Recent Posts

How to Create Medical Animation Videos (in 8 Steps)

Written by Doc J in Medical Animation

Medical animation videos can be a vital part of private medical practice, hospital training, or student teaching. Since medical animations often depict actions that happen at the microscopic level and beneath the skin, animators have to create medical videos that can clearly explain how unseen medical procedures are performed.

create-medical-animation-1

Medical animation videos are created by choosing software to create the animation, storyboarding, 3D modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering the video, and then bringing everything together in a final composition during video editing. Medical animation videos are useful for depicting complicated medical procedures.

Learning how to create medical animation videos can necessitate a high learning curve, but the final product can go a long way towards legitimizing a medical practice or teaching medical students how to operate. Keep reading to learn more about how to create medical animation videos that will knock the socks off the audience in your next presentation.

Choosing Software for Creating Medical Animation Videos

The first step to creating medical animation videos is to choose which software you’re going to create the videos in. Most medical animators create videos on a combination of different programs, but some major programs come complete with rendering engines and composition tools that allow animators to create an animation in one software from conception.

Here is a breakdown of some of the most popular programs used to create medical animation videos:

Blender

Blender is an animation software that is favored by many animators because of its complex texturing ability and its suite of effects that make medical animations look both visually interesting and professionally rendered. Blender contains the following animation features:

  • UV mapping: UV mapping is the process of unwrapping UVs and placing a 2D texture around a 3D object. This can help medical animators install textures on top of models to simulate a wide variety of tissues and medical objects.
  • 3D modeling: In medical animation, 3D modeling is the process of translating a 2D medical illustration into a three-dimensional object. For animations depicting complex medical procedures such as surgeries, 3D modeling is vital for an accurate representation.
  • Fluid simulation: Fluid simulation is important in medical animation videos, especially in those videos that depict the movement of blood or other bodily fluids. Real fluid movement in animation can help the composition translate visually as a liquid environment. Fluid simulation also has the advantage of being visually impressive in a 3D animation for marketing purposes.
  • Sculpting: Strong sculpting tools in Blender allow medical animators to create detailed, anatomically correct structures that add credibility and professional polish to their videos.
  • Match moving: Match moving is an animation process that medical animators can use to superimpose animated sequences on top of live-action footage in such a way that they are matched motion for motion. This can help animators create realistic animations. Match moving can be important in medical animations that seek to reproduce a surgical procedure.
  • Particle simulation: Particle simulation is an important part of medical animation videos for depicting such medical scenarios such as blood flow, virus dispersal, and others. Dynamic movement in medical animations helps keep the audience engaged and can make the video more interesting for even medical laymen to watch.

Another major advantage of Blender software is that this software is open source and free. If you’re just getting started in the process of learning how to create medical animation videos, Blender is a good program to dip your toes on.

Maya

Maya is somewhat similar to Blender, however it is a more extensive paid program with more features. One major benefit of Maya that users love is the program’s customizable interface. Because it has so many different tools and abilities as a software, this program is popular in Hollywood for creating CGI effects in some of the world’s most popular blockbuster films.

This program also prevents medical animators from having to create their own character rig for animations from scratch, instead presenting the user with a premade rig that is skinned and weighted, making it ready-to-go for animation. This can greatly streamline the workflow from pre-production into the 3D animation phase and rendering part of the animation process.

Here are some of the other features of Maya that make it useful for medical animators:

  • Dynamic effects
  • 3D animation tools
  • Pipeline integration
  • Rendering
  • Shading
  • Motion graphics
  • 3D modeling

One unique aspect of Maya is that it has bullet physics tools that can be used for animating medical procedures related to gun injury triage and emergency medicine. This can be very useful for depicting the internal pathing of bullets to show the audience how this damage can then be fixed.

3Ds Max

3Ds Max is a 3D modeling and rendering software that is offered through AutoDesk. While this software has many of the same 3D rendering and modeling tools as other software programs, 3Ds Max stands out for its optimization of animation workflows and special rendering features such as the following:

  • Blended box map
  • Procedural edge modeling
  • Editors for materials, color, and textures
  • Automated modeling operations

With a mixture of general and advanced animation tools, 3Ds Max is a good foundational software to build medical animation videos on.

Modo

Modo is a brush-based 3D sculpting software that has a variety of artistic tools that allow animators to sketch rough concepts of their animation elements before rendering them in full detail. This allows animators to get an idea of the volume of the element in the frame and how it weighs in comparison to negative space as well as other elements in the shot.

Here are some of the other features that Modo is known for:

  • Nodal/layer-based shading systems
  • Photorealistic, high speed, high-resolution rendering
  • Texture review during the baking process to allow changes before the final render
  • Flexible rigging system for 3D animation sequences
  • Rule-based, directable particle system

With a suite of applications that make it effective as an animator’s primary toolset, Modo is another animation software that is capable of delivering complex and detailed animation tools for medical animators to create their videos.

