Making a TED-Ed Lesson: Concept and design

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough
Reviewer: Jessica Ruby

We all start life as one single cell. Then that cell divides and we are two cells, then four, then eight. Cells form tissues, tissues form organs, organs form us.

"So, how did you guys decide, like, what style to use when animating this video?"

"I, originally, when I was reading the script, I was thinking a lot about food."

"Were you hungry?"

"I was hungry probably because I always am. But, yeah, I was thinking about healthy food and thinking of how can I use material, how could I actually materialize that cell, the cancer cell and the healthy cell. So, I decided to use grain and seeds for healthy cells and, then, for the cancer cells, actually, we decided to use candy. We did a little short animation before this when we were using different color jelly beans to animate bacteria, so I thought, 'Oh, well, we can use that.' But, then, the jelly beans were actually, like, a little too big to construct this cell. And, so, I decided to go with something smaller, and we found Nerds. Lisa can actually tell you a little more about how she designed each cell."

"Yeah, when we were, we had a whole collection of seeds and candy Nerds in front of us. So, we actually ended up using buckwheat and lentils for the healthy cells. And then for the candy Nerds, they were really a perfect size. We got to play with the colors and switch them around to make those cells look a little more alive like they were constantly changing. So, it really had a more erratic look than the seeds, which were natural colors, but that would also stay consistent throughout."

"Are these actually?"

"Those are the actual things. So, those, as you see, probably, like, come in pink, orange, yellow, green, all these colors. So, I wanted to create the image of a cancer cell as something that is bad. So, we actually shot these things as they are and then changed the hue in the computer so they appear more neon blue and toxic in a way."

"And it wasn't just food, right? There were also other materials that you guys used?"

"Right."

"There was, so there was a part in the video that talked about tissue and organs and I stayed within that same idea and thought like, 'Which natural material I can use to construct these objects?' And then I think for the tissue, we used something that was like a lacy pattern, and then for the rest of it, it was mostly knitted yarn or crocheted yarn. So, those were the materials. So, we will see in the human body, because we do not really have the skills or the time to actually crochet these things, our artist, Celeste, actually crocheted her organs in Photoshop. So, we would take these patterns from some stock that we found online, and she did step-by-step and she actually, like, made it into the shape of an organ. So, those were the materials we used."