KITE: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY
Kite is a leader in oncological treatment. In 2022, Kite asked HUSH to create an experiential moment during their participation in the American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference that used storytelling and art to viscerally bring their patients’ journeys with cancer to life.
To address this, HUSH devised an experience that used patients’ voices to generate art. The pitch and tone of their voices triggered custom paint outputs to appear, creating art that reflected the range of emotions that arise during the cancer journey.
I was in charge of developing painted portraits from their photographs, motion design for the patient screens, updating signage designs, and rendering and packaging the final footage for the conference.
MOTION DESIGN, COMPOSITING, IMAGE EDITING
AI PAINTED PORTRAITS
I was brought in in the middle of the project. At this time, unforeseen challenges have caused us to pivot from using photographic portraits of the patients. To counter this, we leveraged AI technology using Runwayml to create painted portraits in their place. Despite this, Runwayml is not powerful enough to create completely accurate and natural portraits from our photographic inputs.
I composited the final portraits together by taking segments from various AI outputs, as well as using Photoshop to correct anomalies (such as 6 fingers on one hand, glassy eyes etc.) and unifying the portrait.
MOTION DESIGN
I updated motion files with new client feedback, voiceovers, rolling subtitles and paint output files. The motion files included 6 patient portraits on 6 screens, as well as an animatic overview for the client, which were being constantly revised based on client notes. Finally, I rendered the final videos and delivered them to the hardware at the convention.
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Below are 3 of the 6 screens. The footage begins at the same time, but the content plays in sequence with one another.
The installation garnered great engagement levels resulting in almost 100 users interacting with the piece, with more than 90 of these visitors completing the entire experience. The installation sparked curiosity among conference attendees to learn more about the patient experience and differentiated their perspective among industry leaders in oncological treatment.
