Mudbox Tutorials

Mudbox Tutorials:
Wayne Robson (i.e. DarthWayne)

Wayne has been working in both Zbrush and now Mudbox for a very long time. His tutorials are online and free, and utterly fantastic. I really cannot teach Mudbox nearly to the level that he can, so head over to these sites to check them out. The two 'series' are meant to work in conjunction with one another.

Mudbox "From the Ground Up" series:









Mudbox "Quickstart" series:

Example: "This is a real time viewport capture of my latest work inprogress 'Insectoid'. He only stands at 4 million polys so far."

Travis Vermilye

Travis Vermilye is a talented medical illustrator with a wonderful animation ability.

Bio: He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Medical and Biological Illustration from the University of Michigan and is experienced in multiple areas ranging from 2D traditional illustration to 3D animation and graphics to physical modeling and sculpture. In addition, he has worked with Medical Modeling LLC in Golden Colorado creating company websites, illustrations and photography as well as research and development of new medical products and devices. He has been involved in the creation of anatomical models, illustrations and animations derived from medical image data for the surgical planning of more than 20 cases of conjoined twins. His work has been shown on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline NBC and Discovery Health as well as international magazines, e-zines and publications. He is a Professional Member of The The Association of Medical Illustrators. He is also involved with local museums such as The Denver Museum of Nature and Science via donated work and illustration.


Demo Reel: click here for higher quality



Image Examples:


website

OsiriX Tutorial

Okay, as I was finishing up an assignment in OsiriX, I discovered this nifty shading control. So, as I went through it, I decided that others needed to know about this. In my own little world, no one else knew about this, so I wrote a tutorial. So, here comes OsiriX tutorial the second.

OsiriX: The Shading Menu

This covers, as it states, the shading menu within OsiriX. It is a set of very 3D-esque controls that influence the ambient, diffuse, and specular settings of your data set. Basically, it allows you to give your renders just a little bit more polish.

Bassett Collections

Well, the Bassett collection of images has been re-released. For everyone that has no idea what the heck that means, take a look at some of these images. Not only has eHuman and Dr. Brown put up the slides that were taken by Dr. Bassett, but annotations as well. Beautiful line drawings made from the still pictures are very informative and really aid in the understanding of the complex anatomy.

The really neat part is that all of these images were actually taken with stereographic cameras and can be viewed in 3D. Obviously, not on your regular, everyday machine - although that could change in the future. In the mean time, these images are fantastic and should be appreciated for the works of art that they are.

Uncanny Valley

Neat article about the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It talks about the process behind the movie, and how it breaks through the Uncanny Valley.

The Beginning of the end for the Uncanny Valley.
Digital Domain reveals its part in Holy Grail of VFX.

Inner Life of a Cell

Okay, here is a set of videos that we can all live to shoot for. Biovisions with Harvard finished this lovely rendition of the Inner Life of a Cell. I love the depth of space accomplished within this video. Also, it's interesting as to when a fade-to-black, a cross-fade, or a zoom is used during the video. Some of the choices I don't necessarily agree with, but how the shots are divided vs. what type of fade used can be intriguing. The lighting used really highlights the area that is in focus, whether by spot-lighting, back-lighting, or a combination of depth of field and a lighting technique.

The long video has a great golgi apparatus - very fluid and floaty. It also has an interesting take on the fusion of the vesicle to cell membrane. Rather than actually showing the fusion, it has a shape change that alludes to the fact that something joined. At one point, vesicles are budding off of a surface as well, but far in the background. What can be really nice, is that something new catches your eye almost every time it is viewed.

It was created in LightWave 3D and Adobe After Effects.

"The idea with this was to make something different, and there was definitely an effort to make it as cinematic as we could.

In some instances, that meant sacrificing literal accuracy for visual effect. “What we did in some cases, with the full support of the Harvard team, was subtly change the way things work,” Liebler says. “The reality is that all that stuff that’s going on in each cell is so tightly packed together that if we were to put every detail into every shot, you wouldn’t be able to see the forest for the trees or know what you were even looking at. One of the most common things we did, then, was to strip it apart and add space where there isn’t really that much space.”

And a shorter, "demo reel," version. (higher quality option)




High Res version with a good article.

Submersible Anamatic

Okay, this is the much anticipated (if anyone - other than Nia - is actually reading this) submersible anamatic. Which translates into "really rough animation." An anamatic is a way to get the basic movements of your story down. So, I knew I needed the crane to lift the sub, for it to move through the water, and then the scene on the floor of the ocean. Some of the movements aren't quite right (such as the fish, some of the crane movements, etc.), but the intent is there.

At this phase, your client can look at what you are producing and really start to cut or add scenes. Hopefully not add, really. It's better to be working from multiple shots and cutting down to what you want. A major difference between movie-making and animation is the editing process. Movies will shoot more than they need and then par it down after it is all said and done. Animation will try and nail down their scenes in the storyboard phase, if not the anamatic phase. Time is most certainly money in animations, usually by the second. So, you really only want to produce your final product.

Movements should be critiqued (i.e. those fish are stilted, try to work in more variety of motion paths; that crane shouldn't jerk like that, it needs a greater feeling of weight). At this point, something that was just in your head is now in a format that other people can give an opinion to. And opinions should be sought after. So, tell me what you think! (and let me know I'm not just talking to myself, cause I do that quite a bit)

First project storyboard

So, this is a really basic storyboard for the first assignment, using the concept of the submarine from last spring. I was really interested in finishing up the "Atlantis" theme, so I extrapolated from there. This story board is, as I said, pretty rough.













So, the sub starts out on ship board. It's lifted off, swung over the side of the ship, then lowered into the water. Cut to it descending with fish and the water getting darker. Finally, it crosses over the landscape to reveal the other submersibles and Atlantis. Animatic coming soon.

Mousetrap

Wow, it's been a while since I thought to actually begin blogging. More than a year, really. Such big hopes...

Well, now I actually have nearly daily things that I am working on, so I should be able to post a couple of times of week. Hopefully.

To kick things off, I thought I would post the first video we did as a homework assignment in the Maya II class I'm in. As a graduate student in a undergrad class, it's has been quite interesting. Mostly, I think I feel old. Which is strange, for I really am not that much older than the students in that class - perhaps it is their expectations and whatnot. In any case, I am thoroughly enjoying the class.




This was built using the dynamics system in Maya. Utilizing constraints, gravity, active and passive rigid bodies, and so forth, this animation took shape. The task of not actually animating anything, but allowing the physics system to work it out instead was quite the chore. I ended up baking everything in at the end of the animation and editing a few keys, so the render ran more smoothly, and didn't take 15 years. The textures are just things I threw on the objects in a few seconds. Literally. Even the objects themselves are highly simplified in hopes of speeding the physics engine up as it worked in real time.

In any case, I actually am posting now. What joy.

First Post

This is where I may begin to post information dealing with medical illustration, scientific issues, and how they impact the animation field.