"Know What You Eat" is 2.5 minute animated film that combines digital drawings and low-poly 3D models to educate viewers about obesity, nutrition, and the risks and preventions of heart disease — created by Max Ingersoll and Sam Ingersoll during the Visualizing Food studio at NuVu.

We were inspired by Thrive, Brendan Brazier’s book about optimal nutrition, health, and fitness, having tried this approach, noticing how much better we felt. We wanted to convey Thrive’s key ideas in a short animation. The key ideas are that the leading cause of death in America, heart disease, is completely preventable through better nutrition and increased physical activity.

The film has two parts: the problem and the solution. The first part links poor nutrition and the lack of exercise as the causes of heart disease using graphic transitions. Here we used data on heart disease from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. After laying out the problem, the background, which was red becomes a more positive blue and a question “What can we do about it?” appears. At this point the film illustrates positive diet and lifestyle changes that can help prevent heart disease.

To achieve a simple and playful look we used a low-poly style for our 3D models. Low-poly(gon) refers to simplified 3-D models which have fewer faces. To create the 3D models we used Autodesk 3DS Max. We usedAdobe After Effects to animate the film.