Myelination of the CNS

Full Animation

Myelination of the Central Nervous System

This animation describes the myelination process of the central nervous system by oligodendrocytes – specialized cells in the CNS that produce myelin.

ROLE

Project Lead: Responsible for scientific content development, storyboarding, 3D asset creation, animation, rendering, and post-production compositing

AUDIENCE

Undergraduate biology students

YEAR

2025

MEDIA

Cinema 4D, Maxon Redshift, Adobe After Effects

ANIMATION STILLS

Still images of key moments from the full length animation

Oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells of the CNS

Regions involved in myelination on oligiodendritic processes

Lateral edge movement in oligodendrocyte myelination

Cytoplasmic channels transport materials to the edges of the growing myelin sheath

STORYBOARDS & SCRIPT

I developed a concise script outlining the most important components of CNS myelination, focusing on the function and activity of the oligodendrocytes. Storyboards and a subsequent animatic allowed me to further organize the information and consider the timing and number of different scenes I would need to develop, as well as where I could reuse different assets.

Stills from animated storyboard with timestamps and scene number

TEST RENDERS

Viewport animations to test the timing and effectiveness of different scenes in the final

Preview to check timing and clarity of cytoplasmic channel and camera movement

I used a combination of spline wraps, bend deformers and fields to create myelin wrapping that was thickest at the leading edge and expanded from the innermost ring out to the lateral border of the myelin internode