GIST

Piercing and demolishing tumors is a sensitive and often dangerous medical procedure. Originally conceived from a still key visual by Toronto agency Klick Inc., in this animated film for Quinlock (advanced medicine hindering GIST or gastro-intestinal tumors), Trizz director Oriol Puig developed an entirely new set of visually dynamic breakthroughs with cinematic quality animation, visual effects and sound design.

The story depicts a single pill with the power of a bullet, one that literally bursts the GIST tumor into bits which thankfully, the human body can flush away. GIST is a disease that is partially remedied by Quinlock’s medicine and used to break down intestinal tumors that are not malignant upon destruction.

The fully animated design visualises how the medicine’s results take effect, specifically aggressive only to the disease and aesthetically readable while clearly demonstrating the effectiveness of Quinlock’s breakthrough product.

Each resulting shot is meticulously designed to display texture, impact and to reveal the essence of what the medicine can achieve. “Having the most realistic references in order to reproduce every nuance in CGI was a top priority”, explains director Oriol Puig, “because we didn't want it to feel like a standard simulation and we required the control to select specific areas as the pill worked its way metaphorically through the core of the disease”.

To get realistic references, multiple explosive recordings were led by Trizz physical special effects master Marcos Diaz (a.k.a. MacGyver). On a closed set and using two inhouse high speed cameras, Marcos provided a series of motion studies of real exploded concrete slabs at various thicknesses. Each slab was moulded and primed with special effects explosives that released an embedded metal hook upon being pierced, which perfectly ripped and demolished the slabs in slow motion.

These tests were edited together and used to brief our CG simulation and destruction FX artists and sound design team. The addition of chromatic VFX flares and color correction were matched back to shot references and providing the cg with its seamlessly organic look and feel.

It’s worth noting that this project was made at Trizz in Barcelona during corona lockdown and fully utilising cloud based review and render tools with our local team and agency clients back in Canada. Proudly, not even the pandemic could stand in the way of Trizz’s producer Simon Bath, who never missed a beat in getting such an important project out the virtual door!