By analyzing The Cathedral as an animation with implications for genetic architecture and strategies for design-biomimetics, this article argues (with experimental illustrations) for the use of animation in architectural research that is consistent with software visualization and fully capable of contributing to the design-thinking process. Repudiating the use of animation as merely a medium for architectural presentation and affirming the coupling of animation and design-biomimetics, Dollens considers how animation can stimulate and develop architectural ideas, forms, and design through the digital revisualization of natural elements evolving from plants, shells, and skeletons.