Because Modo focuses more on modeling and rendering than compositing, Modo is best used in combination with other animating software for a polished final result.

ZBrush

ZBrush is a finishing software that is often used in conjunction with other types of animation software to polish the final product of an animation.

  • The 3D modeling program ZBrush is based on a brush-based system similar to digital art applications. This means that for many animators who are already used to brush-based applications such as Photoshop for creating visual art, ZBrush will be an easy transition.
  • One major advantage of ZBrush for medical animators is that this program features a clay sculpting simulator. This allows animators to easily build up natural, organic 3D objects that accurately depict organic shapes and textures found in the human body. Realistic renders can be created directly in ZBrush, complete with atmospheric effects, cloth simulation, and dynamic thickness adjustment.

ZBrush is advertised as the all-in-one digital sculpting tool, and this is a fair billing. This tool a versatile tool for intricate 3D animations. It’s also got a good selection of tutorials and other learning resources available through their website, such as the following:

  • Free ZClassroom Training
  • Third-party training
  • Free documentation and technical tutorials

While ZBrush has a somewhat complicated learning curve, it makes up for this by being able to take a medical animation element from flat concept art to a 3D render. This can make it a powerful piece of software for medical animation.

Pre-Production on a Medical Animation Video

When medical animation videos are made for a client, then pre-production is the stage in creating a medical animation video where the animators and the clients are brought together so that everyone is on the same page with what needs to be depicted in the animation. Here are some of the goals of pre-production when creating a medical animation video (Source: Nanobot Medical):

  • Establish the scope and timeline of the animation project: This part of the planning phase may include estimates for necessary funding as well as a series of milestones or deadlines for the animators to meet in creating the video.

Typically, clients are either given a chance to make revisions or observations at certain stages of the animation process, or they are only given the final product once it is completed to their initial specifications, then revisions (if any) are attempted in post-production.

  • Establish the goals of the clientele: The pre-production phase of creating a medical animation video is the best point of the process to make sure that the client’s goals are clearly communicated and noted for the animators to follow.

In many cases, the pre-production meetings may be the last chance the client gets to have a direct influence on the product before the animators take over and try to make their vision a reality. Making sure that the animators understand the goals of the final product as well as how the client visualizes it is key to keeping post-production revisions to a minimum.

Storyboarding a Medical Animation Video

When creating a medical animation video, storyboarding is the step in the process where the animators plan out the design elements of the animation and how best to meet the goals laid down in pre-production. (Source: Art of the Cell)

The goals of a storyboard in creating a medical animation video are to set up an engaging story with the animation while simultaneously conveying pertinent medical information in a way that can be easily understood by both laymen and medical professionals.

Here are some of the design elements of a medical animation video:

  • Composition: The composition of an animation considers animation tracking, negative space, and a variety of other factors that impact how the animation appears both in individual parts and as a whole. (Source: Animator Island)
  • Proportions: In medical animation videos, proper proportions are crucial to anatomical accuracy and making sure that anyone viewing the video can easily discern the proportional size differences between different tissues or objects.
  • Actions: In a medical animation, the actions are the moving parts of the animation that depict a procedure or some other kind of medical event. Medical animators must ensure that any actions depicted in the animation are both smooth and seamless. The actions in a medical animation video must also follow sequentially along with the medical procedure it’s describing.
  • Color palette: In medical animation videos, many of the colors used in the animations are kept as realistic as possible while also adding enough contrast to make the different elements of the animation easy to discern from one another.

A thorough storyboarding process can help prevent major changes to the animation down the road when it is more difficult to pull off, and storyboarding is also the best step in the process to try out several different compositions to see which is the most effective.

Steps to Storyboarding a Medical Animation Video

Along with the elements that you need to look at when you’re setting up a medical animation video, you’ll also need to come up with a script. Here is the procedure of steps necessary to storyboard a medical animation video in pre-production:

  • Creating a script. The script of a medical animation video both explains what is going on in each shot of the animation and can also contain flavor text that will be included in the animation to further clarify what’s going on.
  • Sketching out the scenes. Based on the script, animators will then sketch out the scenes that will appear in the medical animation. These rough sketches are a way for animators to get a feel for the individual elements of the animation, such as color, composition, proportion, etc.
  • Reviewing the final storyboard. Once a storyboard has been completed for a medical animation video, this is the point where the storyboard is usually kicked back to the client for preliminary approval before the true production of the animation begins. This is the point where the client can make any last-minute suggestions or revisions to the planned animation sequence.

Once the client (or the animator) approves the final storyboard of the medical animation, the video is ready to move into true production. At this point, the animators will likely not take on more revisions from the client until the final animated video is complete.

If the storyboarding part of the medical animation workflow is performed effectively, this is the most revision that the video will need before being polished up in post-production. (Source: Laundry Lane)

3D Modeling a Medical Animation Video

Once the basic elements of the medical animation video are laid out in the form of storyboards, the 3D modeling of the animation can begin. This is the step in the process of creating a medical animation video where the flat 2D illustrations in the storyboards are translated into 3D objects that are anatomical representations of their real-life counterparts.

