Illumina Falcon
Project details
Client:
Illumina
Studio:
StaticJoe Studios
Creative Direction:
Brian Jouan
Art Direction:
Jason Lee
Executive Producer:
Sandra Villareal, Daniela Lloyd
Design:
Nuria Boj, Ewa Geruzel
Animation:
Kyle Harter (2D), Max Calarco (3D), Katherine Pryor (Cel)
Sound Design:
Joe the Chicken
Tools:
After Effects, Cinema 4D, Form, Particular
StaticJoe Studio brought me on board as lead animator on this internal explainer video for their client, Illumina, who's a leader in gene sequencing and array solutions. As lead animator, I was enlisted to communicate how the Illumina Falcon can speed up the gene-sequencing process in an entertaining, engaging, and truthful way.
One of the guiding motifs of this piece was the grid. We used the grid in our design to provide structure in the layout, and in motion to present a sense of connected relationships as we directed the viewer's eye. With some slight of hand with match cuts, cel animation, and clever tunnel transitions we were able to keep the energy up throughout the duration of the video.
The most challenging aspects of this project were the transitions. With all of the scenes needing to be aligned to a grid and the added challenge of giving the grid life, the transitions posed unique problems to be solved. Through planning, communication with my AD Jason Lee, and a bit of experimentation, we were able to weave these transitions in and out of the scenes with a touch of beauty and technical engineering.
Behind the scenes
Grid Tunnel
The tunnel transition featured in the beginning and end of the video above was equal parts in telling myself "You got this!" and "How on earth am I going to do this?". We knew these scenes had to be perfect in execution and flow in order to not take the viewer out of the video within the first seconds. Through a good deal of experiementation, I cracked the "code" on opening up the tunnel through a series of flexible expressions, distributing elements in 3D space, and giving a bit of texture in the animation by adding little nuances to the rotation of the modular elements.
I wanted to create one modular element that I could use as a building block when rigging the tunnel. The tunnel was a product of strategic time remapping through use of essential properties and linear expressions to keep our rectangles and squares moving at a consistent rate while maintaining full control of animation timing.
You can view a full-length breakdown video of the tunnel here.
Sequencing DNA Particles
This was a key shot to show the sequencing transition from the library prepped DNA into it's final phase of analysis. The challenges here were to have a seamless flow from one phase to the next with a brief moment to highlight the act of sequencing. Given the medium here is animation and we're taking creative license, we decided to use a particle driven approach.
Using Trapcode Form and strategic luma mattes, we optimized the layer map feature in Form to transition from one state to the next while displacing and deforming the particles in a wavy cloud-like form before finally settling into the analysis phase.
DNA Library Prep Motion Lines
These DNA lines are on a journey from their cRNA sythesis in the previous scene into being prepped in a library that is readable by the Falcon sequencing equipment. These lines needed to be constantly moving to give the notion that this is a fast moving process. With that in mind, I used the stroke dash properties on a shape paths to drive random distribution and pacing.
I set up a dashboard of controls at the top of the composition to give myself full control over the final look of the lines. We wanted these lines to have varied spacing of their dashes so I built in some nifty random() and seedRandom() expressions to have the randomness being driven by each layer's index.
