Rendering!

My thesis project is due this Saturday by 9am. I need to have everything complied by Thursday evening, just as a precaution. Currently I am rendering my final autosomes.

My 8-page 11 font, 1" margins, thesis paper was due yesterday.

My postcards for the thesis exhibit have finally arrived in the mail today, and I will deliver them to school tomorrow.

After this deadline, I will aim to resubmit my poster submission to Siggraph late-breaking deadline of May 6th.

Mucus!

Faking mucus without RealFlow Dynamics. I'm currently rendering out 200 frames with an estimated render time of 30 hours.

CFTR - Na+ Build Up

Na+ build up around the closed gated channel of the CFTR cell membrane. (The blue squares are the Na+ molecules.) Now that all the modeling, light texturing, lighting, and animation has been completed, I am ready to start batch rendering out the frames. While those frames batch render, I'm going to fix up the texture on the lungs.

CFTR Cell Camera 2 Rendered Shot

Currently finished with the CFTR cell itself. The red blob is the protein that connects with the CFTR to close the gated channel (the largest object) on the surface of the cell membrane. When the gated channel closes, the cell no longer accepts or releases Na+.

CFTR Cell Model Rigged

I rigged the CFTR Cell Model so that I could animate the cap open and closing.

Rigging Fun- CFTR Cell

CFTR Cell Block Model Progress

Block model is almost done. Next step, texturing, rigging, and lighting. The texture for this sequence will be very flat and have more of a 2d illustrated look to it.

CFTR Cell Block Model Started

Block model for the CFTR cell. Work in progress! Hoping to complete this model from start to end by tonight.

Lungs & Trachea Shader Tests

I'm not much of an organic modeler, but I've completed the lung and trachea models for the medical animation. Here is an image of the shader and texture test that I'm now running. I'm hoping to have this scene animated and rendered by in a few hours.

Red Blood Cells!

Work in progress..

Cells!

Work in progress..

Siggraph Poster

Although my poster submission into the 2009 Siggraph Animation convention was denied today, I received some really great feedback from the review board. I am very thankful for the review comments, and will definitely learn from my mistakes!

My new goal is to resubmit my poster application for the late breaking deadline, which is Wednesday, 6 May 2009. This will come just days after my animation will be completed for my senior thesis gallery showing on the 4th of May.

A few excerpts from my poster review from Siggraph:

1. To have "included an animation" of the work in progress. This 2nd around, I will make sure that I have a movie file included.

2. "An animation like this could potentially be useful as an educational tool. However, the abstract does not describe in detail how the animation was created." This was my mistake. For my next abstract writing, I will make sure that I go into more detail and without grammatical errors.

3. "In general, I think the submission is good, relevant, and interesting to many." This is the most inspirational feedback! Thank you!

4. I also need to address why I used the tools that I did, and why I chose to approach the animation in a realistic way. I will make sure to do this next time!

5. More samples. This should be easy to fix, as I will now have 90% of it completed.

Again, I am really thankful for the feedback.

~I'm Living and Learning :)

Lung Block Model Progress

In the midst of modeling out the lungs. Should be finished texturing and modeling out the trachea tomorrow.

Photoshop Effects: My Chromosome Image

Here's a Photoshopped version of my chromosome image that I rendered yesterday. One of my friends had suggested that I use the burn tool in Photoshop. The result was this:

I then got carried away and created a darker image. I like the effect the darker image has on the chromosomes. I'll go back into Maya and try to create darker, and more stunning chromosomes based on this image.

Maya Texture Ramps

After a few hours in the labs, I finally gave up on the x-ray shaders in Mental Ray and used Maya texture ramp nodes. I've finally rendered out a decent image that I'm happy with for the chromosomes. I'm going to go eat something now... I haven't even had lunch yet and it's almost 4pm!

How to texture chromosomes?

I've just ompleted the block models of the chromosomes. Now I'm trying to figure out how to texture them! Here's a test render. I'll be taking the models into zBrush tonight to add more modeling detail.

Lungs- 3d Block Model Started

Screen Capture of the 3d Lungs Block Model Started:

(3d model is in the middle and multi-coloured)