AMI: Toronto, 2012 - Day 1

Day 1 started out with a bang, and we learned that the city we were being hosted in was pronounced 'Tronno,' not 'Toronto.'  Which is obviously very important.

I thought about dividing these posts up into single talks... but I didn't.  The day is posted as a whole.  Some talks I wax eloquently (well, as eloquent as I get) about, and others I just mention briefly.  Obviously, certain ones made more of an impact.  And this isn't designed to report on every talk, but really what I took away from the conference.

The lovely Audra Geras started the conference off with her inspiring keynote speech.  She had a great talk addressing how she has successfully navigated her personal company through these economic ups and downs, as well as how the significant changes with digital technology have affected her company.  She started out the talk with a type of show and tell of her work - fantastic pieces, especially the cellular work.

"Translating the beauty of science and medicine into art."

 
She went on to discuss different business decisions and sound practices.  And offered some tips to stay sane.  I'm just going to cover a few of those she imparted to us:

• Educate your client
• You need an atmosphere of mutual respect and consideration and communication
• NEVER accept work for hire
• Client delays are a fact of life, and carry repercussions to the deadline and/or fees
• Reduced fees requires a sacrifice - not an inferior product, but a simpler one
• Feedback and approvals must reflect the consensus of all key players (within the schedule) - not one at a time
• Changes to art direction or scientific direction are billable - they are not an artist mistake, but a client driven change
• No layered files or animation assets will be shared - they are proprietary and not for sale
• Walk away from a dishonest, unfair, or exploitative clients
• Always offer thanks to your client - we really do appreciate working with them and we exist to make them look good
• Follow-up with your clients to get feedback and grow as a professional

"Much of what we illustrate is overlooked or neglected beauty - we take on the task of making others aware of that beauty.  We engage the soul, not just the intellect.  "

And after her truly inspiring keynote speech, we dove directly into the meat of the talk.  The next distinguished speakers (and the only one that I've observed to receive a standing ovation after their talk) were the awesome Dr. E. O. Wilson and Dr. Gaël McGill, authors of the inspirational iBook, Life on Earth- from molecules to ecosystems.

"Frogs are going extinct all over the world, but I can't get rid of the ones in my throat." - E. O. Wilson

This book is written for high school students in mind, and is planned to be released over the next 2 years with there being 40 chapters in all.  It has been developed hand-in-hand with Apple, although they reported to me that contrary to popular belief they haven't actually received any 'special' iBook widgets.  Their book is obvious a product of very creative and innovative minds.  (I must admit that I had cottoned on to that fact already...)

The biggest take away point that I gleaned from their talk - they have chosen to use graphics not just in support of text, but in place of it.

"These visuals and interactives are designed to change the way students learn, not just be there to adorn the text."  - E. O. Wilson 

Somewhat uniquely, they started their production of media content and manuscript development simultaneously.  This has allowed for the planning phase to incorporate the visuals and text together, just as they promised.  I personally find this to be very exciting, and not just because I'm a medical illustrator.  Well, maybe partly because of that.... But mostly because I know so many students become engaged with things they can see, not just read.  It's a wonderful direction to take, even though it can eat up huge amounts of man hours to develop the content needed.

I found it interesting that they don't actually have many custom widgets.  And they spend a goodly amount of time actually storyboarding out pretty much every widget, from animations to interactions to quizzes to movies to interactive images, etc..  They have used the Keynote widget as the "Swiss army knife" of widgets, incorporating some animation and interactives in that format.  The main interactive widget is the HTML5 widget - although it's not true HTML5, apparently.  Much like Unity3D restricts JavaScript in it's program, Apple restricts HTML5 in the iBook incarnation.  There are definite limits to what iBooks can do with HTML5.  They use the media widget with things other than a straight movie, such as three movies playing simultaneously to show a comparison.  They are obviously thinking outside of the box when it comes to media content production.