3D modeling isn’t just necessary for creating realistic medical animations; it’s also an important part of creating special effects in a 3D animated sequence.

3D models are typically created by creating points in virtual space that act as a skeletal foundation for creating three-dimensional objects. Once this baseline 3D surface structure is created, 2D textures can be rendered onto the 3D model.

There are two major forms of creating 3D objects in a medical animation video: 3D modeling and 3D sculpting. 3D sculpting can be performed by digital clay manipulation into objects, but this process is usually less precise than creating the image in 3D modeling software.  If organic is what you are looking for then it works.

The Challenge of 3D Modeling

The most difficult part of 3D modeling in medical animation videos is that the success of this stage in the process is determined by visual art talent. Without a fundamental understanding of proportions, perspective, and other art concepts, it is hard to create realistic 3D models. This means that to be a good medical animator, it’s important to have a strong set of digital art skills to start with.

3D Texturing a Medical Animation

Texturing is an important step especially in medical animations because it brings realism to models and environments.  Both 2d texturing and 3d texturing may be needed for an animation.  Depending on the type of model created, texturing may be easier or harder.  For example, with polygonal models, UV unwrapping must be done first before a texture is placed on a model.  NURBS models do not require this extra step.

Texturing may involve painting a model from scratch, whether it is in layers in Photoshop or a dedicated 3D texturing application, using existing textures or parts of textures (such as photos of an object in nature) to blend or tile onto the 3d object, or using procedural materials that are part of animation software.  Procedural materials are ones that can be programmed with sliders/entered values to change their color, contrast, noise, ratios, etc.  Material types include lambert, blinn, etc.  Materials can include textures as part of them (for example use a texture for the color or opacity) and can become rather complicated shading networks themselves.

Texturing also includes specialized materials such as bump, displacement, and normal maps.  In firms with more than 1 person, there is often a person dedicated to texturing 3d objects.

Lighting a Medical Animation

By default a 3d scene is dark.  Lighting brings attention to objects where you want to place attention, and makes both the textured objects and action visible.  Depending on whether you are creating a realistic animation or a symbolic one, lighting changes respectively.  A medical animation of a surgical procedure would use realistic lighting we are used to similar to the room we are in.  An animation of an endoscope inside a body would use limited lighting accurately depicting that created by the instrument.  Lighting an animation on a microscopic level is tougher, as you cannot just copy the lighting youd find in a microscope.  You are trying to simulate looking into the body as it is naturally.

There are various ways of lighting a scene, such as directional lights, omni lights, a 3 point setup, etc.  These methods are often taken from photography and film making.  When there is lot of action involved in the animation, you have to make sure the lights keep up with your objects of interest and help focus the viewers attention where you want it.  You are in a way playing God here turning the sun on or off.

Rendering a Medical Animation Video

Once the individual elements of the animation have been built up, it’s time to render the animation. This is the process of placing each of the scenes and pieces of the animation in a series of sequential, individual frames in a 2d timeline. Rendering is also the part of the medical animation process that gives the objects in the animation their final appearance in the video.

The purpose of rendering is to create a series of animation frames that can then be put together in a motion video.

In rendering, the individual components of the animation are usually placed over a static transparent background so that they can all be layered together over a final background graphic.

Here is why rendering a medical animation video is such an important part of the process:

  • Realism: Rendering is an important part of creating realistic subjects in the animation by accurately replicating real textures and colors found in the body. While realism is pursued in many areas of animation, it is especially important in medical animation since it dictates the accuracy of the animation as a scientific tool.
  • Movement: Rendering an animation correctly causes the final animation to come across as smooth and seamless as the animation jumps from frame to frame. This can give medical animation videos a sleek, organic feel.

Once a medical animation video has been rendered, the next step is to composite the final animation together into a finished product.

Compositing a Medical Animation Video

Compositing a medical animation video is the last step in creating the video and is also considered the first stage in the post-production of the video. In compositing an animation, the individual frames of the animation as well as the 2d layers are meshed to form a cohesive whole.

The process of compositing can vary greatly from project to project, with some animations requiring only minimal adjustments during the composition process and others requiring hours of tweaking for visual properties such as saturation, contrast, and depth of field. (Source: Dream Farm Studios)

Nuke

If ZBrush is a 3D sculpting software, then Nuke is a software that focuses on compositing and video editing. While Nuke isn’t a good choice for motion graphics, it’s more than suitable for complex animation sequences.

Medical animators can use Nuke to integrate both 2D and 3D images into their medical animation videos, creating a more dynamic result in the process. Like Maya, Nuke is commonly used in cinema post-production and video editing, so it’s top of the line for creating nuanced medical animations.

