Anatomy and Art

So, I’ve been doing a lot of work in Cinema 4D at the new job lately (with Sapling Learning), and most recently that’s been getting to make bugs and make them fly.  Basically we’re animating a classic genetics example with different colored bugs, and what this has meant for me is that I’ve been able to make one of the more complex models I’ve done to date with this program in making my little bug to begin with, and then I’ve also been able to get into joints and IK rigging with the program.  This was something I’d done once before in 3DsMax, but not really had a lot of experience with.  The main thing I wanted the joints for was the flapping of his wings, but by giving him a spine I was able to turn his head and body a little as well and the little guy that much more life.

I had some difficulty for a while with getting the joints to work correctly.  I wasn’t able to use any of the templates, so in the end I just used the joint tool and ctrl-clicked my way through the construction of wings.  You then go through and place the IK chains which will define how your object moves as a whole.  Cinema 4D will automatically assign your object a skin tag which will allow you to get more natural looking movements.  To set up the wings I used a linked symmetry in modeling the joints.  It was great for modeling, and for recording the keyframed animation of the wings flapping, but that later proved problematic when I tried to move my bug around the scene.

What you’re seeing there is my poor little bug’s right wing being pulled off as he moves away from the Z axis in an attempt to keep that linked symmetry across that axis.  Naturally I was convinced that I’d made a huge mistake and there was no getting out of it without undoing at least a day’s work.  But it wasn’t the case.  As it turns out, when you select the individual joints themselves that are doing the mirrored symmetry, you find a tab that allows you to adjust that symmetry.  And because my model had a spine, I was able to change the symmetry from world to object and select a joint in the spine as that object.  So I didn’t loose my joint structure, or even my keyframing of the flapping.

Being free to roam a 3D world again, I was able to make copies of my bugs and draw splines for them to fly along.  In the end it all looks and feels a little like designing a roller coaster.

It’s strange, modeling in so many layers.  Conceptually I sometimes have difficulty getting my head around moving the skeleton and taking the bug with it, vs moving the geometry, or the hypernurb or skin itself.   It’s easy to get confused (well, it is for me anyways).  But I have to say that I think there is something to all these rumors of Cinema 4D being more intuitive than other competing programs.  Sometimes things just work.

Oh, and one last note for all the rookies out there like me…  My art director suggested a couple changes, one of which was giving my bugs some eyes when she saw what I had going.  So I did, but had a little trouble with them falling right back out of my bug’s head when they would fly.  There was no binding or boolean that was quite going to get me around this.  But having that spine in place saved me again.  I made the eyes a child of the last joint that controlled the head’s movement and that did the trick perfectly.

I’m pretty well on to After Effects with it all at this point (time to make it pretty, and also bring the focus back to making it a clear and understandable example of the principles it was created to display in the first place), but I just wanted to get a few notes down here as to process and getting unstuck as problems come up.  I’m finding that whether or not any of you readers are using this blog to work your way out of tricky spots in animating, I seem to be coming back to it to remind myself of things more and more.

I keep meaning to update here and not getting around to it.  Actually I should have some images to share soon.  I think the okay got lost amidst the people who would say yay or nay to putting company work up on a private blog, but Sapling seems to be pretty open to that kind of thing in general.

I’m actually still really digging the crew we’ve got going over there.  They’re a refreshingly nice blend of being ready to put the money, time, and effort into getting the art right, but then also they haven’t lost sight of the educational goal in chasing all the pretty, flashy, possibilities.  That may sound just plain reasonable, but it’s really not a balance I’ve seen very many strike.  We even took a little time the other day to gather together and watch a presentation on illusions, and how visual aids can fail to make content clearer sometimes.  The speaker (who’s name I apologize for forgetting), had done some previous work recording eye movements as subjects looked at various illustrations.  I can’t tell you how much I would love to have such a device.  He seemed to think that no one had any kind of sense of how the eye is drawn around an illustration, but I remember back in my early college photography days being taught to close your eyes, or look away for a moment and then flash your image in front of your face, and pay attention to where your eyes land first, and where they are pulled from there.  It’s not as scientific as when you get actual recordings on the eye movements themselves, but I couldn’t help wondering if being taught to do that so early on hasn’t affected the way I construct artwork today.  Really, I suppose there is a bit of a cross-over between journalism and education with regard to art.  I guess I never thought about it before.  It’s all art that’s meant to express something external to the artist, and give the viewer information.  And you have the same choices to make about being flashy and eye-grabbing, being clear and informing, what details to include, what to leave out, the possibility of being misleading….  I don’t know why I never thought to compare the two fields before.

Well, that’s a whole tangent that could have been explored in it’s own post.  If only I had the time to rewrite, but your writer is a tired girl tonight.  My point in starting that whole story was simply that I’m enjoying working for people who really think about that kind of stuff, people who would take a break in the day to watch someone speak on illusions, visual misinformation, and how all that applies to learning.

