Not To Scale Animates a Spark of Science for Nautilus Magazine

Print and online magazine Nautilus provides a unique point of view on science and its endless connections to our lives. A new addition to the magazine is the 'Spark of Science' series, in which scientists are invited to share their inspirations behind their career paths. For the latest instalment, Nautilus asked Not To Scale New York and Director Colin Hesterly to create an animation to accompany the interview with France A. Cordova, the director of the National Science Foundation of the United States.

“After our publisher, John Steele, interviewed France A. Cordova (head of the National Science Foundation), we wanted to make sure the story would be unique  and exemplary. We approached Not To Scale and Colin with our ideas. They not only got what we were feeling for the visualisation, they gave us much more than we could have imagined! Colin and Not To Scale gave Cordova's story an amazing narrative and animation that also slipped in a history of US space exploration in-between scenes. It's the kind of animation you immediately put on repeat," said Len Small, Art Director - Nautilus.

Using a mesmerising colour palette of cosmic purples, pinks and blues, punctuated with bright whites and bold yellow accents, Colin encapsulates France’s interview in which she details her memories of the first moon landing; wonder at watching a television programme about neutron stars and so on. Innovative compositions and seamless, unexpected transitions add an element of intrigue to the film, reflecting Cordova’s own curiosity, desire to learn and thirst for discovering the unknown. The viewer is gripped throughout and we are left feeling inspired by such dedication to following a dream, and curious to google “neutron star marshmallow”.

"From the very beginning, I knew that completing two minutes of animation within such a short deadline would be extremely difficult. I had to be sparing with  the character animation and spread it around the entire film.  That's where the idea of creating a slow dramatic build throughout her life visually. I really wanted to use that tension to overcome where we may have lacked in the animation," said Colin Hesterly, Director.