Repatha – Meet Steven

3D modeling & animation, motion GFX & compositing, VO, sound design & mix / Agency: Evoke Health

How do you make an MOA video that’s educational and fun? With a cartoon dog of course! Evoke Health came to us with this very challenge for a new drug called Repatha. The goal was to educate and inform viewers about how Repatha works to reduce levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol, in the patient – but in an entertaining and memorable way. The result was Steven, an animated cartoon with a canine sidekick.

We designed Steven, and his dog, to be likeable, relatable, and emotive – embracing a cartoon aesthetic while at the same time avoiding anything childish or silly. The characters and the world they live in were brought to life through a combination of 2D and 3D animation techniques that provided a huge amount of creative freedom and a unique look. Using a toon shader on the 3D elements allowed us to blend everything together seamlessly and keep the fun, playful look the client wanted.

Working in 3D was especially helpful when it came to the MOA itself – visualizing how Repatha interacts with systems in the body to reduce LDL. Drugs like Repatha work on a subcellular level so the representation of particles and structures is purely illustrative, but having the extra 3rd dimension to play with opens up the ability to convey space which is enormously helpful when trying to boil down a complex real-world process in a simple, easy-to-follow way. Showing how things interact with one another in three dimensions tends to lead to a better understanding and firmer grasp of the process because it’s more representative of the world we live in – cartoon characters notwithstanding in this particular case.

In the end we were successful in creating a fun, entertaining, and informative MOA video that stands out from the crowd. And while the story is told through the character of Steven, as always his dog was the one to steal the show.