Biomedical Visuals

Most people in the field have an advanced degree so knowing what skills and knowledge those programs look for is a great base to use when figuring out where you want to do your undergraduate work. And while each school will give you the basic skill set you need to be a medical illustrator, each is very different in their structure and the techniques they'll teach you. This is just kinda general stuff, but if you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to answer. :)

And I'm working on a piece for that Nicolas Cage Art Show, so you know that might show up here too haha.

http://www.redillustration.com

Just a quick update to announce that I graduated last week! Woohoo! I'm the gal on the far right, feeling great and trying to stay composed despite the terrific wind along with some of my fellow graduates. Yay!

This weekend I made a quick practice test animating some red and white blood cells within a vessel. 3Ds Max, Zbrush and After Effects.

This is the final version of my illustration showing the spread of the rabies virus from the bite to the brain. The rabies virus enters the nervous system at the neuromuscular junction, and then travels to the central nervous system via the peripheral nerves.

A few shots from the animation I have been working on about the connection between asbestos and malignant pleural mesothelioma. This is still very much a work in progress, but I hope to share the entire animation soon!

This was a really fun texture excersize, and I learned a lot about ZBrush just by participating.

Final render of my HIV in Blood Serum assignment, using the AutoPack plugin for 3Ds Max. Wish I could say more, but I've gotta get back to work on this semester's big animation! 

I've continued to play around with the Autopack recipe for HIV. Mostly I've been working on technical issues like moving multiple objects between 3Ds Max and Zbrush. I've also been trying out some new techniques to aid in the post production process. While working on the kinks, I figured I should just finish it up and share. I think I've worked through most of the issues I'll need to keep in mind and can finally get the final composition ready.

This is one of the spike proteins, with the sugars attached to it removed. It's polycount has been lowered and the surface has been smoothed. The colors for now are temporary, and were mostly there so I could see how they would look being exported from Zbrush.

Here are the two pieces I put into the show. I was looking to create somewhat ambiguous figures, mixing masculine and feminine, life and death, the grotesque and the beautiful. I'd like to do more in this series, and look for my Etsy shop to open soon for prints and other goodies!!

One fun project we did at the end of the semester involved a little character design in ZBrush! Part of the assignment was to show some kind of anatomy unique to the character, so I decided that this mischievous satyr would be zapped by Zeus!

Well, I think it's time to take a little break from the surgical sketches, don't you? I attended a mandibular osteotomy last week, but I thought it might be better to show you guys something else today. Here's the finalized heart model I've been sculpting in ZBrush for the past couple of weeks! I probably started over on this dozens of times, but I'm finally happy with the result! Learning ZBrush has been a challenge, but the possibilities with this program are endless and I can't wait to learn more.

Give it a look and a like! It's going to be a good combination of my medical work and the persoanl art that I do in between the assignments, so I hope to update it pretty regularly. It's still brand new and a little empty but that should change soon!

I’m going back to the OR a few more times over the summer semester and I’m really looking forward to it! I felt like this first day was a great preparation for future visits and I hope to create cleaner sketches next time.