I recently stumbled across this really nice interactive chart put up by the Washington Post. It compares the costs of medical care across The United States, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, France, India, Chile, Canada, and Argentina.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/business/high-cost-of-medical-procedures-in-the-us/

This is a huge problem in our country, and our costs just seem to keep elevating.  I personally believe that this has a lot to do with our insurance system getting in the way and getting their cut directly from both the patients and also the practitioners and hospitals offering service.  Everyone has to be insured, and insurance claims often have to be argued, sometimes in the courts.  As someone who has spent a lot of years being uninsured, I can tell you that you find some clinics that will charge you less for not having to go through the hassle of getting paid from an insurance company, and others that will charge you double to try and make up for all the underpaid bills that are left when insurance companies pay under cost for services.  It’s a troubled system at best.  That being said, I just made my first medical appointment with a major medical insurance card tonight, and it’s a relief to have it.  I can see why those who do feel covered are afraid to give that up.  So, I’m not sure where we as a nation go from here.  But hey, Wilson Andrews has put together a really nice informative chart that at least lets us begin to see what we are paying from a relative standpoint.

So, last Friday, I had a little time in the morning to watch a tutorial.  My co-worker, Alex, had recommended this one, and she was right.  For those of you learning Cinema 4D like I am, this tutorial not only gets into UVW painting and pelt mapping, but is also a really great modeling tutorial.

So, I’m telling her how great this is, and she tells me that Greyscale Gorilla (the company that puts these out) is appearing that very night at a Cinema 4D/ live music event (SXSW, really brings all kinds of events out of the woodwork here in Austin.)

So I went, and it was a really good event. When I got there, a man named Nick (and unfortunately I can’t remember his last name) taught us a bit about using Cinema 4D’s cloner and animating spheres along a spline. I definitely learned a few things from that talk. And then the next speaker was a man named David Lewandowski who spoke about his use of Cinema 4D in a new music video. His talk was fun because it was the first time I’d seen anyone integrating this stuff into actual video to do special effects. And what really caught my attention was the 3D scanning software he was using to capture the actors’ faces into his 3D software and integrate it within the video.

Back when I was training with the craniofacial clinic at UIC, there was a lot of attention to 3DMD and working with CT and MRI data to get 3D data for both surgical planning and also facial prosthetic development. I have spoken with various anaplastologists over the last few years about this as well. So when this guy gets up and talks about how he pulled together this video on a shoestring budget and paid about $50 for some Russian software that he used to upload photos of the actors (all taken from the same camera), and got these seemingly accurate 3D models out of them, I had to ask him about it later.

He told me that the software was called Agisoft Photoscan, and that there is also an Autodesk product currently in beta testing called Photofly. The friend I brought with me to the event told me that some people are even hacking into their XBox 360 gaming consoles and managing to capture 3D data through the technology already present in those machines as well. I find all of this to be very exciting from the perspective of what potential it brings to a field like anaplastology where you have a strong need for accurate 3D information about patients, but not always the financial structure to afford the latest and greatest technology at every turn. This also opens the door to better international consultation. If all one needs on the spot is a decent camera and an internet connection, then better information can be sent overseas allowing for better preparation before a patient makes the trip in person. Possibly, you could even come up with a good temporary piece for someone to wear in the interim while they are waiting on their final prosthesis to be made.

I leave you with this short YouTube clip of someone playing with Agisoft’s software to capture movement.

And I’d better get going because there is another one of these little 3D get together’s tonight!

Last night I was presented with an interesting opportunity.  I was asked to participate in an art installation out at Flipside (Texas’s primary regional burn event) called The Gallery of Dreams.  To participate I would create an art project, most likely a painting, but it could really be anything, and agree never to photograph it, to leave it for people to experience for the week of the event, and then to let it burn at the end of the event, along with the whole gallery.  It is not a primary focus of mine, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for temporary art.

Lately, I have been getting to know Cinema 4D.  And I think that I am finally starting to make some progress with it.  The other day I decided to model a DNA strand.  This is actually a pretty simple modeling design.  To do it, I used a cloner on a slightly flattened cylinder and then used larger flattened cylinders on either side, like a ladder.  The whole thing was placed under a null named DNA and then I applied the twist modifier to it.

From there, I’ve been poking around learning to render out of the program.  I’m familiar with the idea of rendering in passes from my previous work with both 3DsMax and also Maya.  I’m still getting the hang of the new system of doing things, but I think I’m going to like working with this program in the long run.

So here is the DNA I made yesterday.

And then today, I started animating the models, and playing with some moving particles in the background, so hopefully soon I’ll have an animated piece to share from this!

