“House of Numbers: Animation of the Replication of HIV” by Knowledge Matters, LLC

  • ©Brent Leung

Conference:


SIGGRAPH Video Review:


Track:


    03

Title:


    House of Numbers: Animation of the Replication of HIV

Director(s):


Company / Institution / Agency:


  • Knowledge Matters, LLC

Description:


    ”House of Numbers” is a feature-length documentary that critiques the many inconsistencies in worldwide AIDS research, testing, funding, and healthcare. This animation of the replication process of the human immunodeficiency virus
    (HIV) was created to illustrate the generally accepted view of how HIV infects humans. While no hard data were used to create the models, there was extensive research done by the animator to create an HIV model that reflected generally accepted properties of HIV, such as its protein components and overall structure. There are still many unanswered questions regarding the process that HIV undergoes to infect human T-cells, so choices were made by the animator and director on how to best illustrate the process based on descriptions from scientists and existing static illustrations. Deliberate choices were also made throughout the production process to create some drama and a dark mood in the camera movement, lighting, and color treatment, to emphasize the words and tone of the many scientists who contributed to the narration and documentary. The final animation was reviewed by experts in AIDS research for overall accuracy.

Hardware:


    Apple Quad G5 for 3D animation and rendering, XP PC for compositing

Software:


    Blender for all 3D animation, Adobe After Effects with Trapcode’s Particular for compositing

Additional Contributors:


    Director: Brent Leung

    Editor: Brent Leung

    Animator: W. Scott Meador

    Compositor: James Lockhart

    Music Editors: Brent Leung, Urcela Rowan

    Production: Knowledge Matters, LLC Emagination-Media

Animation / Video Overview:


Type: