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What’s the difference between a camera preview and the final render?

What’s the difference between a camera preview and the final render?
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Are you looking to introduce medical device animation into your marketing? Do you want to know more about the medical device animation process?

Adding animations to your marketing can bring life to your message in a simple, new, and creative way. But if you’re unfamiliar with the process of creating medical device animations, this article is the right place for you.

Here, we’ll explore the difference between a camera preview and the final render, a common question we’re asked during the animation process.

What is a camera preview? 

In animation production, the camera preview serves as the final checkpoint before your animation is sent to final render.

This stage allows you to review your animation, ensuring everything is correct before moving to the final render.

Often presented in black and white or with basic shading, it provides an opportunity to review timings, transitions, and the overall flow of your animation. Your animation team will likely incorporate a test voiceover track (if you have a script accompanying your animation) so you can ensure it aligns perfectly with the visuals.

If you have any concerns at this stage, be sure to communicate them to your agency, as what you see in the camera preview is what you will see in the final render—albeit in much higher resolution and with more vibrant colours.

Three frames from a medical animation showing a cross-sectional view of a structure, labeled Camera Preview with timestamps below each frame.What is a final render?

A final render is the ultimate version of your animation, processed through the render farm.

Simply put, rendering an animation is comparable to exporting a video on your laptop but at much higher quality.

As a rule of thumb, a 2.5-minute 3D animation can take up to 2 weeks to render, depending on the rendering power of your animation team’s render farm. Therefore, it’s not something you want to undertake unless you are confident that your animation is correct—which is where the camera previews come into play.

Once your render is complete, all that remains is to record your final voiceover and incorporate any post-production elements into your animation, such as graphics like labels or subtitles, or music.

Three frames of a medical animation labeled Final Render showing surgical tools and anatomy, each with a timestamp below.Why create camera previews?

Timesaving

Rendering animations, which can vary in duration and complexity, may take hours, days, or even weeks to complete. Due to the substantial time and computing power needed for rendering, a camera preview is generated, providing you with a low-quality version of your final animation.

This preview saves you from waiting for each version of your animation to render out fully.

Money-saving

Rendering your animation requires a significant amount of time and computing power, which comes with a considerable cost. That is why the final render of your animation is typically only done once, at the end of your project.

Creating camera previews allows you to watch a version of the animation that includes music, voiceovers, and movement while still being able to make timing edits without incurring high costs. This method ensures that the final version of your animation aligns precisely with your original plan, without totally blowing your budget and timeline.

Animation in medical marketing

Animation is an exciting and creative part of marketing that can add a whole new dimension to your campaigns.

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the animation process a little better and given you more insight into industry practices It’s a versatile tool that can elevate your campaigns, making them more memorable and impactful. We hope this article has shed light on the animation process and provided valuable insights into how animation is used within the industry. By understanding these practices, you can better appreciate how animation can enhance communication and storytelling in medical marketing.

About Podymos

At Podymos, we know you want to be a disruptive medical device company that makes a genuine impact on patients' lives. To achieve this, you need communications that approach things differently, so that you can get your device to patients faster. 

Book a call with our team to break away from the same old way of doing things and create disruptive sales and marketing channels that set you apart, ensuring your device is impossible to miss.  

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