1. Character design
2. Animation
3. Storyboarding
4. Branding application

CLIENT
Council on Strategic Risks

TEAM
Vrinda Mathur, Scott Sell, Adam Geremia

Project Sea Spray Animation

Project summary:
A part of a series of work focused on educating professionals interested in the nuclear field and national security. Each module focuses on a particular story and includes interviews with experts, learning materials, a slide deck, and an animation for storytelling. This module is focused on Project Sea Spray, a declassified project by the U.S. military that goes into the biological weapons testing on U.S. civilians in the San Francisco area and 200 other locations around the country.

Role︎

Lead Animator and Illustrator
Executed full animation and aesthetic direction in collaboration with the Creative Director.
Co-designed storyboards to visually illustrate the story and identify key points.

Goals ︎

Design an animation inspired by the Council for Strategic Risks branding and the story of Project Sea Spray.
Work collaboratively with voice actors, animators, knowledge experts, and the creative team.

Outcomes ︎

Used as a tool for a new, progressive curriculum that challenges preconceived notions about bioweapons
First in a series of 20 educational modules that communicate different stories of bioweapons and chemical testing in the United States.

Animation in progress

(A) Outlining and framing the objective of animation

Tasks

︎ Outline the story and build out the script so that it lends itself to a visual story and has clear transitions for the viewer to follow.

︎ Define the goal of the animation (the main takeaway) and the tone that the viewer should feel to support the story’s goal.

︎ Map out the number of elements needed across the animation and identify which elements can be repeated for efficiency in animating.

UNDERSTANDING + PROTOTYPING

Collaborative storyboarding of declassified government documents

Working collaboratively with the design team and the content experts, we translated a timed script into sketched frames to storyboard the animation and think through transition opportunities.

UNDERSTANDING + PROTOTYPING

Context and elements

PROTOTYPING

Alignment of Visuals with Tone of Storyline

Capturing the tone and style was crucial for this animation as it would help support the storyline and be carried across all animations created after this pilot.

As we wanted this project to be a collaboration, I created two different styles with two tones for each to share and use as tools for discussion.

(B) Application of look and feel to elements

Tasks

︎ Create scenes to share with the team and share with the client to check the tone, the story’s timeline, the communicative nature of the scenes, and the compositions.

︎ Match sections of the script to the scenes and time out how long the script would make the scene be. Adjust the scene by adding new elements or changing perspectives within the scene if the script is too long and would lose the tempo of the animation.

Character design

This animation utilized a breadth of characters to support the story and build more details into the scenes. Different characters, such as doctors, military officers, and lawyers, were created to further the storyline and provide context to the scene, while citizens were to highlight how the testing took place in populated areas with civilians. AE Deekay Limb Tool was used to rig characters.

(C) Branding

Because this project was the first of a series, the Biodefense and Biosecurity Bootcamp needed its branding underneath the Council on Strategic Risks umbrella. The team created the sub-brand logo, which was later animated and used in digital media.

Tasks

︎ Translate the logo for the series into motion to incorporate in the video when concluding each video in the collection.

︎ Build the tone of the module into the branding to create a cohesive and scalable system for other possible products.

Tools used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects

Rives Matson

Writing

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