Overview
Portfolio / Educational Storytelling/Motion
The challenge: make an unfamiliar scientific topic feel relevant and accessible to a broad audience.
An animated explainer designed to communicate the science of liquid crystals to a general audience. Clear enough to be useful, engaging enough to be widely shared.
Six storyboard panels mapping the narrative arc and scene transitions, with notes describing visual approach and pacing.
When the science required more than the classroom could show, the frame breaks into a full animated diagram.
As the narrative shifts from natural occurrences to technological applications, the entire environment shifts with it. Color palette and shelf patterns change to reflect the new context.
Each type of liquid crystal is introduced through a real-world visual. Smectic, which form layers like soap, appear in soap bubbles filling a sink. Cholesteric, which reflect different wavelengths of light, are shown in a mood ring on the scientist’s hand.
Approach
Inspired by TED-Ed animated explainers, the format was chosen because the topic needed personality as much as clarity. A character-driven narrative in a familiar setting made the science feel approachable without oversimplifying it. All characters, environments, and diagrams were designed from scratch, and the visual style was built to feel engaging for a general audience while remaining accurate enough to earn faculty approval.
Outcome
The video has accumulated 179,000+ views and ranks first on YouTube for “liquid crystals,” outperforming all but five videos on Kent State’s main university channel. More than a decade after it was posted, it continues to drive consistent traffic, proof that content designed for clarity has a longer shelf life than content designed for a moment.