From Sketch to Screen: The Evolution of the Peerless Explainer Video

The clock is ticking for DoD contractors.

With the CMMC Final Rule gaining speed, compliance is no longer a “someday” goal — it’s a business deadline. We wanted our intro video to reflect that urgency, not just for us, but for the manufacturers, aerospace contractors, and other Defense Industrial Base (DIB) partners we serve. That’s why our 2025 refresh isn’t just a visual upgrade but a sharper, faster, and more direct story built for today’s compliance race.

When Peerless first released our explainer video in 2023, it quickly became one of our favorite ways to introduce ourselves to new clients. In just under 30 seconds, it captured the compliance challenges many DoD and Federal contractors face and positioned Peerless as the partner who could support.

As we know, the compliance landscape doesn’t stand still. In just two years, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) has gone from a developing framework to a rapidly approaching reality. Enforcement is tightening, deadlines and more contractual flow-down are taking shape, and manufacturers and aerospace contractors in the DIB are feeling the urgency.

At the same time, Peerless has grown. We’ve expanded our capabilities, refined our message, and deepened our expertise to meet evolving client needs. That growth needed to be reflected in the way we tell our story.

Updating our explainer video wasn’t just a creative refresh — it was about staying aligned with our mission and the pace of change our clients face every day.

2023: A Hand-Drawn Beginning

The original 2023 video was a labor of love and detail. It started with idea sessions between our Sales and Marketing teams:

• Who exactly are we talking to?
• What do we want them to feel when they watch?
• How do we quickly show the weight of DFARS, NIST, CMMC, and ITAR compliance — and the relief Peerless can provide?

From there, our animation designer took over with a traditional creative process:

1. Scriptwriting — Defining the narrative, tone, and pacing before any visuals were created.
2. Mood boarding — Researching animation styles on Google and Pinterest, compiling inspiration into a mood board to set the look and feel.
3. Storyboarding — Hand-drawing every frame, from a contractor’s zero-days-compliant sign to Peerless arriving to help.
4. Animatic production — Turning sketches into a moving storyboard with scratch voiceover to test timing.
5. Asset creation — Designing on-brand illustrations in Adobe Illustrator.
6. Animation — Bringing the visuals to life in Adobe After Effects with keyframes and motion.
7. Audio — Selecting royalty-free stock music, recording professional voiceover, and mixing sound effects to match animation beats.
8. Feedback loops — Rendering rough cuts, gathering feedback, making revisions, and fine-tuning until the final cut was approved.

The result was a colorful, cartoony video that perfectly fit our message at the time — approachable, clear, and memorable.

Why Change Was Needed by 2025

While the original video worked well, it was created for a different moment in the CMMC timeline. In 2023, many contractors were still in the “getting familiar” phase with CMMC requirements under the DFARS Interim Rule. By 2025, things had shifted:

• CMMC Final Rule had momentum — timelines were solidifying and contractors were actively preparing for certification.
• Expectations were higher — both for visual quality and for message precision.
• Our audience had grown — especially among manufacturers and aerospace clients.

We realized our intro video needed to be faster, sharper, and more in tune with the pace of the compliance journey. We needed a grown up message.

2025: A Modern, AI-Enhanced Approach

For the 2025 version, we embraced Adobe Firefly to speed up certain parts of the creative process without losing the human touch that makes our messaging authentic.

Here’s how it changed the workflow:

• Concept visualization — AI helped generate quick visual ideas for settings, color palettes, and asset variations.
• Faster iteration — Instead of hand-drawing every change, we could test concepts digitally and revise instantly.
• Focus on storytelling — With asset creation moving faster, more time was spent refining pacing, transitions, and alignment with our key messages.

We kept the parts of the original that worked — the “Attention DoD & Federal Contractors” opener, the emphasis on compliance burdens, and Peerless stepping in as the solution. But the style is sharper, the motion smoother, and the flow more direct.

A Parallel to Our Clients’ Journeys

In a way, updating this video mirrors what we help our clients do every day. Just like we took a tried-and-true process and enhanced it with modern tools to be more efficient and impactful, manufacturers and aerospace contractors are modernizing their policies to meet today’s demands.

Sometimes that means keeping the core of what works while upgrading the tools and processes to stay ahead.

📽 Watch the updated 2025 explainer video here:

How Peerless Continues to Help Contractors Prepare for CMMC

The new video is just the start. Every day, Peerless supports manufacturers and other DIB members with:

• NIST 800-171 / CMMC Level 2 Gap Assessments to identify exactly what’s needed for compliance, establish an accurate SPRS score, and remediation roadmap.
• MSP/MSSP services for ongoing security, monitoring, and support.
• Compliant cloud solutions for CUI, ITAR, EAR, and U.S. Sovereignty.
• CMMC Remediation and engineering work to close compliance gaps, improve SPRS score, and prepare for certification.

CMMC is progressing quickly. Whether you’re in the early stages or preparing for certification, Peerless has the expertise, processes, and technology to help you get there.