ANIMATIONS

The ability of animations to reproduce the spatio-temporal evolution of an event makes them ideal tool to communicate dynamic and complex scientific phenomena1.

Animations belonging to the following categories appear extremely proper to science communication:

  • Realistic reproductions of the multiple actors in a complex process;
  • Schematic representations of the key elements of a topic;
  • Metaphorical representations that emotionally engage the audience by exploiting both its cultural universe and storytelling,

Animations both accurate and captivating represent valuable tools for the following activities:

  • Science education at schools and universities: promoting visual understanding through metaphorical representations and realistic reproductions for youngers and olders, respectively2
  • Science communication to the general public: exploiting storytelling to engage the citizen and influence toward positively impacting social decisions3;
  • Scientific research: communicating ideas, results and models to peers, funding agencies and the press through animations that help visual understanding and therefore credibility and sharing in the media4,5;
  • Marketing: advertising the value of thr company to potential clients and investors through captivating animations6.

How anti COVID-19 vaccines work7

Whatever is the specific communication goal, effective and memorable animations cannot lack the following features:

  • Concise plot based on clear cause-effect relationships;
  • Accurate rendering of the characters, their environment and their mutual interactions;
  • Capturing animations and visual effects;
  • Text and audio elements relevant for the communication;
  • Audience-tailored style;
  • Easy reproduction and sharing through the off-line and on-line platforms of interest.

Neither the skills of the artist nor the knowledge of the scientists are enough by their own to fully satisfy these requirements4.

In Nabu Creative Studio these two souls live and work together from the search for references and script writing, through modeling until rendering and post-production of 2D and 3D animations both scientifically accurate and aesthetically captivating.

References:
    1. Animating the model figure. Trends Cell Biol. Doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2010.08.005
    2. A picture is worth a thousand words: visual thinking between creative thinking and critical thinking in the teaching-learning processes. img journal, 1(1), 234-253.
    3. Making Science Meaningful for Broad Audiences through Stories. Integr Comp Biol. DOI: 10.1093/icb/icy103.
    4. Science–graphic art partnerships to increase research impact.Commun Biol.  DOI: 10.1038/s42003-019-0516-1
    5. Maximize your visibility. Promoting your research effectively after publication. Springer Nature. 2018
    6. The Power of Visual Communication. Showing your story to land the message. Pwc
    7. How anti COVID-19 vaccines work. Animation made by Roberto Burioni for Medical Facts