Originally planned as a classroom tool, Inner Life takes the viewer through many of the inner workings of a leukocyte (or white blood cell) showing many of the cellular structures and organelles along the way. I spent about a year and a half creating about eight and a half minutes of animation under the guidance of Dr. Robert Lue and Dr. Alain Viel. As the footage was rendered, we started to get a feeling that this was something special.

When it was finished, I thought that the visuals could stand on their own to show the wonder of the cellular landscape, even without labels or explanation. So I made the three minute edit, and asked Matt Berky (Massive Productions) to set it to music. I submitted it to the 2006 Siggraph Computer Animation Festival, where it was shown in the Electronic Theater.

It ended up on Youtube… And took on a life of its own.

~ John Liebler