Immersive Enterprise Laboratories has released The Science of Animation, a short documentary that revisits the studio’s popular live animation experiment at San Diego’s Fleet Science Center and reflects on what happened when animation production was moved into a public space.
The film was shot during a weekend pop-up installation that turned part of the science museum into a functioning animation workspace. Instead of presenting a finished short or a behind-the-scenes reel, the project invited visitors to observe and participate in animation as it was being made. Story development, performance capture, and environment building all took place at the same time, in the same space.
“This exhibit proved that the animation process itself can change,” said IEL co-founder Blake Baxter. “We’re not just trying to make the traditional pipeline faster. We’re asking, what happens when story, character, and world evolve together in the same space at the same time? When creators can experience their ideas immediately, the creative ceiling expands. You’re no longer waiting. You’re building living systems.”
The installation relied on real-time tools such as motion capture, virtual cameras, and game-engine environments. Visitors were able to scan physical materials, contribute performances, and see those inputs appear almost immediately inside digital scenes.
“For decades, animation has been built around delay and separation,” said fellow IEL co-founder Daniel Urbach. “You animate, then you light, then you render, then you review. We wanted to show that those boundaries are not required.”
An original character named Ruby served as a guide through the experience, explaining each stage of the process as it unfolded. Rather than presenting a finished workflow, The Science of Animation documents an experiment in progress, one that raises broader questions about how animation might be made when the process is opened up and shared.