Gastric Digestion

This title explains the anatomy and digestive functions of the stomach and is targeted at early teens. This title also uses character animation, this time in the form of a talking 3D stomach, whose shape however is anatomically correct.
 

Interactive exploration of the stomach

This screenshot to the left shows Billy Belly while pronouncing one of his own stomach parts. This is part of the anatomy pages which teach the names and location of the various sections of the stomach and give a brief description of their function. Through the 3D model, the spatial sectioning of the stomach immediately becomes obvious and the interactive pronunciations create an associative link to their Latin names.

Documentary explanation of retropulsion

A documentary style voice-over is used to explain the process of retropulsion. An animating 3D cross section is used to demonstrate biologically accurate stomach contractions during the phases of the digestion cycle. Within the animating stomach several ‘food chunks’ are shown which illustrate the flow patterns generated and the resulting breaking-up of these chunks during retropulsion.

Multiple character material

The Gastric Digestion title uses a second character, Eugene, a resident skeleton. In one example Billy the Belly goes through all his muscular contractions (peristalsis, motility) much like a gym exercise routine, whilst Eugene is watching intently, remembering himself in the good old days and dreaming of reanimation. These animations reinforce concepts explained in previous sections or provide hooks to material in following chapters.