art of

INFILTRATE
EXPLOIT
SPREAD
MARK STAMP
BA(hons) Computer Animation Arts

Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1
Inspirations...........................................................................................................................................2
Initial Thumbnails................................................................................................................................3
Storyboards...........................................................................................................................................8
Concept And Production Art...........................................................................................................12
Orthographs........................................................................................................................................18
Wireframes..........................................................................................................................................19
Shaded Models....................................................................................................................................38
UV maps..............................................................................................................................................54
Texture Maps.......................................................................................................................................23
Bump And Normal Maps..................................................................................................................66
Specular Maps.....................................................................................................................................71
Rendering Tests...................................................................................................................................75

introduction
Created between mid-March and the beginning of May, Infiltrate Exploit Spread is a first-year Computer Animation Arts project that was given
by Dr. Peter Klappa of the University of Kent. He requested a series of 3D animations designed to engage various audiences of our choosing in
one of four microbiological life cycles: Malaria, slime mould, influenza and hookworms. We were given free-reign as to which life cycle we would
make an animation for as well as the target audience the animation would be deisgned for.
I chose malaria as the subject of my animation because of the varied stages of it, and saw the complexity as a challange as well as a canvas for a varied story. The name of the project itself came about as a summary of the three things that Malaria does in its life cyvle as over the course of its time
in a human or animal host it It Infiltrates the host body, Exploits the local resources to make more of itself and spreads the offspring and Spreads
these offspring to new host cells to repeat the cycle until it is ready to move on.

Inspirations
My for the project I had decided on a target audience of teenagers and young adults with a particular
interest in video games, particularly Halo and Call of Duty. The reproductive cycle of malaria reminded me strongly of the scientific concept of grey goo, where self-replicating nanobots would
use surrounding molecules as a means to make more and more of themselves in an endless cycle that
would often lead to devouring entire landscapes and reducing them into a silvery sea.
This idea was developed further with the concept of organic machines, a theory that the human
body is not that much different from a robot in that it is made up of numerous mechanical components that work together to operate the whole, subcellular mitochondria being little different in
function and purpose to a power station. The conceptual fusion of organic and mechanical drew me
to H.R. Giger, an artist known for his surreal biomechanical designs and being one of the leading
concept artists on Ridley Scotts Alien. As I was developing the idea it was suggested to me that I
could look into the artwork of Syd Mead, who worked on the industrial designs for the equipment of
the United States Colonial Marines seen in subsequent Alien films.
The final inspiration was the work of Maxim Zhestkov, an independant filmmaker who has created
several short films that involve simple black and white environemnts (below) that use subtle sounds
and basic shapes to tell a story.

Initial Thumbnails
Since the beginning of the project I had wanted to keep a biomechanical feel to the entire thing so
I stuck with mechanical concepts.
Originally considering more direct connection to H.R. Giger, I pared it down after feedback that
the Apple-esque look gave the blood cells and the malaria parasites an aesthetic efficiency which
I decided to keep through the project.

The developement of the hepatocyte (or liver cell) came somewhat late into the concept development. Looking into them I discovered their nature as super cells,
containing large amounts of everything including having more than one nucleus, which explained a lot as to why the sporozoites targeted this particular kind of
cell. The design choice afterwards was to make the cell appear to be quite industrial, solid and, perhaps tough. However too industrial may have put it in an alien
position when compared to the other body cells that surrounded it.
5

Storyboard
1/1

Mosquito approaches host body, camera

pans to follow it.

1/2

Mosquito lands on host body.

2/2

2/3

Sporozoite approaches a hepatocyte and

burrows its way inside.
2/6

Hepatocyte bursts, releasing many merozoites from the open wound on its surface.

2/7

Establishing shot of merozoites.

1/3

2/1

Mosquito extends its proboscis and impales

the skin, camera follows it down into the
interior.
2/4

Est. shot of the blood vessel. Sporozoite flies

past towards the far end of the tunnel.

Hepatocyte darkens as Sporozoite corrupts

it.

Once almost black, the surface buleges

twice, preparing to burst.

3/1

Merozoite approaches a red blood cell,

camera zooms forward as the merozoite gets
closer.