Tips for Creating Medical Animation Videos

Whether you’re creating medical animation videos for marketing a private practice or you’re looking into animating medical animation videos for a client, there are several tips you should keep in mind that can help you be a more successful animator when it comes to medical animations. Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Create a comprehensive storyboard. Storyboarding is the best step in the process of building a medical animation video to try out several different approaches to the animation before committing any of them to modeling software. Being thorough during the conception stage of the video-making process can help prevent serious backtracking later down the road.  Medical animation is not doing cartoons- it needs to be extremely accurate.
  • Keep communications open with the client. While it’s not a good idea to give the client too much leeway when it comes to making changes in the video (some clients can take serious advantage of this), it’s good to make sure that the goals of the client are clearly understood and that their bottom line requirements for the animation are clear before production starts.
  • Try a few different software programs to learn medical animation. Blender is a great one to start learning the fundamentals of 3D modeling and rendering in a digital environment, but it’s a good idea to branch out into some paid software applications, too, just to try out some different kinds of toolsets. You might find one program much more useful than another.
  • Take in a lot of medical animations. One of the best ways to learn how to create effective medical animations is to watch them for reference to see what to do. It’s a good idea to analyze these animations as a professional animator or filmmaker would to see how composition, proportions, and other elements affect the overall look of the video.
  • Watch live action medical surgeries too. Watching live surgeries is good for getting a strong idea of how certain medical procedures are accomplished. These surgeries can also give animators inspiration for realistic color palettes, textures, and other elements.

The art of learning to digitally animate any object can be difficult, but this is especially true in medical animations where anatomical proportions and realism are the keys to a high-quality video.

The Importance of Creating Medical Animation Videos

Medical animation videos are a major advance in medical research, especially compared to earlier methods of studying the human body through X-ray records, dissection, and photographs. From making the traditional high school frog dissection obsolete to explaining complex medical procedures to first-year medical students, medical animation videos are very useful.

Many medical procedures and actions are microscopic or so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye. For these operations, medical animators use their imagination and their knowledge of anatomy to render a realistic depiction of these microscopic events.

Uses of Medical Animation Videos

Here are some of the other reasons why creating medical animation videos is important in the field of medicine:

  • Medical animation videos help non-spatial thinkers visualize anatomical operations. Not everyone is capable of thinking in pictures, and medical animation videos can be a great way for those lacking imagination to “see” these medical procedures in their minds.
  • Medical animation videos are good for teaching laymen, medical students, and patients about medical procedures. Medical procedures can be confusing and frightening, especially to people who have never undergone a serious procedure before. Medical animation videos can help take a lot of the fear and mystery out of going under the knife in a clinical operation.
  • Medical animation videos are an important part of medical marketing. Both in pharmaceuticals and related medical industries, medical animation videos are frequently used to demonstrate the effectiveness of medical equipment in the field or how drugs react in the human body at a microscopic level. These videos help sell the products they’re demonstrating.

Medical animation videos aren’t easy to make, and some animators dedicate their entire careers to mastering this subject matter in animation. But the ability to create a compelling medical animation video can be a lucrative skill in the job market for those who want to work in the medical industry at some level. It’s also a good skill for those who want to specialize in this form of animation.

Below is a video depicting the steps of animation creation:

 

Whether you’re looking into medical animation videos to help legitimize your practice or you want to go into this field of animation as a niche career, medical animation videos can illustrate medical procedures in a way that previous medical illustration technologies could only dream of.

I hope this article gave you a good idea of how medical animations are created.  Click on the following link to learn if 3d animators are in demand.

 

Bump Map Vs. Normal Map: Differences, Applications, Usage

Written by Doc J in 3D Modeling

Bump mapping and normal mapping are two different methods of doing the same thing: creating the illusion of surface texture to a visual computer model.

bump-vs-normal-map-1

 

These methods are useful to know if you’re creating video game characters or rendering 3D animations.

Bump maps impose a grayscale image, so dark spots appear deeper and provide contrast for lighter “bumps.”  Normal maps use an RGB scale to derive 3D vector normals to the 3D surface.  This tricks the rendered light into creating highlights and shadows.  Both methods leave the geometry unchanged.

Knowing the differences between these two techniques can help determine which one is better suited for the application at hand.  Read on to learn more about both so you can add them to your bag of tricks.

The Main Difference Is Lighting

The goal of both of these maps is to give a surface the illusion of texture on a surface that has no texture.  This is beneficial for video games because it means the model’s mesh does not need to be so fine that it physically captures all the little details like a displacement map.

The map creates this illusion by distorting the way the rendered light interacts with a surface.  This is also where the bump map can become limiting, depending on what level of detail you are trying to achieve.

  • A bump map tells the renderer which areas of a surface are brighter and which areas are darker, no matter the direction of the light source.
  • A normal map relates artificial surface normals to the rest of the 3D space and mathematically dictates how the texture interacts with the rendered light source.

