Bike Product Animation – Sprag Bearing Hub

Onyx Racing Products wanted to describe their revolutionary sprag clutch system for cycling hubs. Normally used in other industries, the folks at Onyx adapted this into the freewheeling drive system for bicycles. Their hub is virtually indestructible! To explain the concept, we created this product animation using their 3D models.

To better explain the process, dynamic cutaways and 2D sectional views were used.

How 3deeit Produced a Product Animation to Showcase a Highly Unique Cycling Clutch System

The Challenge: Demonstrating the Sprag Hub’s Bearing Technology in a Simple Animation

In March 2017, Onyx Racing Products, a manufacturer of front and rear bike racing hubs, wanted to demonstrate the impressive technology of their sprag clutch system.

Onyx adapted the product into the freewheeling drive system for bicycles, resulting in an indestructible hub that acts like a bearing when a bike begins to coast.

For both 3deeit and Onyx, the biggest challenge involved in this animation project was demonstrating how the bearing technology works to an audience that was generally unfamiliar with engineering systems and terms.

The Solution: Product Animation Utilizing Dynamic Cutaways & 2D Sectional Views

The project itself would be relatively straightforward in terms of production. Two small challenges outside of how to successfully demonstrate the product’s benefits were the fact that Onyx was new to 3D animation and 3deeit was testing a new rendering workflow for the first time.

Once expectations were set and heads were wrapped around the new workflow, the focus shifted to the best way to show the bearing technology in the video in a manner that the average biking enthusiast – without an engineering background – would understand and appreciate.

This is where the dynamic cutaways came in and paid off in a big way. Utilizing this allowed the the content to remain interesting due to the constant animation and rotation, and when it was cut in half, it continued to rotate.

Throughout the consistent demonstration, product benefits were listed on screen to drive the point home for the customer base and help them see the advantages of Onyx’s technologically advanced product.

The Results: An Animation That Clearly Demonstrated the Product’s Benefits

In the end, 3deeit was able to strike an ideal balance of a quality product animation that simplified and explained the advantages of Onyx’s Sprag hub.

Onyx themselves were very pleased with the end result, and when the video was published and shared across their social channels, they were even more thrilled to see that it created quite the buzz amongst their audience.