The Heart of Miami

The clip shown above is an abbreviated version of the final film. The clip is divided into two sections. The upper section of the screen presents a detailed section of the film. The lower part, the thin wide strip, shows the complete aspect ratio of the film as it appears on the video wall installation.

This project was commissioned by Wexford Science & Technology, a BioMed Realty company for the University of Miami. The project consists of a ten screen video wall installation designed to complement a wide range of innovative work being undertaken by engineers, doctors, and research scientists at The University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park. The content of the film includes references to scientific visualizations but this is not the main focus of the work. The film is rather a free form artwork in five main sequences intended as a personal celebration inspired by selected areas of research:

• In The Beginning: references spectroscopy and electromagnetism.
• Genetic Research: with special reference to cardiology.
• The Heart of Miami: geographically locates the Life Sciences Park and its analogy to a beating heart and vital generator powering research and development.
• Branching Life: features analogous links between the vascular tree of the body and complex growth patterns in nature, finishing with references to synthetic cell development.
• Sea of Life: a free form celebration of marine life.

The film was built as a lossless 768 x 13660 pixel resolution motion graphic. It was then split to be presented as one seamless film on a video wall of ten 46 inch LCD monitors installed in a single edge to edge horizontal networked array. The overall width is approximately 35 feet.

Credits

Design and Director: Hugh O'Donnell
Producer: Tina O'Donnell
Lead Animator and Compositor: Akhil Bhatt
3D Media Specialist: Howard Kaplan