Electric Media. 3D animation, visualization and AI-directed film from Calgary. Take it to the next level.

Things you can’t film.

Reservoirs a kilometre underground. Homes that haven’t been poured. Products that only exist in CAD. Screens the size of a building. We build them in 3D, light them like cinema and direct them with AI.

00Position

We have modelled, lit and animated since 1999, and now we direct AI on top of it.

1999Founded in Calgary, Alberta
4Sectors: energy, product, architecture, live events
1Senior team from first model to final master

Clients and venues

01Energy & Industrial

Heavy industry, lit like cinema.

Campaign imagery for an industrial manufacturer. We started from shop-floor photographs and 3D tool renders and rebuilt them into stills and motion that read like a feature film.

Client
Industrial manufacturer, Alberta
Made with
Photography, 3D, AI image and video
Machined sleeves. AI motion from a single still.10 s loop
Downhole tools standing in red light and smoke
01Tool familyMotion
A CNC lathe cutting threads, sparks and coolant spray
02ThreadingMotion
A robot arm loading a part into a CNC machine
03Robot cellMotion
Stacks of copper-toned steel sleeves on a factory floor
04SleevesMotion

Source and output

Same robot. Same machine. A different story.

Drag across the frame. On the left, the cell as it was photographed on a working afternoon. On the right, the campaign frame we built from it. The geometry stays true; the light and atmosphere are directed.

Original photograph of a robot cell in daylight Finished campaign image of the same robot cell, dark with sparks PhotographCampaign

Explainers

Make the engineering obvious.

In its natural state, bitumen sits at about 6,000,000 centipoise. For ConocoPhillips we put it in a beaker beside peanut butter, ketchup and coffee cream, then showed it pouring like cream after eSAGD. One comparison did the explaining.

eSAGD viscosity comparison.ConocoPhillips

Facilities

From drawings to a working plant.

A new manufacturing campus, shown before ground was broken. The drawings come off the desk, the steel goes up, and the camera settles on the finished site: loading docks, glass atrium and all.

Manufacturing campus. Drawings to finished facility.3D animation

02Product

Show the inside of the machine.

Cutaways and hero renders built straight from engineering CAD. For GenTherm Global Power we opened up a thermoelectric generator so a buyer could see fuel become electricity at the thermopile.

Client
GenTherm Global Power Technologies
Made with
CAD, 3D, compositing
Cutaway of a thermoelectric generator showing exhaust, fuel in and the thermopile Hover to play
Hero render, studio white02.2
Twin thermoelectric generators on a tall galvanized stand with junction box

Model 5120 thermoelectric generator

Thermopile cutaway. Fuel in, exhaust out, heat to electricity.From the explainer film

Product explainers

Small parts, made obvious.

Install films for hidden, nail-less fastening systems. The parts come apart so you can see how they work, then click into a real room or deck so buyers see the finished result.

MagnaCLK. Magnetic baseboard fastening, exploded, then installed.
MagnaDEK. Clip, drop, done.

03Architecture & Real Estate

Walk it before it’s poured.

A complete virtual tour of a Calgary infill. The camera starts on the street, flies through the front window and walks every floor, lit for the hour buyers fall for a house.

Project
Infill residence, Calgary
Format
2560 × 1440, 30 fps
Made with
3D, real-time render, AI
Street to kitchen, one continuous move
or keep scrolling

Inside a frame

Every image is built in layers.

A finished render is several passes stacked together. Shadow, depth, reflection and light each live on their own layer, so a new finish or a brighter morning is an adjustment, not a re-shoot. The last layer is direction: the same scene, finished with AI into a living shot.

Reflection pass: only reflected light Depth pass: near objects light, far objects dark Ambient occlusion pass: grey shadow information only Beauty pass: the finished 3D render of the office interior The same office finished with AI: late-afternoon sun and real materials
Reflection

Clay to final

Approve the space, then the finish.

Rooms start in clay so you can sign off on form and light before a single material goes on. Then we finish them: timber, stone, daylight and the view.

Mountain interior. Clay to finished room.AI-directed

04Stadium & Experiential LED

Content for screens the size of a building.

Ribbon-board campaigns for the Dodge and Ram dealers of Alberta, built once and synced to the frame across three arenas. Plus AI-directed films that open conferences.

Client
Dodge & Ram dealers of Alberta
Venues
Rogers Place, Scotiabank Saddledome, Red Deer
2026 Ram 1500 Black Express. Venue layout.15 s

One campaign, every zone

  • Rogers PlaceUpper halo, lower halo, loge, main scoreboard
  • Scotiabank SaddledomeUpper ring, 360 ribbon
  • Red DeerMain board, ribbon

Every zone synced to the frame.

AI-directed film

Rockies to Toronto on horseback.

A welcome film for a national bank’s annual conference. One rider and one horse, held consistent from character sheet to storyboard to final frame, crossing the country past billboards of the bank’s own teams. Directed with AI, finished in edit and compositing.

How a project runs

From CAD to final cut.

  1. 01

    Build

    We start from your CAD, drawings or photographs and build the scene in 3D, true to scale and geometry.

  2. 02

    Light

    Materials, lighting and camera are set in the scene. You approve the look on real frames, not mood boards.

  3. 03

    Direct

    Animation and AI-directed shots are built on top of the 3D, so products and buildings stay accurate. Starting from an idea instead? We can create the whole piece in AI, straight from your concept.

  4. 04

    Deliver

    Films, stills, ribbon and LED formats, and interactive product sites built around the 3D, like this one. Each is mastered for the screen it plays on.

Studio

Senior-led since 1999.

The person you brief is the person who builds your scene, lights it and signs off the final frame.

Electric Media is led by Paul Smith, a 3D artist and creative director who has made animation and visualization for energy companies, home builders, manufacturers and Alberta’s arenas for more than 25 years.

The studio stays small on purpose, with trusted specialists brought in when a project needs them. We work with clients across North America: in person around Calgary, remotely everywhere else.

Based in
Okotoks, Alberta, just south of Calgary
Disciplines
3D animation, visualization, compositing, AI-directed film, interactive web
Deliverables
Film, stills, LED and ribbon content, product and launch sites, web loops

Start a project

Got something you can’t film?

info@electricmedia.net
Email
info@electricmedia.net
Phone
403.809.3795
Studio
Okotoks, Alberta, just south of Calgary
What are we making?
We reply within one business day.