 
Real data is used, even though (or perhaps because) the book is geared towards high school students - not just diagrams and overly simplified data.  There has been studies that show students are more engaged when the data they are learning from is real.

While interest and attention of the students increases when they are looking at real data, keeping a level of curriculum restriction can still be a good guideline.  For example, the table of contents was deliberately kept to a very traditional format, since they were introducing so many new elements with the book deliverable.  With this new format, they have found that they need to train the instructor, not just the students.  However, they are currently working with Apple to allow classroom testing even as the book is being developed.

A major concern at this point - many books are funded in advance.  Will publishers fund this type of content creation?  This type of media takes a lot of money to create.  The team needed to create all the types of assets for Life on Earth is huge.  And, as of right now, there is a limit of $14.99 on books in the asset store.  This comes no where near the price you often find on textbooks, which can range from $80 up into the multi-100s of dollars.

This talk was a huge "Oh WOW" moment for me.  I loved listening to them talk about it, as it has been a huge inspiration to me and my coworkers as we develop our own potential iBooks.  Getting to talk to Gaël McGill directly was the icing on the cake, I swear.

The last talk before lunch... Hall Train.

Hall Train - Making the past, present.

Not the talk I was expecting, I must admit.  But a fun and engaging one, nonetheless.  While he spoke of dinosaurs and models and museums, I was listening... completely enthralled.  My coworker was looking up dino movies on her iPad next to me and Hall was showing how he got the baby T-Rex to walk in real live 3D up on the screen.  How he combined computer tech with he models to show things like oxygen uptake on a large scale model, and muscle cut-away with image projection.

He works in an interesting mix of computerized 3D and live 3D- usually with wonderfully complex and anatomically accurate, museum quality models as a result.  Hall made the point that he has had to question - or even correct - the scientists that he was working with, much to their chagrin.  But the accuracy of his models was more important to him than pandering to egos.  It was a refreshing, if slightly dangerous, attitude to here.

And then Jane Hurd, founder of Hurd Studios, stepped up to give us a wonderful Presidential Lunch speech.  I have to say, the AMI didn't waste a lick of time during this conference.


I must admit that I didn't personally hit up every single talk as the afternoon went on.  I went to the "The Life Cycle of Medical Art (and What Will Happen to Yours?)" talk - not quite what I had expected.  There were some (sad) stories told, but not actually applicable to me.  The panel spoke of the need to archive the numerous pieces of wonderful traditional work that have been destroyed or might be destroyed in the future.  Like I said... not really speaking to my type of work, but an interesting talk.

I then went to the talk on "Perioperative Interactive Education - Development of Interactive Online Modules for Teaching Perioperative Medicine General Concurrent" - fascinating.  Cute logo too - PIE.

Their talk concentrated on the overall interactive online learning experience.  They don't actually provide courses, but module that can be used in other's courses, or on an individual basis.  Also, they operate on a free for all basis.  Nice.

They have 5 main sections:

1. 3D anatomical models (their largest section)
• Many of the interactive modules are a combination of C4D and flash, rather than Unity3D.  This allows for a mock interactive experience to take place.
2. Animations of physiology
3. Patient simulations (based upon mathematical models)
4. Virtual Interactive Cases (VIC)
• This is a very dynamic system that simulates an encounter with a patient in a clinical setting while also giving feedback to the user based upon their responses
• Case data can be uploaded by a user to test people within their own organization 
• Powered by an XML database
5. Surgical video atlas
• These videos use 3D models to augment the experience.  Each 3D model is built from the CT scan of the patient from that surgical movie.
• They use the 3D models to call out difficult anatomy and bridge between clips in a cut movie sequence 
• The movies also include an interactive area that include the patient history, DICOM scans, diagnosis, all full surgical videos, and quizzes. 

Thursday evening we went out with other UIC alumni to a nearby pub for good 'ole pub food and wonderful company.  I did end up bugging out a little early, but I had a good time there.  I really enjoyed talking with other graduates about what they are doing, and getting other crazy roommate stories.

A fantastic first day.