Making a TED-Ed Lesson: Synesthesia and playing cards

In this short video,

we're going to show you how we used animation

to make custom playing cards to do magical tricks

in TED-Ed's Lesson on synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition

in which two or more senses are paired together

to create a completely new experience.

For example, many synesthetes see letters

and numbers in colors,

even when they are printed in black.

Or they can taste certain words.

For instance, jail tastes like bacon.

Because synesthesia generally involves

the brain pairing up two or more senses,

we paired up playing cards

with unique,

colorful,

and visceral symbols.

We then used an animation technique

called stop motion

to manipulate the cards in ways

that would be otherwise physically impossible.

And as the cards were flipping,

shuffling,

and sliding,

we used a mixture of animation and reality

to ensure that the symbols on the cards

did their part to explain the nuances of synesthesia.

This type of animation is very difficult to pull off

without some planning first.

A storyboard is a series of still images

that basically serve as a road map

for an animation from beginning to end.

An animatic is a storyboard in motion.

By making the animatic,

we were able to review the digital motion for each shot,

which allowed us to progressively work out timing,

camera positioning,

and, most importantly,

any challenges we anticipated

in the final animation process.

How many hands do you need to shuffle a deck of cards?

Here, we wanted to emphasize each nucleotide

in the DNA sequence

and stop motion allows for more control.

By shuffling between individual frames,

we could ensure that each card

had a controlled amount of screen time,

in this case, three frames,

and that the card's placement was consistent.

But sometimes four hands just isn't enough.

We use this trick a lot in this lesson,

all thanks to one secret ingredient:

Play-Doh!

By molding the Play-Doh into different sized pyramids,

the cards can be held in different positions,

always keeping the pyramid big enough

to support the card,

but small enough to not be seen

and to not cast its own revealing shadow.

Making an animated movie

is like making a delicious layer cake.

It's up to the animators

to create the many planes, or layers.

The use of green screen

enables us to shoot individual elements moving,

and to later assemble those layers

one on top of the other.

Using software, we key out the green color,

both on the background

and Play-Doh.

Layer the cards,

add the hands,

insert a background,

and if you planned your ingredients carefully,

everything should come together just right.

So, grab some fishing wire,

glue,

masking tape,

chopsticks,

and whatever else you can find.

We'd love to see you make some of your own

animated illusions.