Battery Energy Storage System + Solar … a natural fit, right? But explaining the benefits of it to a business owner can sometimes be challenging. This video describes the concepts of peak shaving, lowering operational costs and exporting stored energy to the grid in a way that operators understand.

Pre-Production

Concept & Scripting

The concept was built to position commercial solar and battery storage systems not just as a nod to sustainability, but as a serious business move—modern energy independence that also slashes operating costs. The script jumped in with high-contrast storytelling: unstable grid infrastructure versus the control and cost certainty of renewables. Emotional and economic pressure points were built in right away.

Visually, it started abstract—with references to outages and rising costs—then shifted to tangible, high-detail installations. Early style treatments used 3D on-screen graphics to hammer home key terms like “Unreliable Grid Power,” “Energy Independence,” and “Lower Operating Expenses.” Color-coding was intentional—green for independence, aligned with renewable themes.

The visual script focused on two anchor environments: a clean, branded white space for infographics, and a fully photoreal 3D world for the solar and battery systems. The client made it clear from the start—they wanted photorealism and supported the use of Unreal Engine to build a rich, urban backdrop inspired by previous community solar projects. That decision shaped every visual and environmental call from script through delivery.

Scripting leaned hard into energy data strategy—touching on demand response, peak shaving, and 4CP, the niche but important billing structure where short peak-use windows determine your annual demand charges. This section defined the visual logic for animated charts like histograms, line graphs, and stacked cost breakdowns. Accuracy was key, with every chart built to support real-world metrics.

Rapid Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping was where the script started breathing. We translated structure and data logic into rough motion, using Cinema 4D and After Effects to build a working wireframe for animation beats, layout, and visual logic.

Initial environment layouts were handled in Cinema 4D with basic geometry—no polish, just rough placeholders for buildings, solar arrays, battery containers, and surrounding city structures. These simple shapes locked in spatial planning and camera work. The hero building sat at the heart of a stylized city block and guided most scene compositions. Elements around it were left loose, flagged for later refinement inside Unreal.

Solar deployment animation kicked off here too—Cinema 4D’s MoGraph tools dropped panels into place across a warehouse rooftop. These early animations were low-res and untextured, focused entirely on movement rhythm and edit timing. They also acted as technical tests, helping prep the data for later import into Unreal.

While C4D handled 3D layout and mechanics, After Effects became the testing ground for 2D overlays. Energy demand curves, power cost breakdowns, and 4CP histograms were drafted using shape layers and pre-comps. These weren’t just design tests—they were logic tests. For example, the demand curve had to clearly show how battery storage shifts usage away from peak grid hours. The 4CP histogram marked peak demand days and visualized the financial impact of smart switching. Each animation was reviewed across several rounds to lock in accuracy before adding any polish.

This phase also focused on the handoff between 3D realism and 2D overlays. Transitions were layered, not cut—battery containers had to appear in-scene while showing live power usage data. Early After Effects tests simulated 2.5D space with camera rigs, letting us trial bar chart positioning and text legibility. Camera paths from Cinema 4D were exported early so overlays could match 3D space right from the start.

Some sequences were deliberately simplified. One scene originally meant to show full battery behavior during a grid outage was pared down to emphasize battery autonomy. Another round of revisions improved the 4CP histogram—focusing more on the high-impact summer months while retaining 365-day logic. Pulse effects were introduced to mark battery engagement in grid events—refined here, then finalized in production.

Voiceover pacing was added to each RP scene to flag sync issues early. If a visual beat didn’t line up with the script, animation timing got adjusted. Scenes were treated as modular testbeds, but each connected logically to the next.

RP became the launchpad for everything that followed. Placeholder elements were tagged for replacement. Animations were locked for reuse. Spatial logic was proven out—critical for getting those 2D overlays to live comfortably in 3D space during final production.

Production (Full Production / FP)

Look Development

Full Production kicked off by rebuilding everything inside Unreal Engine—translating the RP phase from layout wireframes into a fully-rendered, photoreal experience. This wasn’t a drag-and-drop import. It was a ground-up construction process using the RP blocking and C4D camera setups as guides.

