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This AI-generated film, one of five in a series, is a portrayal of the brutal pain of gout and an exposé on the disease’s damaging impact, designed to build empathy and action among physicians.

The film is built from a real patient quote about the harrowing experience of gout—in this case a description of pain like a body part being set on fire. It begins with a person experiencing pain on the outside of their body, then goes deeper to reveal vulnerable inner systems damaged by gout, and finally exposes the true culprit—microscopic uric acid crystals.

A unique artistic style was chosen to portray the patient’s pain. Apocalyptic hypermaximalism illustrated the path of destruction gout leaves behind. A 3D immersive soundtrack and original score fully engulfs the viewer in the emotional world of the film.

Gout isn’t just painful, it’s dangerous if crystals build up in vital organs. However, nephrologists and rheumatologists tend to underestimate the pain and don’t realize the urgency to treat. How could we break through to doctors with emotionally and medically resonant messages on a tight timeline and with almost no budget?

Our objective was to bring to life the content in a way that had never been done before—and do it quickly and inexpensively. Instead of using a traditional animation studio, we leveraged AI to visualize patient quotes and uric acid buildup in organs. We used social listening to find real patient quotes about the visceral pain of gout and paired it with unique art styles to bring this disease, and the patients it impacts, to life with maximum emotional resonance.

The main rendering tool was the open-source Deforum Stable Diffusion notebook on the Google Collaboratory research tool. To accomplish the technical feat of producing the films, we developed a production workflow and in-house team of prompt engineers, machine learning experts, creative technologists, and mathematicians.

Dozens of prompts were engineered to generate 1,000 frames per film, each rendered as an individual image based on a combination of text prompt and previous frame.

Spatial differences in the physical relationship between frames created the appearance of zooms, pans, and XYZ axis rotation, with mathematical functions dictating camera behavior—like a flipbook for the 21st century.

Dozens of parameters were programmed, then frames were rendered, reviewed, revised, and the entire process repeated. Each film required about 50 runs to achieve the final product, which took roughly 2-3 weeks.

The soundtrack was designed second-by-second, with immersive 3D sound bringing to life the film’s visceral nature.

Gout is an extremely painful disease, but many people don’t know that there are also dangerous systemic consequences when crystals build up in vital organs. We needed to speak directly to the doctors who treat gout without making them feel alienated or accused of not understanding their patients’ suffering. Through the films, we can evoke emotion and educate doctors without them having their guard up.

Gout is an extremely painful disease, but many people don’t know that there are also dangerous systemic consequences when crystals build up in vital organs.

With The Outside In Experiment, we sought to visualize both realities for the first time using AI to create five original films.

The films evoke empathy for the pain patients go through. Simultaneously, they speak directly to rheumatologists and nephrologists as they highlight systemic manifestations of the disease that can cause much more harm than they may realize.

Created specifically for rheumatologists and nephrologists who treat uncontrolled gout, the films live on an HCP-facing microsite.

Healthcare/pharmaceutical communications in the United States are governed by the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion.

Since gout is inherently a disease of the kidney and tends to deposit uric acid first in the bones and joints, nephrologists and rheumatologists are the target audience.

The campaign seeks to heighten empathy for the patients who are suffering while, in turn, heightening the urgency to treat the disease.