It’s funny.  I had the pleasure of attending the Austin City Limits taping of Radiohead last night (and I swear I’m going somewhere with this and not just saying that to brag).  As I watched them play, I couldn’t get over how well rounded of musicians they were.  Back when I first started listening to them, I’d thought that they wouldn’t be a very good show live because I thought that most of what they did happened in a computer.  They are so technically proficient, and they use such a variety of instruments, they couldn’t possibly actually play all of those instruments live on stage, could they?  Oh yeah, they can and do.  And while I’m watching this, I’m thinking about the level that some artists hit where tools/instruments… they are just exactly that.  We spend so much time trying to learn to use these tools, to master them.  But for everything that comes with that, it’s what we want to do with that expertise that really matters.  I want to be the kind of artist who can use a multitude of tools.  I want to be the kind of artist who can pick up a new tool for the purposes of particular piece.  I want to reach that.

One of the things that has been so nice about working at Sapling Learning, is the sheer variety of what I get to do from one day to the next.  And as frustrating as it can be, having to switch tools when you know something else better, I love that feeling that comes when you start to get a handle on a variety of tools.  The focus, it shifts back onto your message again, where it was back before you knew how to do anything, only now you can get it out.

Anyway, I’m not quite there yet.  But I’m working on it.  Getting to work with a variety of subject matters really suits me too.  For all the times I’ve been told that this trait makes me unmarketable as an artist, I’m finding that it does serve me well in other respects.  Get ready, I may be on the verge of breaking out the paints here in Austin soon!

So, as much as I’ve been enjoying the new job lately, I have missed getting my hands into some sculpting.  So, a little while back, I sat down to play with some Super Sculpey.  Typically, skulls are my go to practice piece.  But there is this guy who works at my company, that really loves Chewbacca. I also got that song stuck in my head, the one by Supernova that goes “Chewbacca, what a wookie!.”  I never get to sculpt hair.  Skulls don’t have hair.  But this time, I got to break out the Zylenol, and play with hair.

He started off all crazy looking.

But I just kept adding to him.

And baking when I liked something and adding a little more.  I even managed to work in little highlights using the way the Sculpey darkens with more time in the oven to a color advantage.

And yeah, I had fun with this one.  And the guy at work really liked it.

Hmmm, what to make next…

I just liked this, and I wanted to post it here.

It comes from a series called What the Duck, posted here.
http://www.whattheduck.net/

Oh, how beautiful is this?!

Brian Dettmer, out of Atlanta Georgia is making quite a name for himself.  Eugene of My Modern Met calls him the book surgeon, in his piece here…
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/the-book-surgeon-15-pieces

That’s because he is literally dissecting these books “with knives, tweezers, and surgical tools.”  And the results are awesome!

He doesn’t always choose to use medial books, but you have to admit that it really does go well with the whole surgical/dissection theme.  I noticed on his website, a skeleton made of old cassette tapes as well.  Those of you who read this blog often know how I love skeletons, and particularly skulls so you have to know how much I love that someone did this.

The artist statement on his website speaks of how we are loosing our physical forms of information as digital technology takes over.  I highly advise stopping over there and taking a look at more of his work.  It is beautiful.  And Brian is clearly an artist who has taken the time to master his craft.  What a fun find.

Today I got to be the voice of science! Really, I did. It was my first time working from home with the new job, and I spent a good portion of my day tucked away inside my closet with my laptop and microphone, recording narration for a couple of scientific animations that we’re making.  The closet tip, I got from a friend, Tano, back in California who does great voice work.  You might remember him as the voice of my jaw surgery animation.  And sure enough, when the world won’t be silent for you, sound barriers are your friend.  I guess those Chicago coats aren’t going to waste here in Texas after all.

I’ve also been getting to do a little medical illustration this week.  I’ve really been enjoying that.  My very first assignment, and what do they ask me for, but a nephron.  I think the nephron may have been the first piece of anatomical art that I picked for myself back in school.

I chose it at the time because one of my good friends has kidney problems and I was thinking of him.  I guess it was sort of a totem to the functional unit of the kidney, a kind of wish for kidney function, or something like that.  It’s one of the only things I’ve ever gotten to really work through in pen & ink too.  That’s a fun medium.  Anyway, I was pleased to get to jump into such familiar territory for my first medical still illustration in a while.  The illustration I’m doing for them is different enough though, that it still feels like a totally new piece.

I’m also working on another illustration with a lot of cells.  It’s funny, I’ve spent so much time modeling cells in 3D that it feels strange coming back to them in 2D again.  I’ll have to see what my new employers think of maybe posting some of that.  It would be neat to keep sharing this sort of stuff here.

Well I am off to bed now.  Too much computer time makes me a dull girl I’m afraid.  As always, thanks for reading.