So, the result in both cases is that a geometrically smooth shape appears to have a very detailed surface texture.  However, the bump map starts to falter when the textured object is viewed from different angles.  The perceived texture likely won’t interact with the environmental light in a believable way.

To understand this more, let’s take a look at how each method goes about rendering texture.

A Bump Map Uses A Set Grayscale to Manipulate Height

If you were to create a bump map or just look at one, you will see a black and white image.  There’s nothing more to it.  Essentially, the map uses this grayscale to tell the rendering engine which spots are light and which spots are dark.

  • Black areas on the map indicate dark or “sunken in” locations on the surface
  • White areas on the map indicate highlighted or “protruding out” locations on the surface
  • And every shade of gray in between acts accordingly.

Most rendering engines do this by relating the shade of gray to the normal vector of the surface.  Since the normal vectors are how the rendering engine “sees” the surface, this is a way to trick it into rendering texture on an actually smooth surface.

The relationship between grayscale and surface normal is as such:

  • Black = tangent to surface
  • White = normal to surface

And any shade of gray between changes the angle of the normal vector.  This is nifty because it allows the grayscale image to act as a translator between the human game designer, who sees an image in black & white, and the rendering engine, which sees an image in terms of surface normals.

Now, as mentioned earlier, there is a shortfall to this method as it pertains to lighting. The bump map sets a fixed surface normal distribution.  In other words, it only creates local lighting effects. It will only tell the rendering engine which areas of the surface are darker than others relative to itself.

So, the bump map does not provide the rendering engine enough to consider where the global light source is coming from in relation to the details on a surface.  This could lead to a situation where the shadows of a surface are actually facing the light source, and the highlights are where you’d expect the shadows to be.

If the end-user sees shadows where their eye expects highlights, they may find the graphics less believable.  This doesn’t mean bump maps are totally obsolete, though.  They can be used on their own or in conjunction with other maps to really enhance the overall rendering.  We’ll get into some best practices in a bit, but first a bit on normal maps and how they interact with lighting.

A Normal Map Uses RGB To Manipulate Light

As we’ve alluded to, normal maps have the ability to better incorporate global lighting into the perceived surface texture of an object.

They do this by providing the rendering engine with a third piece of information or color channel to use.  In contrast, a bump map technically only provides two color channels to use; black or white.  Normal mapping uses the RGB color scale to calculate a surface normal from three component vectors instead of two.  RGB, in this case, means:

  • Red
  • Green
  • Blue

To understand this better without giving a dissertation on linear algebra, let’s quickly go back to thinking about bump maps for a second.  The shade of gray essentially equates to the angle of a vector relative to the surface itself.  That vector is made up of two component vectors in cartesian object space, one on the tangent axis (black) and one on the normal axis (white).

The closer the color is to black at a certain location, the lower the angle between the normal vector and the surface itself.  Conversely, the closer to white the image is, the closer to orthogonal the normal vector is.

But if we’re operating in 3D space, what about the third dimension?  This is where normal maps come in with RGB instead of grayscale.  Like the bump map, a normal map has a tangent axis and a normal axis, but it also introduces the bitangent axis.  And since there is a third axis, there needs to be a third color to represent it.  The table below illustrates how each map translates colors into vectors.

 

Vector Axis Bump Map Color Translation Normal Map Color Translation
Normal White Blue
Tangent Black Red
Bitangent N/A Green

 

The key to understand here is that the normal map has the ability to define surface normals in 3D global space because there are three vector components making up said normal.  Each of the components can be related to the global X, Y, and Z components of the cartesian world space in which a lighting source is fixed.

A bump map cannot do this because there is no third component relating the normal to global cartesian space.  This is why you can end up with highlights where you’d expect shadows with bump mapping.

The three vector components of a normal map make up a cartesian system, meaning they are all orthogonal to each other.   However, the coordinate system can still be oriented in an infinite amount of directions and needs to be constrained somehow so that the map makes sense.

This is done by orienting the vector components to the texture coordinates of the map.  Most rendering and 3D modeling software will do this in the background for you, though, so no sweat if you weren’t paying attention in linear algebra class. There are typically 3 different orientations to choose from:

  • Tangent space
  • Object space
  • World space

Each one of these has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on the application of the object.  We’ll get into these later.

Regardless of which orientation is used, it’s an important step because it allows the rendering engine to calculate the surface normals in a way that they all smoothly relate to each other.  The result is a perceived surface texture that reacts uniformly to the global light source.

So that’s the big difference.  Both maps affect the lighting on a surface, but they do so in different ways.  The normal map excels in its ability to relate a surface texture to the 3D space in which it resides.  This will ultimately provide more believable renderings, although it is not uncommon to use bump maps and normal maps together to create highly detailed surfaces.

Again, neither of these methods actually modify the 3D geometry of the underlying surface.

A Quick Note on Normal Map Orientation

Since normal maps determine the angle at which light reflects off of a surface, it’s important to consider how the map itself is oriented with relation to the object it’s applied to.

