An Animator From Down Under

Today the Biomedical Visualization program hosted professional biomedical animator, Drew Berry. He held a talk during the day today discussing his rise to success by hard work and self-promotion as well as his process in creating his animations. Drew works at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, a prestigious medical research establishment, in which they have received an Emmy for DNA documentary series in 2005.

My approach is the opposite tack to simplifying the science,” says Berry. “Rather than dumbing it down, I set out to show the audience exactly what the scientists are talking about. By building accurate visualizations founded on real scientific data, the animations come alive of their own accord, engage the audience, and go a long way towards explaining what the science is about. The science is rich, detailed and fascinating, and if you can watch it in action you will intuitively get to know how it works.

It was a pleasure to get to see, listen and meet with a professional in our field yet again and this man was stellar and this is just the first one this week! Stay tuned for a recap of the Frank Armitage Lecture later this week!

Photo courtesy of cgsociety.org. Still from animation of the malaria life cycle in human hosts. Drew Berry.
Animation courtesy of youtube.com. Molecular Visualizations of DNA - DNA Chromosome Wrapping. Drew Berry.