The entire city environment was built modularly inside Unreal. Pre-made building assets were carefully assembled to form a dense, believable industrial-commercial block. Placement wasn’t random—each asset was positioned to support storytelling, frame shots properly, and scale the solar/battery systems appropriately. Every building’s height, architectural detail, facade texture, and orientation were adjusted to avoid repetition and give the area a real-world, lived-in look. The result: a flexible environment that worked for everything from wide establishing shots to tight product detail cut-ins.

At the center sat the warehouse—the “hero building.” This asset got the most detail: surface textures, realistic wear on panels and working HVAC units. Materials were custom-authored to react believably to sunlight, bounce light from surrounding buildings, and shift tone depending on time of day.

Solar panel animation was carried over directly from Cinema 4D. Using baked MoGraph animation data, every panel drop-in remained precise, timed, and spatially correct. That move preserved all the procedural benefits of the RP phase while letting Unreal handle the heavy lifting on shading, lighting, and final camera work—no need to reanimate or rebuild from scratch.

Battery storage units were modeled as compact green containers, each finished with high-res textures in Unreal. Their look: beveled edges, light wear, and detailed occlusion for depth. These weren’t background pieces—they were central to the narrative and got direct lighting and camera focus to match.

Lighting in Unreal was one of the most dialed-in pieces of production. A primary Directional Light simulated the sun, with per-shot adjustments for angle and intensity to match the emotional tone. An HDRI-based Skylight handled ambient bounce, softening shadows and making transitions feel cinematic. Volumetric fog and god rays were used sparingly to add depth in wide shots and bring subtle drama to rooftop sequences.

Final polish came from the Post Process Volume inside Unreal. This handled exposure tuning, contrast shaping, vignettes, and chromatic aberration—small tweaks that added up to serious polish. Every look was validated with test renders via Unreal’s Movie Render Queue (MRQ), where motion blur, anti-aliasing, and post effects could be fine-tuned without introducing noise or artifacts. The result: crisp, high-detail renders across every scene.

Camera movement was handled through a hybrid workflow. Some shots were built entirely in Unreal’s Sequencer tool—flyovers, dolly shots, orbital moves. Others came out of Cinema 4D as FBX camera exports, especially where asset motion or tight lensing was critical. This hybrid approach kept things flexible and allowed for both wide cinematic storytelling and product-specific focus.

The “energy flow” effect—showing how power moves from solar to battery to building—was built entirely using Unreal’s material system. No animated geometry. Instead, UV panners in emissive channels created looping directional motion across cables and conduits. Each energy flow was toggleable per shot, giving full control over when and how power movement was visualized. That meant complete sync with VO without cluttering the scene.

Scene realism didn’t stop with buildings. Street-level details were manually placed—parking blocks, manhole covers, sidewalk breaks, rooftop clutter like dishes and ductwork. Trees were hand-scaled and positioned to guide the eye toward the hero building while softening the hard edges of the urban setting. These small pieces reinforced a believable space without distracting from the core message.

Traffic ran on a Blueprint-based system that controlled vehicle paths and speed variation. That kept performance solid and gave each wide shot a sense of life and scale.

Midway through FP, the client asked for a fence around the battery containers. It was treated as a security feature and implemented using Blueprint components. Geometry was repeated with consistent spacing, and a screenshot was sent for feedback. Once approved, it stayed in the final layout.

Other hand-crafted touches grounded the environment further: trash bins, delivery pallets, parking signs, and subtle wear decals around the warehouse. These elements were added manually to make the central building feel like a working facility—something that might realistically invest in solar and storage infrastructure.

All these elements combined to deliver a full-fidelity urban world, ready to render from any angle with no shortcuts. No matte paintings. No blank corners. Just a built-out, photoreal environment ready for compositing and motion graphics to drop in.

