Tutorial Videos
3D and 2D Animation
Youtube Video Tutorials:
Teaching and Outreach
I have been creating and posting biomedical animation video tutorials to Youtube for many years. My channel is called 3D Splanchnic (splanchnic is a dated term that refers to the viscera of the abdomen). Most of the tutorials are derived from questions students ask about technical challenges in Maya (or After Effects, to a lesser extent). Some are shared only with my students, but most are public. I have learned a great deal from the generosity of many others online, so I choose to share my own techniques here. Below are a few examples
This is an example showing a common workflow in biomedical animation. It details a rendering and compositing technique that allows objects to appear inside another, without resorting to transparency in the 3D application. Here I use Maya and After Effects, but the concepts are broadly applicable.
Blood flow that shows the particulate elements is a common task in biomedical animation. It represents an approach where "crowds" of objects must be controlled. Rather than animating driectly, we would turn to dynamic or procedural solutions (or both). Here I demonstrate a method using Maya's procedural motion graphics toolset, "Mash".
3D animation requires technical creativity in addition to creative approaches to communication and aesthetics. Here I show a method for using a new tool in Maya called "Bifrost Graph" to build a tool that will help users to create organic objects. Maya does not give up its secrets easily, but with some thought it can be made to do incredible things! Here I detail a "volume building" tool that allows objects to merge together.