Jon Baugh

Technical animation for manufacturers and science companies

From a base in North Yorkshire, Jon Baugh produces technical animation and imagery for subjects that are hard to show with photography, live action or written text alone: a product that has to be seen working, a process inside a factory, medical animation, or an interior that has not been built yet. Most clients are manufacturers, medical technology companies, science bodies and industrial or infrastructure businesses. The studio reports work for clients across the UK, in Europe and in the United States.

Animation, illustration and rendering

The animation work covers product animation, motion graphics, interior animation and instructional films. Product animation can show a demonstration, the sequence of an assembly, or the mechanism hidden inside a machine. Still 3D illustrations do a different job: exploded diagrams, cutaways and technical stills that explain how something is built, how it works, or how its parts relate to one another.

Photorealistic rendering is used in two main ways. Product visualisation lets a manufacturer review a design before committing to expensive tooling and production, which saves time and money at a stage when changes are still cheap. Architectural visualisation presents interiors and exteriors, with lighting, materials and the use of space shown before anything is built.

Training films that carry information across languages

Instructional animation is aimed at installation guidance, maintenance procedures, servicing demonstrations and product training. The studio's argument is that a viewer can see the key step and grasp it at once, which helps when a training audience reads different languages.

Starting from CAD files, drawings and briefs

Work can start from engineering data such as CAD files and technical drawings, or from product photographs or a written brief. Where the client supplies native CAD data, the studio converts those files into its animation software, so that the product can be animated or rendered from the client's own engineering information.

One lead animator from brief to delivery

Each project is handled by a lead animator who works only on that project for its whole duration. The client deals with one person rather than a chain of agency staff. Progress is reported at regular intervals. The first stage is the 3D scene, shared as rendered stills. When the animation phase starts, low-resolution animatics are sent so the client can check timing and content. Final rendering begins only once the client has agreed in writing.

Named projects across manufacturing, medicine and science

Work listed by the studio includes 3D product animation and electrical office animation for CMD Ltd, motion graphics, scientific animation and medical animation for SPL, industrial illustration for The Factory, a branding and marketing agency in Leeds, and interior visualisation.