Design & Animation

With the world locked, animation kicked in. Solar panels deployed. Battery containers moved into place. Camera movements were timed and tuned to match the script. C4D’s original solar drop animation was retimed for clarity and synced with camera transitions. Easing curves were refined to give each move purpose and weight—no floaty, physics-breaking animations here.

Battery enclosures were animated using clean XYZ transforms to show practical, grounded movement—like actual equipment being lowered into place during a system upgrade. No showboating, just clean, logical storytelling.

Cameras told the story too: sweeping arcs for wide reveals, tight push-ins for product focus, and low-angle hero shots to build drama around the warehouse and rooftop installs. High-elevation dronescapes tied it all together—placing the building inside a larger city grid. Unreal’s Sequencer tool allowed full spline-path control over focus, depth of field, and timing.

No 2D or infographic animation was built at this stage. Instead, 3D nulls were placed into the Unreal scenes where overlays would live later. These were exported along with camera tracking data to After Effects, setting the stage for exact placement of 2.5D graphics in post. That kept the production phase laser-focused on environment, animation, and lighting.

Technical Details

Modeling and scene construction happened in Unreal. C4D was used for procedural animation, cameras, and pre-vis. Final renders were output via Unreal’s MRQ, tuned for clean anti-aliasing, motion blur, and DOF. Traffic movement was driven by Blueprint systems. Energy animations were handled using shader-based UV panning. Lighting and post were fine-tuned per shot using real-time Post Process Volume controls, LUTs, and color grading profiles.

Camera and null exports from UE enabled overlay alignment in post without guesswork. After Effects used this tracking data to lock infographics into the 3D space without floating or slipping..

Challenges and Solutions

Unreal’s scene complexity required smart optimization. Camera culling and LOD setups were tuned. Materials were instanced for GPU efficiency. Heavy features like screen-space reflections and volumetric effects were toggled per shot to balance quality and render time.

Readability of power flows was another hurdle. In early daylight tests, the emissive lines were too subtle. The fix: push those animations into shadowed areas and crank the intensity inside the material. Clamp limits kept things from blowing out. The result was a clear, always-visible power animation that never got lost in the scene.

Post-Production & Delivery

Final Compositing & Color Grading

Post-production brought everything together—Unreal renders, 2D motion graphics, and brand-layered data visuals—all combined in After Effects. Unreal's camera and null data were imported directly, allowing overlays to sit precisely within the 3D environment without guesswork.

Color grading was handled through adjustment layers and curve tools. Exterior shots leaned warmer, emphasizing sunlit surfaces like solar panels and metallic edges. Data-heavy scenes were graded cooler to keep focus on information clarity. Global polish came from subtle vignettes, contrast tweaks, and a layer of film grain that gave the final piece depth without distracting from the visuals.

VFX Enhancements

Visual effects were added strategically—never just for flair. Lens flares highlighted key solar scenes, mimicking natural light interaction. Depth-of-field was adjusted per shot to guide focus from environment to data overlays. 3D titles got layered effects: glow pulses, motion-tracked drop shadows, and directional blur trails that aligned with the underlying camera paths.

Motion graphics (lines, icons, arrows) were kept clean and functional. Each element followed nulls from Unreal to ensure that overlays felt baked into the world—not floating UI. Shape paths were animated directly in AE to visualize energy flows, user interactions, and system states without pulling attention away from the narrative.

Infographics, UI Overlays, Data Visualization

This was the heaviest lift in post—translating dense, technical energy data into visuals that could carry the business case with clarity and persuasion. Every chart was hand-built in After Effects using shape layers, trim paths, and modular pre-comps. These weren’t decoration—they were visual logic systems built to move in sync with the script and narration.

The Peak Shaving Chart showed how battery discharge flattened peak demand curves. Animation timing was synced precisely to the VO line about “deploying power from the batteries,” using green bars and dynamic flattening to show cost suppression. Subtle pulses and easing curves added emphasis without clutter.

The Demand Response Animation showed power returning to the grid. This involved reversing directional arrows, animating flow paths outward from the facility, and overlaying financial symbols to drive home the economic upside. All overlays were tracked into the scene and timed to camera motion so they felt anchored and consistent.

