NAA Member Company Profile: Optical 3D
Optical 3D Limited is a Technical Illustration and 3D Animation company based in Nantwich.
MD Tim Newbrook founded the company in 2002. As a qualified technical illustrator, Tim has a background in engineering principles and practice. He found that there was a huge gap between what generic creative agencies were producing for industry and the requirements of the manufacturing industry to convey technical information in a visually creative, engaging and accurate way.
The studio team, all working in house at Optical 3D, produce a full range of technical illustrations and visuals, including high impact computer generated images, 3D animations, training materials and interactive media including Apps.
With advances in both the available reference materials as well as industry leading CGI techniques and software, the versatility of how the work produced can be used is ever expanding. The value of having a 3D model created of a product or process is that the client then has a basis on which to produce highly effective images viewed from any angle as well as in animation or as part of an interactive presentation. This has been particularly useful in Optical 3D’s work with companies involved in new technologies, where complex technical information could not be conveyed in still images, photography or film footage.
Optical 3D now produces work for companies across a wide range of sectors including automotive, aerospace, defence, land products and marine. Larger clients include Bentley Motors, JCB and Torotrak. Beyond this, there are always a few surprise challenges like mapping the visuals for the “Despicable Me 2” US launch onto 3D models of airships and producing character animation to show workplace injuries in a company’s efforts to manage health and safety issues.
As a family owned and managed company, Optical 3D has stuck by its ethos of working from an out of town studio. Not only is this a great working environment for the staff team, it also removes for their clients the hidden costs under which other creative agencies operate with a high street presence. The challenge is that the staff team and number of computers keep outgrowing the studio so they are now into the third phase of extending into other areas of the building!
Tim identifies the company’s resilience as being down to the continual development and value placed in the staff team. This in turn means that they have confidence in producing industry leading services without losing the ability to understand and convey technical information at the heart of their client’s products and services.
Optical 3D thrives on new challenges in finding creative visual solutions for every brief and would be happy to discuss how the company could assist other NAA members. The team also welcomes visitors to the studio. This allows them to remove the myth that the computer does it all independent of creative input!
To find out more about Optical 3D’s range of work, together with advice on commissioning 3D images and animations, please visit the website at: www.optical3d.com
A selection of animation work produced by Optical 3D can be viewed directly on the company’s Video channel at: http://www.vimeo.com/channels/optical3d
Contact:
Clare Newbrook – Business Manager
Optical 3D Limited
01270 651264
Mail to: clare@optical3d.com
