To represent Eli Lilly’s messaging and narrative, our animation directors and team of artists worked with the agency to develop a world that uses design to reflect the shifts in emotion encountered along the “patient journey”. The narrative disseminated engaging communication relevant to Eli Lilly’s audience, and executed the message using beautiful and challenging design and animation.

Vivid color and a bespoke style of animation and visual effects were used to illustrate the journey of a young woman - to instill the importance of early recognition of symptoms and caring for affected loved ones. As her journey progresses, it’s reflected in the life of the tree around which the story evolves through changes in the color palette, weather patterns and animated elements.

The animated story revolves around the young woman and a tree as it develops, employing continuous rotational camera movements as a representation of time throughout the narrative. The initial paper-inspired look of the piece was paired with a painterly style to enhance the artistic angle behind the messaging, brought to life with a combination of cel animation, 3D elements and seamless compositing.

The simple faces of the film’s characters were designed to let the motion graphics and animation communicate their identities. Their outfits were specifically designed to match their progressing ages and the film’s tone.

The color palette is also essential to the shifting tone communicated throughout the film. These colors were drawn from references of actual forest shots.

The film served as a creative way to communicate Eli Lilly’s long-standing support of Alzheimer’s research and communication of their studies of the “patient journey”. It was shared at a large educational presentation and then shared with attendees, spreading a research-based message of positivity often upstaged by the more harrowing aspects of Alzheimer’s. The piece was able to interpret the findings from an incredibly sensitive and often emotional subject, and beautifully represent its emotion through animation.