Interview with John Liebler, XVIVO Scientific Animation
October 05, 2006

Remember learning science through tedious textbooks and slideshows? Those days are over, at least for Harvard students studying molecular and cellular biology. Today, these Harvard students can explore the microscopic world of a cell through 3D animation, enhancing traditional textbook learning. Using LightWave, John Liebler of XVIVO Scientific Animation created the 3D animation short, The Inner Life of a Cell, at the request of Harvard University. Today, NewTek spoke with John Liebler, lead animator for XVIVO Scientific Animation about his creation and how this type of animation can enhance classrooms in several different aspects.

Why is LW such a good program for creating this type of animation?
LightWave is great for this type of animation. First and foremost, it is really a generalist's package. Our projects are typically done by small teams or individual animators, so it's important that one person can grasp the entire software. The artist can be his or her own technical director. Although LightWave is full of diverse tools, so much can be done with just a few core tools. So much of organic medical animation can be done through just morphing and displacements, and those tools are solid, efficient and easy to use and combine.

For you personally, what impact do you think this type of animation has on student learning as opposed to looking at pictures in a textbook?
Well, I come from an artistic background, and frequently I have a hard time understanding medical scientific material, until I start to model and animate. Basically everything I know about the material in my animations, I've learned by creating the animations. Through the animation process I'm able to visualize what's happening in a concrete way. I can see how things fit together and relate to one another in three dimensions. Then I find when I look back at the scientific data, I have a solid point of reference for the more complex information. Two-dimensional pictures, of the type found in many textbooks present a lot of information schematically, like charts and graphs. This is an efficient way to present information, but can be hard to digest, because of the volume of information present. 3D animation allows the viewer a way of recognizing the key elements or "characters" of a process in a simpler, more tangible form. Increasingly complex information can then be attached to these "characters.” If creating these animations is educational for me, I can only hope it is also educational to the people who watch it.

Do you think this type of educational/learning animation will trickle down into K-12 grade levels allowing more educators to present curriculum in animation form? What are the advantages? Are there any disadvantages?
If you consider how the software and hardware necessary to create 3D is becoming available to more and more people, it's easy to imagine animations being created by educators and students. Just as in the past traditional art supplies were used to create school projects, soon students will be turning in cg 3D content. Instead of dioramas, they'll be making animations. I think there are probably some students doing this now.

I think the advantage of presenting material in animation form is that we have become a screen-based society. We are accustomed to taking in information through the language of video. Also, animation carries a sense of entertainment, and helps to make the material accessible. Even if the material has been simplified, it forms a foundation of understanding, and can be used to draw the students in to more complex concepts.

The only disadvantage I see can be that students take the animations too literally. It is easy to believe something which is realistically rendered is exactly true to life. Educators must emphasize the ways in which data has been simplified, and make students aware that even though an animation is "realistically" rendered it is still a stylized, symbolic representation of reality. In much the same way that a historical re-enactment of the Civil War may aid in our understanding of that conflict, but it is not the actual events we are witnessing.

Is medical/scientific animation creation more difficult than character animation? In what ways are they different? In what ways are they similar?
First off, I think that 3D character animation is an incredibly challenging discipline. To be done well it requires a balance of art, acting, timing and an understanding of human nature, along with a mastery of very complex animation software. I enjoy modeling and animating characters when I'm not working on scientific or medical jobs, and I think that applying the principles of character animation to scientific and medical work can greatly enhance the work. The same tricks that give characters "the illusion of life" also work on the elements that make up our inner machinery. This is not without some controversy. There are some people who believe it is wrong to give the impression objects at a molecular level move this way, however most activity at a molecular level actually occurs at an incredible rate of speed, and the proteins and other structures involved are actually smaller than the wavelengths of light which would allow them to be seen. That is one reason for the necessity for 3D visualization. 3D is just an artificial means of representing and understanding something that cannot be easily observed. Appling the principles of character animation is just a way of making the animations “seem” more believable. One thing that does make medical or scientific animation more difficult is there aren't as many resources available to the medical scientific animator as there are to character animators. It is much easier to find tutorials for animating walk cycles than for, say, the Krebs Cycle. Hopefully, as more scientific educators adopt 3D as a way of teaching, this could change.

What advice would you have for an educator looking to get this type of animation created for a specific curriculum (math or science, for example)?
I think it would be a good idea for educators to pool resources and collaborate with other educators in the same fields, to share the cost. Alternately, if software and hardware are available, it would be great to get students involved in creating animations. This would be doubly effective, because students who create the animations will learn the material, as well as the students who watch it.

What advice would you have for a high school 3D animation teacher in teaching medical animation?
Medical and scientific animation are excellent opportunities to combine artistically-minded students with technically-minded ones, because it requires that the content be both aesthetically pleasing and entertaining, as well as scientifically accurate and information-rich. It's also important to emphasize all of the elements which should be present in any animation – design, composition, form and movement.

What advice would you have for a student interested in learning medical/scientific animation?
Keep a balance between art and science. This is good advice for computer animators in general. Often, the technical details are emphasized more that the artistic. Animation needs to be aesthetically pleasing to be engaging, and a viewer needs to be engaged before learning can happen. Learn to draw. Drawing is the best way to quickly visualize an idea or concept. Even if your drawings are only for your own reference, they will help you organize your thoughts and work out how to present material in a visual manner. Learn to research. Learn how to find the reference materials which will inform your animation. The art is in the details. Get as much reference as you can, because the details that are already present in nature can be far more beautiful and strange than anything we could make up. Even when you have to make something up, if you've done the research, you'll have a wealth of factual data to fabricate with. Art is about making choices, and sometimes just guesses, but the more information you have, the better your choices will be.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, John!

For more information about the XVIVO/Harvard University project, visit the website: www.xvivo.net/press/harvard_university.htm