Profiles & Perspectives
2016
Bringing Patient Stories to Life with Animation
Showing patients and caregivers how valuable their input can be in asthma research
Client:
PCORI
Audience × Intent
Our audience was patients and/or caregivers in the asthma community (that might consider participating in PCORI's research). Our intent was to show patients and caregivers how valuable their input can be in asthma research to hopefully encourage more to participate.
About the Project
PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute) is a government-sponsored nonprofit organization that funds patient-centered comparative effectiveness research.
They approached gravitytank, my employer at the time, for guidance and help to promote their messaging to patients and caregivers within the asthma community in order to increase participation in their ongoing research projects.
They were interested in producing a video, and had recorded some great phone interviews, but had little to no imagery or footage on hand. So we did what any reasonable designers would do—we started making and animating.
Seth Mabbott—my friend and colleague on the project—is a talented, multidisciplinary designer who also happens to be an excellent illustrator.
While I was editing the hour-long interviews down into 90-second vignettes that we could use, Seth began cranking out drawings, animated sequences, and more.
We didn't really have the time for a ton of cel animation so I set up an After Effects file where we blended animated sequences together with motion-designed brand and illustration assets and masked the difference with stock textures and frame-by-frame displacement and distortion.
Result
PCORI thought we did a great job crafting a compelling story from the interviews, especially considering what we were given (great stories but mediocre quality audio). I don't have access to view counts (the video has since been pulled) but the work lived on their socials for a few years.
The simulated animation technique that we used was around long before I was, but it was relatively new to me at the time. It ended up being useful for years to come though, as I continued to use elements from the project and develop the core technique over time.
Details
Timeline 4 weeks (1 week planning + editing audio, 3 weeks production + animation)
Resources audio interviews, original illustration, stock footage (textures)
Credits
PCORI Research Participants Audio Interviews (but honestly they get most of the credit here)
Seth Mabbott Creative Direction, Illustration, Animation
Chuck Smith Creative Direction, Editing, Motion Design, Animation
