Public Relations Animation – Dredging of Newtown Creek
Trinity Animation recently created a public relations animation depicting the dredging of New York City’s Newtown Creek. Newtown Creek is a tidal arm of the estuary separating New York and New Jersey. dredging is the process of cleaning out a river, lake, or creek bed by scooping out mud, weeds, and rubbish. Over time, heavy industry, sewage, and development along the banks of the creek have lowered water quality. In an effort to improve the waterway, the municipality decided to dredge a 2.5-mile long portion of the creek for the local community, making the creek cleaner for activities in and around it such as canoeing and sailing. The local fauna will also benefit from the dredging effort. Since the process can be disruptive to river activities, the city used the animation to illustrate what happens during the dredging process.
This public relations animation begins with an aerial view of the creek. On-screen text identifies neighboring communities, and a square frame graphic pinpoints the area of the project. As the camera zooms closer, buildings pop in around the creek area. Next, yellow boats and orange dredging equipment appear, moving through the water to illustrate river traffic. Finally, the animation cuts to a view of the dredging system in action – full color, realistic 3D animation. As boats move through the water, or the dredging shovel enters and exits the water, ripples, and splashes show realistic movement patterns.
Creating the Public Relations Animation
Trinity artists create the water simulation through fluid dynamics (FD) technology. FD allows our artists to replicate the motion of water, smoke, and fire, as well as objects moving through liquid or air. In the dredging animation, the river movement, splashing of the dredge claw, and the muddy, underwater effects were all realistically animated by Trinity artists employing Fluid Dynamics, as well as a great deal of artistry and time.
Our animation software applies random colors to objects and surfaces as a guide for Trinity artists, as seen in the images below. For instance, blue indicates the surface of the water, red is wet objects, and green is splash and foam. The artist manipulates the FD values so the water effects animate in the desired way. Below are some still images of the data inside the program showing this process. Every aspect of the simulation physics has a control option, including gravity, viscosity, propensity to bubble or make foam, color, transparency, etc.
To see dirt and debris under the water, Trinity artists move the camera beneath the water’s surface to show dirt being scooped by the dredging arm. FD smoke is applied to the dirt as it spreads through the water, dissipates, and settles.
Trinity Animation successfully created a high-quality, photo real, easy to understand public relations animation to communicate dredging operation details and its impact on river traffic and dredging operations. For similar services, call or email us today!