2/5

3/2

Merozoite attaches itself to red blood cell

and the apeture opens up to let it in.
8

3/3

Red light shines from inside as apeture closes up over merozoite

4/7

Pan out to see red blood cell turning black,

begins to shake.
6/1

Shake revealed ot be caused by the proboscis

of another mosquito as it feeds on host.
9

3/4

Apeture fuilly closes, fade to white

4/1

Overview of red blood cell as semi-visible

merozoites multiply inside the cell body
4/8

Shake is followed by swelling before merozoites force their way out of the apeture.
6/2

Mosquito retracts proboscis and takes off,

zoom to abdomen.

4/9

Merozoites pass though red blood cell and

cause a repeat of 4/7-4/8 on it.
7/1

Establishing shot of abdomen interior, camera pans slowly to establish the setting.

4/2

Multiplication continued from previous

frame.
4/10

Red blood cell shakes and bursts, other

RBCs come in and do the same, fade to
black as merozoites swarm screen.
7/2

Camera focuses on two distinct red blood

cells that ope ntheir apetures.

4/3

Multiplication continued from previous

frame.

4/4

Multiplication continued from previous

frame. Pulsing noise begins ot intensify
5/1

Establishing shot to reveal blood vessel

blackened and damaged by merozoite cataclysm.
7/3

Gamete cells emerge from RBCs and approach each other.

4/5

Merozoites multiply further, pusling increases.

5/2

Panning shot reveals numerous dead blood

cells.

5/3

Pan continues as one distinct RBC comes

into view.

7/4

Gamete cells attach t oeach other in a manner of a ball and socket.

Pulsign reaches maximum as merozoites

take up entire interior of red blood cell.
5/4

Pan stops at one RBC and zooms in. Momentary wait as a thump from outside causes
chamber to shake.
7/5

Gametes surround themselves in a hard

shell.

4/6

7/6

Shell grows as camera moves away to reveal

its size increase.
10

7/7

Door to inside opens and sporozoites swim

out.

11

7/8

Sporozoites swim towards iris at the back of

the interior

7/9

Animation sequence ends as sporozoites

arrive at passage to salivial gland

Concept And Production Art

With a solid idea of what I wanted my world to look like, I moved on to more refined
concept art images.
The sprozoite (left) was the first thing to be considered. As it is arguably the first stage
of the parasites life-cycle, where it infects the liver to produce merozoites, I took the
Alien angle and used it to imply that thie sporozites form acted was a template for the
later stages of the life cycle.
The Sporozites form was therefore crucial to get right as it would dictate what the merozoite, zygote, ookynate and and gamete phases would look like within the animation.

12

I considered giving the Mosquito a similar treatment to the sprozoite, giving it hints that it has
a clear involvement in the life cycle, possibly some form of cooperation.
Rather than Alien, I looked into stealth jets for design inspiration. Originally looking into a very
black appearence, further research revealed that a lot of setalth jets and bombers vary between
charcoal and slate grey, while did make the details a little easier to see.

13

The initial feedback for the mosquito included two primary suggestions: Make
it more bug-like, and swap out the wheels for something else. Originally I had
planned for the gamete cells to be two different spheroids, however this had
the unfortunate consequence of making the sporozite appear too different to
the other stages to look like it was part of the life cycle.
The first designs of the mosquito used a birdlike head, which later evolved
to become more streamlined but eventually after looking at photographs of
mosquitoes under microscopes, went for bubble cockpit aesthetics.

14

The original form utilised a set of wheels in order to land, but this detracted from the insectoid aesthetic. When looking at possibilities for
legs I examined the varied possiblilities of feet from flat pads to hooks
to spikes (the last one I eventually went for).
As earlier thumbnails demonstrate, one possiblity was that the spikes on
the end of hte feet could open out into a proper foot to provide a more
stable landing platform. As development of the mosquito went on however, this became added complexity that could theoretically be left out.
Basic ideas for the blood cells and the zygote were used as these seemed
like relatively simple objects to construct. In the case of the blood cells,
the simple design allowed for efficient use in large numbers during the
rendering phases. The merozoite was always intended to be simple, as a
swarmer style machine its job was to infect blood cells and simply make
more of itself to infect more and more at an exponential rate. It did not
need much to function effectively, so the idea of an easy-to-mass-produce design fit quite well with its operational purpose of infecting as
many hosts as possible, reproduce as much as possible, then move on
to the next target.
The Sporozoites design was not so basic as it can be considered the
scout and first-phase infiltrator compared to the merozoites purpose as
an exponential swarmer. In reality sporozoites are indeed a lot longer
but I wanted to give the impression this machine had a more enduring
role as it had to survive crossing between the mosquito and the host
body in order to infect the targets liver.

