Stwert's BMC projects - Page 4 - Simply Maya User Community

# 46 12-05-2012 , 05:15 PM

EduSciVis-er
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Good question Dom. It really depends on what you need to convey. With medical illustration, where light can act in familiar ways (even if internal structures would actually be unlit), the convention is to use an upper left light source.
With cellular and molecular scales there is a lot more artistic license. It would be confusing and pointless to try to simulate physically accurate light (I don't even know if anything would be resolved). So depending on the result you want, people have chosen very diffuse, soft lighting, or rely heavily on AO, or have a glossy, wet, specular look.

For my MRP (master's research project) it is a different story, because light actually takes a critical role in conveying the information. I'm going to be visualizing the use of fiber optics to detect fluorescing neurons in the brain. One of the additional problems central to this research is that light scatters immensely in brain tissue, so it is very difficult to image any "deep" structures (talking mm here). Still have no idea how I'm going to light that animation, but I'm open to ideas.

Another problem with this neuron project is that traditionally people use pulses or flashes of light to represent neurons firing, I'm sure you've seen examples. But, since the tools I'll be visualizing are actually simultaneously measuring electrical signals AND artificially introduced fluorescence, it would be misleading to represent the electrical signals as light. Something I'm puzzling over at the moment.

Long answer, hope that answers some of your questions.

-stwert

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# 47 14-05-2012 , 09:28 AM

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I was talking about the surgical texture bit mate...with the scalpel etc thats cool man. if you cant use light as the signal cant you use something slightly larger than the neuron tube? which is semi transparent...I know SFA man just trying to help.

cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 48 14-05-2012 , 12:59 PM

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Thanks, I was thinking for the neurons firing to have a small shockwave of sorts travelling down the length, not sure if that's what you meant. Also an auditory cue.

-stwert

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# 49 14-05-2012 , 02:47 PM

The Nurb Herd
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interesting cheers man.
I like the glossy wet look that you see with organs sometimes. i think i just like shiny renders. some friends of mine did this recently.
Formula One: At the Heart of F1 (Sky Sports F1 advert) - YouTube
(can't find an HD version, but there is a nice heart at the end)

let me know if there is anything i can help with.

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# 50 28-06-2012 , 07:42 PM

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Here's an update on the journal cover. Worked on the lighting more and fixed some other issues.

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-stwert

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# 51 28-06-2012 , 08:21 PM

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For future stuff if you really want things to sell I recommend buying the GSG (Greyscale Gorilla) light kit pro. It will give exceptional results and you get the spec hits. You can easily produce the same things with luminance planes but his kit kind of speeds up the process...

There is also a plugin named "Solo" which breaks you down to the selected objects mesh. Speeds up the process a fair amount.

Last edited by Chavfister; 28-06-2012 at 08:40 PM.

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# 52 28-06-2012 , 08:53 PM

EduSciVis-er
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Thanks man, there's some really cool stuff on that site. If I was going to be primarily a modeller (in C4D) I would definitely get that set of light kits to sell my models. However, since I have to be more of a generalist, I'd really like to learn fundamental lighting principles and be able to apply them on my own rather than using someone else's setups.

Solo would definitely be helpful. The layer manager has a solo feature, but I found assigning hierarchies to layers to be a real pain.

-stwert

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# 53 29-06-2012 , 05:48 AM

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Just letting you know. It's all good

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# 54 29-06-2012 , 07:56 AM

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cool stuff stwert, nicely done thus far mate.

cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 55 19-09-2012 , 01:45 PM

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Fetal Transposition

Had to look at a single image and draw a 90 degree transposition of it. I opted to use ZBrush to help with the rotation.

Original - ZSphere - Rough sculpt - Final sketch

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-stwert

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# 56 11-12-2012 , 11:25 PM

EduSciVis-er
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MRP Animatic

So it's been a crazy busy semester. I haven't posted many projects, but hopefully I can share some of the stuff I've done. A lot of the work has been pre-production for my Master's Research Project (capitalized cause it's the big project of the 2-year program).

You guys get the very first look at my animatic. Feel special user added image

The visuals and animation are very rough; that's the point of an animatic, as I'm sure you know. But I hope you enjoy it.

Recording the Illuminated Neuron: Animatic 02 on Vimeo

A year and half of the MSc program done and I haven't got my teeth into Maya yet, haha. But come January, I'm in production mode. I'm typing out my shot lists and model sheets and there will be lots of dynamics, as I'm sure you can see.

I'm also building an interactive simulator for the probe in Unity, and a website to house both the animation and interactive. So I'll be plenty busy for the next 6-7 months.

-stwert

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# 57 12-12-2012 , 09:41 AM

The thin red line
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Nice video Stwert looks like you have been bizzy, I will send you over a good old fashoined mouse trap that will get rid of the blitters user added image

.............dave

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# 58 13-12-2012 , 01:46 AM

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Cool stuff stwert....poor animals though LOL.

cheers bullet

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 59 13-12-2012 , 02:13 AM

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Thanks guys! It is and will be a fun project.

It is definitely my goal to present the animals in a sensitive manner. They will be rendered like glass organisms, not photorealistic. Also, it's important to remember that without animal experimentation, assuming proper ethical standards, there would be very few medical advances, particularly in the area of neuroscience. These animals don't experience pain (obviously I don't mean the digital ones). But it's an important consideration to make.

-stwert

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# 60 13-12-2012 , 06:40 AM

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That's a great animatic, very informative and nicely cut together. I especially like the journey of light through the optical fiber and back it's clever. The drawings are charming too, they're rough in a childish way the style is appealing to me.

I can see it's a huge project to bring that into 3D, looks like the render farm will come in handy.

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Fetal Transposition

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