Tangent Space Is Most Common

When a normal map is oriented in tangent space, it’s texture normals are stored relative to the geometry normal.  This is typically the most versatile because it allows the object to move and deform in space while keeping the effects of the texture intact.  This is particularly useful when texturing things like:

  • A character’s skin
  • Moving textiles
  • Objects that move around and interact with the user

Bottom line; use this if the object you are texturing will be moving around in space with the user.

Object Space Creates Higher Quality at The Cost Of Versatility

A normal map oriented in object space calculates its normals relative to the object as a whole.  The object can still move, but if its surfaces deform there may be issues with the normal.  The maps are usually specifically tailored to the object they are being applied to, which leads to sharper detail and better smoothing.

This makes it difficult to reuse or tile the map on other surfaces, though. Texture coordinates cannot be mirrored, either.  So, modeling texture on symmetric objects will be twice the work.

World Space Creates A Totally Fixed Map

A normal map oriented in world space is fixed in place relative to the global 3D coordinates.  This means the object it’s applied to should remain stationary; otherwise it will “slip out” from under the map if moved.

This is good for creating high levels of detail on large, stationary objects of an environment.

Which Map Has A Better Rendering Speed?

While rendering speed is heavily reliant on the rendering engine itself, bump maps and normal maps do take up different amounts of memory.

Typically, normal maps are faster to render than bump maps.

The difference is not drastic, but it’s there.  Normal maps slightly edge out bump maps because they don’t require multiple texture samples like bump maps do.

What Kind of Map Should I Use?

As with anything, there is no unanimous consensus that one of these maps is better than the other.  Bump maps and normal maps both have advantages in different applications.  Let’s explore a few of these.

Best Uses for Normal Mapping

We already touched on some of these when discussing the different normal map orientations.  Generally speaking, normal maps are the most versatile solution when you are in need of a texture that responds well to movement.  This can apply to just about anything:

  • Characters
  • Weapons/tools/objects
  • Vehicles
  • Textiles
  • Foliage

Normal maps are also useful for bringing detail into parts of the environment that are expected to be viewed up close.

  • Walls
  • Walkways
  • Signage

Normal maps are extremely versatile, especially with tangent space orientation.  They also wrap around edges to create a favorable beveling effect, something that bump maps cannot do.  This softens otherwise sharp edges on an object that shouldn’t appear to have sharp edges, thus making the image more believable.

This doesn’t achieve the same level of detail as a displacement map (which we’ll briefly touch on at the end of this article), but it does at least create the illusion of rounded edges on things like:

  • Doorknobs
  • Weapon handles
  • Wall corners

This subtle effect is not achievable with a bump map.

Best Uses for Bump Mapping

Bump maps are best used for background surfaces or relatively small objects.  Think environmental features that are to be perceived in the distance.

  • Operating Room
  • Landscapes
  • Cityscapes

Since bump maps don’t do as well as normal maps on moving objects, they are easily applicable to a scene’s backdrop or mid-detail level aspects.  Since they are easier to create and don’t require as much vector calculation, they are the lower effort option.

However, when applied to parts of an environment that will not be under as much scrutiny, bump maps give the most bang for your proverbial buck.

They Can Be Used Together, Too

Don’t forget that bump maps and normal maps can be layered over one another to create even more depth of detail to your rendering.

As with any texture map, you can layer as many or as few as you like to achieve the desired level of detail.

  • Bump maps adjust the perceived height of a surface relative to itself
  • Normal maps adjust the perceived angle at which light reflects off the surface

Combine these two to balance the benefits of both height and angle manipulation of your surface.

To Sum It Up.

The difference between a bump map and a normal map is how each manipulates a surface to interact with light.  Bump maps work in “two dimensions” by using a grayscale to artificially move parts of a surface up or down.  Moving up means brighter, and moving down means darker.

Normal maps work in “three dimensions” by using red, green, and blue color channels to artificially manipulate the direction in which light reflects off of a surface.

The maps can be used together or individually, and neither texture map actually alters the geometry of the surface.  While normal maps can wrap around edges to create a bevel effect, both of these maps lack the ability to produce the illusion of texture along an edge.

Bonus: What About Displacement Maps?

If you need to render the edges of a surface so that the silhouette of the object matches the texture, a bump map or normal map won’t cut it.

The advantage of bump maps and normal maps is that they create the illusion of texture without actually altering the mesh of the surface.  This means that the model size can remain small, and the render time is still pretty quick.  But this limits the amount of detail on object edges.

This is where displacement maps come in. Consider the example of a brick wall.  The bricks stick out relative to the mortar holding them together.  So, if you were looking around the edge of this corner, it would not appear to be a straight line, the bricks would protrude, and the mortar would retreat.

Neither normal maps nor bump maps can achieve this illusion, and it would just be a tedious task to sit there and actually model all those bricks.  Not to mention, it would make your 3D model pretty clunky.

