Cell Cycle illustration posted to SciencePrimer.com

Final version of the cell cycle illustration went live on the main site today.

This illustration has been in development for longer than most. There are five drafts posted on this site plus a few false starts that didn't make it far enough to be shared as drafts.

I knew that animating a cell going through the cycle along with an a pointer moving along the cycle could be informative, but I couldn't figure out how to pull it together without it becoming overwhelming.

This is where I stalled in version 4. The cycle and the cell are there and I knew I was going to add the graph, but lack of control over timing makes it difficult to take in.

Scroll-driven animation turned out to be the answer. It allows the explanatory text to sync up with the animation at a pace controlled by the reader.

I am beginning to understand that the ability for readers to control the pace of complex animations is one of the major benefits of the scrolling approach and am looking forward to developing more content like this for SciencePrimer.

A narrated version is also available on YouTube.