The Covid-19 pandemic was a global crash course in science education. To navigate an instantly changed world, we all had to learn. About different types of facemasks. About proper handwashing techniques. But what about the virus itself? The full story of what the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus actually does inside our bodies has never been told. This is that story. We animated the full life cycle of a single SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to explain exactly what happens during an infection. But if there’s one topic that has seen misinformation, it’s the coronavirus. So this life cycle animation has to be reliable. It has to be accurate. It has to be based in science. And that’s why we’ve developed in house procedural workflows in Houdini to animate using actual scientific data. We used knowledge gained from all kinds of different scientific disciplines to uphold a rigorous scientific standard. And where the knowledge was lacking about complex, dynamic biology, we used the power of Houdini alongside a close collaboration with coronavirus experts to recreate most faithfully what the scientific community believes is happening inside the cell during an infection. So by carefully creating a data-driven animation pipeline that incorporated experimental data throughout, we put the coronavirus science front and centre. While captivating a wider audience with the beauty of scientific research, we were finally able to answer that most elusive of questions: what *actually* happens during an infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus?