Art of Icy Influenza

by
Max Rogers
Introduction
The following pages are an insight into the pre
production and production of a fantasy narrative inspired
animation on influenza attacking the body. This topic
was from a pick of four and we were assigned to create
a two minute animation of our own take on the topic.

The project has been a gruelling test and time

management was definitely key in this unit but much
has been learnt in relation to the pipeline of creating an
animation.
 Influenza
• Looking at images of the flu virus magnified it looks
rather vicious with spikes used to attach itself to the
host cells. These attachment spikes are known as
hemagglutinin which make up for around 80% of the
spikes while the other 20% is made up of
neuraminidase which is mainly used for the release
of newly produced virus particles from the host cell.
Although the flu virus is generally easily treated
there have been many instances where this is not
the case due to different strands of the virus such as
H1N1 which are much quicker in their growth. The
deadliest case of a flu outbreak was the Spanish flu
epidemic during 1918 which is recorded to have
infected one billion people - half the world's
population at the time. Reinforcing the point of its
ease of eradication the virus is still among the top
ten causes of death in America, shockingly ranking
higher than that of the HIV virus which causes Aids.
Idea
• From the research gathered of the Influenza virus I
became interested in a fantasy depiction of the way the
virus attacks the body. The virus gives the victim ‘cold’
symptoms which then led to me pushing my artistic
license and thinking along the lines of coldness leading
on an interest of ice.
Influences
• Influences for this animation
originally came from a picture
of the swine flu virus H1N1
instantly coming across as a
sentinel-like menace from
The Matrix trilogy. This
caused me to think about the
design of my virus and
More Influences
I looked in to concept art from the game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for
inspiration of snow and ice
environments and the artist Luke
Jerram’s glass sculptures of viruses for
inspiration of my virus design,
envisioning it as being in some ways
transparent
Target Audience
• The target audience for this animation is young
teenagers, it is more story driven and artistic in order to
entertain rather than educate. The narrative is dark
accompanied by a setting which becomes darker in the
appearance of the flu virus. It is not recommended for a
younger audience due to the mild peril.
Unit 6 – Acts
• Act 1
Soft classical intro is played accompanied by a black screen where a sneeze is heard. The screen
fades in to a single flu virus which is then breathed in by an unsuspecting victim. The virus travels
through the respiratory system heading for the lungs causing the respiratory walls to freeze up as
it passes through. The virus makes it way to the cell membrane of a lung cell where it begins to
push through.

• Act 2
As the virus breaks through the music begins to become more powerful as RNA is released
menacingly making their way to the nucleus of the cell. The nucleus reads the RNA’s ‘data’
causing the nucleus to freeze then the RNA makes its way to the cell’s membrane and is encased
within the proteins and lipid Bilayer as it forces its way out.

• Act 3
The music calms again as the flu virus leaves the frozen dying cell as it heads to another cell
within the lungs. As it makes its way more flu viruses begin to push through the dying cell and the
camera begins to zoom out to reveal other viruses leaving dying lung cells accompanied by the
more powerful section of the music. The screen once again fades to black accompanied by a
terrible cough
Concept Art – Influenza Virus
Concept Art – Virus travels through
respiratory system
Concept Art – Pneumonia affected Alveoli
(Pre-Pitch environment)
Storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboard
Changes after Pitch
After the pitch there were a few comments on the
animation which needed to be investigated. Spacing
was an issue, I needed to really think about the size of
my virus in comparison to its environment. And this
issue of spacing would also give the environments a
sense of place which would mean the audience would
understand where my animation was taking them. Dr.
Klappa also highlighted the dislike of the sentinel-like
tentacles comparing the look of the virus to a “surfer
dude”. I was advised to change the movement into more
rigid like my pre-viz to resemble a naval mine.
Influenza Virus Model

This is the untextured first

model produced after the
pitch but rightly pointed out
to me it didn’t feel like one
object as the tentacles
looked separate from the
spherical body.
This is the final
untextured model for
my virus concept
where I basically
smoothed the body
up the sides of the
tentacles to make
them look a whole
object rather than the
tentacles being stuck
on the side of the
body
 Textures for the virus

Main Body Tentacles Spheres

(hemagglutinin) (neuraminidase)
Bump Maps for Virus
 Finished textured model

This is a final render image of my virus. The model has a slight

glow to it to make look colder.
Respiratory Tube Scene
Respiratory tube scene textures and bumps
Respiratory tube render images
These are the rendered
images of the respiratory
tube scene. One thing
that worked consistently
throughout the
animation was the wall
texture. I also used this
texture for the lung as
well. The idea for the
scene was as the virus
travels through the tube
icicles pierce through
the walls of the tube
causing damage.
Lung scene texture and bump
Lung Renders

The organic texture was

again used for the lung
which works really well.
Blend shapes were used
to give the look of
breathing in for the lungs –
something simple but
rather effective. Bumps
were also painted onto the
geometry as well to make
the surface less even .
The Lung cell
Final Scene

This was a huge scene in the animation, very large in data size
because of the amount of geometry in the scene making it rather
temperamental. However I like the opening of the shot with its
lighting and when the camera shows the many flu virus within the
lung the glow effect that they all possess works really well.
 The top image is from the render
I took however after some thought I
realised that this wasn’t epic enough
and led me to re render the scene out
and adding extra flu virus copies and
Icicles into the scene.