XVIVO Scientific Animation

XVIVO Scientific Animation (or XVIVO) is an American scientific and medical animation studio based in Hartford, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 2001 by David Bolinsky, former lead medical illustrator at Yale University, and Michael Astrachan.[1] The company is most known for its short film The Inner Life of the Cell, which debuted at the 2006 SIGGRAPH conference in Boston.[2] The project was commissioned by Harvard University’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, which currently holds the rights to the piece.[3]

The Inner Life of the Cell

In 2006, XVIVO released The Inner Life of the Cell, an 8.5 minute 3D computer graphics animation depicting the molecular processes of a white blood cell during leukocyte extravasation. The concepts and scientific knowledge for the film were given by Robert Lue, director of life sciences education, and Alain Viel, director of undergraduate research at Harvard University. The film was commissioned by Robert Lue to become part of the molecular and cellular biology department’s learning program, Bio Visions.[4] XVIVO’s John Liebler was the lead animator for the project. The film took 14 months to complete.[2]

The film has been noted for its cinematic take on science education, and has been described as “the pivotal moment for molecular animation.”[5] In an interview with Bolinsky, he admitted “we didn’t really anticipate that it would go anywhere and when it did it took us all by surprise.”[2] In 2007, Bolinsky delivered a TED talk on the merits of scientific visualization, and showcased an excerpt from Inner Life.[6] Inner Life is the first in a proposed series of shorts for Harvard’s BioVisions. The second installment, titled Powering the Cell: Mitochondria, was released in 2010 and depicts the process of cellular respiration. The third piece, titled Protein Packing, was released in 2014 and depicts the molecular crowding and Brownian motion of proteins within a neuron.[7]

In 2008, XVIVO issued a cease-and-desist letter to the chairman of Premise Media Corporation, Logan Craft, for alleged copyright infringement in the upcoming film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Resource DVDs issued for pre-release promotion displayed several animation sequences that were similar to those from Inner Life. The letter demanded that Premise Media surrender all copies of Inner Life and remove any infringed sequence before movie release.

Premise Media denied infringement and later filed its own lawsuit in the District Court for the Northern District of Texas.[8] Premise claimed that the pre-release footage was different from the final film, and any inspiration drawn from Inner Life constituted fair use due to XVIVO’s choice to make it freely available on the internet. The lawsuits ended with both parties agreeing to dismiss the case.[9]

References
  1. "Inner Life Of Xvivo - Hartford Courant". Articles.courant.com. 2007-08-09. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  2. Kim Zetter (2013-03-28). "Lives of a Cell, the 3-D Version". Wired.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  3. "BioVisions". Multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  4. "Cellular Visions: The Inner Life of a Cell". Studio Daily. 2006-07-20. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  5. Erik Olsen. "Where Cinema and Biology Meet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  6. TED2007. "David Bolinsky: Visualizing the wonder of a living cell | Video on". Ted.com. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  7. Zimmer, Carl. "Watch Proteins do the Jitterbug". NY Times. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  8. "Expelled's Copyright Woes". NCSE. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  9. "EXPELLED/XVIVO Agreement: No Infringement". Reuters. 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
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