Creating 3d medical illustrations/animations

PoleStar

Hi not sure how to approach this.

I have been doing various medical research presentations over the last couple of years with powerpoint. Im fairly nifty at it too even if I do say so myself!

Anyhow, Ive a big conference coming up and need to take my stuff to a higher level so to speak and I am looking to get some 3d illustrations done and maybe animations which I can run on the slides. I usually just use complicated powerpoint sequences/timing etc to animate within slides but looking for something better.

Is there software that I can use which can perhpas take shapes/photos I have as basis for creating animations and perhaps 3d modelling of things such as blood vessels and cells?

Is this something that can be achieved using this by someone who is very computer literate but not a graphic/digital designer with something like flash or the open source blender?

Some advice would be appreciated. If its not gonna be feasible I might try a company to get it done although I know custom stuff such as this will cost me an arm and maybe even TWO legs ha ha!

Thanks guys and gals!

p

I don't know of any animation software that wouldn't take ages to learn, and comissioning stuff would be a very expensive option (www.artisan.ie do medical illustrations from time to time, they're a good bunch if you go down that route)

I'd suggest taking a look at stock sites. There's a very cheap site www.istockphoto.com that has lots of 3d renderings of things. It'll be pot luck though. Here's a quick search for 3d blood vessels and for human cardiovascular system. You can search for both images and video, though video is rarer and more expensive.

Here's a nice example of the blood network in our body:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/health-and-beauty/body/4445336-circulatory-system-hd-pal-ntsc.php?id=4445336


Also, looks like if you search google for stock medial animations you get some promising links. Stock medical illustraion is promising too.

Danbo!

what sort of stuff are you looking to model? Medical equipment or organic body parts? The latter can be quite difficult and time consuming. (EDIT - Just saw its blood vessels etc...

Either way, depending on how soon this is coming up, flash and blender are tough to learn quickly to get any effective results. I use Sketchup in my line of work, and while 3dsmax (similiar to blender) is preferable, you can learn sketchup quite quick. Its not brilliant for handling high-poly organic models, but it can be done if you know what you're at, or at least with some practice. There is a free version available - which means you cannot export high res images. But the demo of the pro version lasts for 480mins (rather than the usual 30 days) and you can just export from that.

Animation in sketchup isnt possible, though movies can be exported ie panning around the model etc.

If all of what ive said makes any sense give it a go, and if you need help PM me.

But also, let me know briefly what it is you have in mind and i might have a free weekend coming up soon and i can give it a go.

PoleStar

Hi thanks for your help.

Ok maybe I will be more specific in what I need and then you might be able to give better advice!

1. I need an animated 3d render of a protein which is essentially a 3d picture of a string like object.

2. An animation of white blood cells invading into the wall of a blood vessel, this could actually be a 3d item.

3. If you check the render of RNA in the examples on the artisan.ie, something like this showing a change in one part of the chain illustrating a mutation in the dNA

Am I making sense?

Probably not!

Baggio...

As the op said, the stuff you want is not really very easy for an amateur to do.

You'll probably have to spend a fair whack if you want decent results. Unless you buy some models that are already pre-made. But you'll still have to animate them and get them into Flash or whatever.

PoleStar

Thanks guys

I am sure you are right that this type of thing might be beyond me. Although I do have about 2 months so I am gonna play around with blender for a while to see if I can make some basic animations.

Is there anyway to import photos into blender and render them into 3d objects or is this not possible?

Also, i might get away with doing 2d animations, is there open source or free software to do this?

p

PoleStar - perhaps your best option is to see if you can get a student or hobbiest to do it if you have some budget they might do it for a portfolio piece.

You could post an ad on adverts.ie or get in touch with some of the colleges that do 3d stuff.

PoleStar

How much might I be charged for something like this

I assume I cant make a request here then can I for a student or someone to do it as a portfolio piece?

p

Not sure. It would depend on the amount of work. number of images, amount of animation etc...

You're probably asking for about 1 or 2 weeks worth of work, so it'll be tough to find anyone to do it cheaply. You might get someone though.

You could try a site like www.elance.com - it's a place where you can post up a job and people pitch for it. You can get a good deal there since sometimes you get people based in places like Malaysia who'll do it cheaply.

Overall though, you're asking for skilled work, you might get lucky, but if you could find a source of funding, you could get a company to do a really good job for you.

eamon234

There was talk of something like this coming out for the iPhone aimed at medical students - not sure if it's materialised yet though.

PoleStar

This is more for a presentation to give to a crowd, but quite an important one so medical student thing is not really applicable, thanks all though for all the comments.


Ive just thought of a nifty idea though. If I could video my desktop while I scroll and switch with the new vista aero 3d theme I might achieve the effect, no?