The Annual Consumption Histogram tackled the 4CP billing strategy. Bars for each of the year’s 365 days animated in a wave pattern, with summer peak days boxed and labeled “Switch.” Color pulses signaled demand response actions during grid stress. Layout and timing went through multiple versions to keep clarity high without losing accuracy.

The Multi-Year Power Cost Chart was the most complex. It tracked Year 0 through Year 2 across energy charges, demand charges, and cost reductions via solar and battery offsets. Animated bar growth, year-over-year shrinkage, and stacked visual layers created a clear savings story. Color-coding followed the brand palette: red for grid energy, yellow for solar, green for battery. Each bar carried numeric labels and shading for visual depth. A dotted vertical line marked the moment “Demand Charges Recalculated,” referencing the 4CP reset. The whole thing was built from modular pre-comps for easy updates.

The Financing Options UI presented “Own It,” “Shared Income,” and “Simple PPA” choices in a clean, app-like layout. Each box had soft shadows, parallax layers, and slight bounce easing to suggest interactivity. These UI elements wrapped up the message with simplicity and polish, making the financial paths approachable and easy to understand.

Every chart and graphic went through full internal review and multiple client rounds. A future note was made to use HEX codes in feedback to streamline alignment. Each revision was logged, tested, and queued for delivery.

These post-built infographics carried the entire educational arc of the video. They turned technical system features into business value and made the savings story easy to follow—step by step, number by number.

Final Edits & Optimization

With VO locked and all graphics in place, final mastering happened in Premiere Pro. Audio was leveled, transitions were smoothed, and output settings were tuned for universal playback. Color passes were confirmed against AE comps. All composite shots were checked for artifact-free output.

All motion graphics were brand-locked. Fonts, color use, iconography, and chart styles were built directly from 174 Power Global’s brand guidelines and previous approved work. That ensured visual consistency not just across this project, but across the client's full ecosystem of energy and infrastructure content.

Delivery

Final files included the 1080p H.264 video and a synced SRT subtitle file. AE project files were retained with linked Unreal camera and null data, keeping everything ready for future updates or reuse. All deliverables were optimized for streaming, presentations, and client deployment—closing out the pipeline with high-impact visuals, strong narrative, and full technical control.

Transcript:

Whether they’re wary of outdated infrastructure and unreliable grid power, want their business to be energy independent, or need to significantly lower their monthly operating power expenses, every business has its own reasons for installing solar with a battery storage system.

Let’s take a look at this business.

They were frustrated with intermittent outages and rising power costs and made the decision to install solar and energy storage. Here’s how it works. Solar panels and battery storage are installed on site. The business uses power just as they always do – with no changes to their daily operations.

During the day, the sun shines and the solar panels meet part of their power load. When the solar system is producing more energy than they consume, the excess energy charges the batteries.

Energy storage can make intermittent outages a thing of the past, but Here’s where it gets interesting … the optimization software is smart.

It knows when to deploy power from the batteries to your operations, known as peak shaving and often takes place during the day when energy demand is at its highest.

When the utility grid is struggling to keep up with high demand, Stored energy can be sold back to the grid as income in what’s called Demand Response.

During specific times in the year the software can seamlessly switch and pull energy from the batteries to power your business. This can dramatically decrease your overall demand charges in the coming year. And in the event of a power outage, your stored energy can even be used to power your business.

As an illustration of their costs, remember, they were frustrated by their power expense, which is made up of 2 components: energy charges and demand charges.

By installing and using solar energy combined with battery storage, their energy bill dropped and demand response income helped too.

The next year, they were able to seriously reduce their demand charges, cutting their operating expenses dramatically.

There are simple options for financing. You can buy and own the system. We can install and own the system, and we share the income. Or we can do a simplified version where you get a reduced power cost. This flexibility is another reason solar energy and battery storage are a great option for claiming energy independence while reducing operating expenses.