2014 | United States | Animation

The Stem Cell's Journey

  • 20 mins
  • Director | Jeff Alu
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Stem cells have the ability to transform into many different cell types, but Stemmy the stem cell possesses a unique gift: he can transform cells around him into duplicates of himself. He is completely unaware of this gift until a special cell, the "Blue Sage" implants the idea in his mind via a dream. But the Blue Sage vanishes before Stemmy can get the hang of it. After an invasion of "Bad Red Cells", It's up to Stemmy to hone his skills on his own in the field before he can put them to good use. And this is just the beginning of the story...

In this short animated adventure, the shy and somewhat "twitchy" Stemmy embarks on a journey that teaches him to calm his nerves and focus on the problems in front of him. With music by Alan Terricciano and Anton Bruckner, the score drives this adventure story, and there is no dialog between the characters.

The animation was created and rendered in 3D Studio MAX. Sequences were then sent to an iPad for further processing, and then sent back to the computer for final compilation and addition of music in Vegas Pro. The entire movie was conceived and created over a five week period using one computer. I consider it to be a work in progress and will most likely make changes to it in the future, and/or create multiple episodes. This is version 1.0.

Special thanks to Alan Terricciano for allowing me to use his beautifully composed and performed music in this film!

This movie was premiered at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, CA, during the "Art of Stem Cells" exhibition, in collaboration with the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of Southern California, Irvine.

VERY special thanks to Professor Aileen Anderson for her inspiring work and for introducing me to the music of Alan Terricciano!

stem cells transformation duplicate
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