Photoreal 3D Medical Animation Explainers

Role: CG Supervisor & Lead Animator

For more than six years I've created photoreal 3D medical explainer animations, primarily for WebMD, along with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and biotech clients such as Genocea Biosciences. WebMD wanted a better way to explain medical conditions, treatments and surgical procedures — something warmer and more watchable than the medical content already filling the web. That brief turned into a long-running run of short-form videos, hundreds of them across live action and animation, and I led the 3D side of it: more than 150 medical explainers, each running about a minute. These animations were developed at Pixeldust Studios.

Nothing was templated. Each subject got its own treatment, and I kept pushing the look and the storytelling forward from one film to the next so the style stayed fresh and current rather than settling into a house formula. I was fortunate to see trough more than 80% 3d animations myself, end to end.

The work covers conditions across the whole human body, from autoimmune and inflammatory disease to cancer, heart, kidney, eye, respiratory and neurological conditions, as well as newer territory like biologics, genetic testing and gene therapy. For the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, that included visualizing DNA and allele sequencing.

My responsibilities:

- CG/VFX Supervisor and Lead Animator, taking every animation from start to finish

- Working directly with creative directors, scientists, producers and clients through reviews and revisions

- Evolving the look and storytelling film to film across a long-running series

- Look development and photoreal lighting that keep the body, inside and out, fleshy and real

- Animating every procedure, diagnosis and action-and-reaction moment, with fluid, soft-body and particle simulation

- Cinematic camera animation dramatized to the narration, with depth of field, focus pulls, defocus, motion blur and lens effects across every cut

- Real-time rendering in one pipeline, no render farm, 4K on quick turnarounds

- Final assembly: sequencing and cutting every shot, compositing the 2D graphics over the 3D renders, timed to the voice narration

- Final touch-ups through to textless and versioned deliverables

CGI/VFX Stack:

Unreal Engine, Unity HDRP, After Effects, Autodesk Maya, Redshift, Arnold.

The core challenge is showing what can't be seen. Each film has to explain what's happening inside the body, at the level of organs, cells and molecules, in a way that stays scientifically accurate while still reading clearly in a short patient-facing video.

My approach combines accurate 3D anatomy with cellular and molecular animation, showing antibodies, receptors, immune cells and DNA at work, while clean motion-graphic titles and callouts guide the viewer through each step of how a condition develops and how a therapy acts on it. What I'm after is a Hollywood-quality film shot with a tiny camera inside the human body: photoreal look development and lighting that keep tissue looking fleshy and real, camera work carrying the story across every cut, and fluids, soft bodies and particles bringing each procedure and reaction to life.

Quick turnarounds drove a different kind of 3D pipeline, and a fresh look with it. Instead of queuing frames on a render farm, I render in real time — the traditional farm is gone entirely, and with it the long waits for rendered frames and for compositing. Shading, lighting and compositing all happen under one hood, every shot carried through in the same place, which puts multiple 4K animations on screen at a high degree of photoreal complexity in record time.

The team around me:

- Science producers wrote the scripts, creative directors approved the editorial and art.

- 2D art directors & illustrators built the UI, labels and titles in Illustrator and Figma, which I integrated into the 3D

- In-house editors handled narration and sound design

Medical Human CGI montage reel.

Human body cgi medical work Web MD, CF Foundation from 2014 - 2022. Responsible for all animation, final lighting, shading, rendering and final compositing.

Medical Macro CGI montage reel.

Macro and molecular medical cgi work Web MD, CF Foundation from 2014-2022. Responsible for all animation, final lighting, shading, rendering and final compositing.

LIVE ON WEBMD: 3D MEDICAL EXPLAINERS

A selection of the 3D medical explainers published on WebMD's site and channels that I worked for as CG Supervisor and Lead Animator. Each opens on WebMD in a new tab.

Genocea Biosciences — Immuno-Oncology Animation

A short-form scientific animation created for Genocea Biosciences (NASDAQ: GNCA), explaining their T cell–directed immunotherapy. The piece visualizes how the immune system's T-cells recognize and attack tumor cells, and how Genocea's ATLAS platform pinpoints the right antigen targets — turning an invisible cellular process into clear, cinematic CGI for investors, partners, and patients. The animation was produced at Pixeldust Studios.

My Role — CG/VFX Supervisor

I supervised the animation end to end: developing the visual approach for the cellular and molecular world, building and look-developing the hero T-cell and tumor-cell assets, and directing lighting, shading, and rendering for a photoreal-but-legible biological look. I oversaw the cellular dynamics and micro-environment, ran final compositing and color, and delivered the locked shots — keeping the science accurate while guiding the artists and holding the visual bar across the sequence.

Tools

Autodesk Maya, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, After Effects.