Making a TED-Ed 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.