Vox's “The Mind, Explained” on Netflix
Earlier this year I got to design and animate 3 episodes of “The Mind” mini-series - "Memory", "Anxiety" and "Psychedelics".
--
Grainy black and white texture was chosen to represent the haziness of memories.
Grainy black and white texture was chosen to represent the haziness of memories.
Episode 1 - "Memory" starts off with a surreal animated sequence, visualizing people's fragmented memories of 9/11.
Above: A woman recalls "Every channel had a building that was on fire"
Above: Researchers implanted fake memories into peoples' minds, such as being left at a shopping mall, being involved in a bank heist, having tea with prince Charles.
Above: gym class, London, beach? Every one remembers where they were when they heard about 9/11.
Episode 3: Anxiety
We used pinball imagery to convey adrenaline being shot throughout the body.
The organs stylized as well-oiled cog-run machines.
The organs stylized as well-oiled cog-run machines.
Above left: Producer Adam Cole's initial sketch visualizing all the body parts affected by the "anxiety pinball". Right: Final rendering.
Episode 5: Psychedelics
The weirdest of the episodes, this one has an inverted color palette and was a delight to work on.
PROCESS
Above: Motion test on the left, fully rendered version on the right.
Above: "There was a hole in the side of the building" "Very confusing and disorienting"
Refined animation followed by sketches and rough-pass.
Above: The animated sequence ends with Melanie recalling how she sat in class, watching the smoke drift over the water. We then exit the "animated world" as Melanie reveals that her experience was a fake memory. Left: First pass/animatic. Right: Polished animation.
