In the summer of 2021, I got the opportunity to combine my day job (film) and my hobby (game dev) by creating this brain visualization sequence for the film Mission: Joy.
The glass brain in the clip above is an incredible Unity project created by Neuroscape at UCSF to visualize MRI data in real time. It was so much fun to work with.
I was hired by the filmmakers to create a modified version of the glass brain. Instead of taking MRI signals in real time, I programmed it to play back various scenarios as they are being described in the film, so that they synced nicely with the voiceover.
I wrote the animation system and a custom frame renderer from scratch in Unity, but the biggest task was spent finding and cataloging each piece of the brain so that they lit up at the right time. We consulted with a neurologist to ensure that the animations you see are accurate!