This is where displacement mapping comes in.  It, like a bump map, adjusts the height of a surface.  But instead of manipulating the lighting, it manipulates the actual shape of the object when rendered.  Because of this, it requires more rendering time and a much finer mesh on the surface.  For example, the larger surface needs to be broken down into hundreds, more likely thousands, of individual surfaces.

This is worth it though, if the rendering engine is powerful enough and the detail is needed.

Below are some useful videos to show these concepts visually:

Bump mapping:

 

Normal mapping:

 

Displacement mapping:

 

 

Click the following link to learn why 3d rendering takes so long.

NURBS vs. Polygons: Do you know the differences?

Written by Doc J in 3D Modeling

Polygons and NURBS are the pieces that most often make up an object in 3D medical animation. You can imagine NURBS and Polygons as the building blocks of the 3D images and animations produced by computer artists and programmers.

nurbs-vs-polygons-1

Despite accomplishing a similar task visually, the concepts and mathematics between the two are vastly different. Lets discuss NURBS vs Polygons.

Continue reading “NURBS vs. Polygons: Do you know the differences?”

The Best 28 Interactive Biology Games

Written by Doc J in 3D Education

Biology covers such a wide range of topics that incorporating interactive games into your learning process will allow you to focus specifically on one category at a time. Playing games is beneficial and will put your competitive skills to the test while learning simultaneously.

interactive-biology-games-1

Since there are many types of games on the market, we broke it down into different segments to make it easier to pick your learning style. Read on to learn more about each game and how it can benefit your progress in learning biology.

  Continue reading “The Best 28 Interactive Biology Games”

The Complete Guide: How To 3D Print Wax

Written by Doc J in 3D Printing

Wax 3D printing goes back to the 1990s when it was used to create prototypes as well as for the creation of master molds for lost wax casting.  Since then, the technology has evolved and expanded.  Now you can use wax to create very precise 3d models with intricate geometry in different colors and with different properties.

3d-print-wax-1

Photo by Jeff W on Unsplash

 

Let’s look at the technologies involved and steps that need to be taken.

Continue reading “The Complete Guide: How To 3D Print Wax”

How to do 3D Animal Modeling – A Tutorial

Written by Doc J in 3D Modeling

Creating a quality 3D animal model includes various steps that need to be taken in a specific order to achieve a realistic and lifelike animal. If you are new to 3D animal modeling or have never tried it before, it may be confusing to figure out what the most important steps are and the order in which they need to be taken.

animal-modeling-1

 

We’ve compiled all the information you need to create a model. Follow the steps listed below to learn how to do 3D animal modeling:

 

  • Collect Quality References of Your Animal
  • Use Basic Shapes to Build the Animal’s Skeleton
  • Map Out Your Animal’s Musculature
  • Sculpt the Base Mesh Structure of the Body
  • Use Retopology to Bring Your 3D Model to Life
  • Add Surface Details

 

How do I Create a 3D Animal Model?

Creating a 3D animal model will take a considerable amount of time, concentration, and commitment. You will most likely need to re-work your model dozens of times before you are satisfied with your final product. However, if you take the time to study your animal and follow the steps listed to create your model, you’ll be well on your way to a high-quality 3D animal model.

Collect Quality References of Your Animal

The better you understand the shape and movement of the animal you’re modeling, the more anatomically accurate your result is going to be. Take the time to collect and study quality references of your animal so that you’re familiar with its anatomy from every angle. Below is a list of different ways you can study your animal, depending on the needs of the project,  to get a better idea of how you’re going to represent it in its final 3D version.

  • Familiarize Yourself with Your Animal’s Anatomy
  • Understand How Your Animal Moves in its Habitat
  • Pay Attention to Small Surface Details
  • Study Your Animal in Every Stage of Life

 

Familiarize Yourself with Your Animal’s Anatomy

When it comes to 3D modeling and 3D printing, remember the 80/20 rule: 20% of the work you do before you begin sculpting will determine 80% of the final outcome of your model. Being familiar with the anatomy of the animal you are modeling can be the difference between a mediocre and a lifelike final product. The more accurate you are when creating the inner pieces of your model like the skeleton, the more lifelike the outer pieces will be.

Understand How Your Animal Moves in its Habitat

The way an animal moves plays a major role in its physical presentation. For example, a leopard, which moves very sleekly and stealthily, should be posed differently than an elephant, which moves much more clumsily. This is especially important if you are planning to do any animation but is a great idea to do regardless.

Pay Attention to Small Surface Details

While anatomy and movement patterns are hugely important, don’t forget to pay attention to smaller surface details, such the animal’s fur and skin. Is their fur thick or thin? Does it lay all in one direction, or does it shoot out in many directions? Is their skin soft and smooth, or thick and wrinkly? It can be easy to overlook these small details, but they can be the difference between a good model and a lifelike one.

