawings and one conversation with an engineer.

Script

Built around the sequence, not a feature list. You approve the words first.

Storyboard

Scene-by-scene visuals and style frames. Your engineers review here.

Produce

Animation, voiceover, music and sound design, with revision rounds included.

Deliver

Master film, every aspect ratio, captions, cutdowns and source files.

See the full process
For agencies

Your animation department, under your name

Agencies win industrial accounts and then discover the 3D is the hard part. We sit behind you. You keep the relationship, the branding and the credit, and your client never learns we exist.

  • No watermark, no credit, nothing of ours in file names or metadata
  • We never contact your client directly
  • Overflow capacity for launches and trade fair peaks
  • Written quotes in 24 hours so you can price a pitch the same day
FAQ

What engineering and marketing ask us first

What CAD formats can you work from?
Neutral exchange formats are easiest: STEP is the most reliable and the one we ask for first, and IGES and JT both work. We can also take native SolidWorks, Inventor, Creo, CATIA, NX, Fusion and Rhino files, plus Blender, 3ds Max and Maya scenes if a model already exists. If all you have is a general assembly drawing, a datasheet and some photographs, we can still build from that. It costs more modelling time, so it is worth checking with engineering before assuming the CAD is unavailable.
We cannot release our production CAD outside the company. What then?
That is a normal constraint and there are two routes around it. The first is a simplified or defeatured export that keeps the outward geometry and removes the internal detail that carries your intellectual property, which engineering can usually produce quickly. The second is that we model from drawings and reference images instead. We sign your NDA before any file moves, we do not subcontract your geometry, and we return or delete source files on request at the end of the project.
How much does industrial 3D animation cost?
It depends far more on model preparation than on animation length. A clean STEP assembly that needs tidying and texturing is a different job from a machine that has to be modelled from drawings. Our published fixed price packages start at $180 for a 30 second AI-assisted or motion graphics piece and $340 for a 60 to 90 second explainer. Full 3D machine work from CAD is quoted individually, and you get that quote in writing within 24 hours of sending the brief.
Can you show what happens inside a closed machine?
Yes, and it is the most common reason manufacturers come to us. A cutaway or a ghosted housing lets a viewer see the gearbox, the fluid path or the tooling interaction while the machine runs, which no camera position can do. The same technique makes an assembly sequence readable, because the parts can be separated in space in a way that would be impossible on a real bench.
Do you produce content for trade fairs like Hannover Messe or IMTS?
Yes, and it is one of the highest-return uses of animation in this sector. Stand content has to be silent, captioned, readable from several metres away and short enough to loop without irritating people walking past. We build it to the screen dimensions your stand actually has, deliver ahead of the freight deadline, and produce language variants for an international hall from the same project.
Can you produce service, maintenance and installation content in several languages?
Yes, and this is where an installed base pays back the investment quickly. We keep on-screen text minimal and hold the voiceover on its own track, so a second or third language is a swap rather than a rebuild. Numbers, callouts and part references live in editable layers. Service organisations typically commission a first sequence, then add to the library as new equipment ships.

Send one STEP file. We will animate it free.

Send one STEP file. We will animate 15 seconds of it, free, so you can judge the work on your own product.

NDA before any file moves ยท Written quote in 24 hours ยท White label for agencies