The University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine is a centre for education with several different programs under its umbrella - some of which are unknown to undergraduate students who are trying to figure out their next step. The program was looking to increase student awareness about the range of possibilities open to them if they decided to pursue a graduate degree at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine - and thus, increase applications to its programs.
We decided to create an animation to visualize these potential post-graduate paths for prospective students. To bring this to life, we showed the rich graduate experience and myriad potential careers available post-graduation through the eyes of four main characters. We follow these four students from their first day on campus to graduation: along the way we see the unique learning opportunities they have access to, and glimpse some of the potential downstream careers.
Institute of Medical Science:
Make an Impact
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Potential students of University of Toronto’s Institute of Medical Science.
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Storyboarding, illustration, animating, and compositing.
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University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Science
Production, Narration, Sound: MXL Media
Balancing Realism with Boundlessness
We created scenes which feature the University of Toronto's iconic grounds, to root the animation in realism. Settings include King’s College Circle, the Medical Science Building, Convocation Hall, the MaRS Discovery District, and Gerstein Library.
We also designed our characters carefully, to represent the diversity of the university student body.
While it was important for us to ground the visuals in a sense of realism, we also needed to capture the possibility and expansiveness at the heart of the education. These ideas are at the heart of the University of Toronto’s Defy Gravity Campaign, which features the word boundless. We echoed this theme through our visual story-telling in two key ways.
First, we see our four student characters “try on” several different education and career pathways. This story-telling device bridges reality and possibility, the way we all do when we envision our future selves.
Second, we repeatedly use an upward panning camera to transition between scenes. These dramatic camera movements literally echo the themes of boundlessness and defying gravity, and create an expansive environment for the characters.
Thus, through the character vignettes and camera movements we delicately balanced groundedness with boundlessness.
Since the animation was going to be used at university events and recruitment fairs, where prospective students would be looking for takeaway materials, we created small cards with artwork from the animation and a QR code to the Temerty Faculty of Medicine website.
We also selected exports that could be used online on Twitter and Instagram, to support the Temerty Faculty of Medicine social media presence.
Supporting a full campaign
