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In our open source project for medical supplies, we face the challenge in the illustration team to manage translations of text labels in imagery for manuals and animations separately of the actual models.
How do you do that to produce imagery in multiple languages efficiently?
We are not yet set about the tool/toolset but this is not the question. We want to learn from others whether such problem has been recognized and addressed in other projects.
Perhaps keep the models and illustrations/animations separate from the labels.
For static images for instruction manuals, you could use page layout software to add the text labels, such as Scribus (which is open source). You could use layers to store and organise the different translations, enabling only the layers you need, then export the PDFs you need.
Animation will require a different application. Perhaps you could use something like Adobe AfterEffects to store and organise the translations on layers. There's a Video Production stack exchange for video editing questions if you need more help. There's also a Blender stack exchange for help using Blender if you want to use open source software for 3D modelling and animation.
There are a number of ways to achieve that, depending on which specific tools you plan on using.
For non-video work, as in static images or PDF files for either web or print, one usual routine is to use one bottom layer for non-text artwork, then add new layers for each language and place text content on these new layers (EN, DE, NL, FR and so on). Layering is available in most graphic design tools.
Some degree of automation can be used to inject language content and export assets per each language, but the question is to broad to give anything specific. Automation works better with some tools, not so good with other tools.
