This animation shows part of the life cycle of Plasmodium vivax, a parasite that causes malaria. P. vivax parasites can lay dormant in the liver for months at a time, causing recurrent infection when a patient believes they feel better. I wanted to highlight the dormant hypnozoite stage in this 3D animation using a dark, unnerving mood mixed with the delicate lull of a lullaby.
Storyboards and Scripting
Moodboards
Creating moodboards filled with style inspirations helped me form the “look” of the animation – mostly how I’d like textures to look and what colors I would like for materials. Creating Pinterest boards is great for organizing inspiration.
Animatic
Putting together an animatic from the storyboard and script with a draft voice recording laid out a blueprint I could follow when keyframing and rendering out 3D scenes.
Building Assets and Keyframing
In order to create this animation, I had to create a sizable library of assets – for example, I modeled a liver lobule “set” and each stage of parasite.
Cinema 4D 2023 came out just as I was creating this animation, so I had the pleasure of working with the new sim tags, especially soft bodies.
2D Intro and Outro
I created a 2D intro and outro segment using limited color. I drew assets in Procreate and exported to Photoshop, keeping each moving part of the illustration on a separate layer so I could use Puppet Pins in After Effects.
