John-Scott Project: Scott Portion

After some much needed rest and vacationing, I can now get back to showing my projects at the end of the semester. Ha ha! When I say much needed rest, I mean it. This little beauty kept me up nights before it was due, especially the night before. This is a 3D rendered illustration depicting nutrient absorption in the small intestine via thousands of villi in the intestinal lumen. The yellow spheres represent fat globules and lipids and the magenta represent both carbohydrate and amino acids (building blocks of proteins).

A few of my fellow students and I had a party that lasted all night; all of us working and helping each other. The project was due at 9 am and I finally threw in the towel with what I have here at 7:30 am. At that time, I went home, took a shower, and went back to class for the critique. Too bad I noticed too late that the RBCs that I decided to add at the last minute were too small. It will be an easy fix when I want to open up 3D Studio Max again. Mostly it will consist of rendering and compositing the foreground once again. I really liked compositing the different render passes the most, but my lighting pass freaked out and made the image blown-out when the opacity was at 100% in Photoshop. Other than the RBC problem, I am happier with the image than I thought I would be.

3D Studio Max is like math for me. I'm not a fan, but I feel like I have a talent for it. With everything, I just think it needs more practice so I'm not struggling with the program. I will post the revised one when I get the courage to open up the program again! :D Stay tuned for the John portion of the John-Scott Project!

Nutrient Absorption of the Small Intestine. Lindsey Pionek. 3D Studio Max 2009 and Photoshop.

3D Revisitation #4

Sub-surface scattering, also known as SSS, is a mechanism in which light penetrates the surface of a semi-translucent object, is scattered by interacting with the material, and exits the surface at a different point. The light will generally penetrate the surface and be reflected a number of times at irregular angles inside the material, before passing back out of the material at an angle other than the angle it would reflect at had it reflected directly off the surface. Subsurface scattering is important in 3d for giving the ability to render skin, marble, milk, and jade. Have you ever noticed when you put your hand up to a light that it turns reddish? Yep, that's SSS.

This exercise was all about creating realistic skin texture as well as playing around the idea to give objects more depth and realism through a more fleshy appearance. Some people talk and work with this technique frequently and are fantastic with it. Check out this thread to see some great SSS models in the process.

At the moment, I am trying to work more with this technique with my villi for my final 3d assignment of the semester. This will take a lot of tweaking. Wish me luck!

SSS Exercise, Lindsey Pionek, 3D Studio Max 2009.

Revisited #3: Syringe

Here's my syringe with the modeling, textures, and background. Happy with it, but mostly happy it is done! At least for now it is.

Syringe, Lindsey Pionek, 3D Studio Max 2009.

3D Revisitation #2

This time is was the fun RBCs if you can't tell. I guess I didn't realize that we had to put them in a vessel, so I had to go back and work things around again for class. I really wanted to work with depth of field and blur on this piece and it was rather fun after I stopped worrying about the vessel texture too much!

I think I spend too much time on these exercises, but I'm relatively happy with all of them. More to come!

Red Blood Cells in Vessel, Lindsey Pionek, 3D Studio Max 2009.

Hemostat: Revisited

Well here you are ladies and gentleman. You have seen this before, but now you can see what I have really learned through the semester by revisiting the exercise. I would like to come back to this later and snazz it up a even more with a few more tools, but with everything else I have to do at the moment, I think it works for a re-do of an exercise!

Sorry, the posts are going to be short, but frequent this week! Almost done with the semester, yay!

Hemostat, Lindsey Pionek, 3D Studio Max 2009.

Oh Geez....Knees

Well, I apologize for last week and not posting. It was quite the week, but now since it is Spring Break I can catch up a bit. Well this is one of the things that kept my mind busy last week. These knees kept me busy for a couple of weeks and the texturing, though it was fun, it took a long time. A lot of people opted to use already-created texture photographs, which is fine, but I preferred to actually paint the texture maps in Photoshop from scratch. Although there is always room for improvements (which I will do later), I think it is pretty good for my first shot, as well as how busy and stressful this past week was. Not only was I down in the dumps, but there were other assignments to do as well, and work on top of that. Phew! Just another day in my life I guess.

However, there was only one knee, but we had two more concepts to create: the x-ray and that cartoony ink and paint. Meh, the ink and paint was ok, but it was neat to experiment with. My personal favorite is the x-ray rendition that I created. Though another 3D max material map was used, Photoshop was used for the finishing touches. Hmm, I may be starting to like Photoshop more!




Well, that's all I have for now! Check out the knees of a couple of my classmates: Annie, Heidi & Josy.

(Also, I would love to show you my illustration of a TAP block procedure, but I was asked by the anesthesiologist that I collaborated with to wait until his scientific article was published, which will be next month! I will be published at that time as well! You will know when that occurs, trust me.)

Realistic, X-ray, and Ink n' Paint renditions of the knee, Lindsey Pionek, 3Ds Max and Photoshop, Spring 2009.

3D Max Mania!

Everyone in our 3D Max (aka Computer Visualization) class is on the rush to get our instruments completed by critique on Friday. Seriously, everyone is scrambling to obtain their ray-traced reflections and realistic textures on their (hopefully) modeled tools. Our poor professor seemed very tired by the end of class today going from person to person to answer a plethora of questions. Thank goodness I am almost done with my instrument and I'm pretty proud of it. I can't believe how real you can get objects to look! Hope your excited to see the finished product, I know I am!

The syringe above is the one that I modeled previously and was a mini-project coaxing us into the shallow end of the huge pool of texturing. Texturing is all about making things shiny, realistic, have labels, bumpy, whatever you put your mind to. Modeling is the planning and frustrating part as of now and texturing is more experimental and well, more enjoyable to say the least. I know I will go back to it and improve more, but for now, it is suitable to post; it already took me 2 weeks to post this!