15

Malarias life cycle is fairly varied, going from amosquitos salivial gland into a persons
liver and the nspreading across the bloodstream before entering another mosquitos stomach. This required a few environments to explain what was going on within the scene.
The below enviornmental concept also shows an element that was invluded in the storytelling: That anything the malaria parasites infected would be corrupted and turn black,
both to represent the damage and indicate that the host is, in a way, submitting

16

The Mosquitos innards was another environment intended to

look distinct. It would act as a stark comparison to the clean and
orderly nature of the host body and bears plenty of Giger-esque
inspiration such as the exposed pipes and the mroe pronounced
ribbing.
Because my story would also include seeing a mosquito, that required an environment for the mosquito to exist in. While the
concept piece is of a human arm, I was inclined to make the appearance less completely recogniseable as a human body (but still
recogniseable to an extent).

17

Orthographics
Being the most complex model on the reoster, the mosquito required definite attention to
detail, and is presently the only model that I felt really wanted an orthograph when it came
to its construction. Designing the orthograph also made it possible to get a final design
down for construction within Maya.

18

Wireframes
Sporozoites - Low and High-resolution models

19

Blood Vessel - overview

20

Blood Vessel - Interior

21

Red Blood Cell - Low Resolution model

22

Sporozoite High-resolution model

23

The Mosquitos Approach

24

Mosquito Landing Site

25

Mosquito Interior - Overview

26

Mosquito Interior - Interior View

27

Mosquito - Overview

28

Mosquito - Top Down

29

Mosquito - Main Compartment

30

Mosquito - Under Construction

The mosquito itself was onstructed by building one half and then stitching a mirrored half
to it once all the gerometry and UV mapping was in place

31

Merozoite - Low Resolution Model

32

Merozoite - High Resolution Model

33

Red Blood Cell- High Resolution Model

34

Zygote With Gametes

35

Zygote With Gametes

36

Hepatocyte Tunnel

37

Shaded Models
Merozoite - High Resolution Model

38

Merozoite - Low Resolution Model

39

Sporozoites - High And Low Resolution Models

40

Sporozoites - High Resolution Model

41

Sporozoites - High And Low Resolution Textured Models

42

Mosquito Interior - Overview

43

Mosquito Interior - Gametes

44

Mosquito Landing Site

45

Blood Vessel

46

Mosquito - Shaded

47

Mosquito - Shaded

48

Mosquito - Shaded

49

Zygote and Gametes - Shaded

50

Zygote - Shaded

51

Hepatocyte Tunnel - Shaded

52

Red Blood Cell

53

UV Maps

While Not all of these UV maps ended up being used to their full purpose for the final animation due to the use of shaders for several objects, textures were nonetheless planned out in advance as I
had originally planned to texture map quite a number of objects.
In the end however, the sporozoite, tunnel ribs and the mosquito had their texture maps utilised for rexture, bump and specular maps.

Blood Vessel Wall

Hepatocyte
54

Merozoite - High Resolution

55

Red Blood Cell

Mosquito Interior

Hepatocyte

56

Sporozoite - High resolution

57

Sporozoite - Low Resolution

Mosquito - Legs and Proboscis

Mosquito - Body

58

Red Blood Cell - Low Resolution

59

Merozoite - Low Resolution

Gamaete (left - female, right - male)

Mosquito Wings

60

Texture Maps

Mosquito Interior - Iris

61

Blood Vessel

Gametes

Mosquito - Wings

62

Mosquito - Body

63

Mosquito - Legs and proboscis

Red Blood cell

Red blood cell - apeture

64

Mosquito Interior - Piping

65

Sporozoite

BUmp And Normal Maps

Mosquito Interior - Apeture

Blood Vessel
66

Gametes

67

Mosquito - Body

Mosquito - Legs and proboscis

Mosquito - Body

68

Mosquito - Wings

69

Red Blood Cell

Mosquito Interior - Piping

Mosquito Interior - Piping

70

Specular Maps

Gametes

71

Blood essel Wall

Mosquito Interior - Piping

Mosquito - Wings

72

Mosquito - Legs and proboscis

73

Mosquito - Body

Red Blood Cell - Apeture

Mosquito Interior - Apeture

74

Rendering Tests

75

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