Growth Visuals

Now that the timing and content is close enough to being finalised, I have spent some more time polishing the visual style of the cells.

Feedback has shown that the visuals are a bit 'murky' at the moment, and there needs to be more definition - something to make the cells 'pop' and stand out. The cells move in a really unique and interesting manner, so it is important that this is the focus of the viewer (so that all my hard work can be seen!).

My project supervisor suggested I take a look at a DVD in the library by Jeremy Vickery, titled "Practical Light and Colour" (more information here). This DVD discusses the fundamentals of light and colour, and how a better understanding can improve practical work. If anything, it serves as a fresh source of ideas and inspiration, which will hopefully develop my cell aesthetics and drive towards the best outcome possible.

After watching this DVD, I started experimenting with colours and light in Maya, trying to develop something which was much more interesting, less murky, and had more focus on what I wanted the viewer to see.

Below are two renders; the first showing a still from Growth before this DVD/experimentation, and the second showing a new version, which uses entirely new lighting, colours and Maya shaders to give a different style completely.

I have yet to test this new style on an animated sequence, but I definately prefer the clarity that this updated version offers. The cells have significantly more contrast (against the background) and are less flat - by adding an edge glow, they really draw the viewer's attention.

Going To The Cinema

This morning, I stumbled across a fantastic website, called Molecular Movies. It describes itself as a 'portal to cell and molecular animation' and aims to provide scientists with tutorials on developing 3D visualisation skills.

Alongside tutorials, the website has a showcase section, with examples of 3D being used to visualise complex biological scenes - although these are interesting to watch, the scientific content is a bit beyond my own knowledge. Fortunately (and more importantly), it is useful to have a 'database' of the kind of work that is going on in my field.

Returning to the learning resources, I realised I had already covered the majority of content, as it was designed for those new to using 3D. That is, until I found an interesting article on using metaballs to create molecular surfaces, using Cinema 4D. Although I was not familiar with using C4D, I decided it was worth looking at it, as it was going to less technically challenging than learning Houdini (which is also reliant on Python), and should give a similar result.

Creating metaballs in C4D was fairly straight forward, and gave great results with very little input. It took a bit of time to figure out how to animate objects, and then render a scene, but after using the software, I would definately be confident using it again. The geometry was also significantly 'cheaper' than my testing in RealFlow, and could be used on a large scale. A video example of metaballs in action can be seen below;

The next step was to take my cell data-set and use metaballs to create a single organic structure - this proved substantially more difficult. Realising that I couldn't simply 'read' my data, as C4D also relies on Python, I opted to export both OBJ and FBX files from Maya, hoping that at least one would work.

These imported easily, and a metaball surface could be applied, but did not work properly (simply creating one large sphere). After vast amounts of experimentation, I scaled the imported objects... and success! A simple fix for what seemed like a complicated problem. This breakthrough meant that I could now take objects into Cinema 4D, use metaballs to create a surface, and either render, or export to Maya for render (as I am more familiar with the software package).

The only difficulty now, is that this workflow currently only works on single frames, and can't be applied to my animated data-set... this is the next problem to solve! A render of the results so far can be seen below (showing a before/after comparison);

After my previous post, I felt like I had reached a brick wall, but after discovering the Molecular Movies website, it has helped me hurdle these difficulties... only to find a new hurdle waiting on the other side!

Inspiration 1 : Cell Visualisation

In collaboration with the University mathematics division, I am working on cell visualisation - starting off with mathematically generated data, I am importing this into Maya and defining the aesthetics of the scene, making the data more accessible and visually exciting.

Alongside my own work, I have found some examples of cell visualisation that I am particularly interested in. The first of these is a clip called "The Inner Life of the Cell", created in 2006 for Harvard biology students, by a company called BioVisions. Although this animated sequence looks dated, compared to today's standards, the content (and it's importance) are still just as relevant today. A tremendous amount of effort was put into to this project, and those working on it were constantly aware of the relationship between the quality of the visuals and the accuracy of the data. One criticism I would make, is that the scenes are often very 'busy' and feature lots of moving items and lots of different colours. Although this means there is more to look at, it can also make the shots somewhat confusing, as there is no clear focus. "The Inner Life of the Cell" can be seen below;

BioVisions have also continued working on molecular animations, with their latest video titled "Powering the Cell: Mitochondria" (a clip can be viewed here). This video is a significant update to the other one above, primarily thanks to the improvements in technology over the last four years. Although the concept is the same, the video has been output in high-defination, and this is definately a noticeable improvement. The visual style has also 'quietened' down somewhat, and is much more pleasing to the eye, as can be seen in the image below;

Moving away from this type of visualisation, I am particularly fond of "Nature by Numbers" created by Cristobal Vila. This is an expertly created piece of work, and focuses on how nature is driven by mathematics (at it's core). The content is of excellent quality, and there are segments where it appears that some sort of dynamics system has been used to drive the animation - something I am currently developing skills in. The overall look of the video has a very polished feel, something I would certainly hope to achieve by the end of my MSc programme! The video can be seen, in all it's high-definition glory, below;

After looking at other examples of work out there, it is clear to see that there is a great deal of importance placed on both the quality/accuracy of the data, and the appeal of the visuals. Trying to find this balance however, can pose difficult, and it is important for an artist to find an individual style which suits them. As mentioned in a previous post, this reinforces the importance of experimention - practice makes perfect.