You know how it goes, busy, busy, busy but learning so many techniques and programs to benefit our career. It seems like a good deal to me, I still miss having the time/money to go out on the weekends regularily..... missing some of my undergrad experience, but UIC's BVIS program seems like it will be worth it!

"Syringe," Lindsey Pionek, 3D Studio Max.

The Hemostat, as I see it....

Ok, well not really. But it is modeled as one usually sees a hemostat. This project was actually done like a week ago, but I had to tweek it here and there to actually get it so you can't see through its channel box..... it is the section where the two parts hinge together.... I didn't know what it was either at first, its ok. Anyway, there it is. I wanted to play with lighting and texture a little bit more before I showed it here, but being uneducated (or merely touched upon at the moment) in it at all, I felt like a monkey incesantly clicking on the mouse and keyboard with no results for like an hour and a half, so you will just have to wait and see it tranform over time. Plus I have to sleep and work on other things, so I thought it would be ok to let it slide for now. Please don't judge too much; it will get better.

Busy like usual, it was a work day. I learned about printing companies and talked to a rep and he showed me how to make sure all of my files were linked when sending them out. It was really helpful. So many little details, so many little details. I am learning though, that's the best part.

Hemostat models. Lindsey Pionek. 3D Studio Max.

3D Studio Max Updates

Here are my first few renditions of working with 3D Studio Max: RBCs and their SEM texture and the wrapping of a Prilosec box. Both of them will more than likely will be refined more as soon as I have more familiarity of the program. I like how they turned out though. The program is really simple if it works right!

I am working on a syringe, and a reflex hammer right now, and I also finished the modeling of a hemostat, but for some reason, I forgot to save it on my flash drive so I could show it to you! Something to look forward to!

Today was a long Monday with classes all day and I had work to worry about too since my timesheet wasn't received last Friday (you know, if I want to get paid), and I still want to work on my pen and ink assignment tonight.... I may need some chai tea to keep me awake, even though I would prefer chamomile and go to bed.

All in the day of the life of an aspiring medical-based illustrator/designer. :D




Red Blood Cells texured SEM-style and Prilosec 3D models. Lindsey Pionek. 3D Studio Max.

Determination

de·ter·mi·na·tion

Pronunciation:\di-ˌtər-mə-ˈnā-shən\

Function: noun

Date: 14th century

1 a: a judicial decision settling and ending a controversy b: the resolving of a question by argument or reasoning
2archaic : termination
3 a: the act of deciding definitely and firmly ; also : the result of such an act of decision b: firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end determination>
4: a fixing or finding of the position, magnitude, value, or character of something: as a: the act, process, or result of an accurate measurement b: an identification of the taxonomic position of a plant or animal
5 a: the definition of a concept in logic by its essential constituents b: the addition of a differentia to a concept to limit its denotation
6: direction or tendency to a certain end : impulsion
7: the fixation of the destiny of undifferentiated embryonic tissue
From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

The last definition is actually surprising; I didn't know that. Determination: that is what this week has been based on. I have had so much to do: 2 typography projects for Graphic Design, 2 tutorials (and another one by Friday) for Computer Visualization, a traditional inking and digital inking assignment as well as preliminary sketches for Illustration Techniques, and reading for Buisiness Practices. I am almost finished with everything which is good, but I have been working my little tail off to get it all done and done well. I'm assuming this is how it will be for the rest of the semester, but I don't mind being busy too much. Plus I'm going to Milwaukee this weekend to meet in the middle to see my family, so that will be nice, but I won't be doing much school work. This is just how grad school is, but I am learning so much, I love it!

So today we were working in 3D Studio Max and we had to do tutorials for making red blood cells and a syringe. I finished them yesterday, but did some tweaking to make them transparent and more pretty. I think they turned out pretty good, since just before this I made my poor, pitiful rocket. I may have to put the software on my computer though, I think I would do so much more playing and getting to know the program instead of going to the lab all the time. We will see.

Plus, I don't know if any of you actually have noticed (you'll know if you go back a bit), but not much has been going wrong lately other than being overwhelmed with stuff a couple of days ago..... hopefully it stays that way. The only thing that really annoys and frustrates me is when people butt into conversations where they are not involved and finish my sentences when I am fully capable of answering a question presented to ME, not you. Well now that I got that out, nothing else is wrong. :D

RBCs and Syringe in 3D Studio Max. Lindsey Pionek

Better Listen, It's Back to School Time!

Well first day back and I am already overwhelmed! My theory didn't work in the manner that classes wouldn't be that involved today, we jumped right in! My first class of second semester was 3D Model Design with Rosie Seelaus, an anaplastologist that works here at the UIC Medical Center. Her work is very impressive as it helps people that have facial defects have more normal lives. Though the whole 3D art isn't my specialty, I think her job is special in the way that she creates functional art for people that are so appreciative of what she does for them... most of them at least. It must be so rewarding.

Anyway, we have to create an ear, yes an ear, and make it match our partner's other ear. She showed us the process already and we have to do it ourselves sometime this week. Should be interesting. We will see how it goes.

I was just googling ear art to see if there were any interesting images of anaplastology of the ear, but instead, I found some awesome body art. A skull on the antehelix of the ear! I wonder if she would like if I added a tattoo like this one! (courtesy of http://www.foundshit.com/skull-ear-tattoo/)

Later today we had our first class of computer visualization as well. I just found out that we have class on Friday for that.... oh no, I have an obligation to my internship on Fridays....crap. We worked it out though. I will talk more about this class on Friday!