Study Your Animal in Every Stage of Life

A 3D model of a baby elephant is going to be created very differently than that of an adult elephant. It’s important to study and understand the differences between your animal’s body form and language in every stage of its life. Being familiar with the physical changes your animal undergoes as it ages will allow you to create a much more realistic model of it in whatever stage of life you choose to create it in.

 

Use Basic Shapes to Build the Animal’s Skeleton

Before you start you will be better off to import drawings or photos of the animal into your 3d program for reference while building the creature.  Two planes should be enough such as side view and front view.  How you do this will depend on the software you are using so consult with your manual.

Once you’ve collected enough references to start creating your 3D model, you need to need to begin forming the animal’s shape from the inside out. Therefore, the first layer of your 3D model should be the animal’s skeleton. While you don’t need to build out every bone in your animal’s skeleton, you need to have a basic outline of their skeletal system in order to build the rest of the anatomy around it and make it posable or animatable.

Here is a video:

The most effective way to build your animal’s skeleton is to break the major bones and joints down into more basic joints.  Once these shapes have created the basic bone structure of the animal, they can be manipulated and resized to the proper dimensions of the animal’s body.  Depending on the software used this may be built into the program or a plugin.

 

Map Out Your Animal’s Musculature

After the basic skeletal system is in place, it’s time to move on to the musculature.  This can mean two things: either the actual underlying muscles if you are doing a muscle model for showing whats under the skin such as a muscle anatomy model, or how the muscles affect the shape of the skin.

Here is an approach to building actual muscles:

Some people will actually build a muscle model first and then throw skin on top of it, but this is only practical in programs where it can be done quickly such as in Zbrush, using Zspheres or Zsphere Sketching.

Zspheres:

Zsketch:

Again, depending on whether you will be showing the actual muscle or not will dictate how much detail and realism you will need vs simple shapes.  Blocking out the main muscle groups will usually be enough to create a quality surface 3D model.

 

Sculpt the Base Mesh Structure of the Body

With the bones and musculature in place, it’s time to use them as reference and begin sculpting out the base structure of the animal’s body. This first layer should be built up just enough to cover the animal’s musculature without hiding the outlines of the major muscle groups. Once you’ve established your base mesh, you will later begin to build up detail.

Here is a base mesh modeling example (this one is straight from drawing):

Use Retopology to Bring Your 3D Model to Life

Building up skin on a 3D model can be a tricky and time-consuming process. One of the ways to speed this up is to use “Retopology.”  This is the process of re-creating an existing 3D model to give it more fluid geometry. Essentially, retopology acts as a facelift for your original design by correcting imperfections in the mesh and adding texture in areas that need it.

Retopologizing is essential when cleaning up scan data, building a skin on top of quick simple modeling techniques such as Zspheres and Zsketches, and when you need clean geometry for posing your model or animation. Retopology is most often used on models that are used for animation because it reduces the density of the mesh which is essential for movement.

Here is a video:

 

Add Surface Details

This step of the modeling process lets you add details and personal touches to create the final look of your animal, and make it realistic.  See the list below for the different surface details you’ll want to consider for your model and how to create them.  When I use the term “surface details” here, it does not only mean traditional polygon or nurbs manipulation.

  • Body Composition
  • Skin Texture
  • Hair/Fur
  • Color and Shading

 

Body Composition

This is where you decide how your animal’s anatomy will show through in their final model. Do you want your animal to look rotund and well-fed, or lean with outlines of certain muscles visible? You may have to do additional sculpting on certain areas to attain the look that you want.

Skin Texture

Depending on the texture of the skin your animal has, you may need to do some additional sculpting. For example, a Rhinoceros’ skin is thick and creased with deep lines and wrinkles. Additional sculpting will be necessary here to achieve the leathery nature of its skin.  Keep in mind that sculpting details makes the geometry heavy and the files large.  You may want to look at ways to export the details in ways that will decrease the size such as displacement maps or textures.

 

Hair/Fur

Adding hair or fur can be a time-consuming task, especially if your animal has fur of different lengths or thicknesses. There are multiple tools and plugins to help you with quickening the process of adding fur for animals with very thick or long fur.

 

Color and Shading

Coloring and shading animal skin and fur can be a tricky task as well, especially for animals with speckled or striped skin/fur. Just like with hair and fur, you can choose whether you want to use tools in your modeling program or plugins.

Here is a video using Blender:

 

 

How do I Know When my 3D Animal Model is Successful?

Even if you’ve successfully followed all of the steps to complete your 3D animal model, you may have to re-work your design many times throughout your building process. This is completely normal and can even help you become more familiar with the tools available in your building platform. You may never be completely satisfied with your first attempt. But the more open you are to accepting the ups and downs of building a 3D animal model, the more likely you are to create a successful model that you can be proud of down the road.

Click the following link for a guide on modeling for 3d printing.

All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this web site is for general information purposes only.