Making a TEDEd Lesson Synesthesia and playing cards
In this short video,
we’re going to show you
how we used animation
to make custom playing
cards to do magical tricks
in TED-Ed’s Lesson on synesthesia.
Synesthesia is a neurological condition
in which two or more
senses are paired together
to create a completely new experience.
For example, many synesthetes see letters
and numbers in colors,
even when they are printed in black.
Or they can taste certain words.
For instance, jail tastes like bacon.
Because synesthesia generally involves
the brain pairing up two or more senses,
we paired up playing cards
with unique,
colorful,
and visceral symbols.
We then used an animation technique
called stop motion
to manipulate the cards in ways
that would be otherwise
physically impossible.
And as the cards were flipping,
shuffling,
and sliding,
we used a mixture of animation and reality
to ensure that the symbols on the cards
did their part to explain
the nuances of synesthesia.
This type of animation is very
difficult to pull off
without some planning first.
A storyboard is a series of still images
that basically serve as a road map
for an animation from beginning to end.
An animatic is a storyboard in motion.
By making the animatic,
we were able to review the digital
motion for each shot,
which allowed us to progressively
work out timing,
camera positioning,
and, most importantly,
any challenges we anticipated
in the final animation process.
How many hands do you need
to shuffle a deck of cards?
Here, we wanted to emphasize
each nucleotide
in the DNA sequence
and stop motion allows for more control.
By shuffling between individual frames,
we could ensure that each card
had a controlled amount of screen time,
in this case, three frames,
and that the card’s placement
was consistent.
But sometimes four hands
just isn’t enough.
We use this trick a lot in this lesson,
all thanks to one secret ingredient:
Play-Doh!
By molding the Play-Doh
into different sized pyramids,
the cards can be held
in different positions,
always keeping the pyramid big enough
to support the card,
but small enough to not be seen
and to not cast its own revealing shadow.
Making an animated movie
is like making a delicious layer cake.
It’s up to the animators
to create the many planes, or layers.
The use of green screen
enables us to shoot
individual elements moving,
and to later assemble those layers
one on top of the other.
Using software, we key
out the green color,
both on the background
and Play-Doh.
Layer the cards,
add the hands,
insert a background,
and if you planned
your ingredients carefully,
everything should come
together just right.
So, grab some fishing wire,
glue,
masking tape,
chopsticks,
and whatever else you can find.
We’d love to see you make some of your own
animated illusions.