Updated Demo Reel

I've just uploaded an updated and revised demo reel including some of the better shots from my master's project. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks again to PowersWithin for the fun music.

Later,
Stuart

Recording the Illuminated Neuron - Final Project

My Master's Research Project and indeed the BMC program has come to a conclusion. Without further ado, you can check out the full project here: http://bmc1.erin.utoronto.ca/~stuart/RIN/

Please watch the animation, (direct link: https://vimeo.com/70039214) and if you can spare a little more time, feel free to play with the simulator too. I don't expect non-biologists or neuroscientists to understand most or all of it, but hopefully the visuals and interactivity are interesting.

Here's a couple of stills from the animation at very large resolutions. Feel free to download and use as wallpapers etc. (Edit: Okay, blogger apparently has a max res of 1600 on the long edge. Send me an email if you want a larger version... up to 4K).

Now I get to acknowledge everyone like an Oscar speech!
Thanks to Nick, Yves, and Michael (my committee), to all the BMC faculty, my 13 BMC colleagues (very good friends all), members of Yves' lab, my non-BMC friends, all you people that read this blog, and of course my family and Rebecca and God.

Woohoo! Done! What's next? Looking forward to a conference next week that I'm presenting a poster at. I do have some job leads and there is industry day at the end of the month. I'll keep you posted. This blog isn't going anywhere; it's been a terrific outlet for me these past ~4 years and it will continue to be that.

Thanks again everyone, and I hope you continue to check in here and see what the next stage will bring.

Later,
Stuart

A lyrical tribute to BMC

Okay, I'll post up some materials from my MRP shortly, cause I'm done! But first I wanted to just put some lyrics on the page, cause why not.
Presenting: "A Tribute to BMC" to the tune of Paul Simon's Kodachrome (YouTube below, if you're not in the know, and if you are, you can still hit play and sing along). //comments (not lyrics) prefaced with double slashes.

A Tribute to BMC

When I think back on all the stuff I learned in grad school  //*ahem* stuff
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of fine art knowledge
Hasn't hurt me none
I critique the paintings on the wall

Bee Em Cee-ee-ee  //This is phonetic
You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the research methods
Makes you draw everyone's anatomy, oh yeah  //Provided they stand still
I got a Mac computer  //I don't, I have an ASUS, Corsair, Lian Li, Intel, Windows PC
I love to use the Photoshop
So summer, don't take my BMC away  //Or do, this is just a song

If you took all the art I made
When I was younger
And some of it looks decent, don't you think?  //Operative word: some
I know they'd never match
My sweet communications
And everything looks great in pen and ink  //Hyperbole

BMC  //This sounds the same as the phonetic spelling above
You give us that final gather  //Ambient occlusion would've been great, but... syllables
You give us the verts of Maya
Makes you put particles in all your shots, oh yeah
I got Adobe software  //A lot.
I love to break the picture plane
So summer, don't take my BMC away

Summer, don't take my BMC away (x3)

Summer, don't take my BMC //Sing it out!
Summer, don't take my BMC
Summer, don't take my BMC away

Summer, don't take my BMC
Got to find a job, you see
Summer don't take my BMC away

Summer, don't take my BMC
Summer, don't take my BMC away

Demo Reel 2013

I cut together a demo reel with some of the shots I've been working on this past semester. I asked Minyan (aka PowersWithin) if I could use her music for it and she agreed. Hope you enjoy it.

You can watch in HD over at vimeo.

Later,
Stuart

Data Vis - Sneak Peek

I'm rather excited about the data visualization project I've taken on. I'm just a bit worried it won't come together in the next couple weeks. Here's a sneak peek:

For those typographical fiends out there... fonts are just placeholders so far.

Later,

Stuart

Data Visualization Project #1

This is a piece I created for the information visualization class I'm taking. I won't really explain it because if I've done my job, it's self-explanatory, at least with the text on the piece itself (as long as it's big enough to read).

Clicken to embiggen.

Later,
Stuart

RtIN - First shot stills

I've rendered out the first shot (not the shot that comes first in the animation). Here are a couple of stills from it. I aimed for a high-key, clean laboratory feeling. Despite rather lengthy render times, I ended up with some aliasing problems, so I'll likely be re-rendering at some point in the future. For the time being, I'm moving on to the next shot so I can continue getting assets completed.

Later,
Stuart

MRP Animatic

As the semester comes to a close, I've decided to post my 2D animatic for the 3D animation in Maya I will be creating for my Master's Research Project. I suppose I still haven't explained my project so this is a good a chance as any.

DISCLAIMER: If you don't want to see my animation until its beautiful, 3D, final form, then don't watch the animatic. It's very visually rough, the narration is preliminary in my terrible voice, and everything is a spoiler for the final piece.

In February, I needed to start looking at selecting a project for my MRP, the main component of the MSc in Biomedical Communications I am pursuing. I saw a presentation on a very interesting new tool in neuroscience and chose it as the topic of study. The brief for this topic is to explain the function and usefulness of the newly developed probe to potentially interested parties, including researchers and graduate students. The "micro-optrode" represents the possibility for unprecedented (if I can use such a bold word) examination of individual neurons in living brains. For the time being, this research is being done on mice and rats. I will let the animatic (hopefully) explain the rest...



I will also be building an interactive simulator for the probe to be housed on a website along with the animation. Starting in January, I'll be in production for this animation.

Merry Christmas!
Stuart

Metastatic Bone Cancer process

I'm hopefully about ready to start rendering this 2-page illustration for the pathology course. My very first idea was something along these lines:

and it has evolved to this point:

I used maya to construct the rough shape of the rib to get a better perspective view and used it as a template. Booleans were used to cut out windows in the rib, and because the mesh wasn't really getting used for anything itself, I didn't mind that the topology was a mess from the booleans.

Later,
Stuart

MRP Teaser

Now that the pre-production for my Master's research project (MRP) is well under way, I'd like to share some of the materials I have created for the project. This is just a teaser to start (storyboard panel). I will explain the scope and content of my project soon, since I don't think I've yet described it adequately.

Later,
Stuart

Metastatic Bone Disease

For the pathology course, initially I was set to do an illustration on leprosy, but for various reasons, it proved to be not the best topic. So I've decided to illustrate Metastatic Bone Cancer, which should be more interesting, comprehensible, relevant, understood, and satisfying as a final product. I've done a couple of tissue studies. As I've been doing research, I understand that there are several aspects of these studies that I will need to correct or improve for the final illustration. But they serve the purpose of trying to understand the tissue and the accompanying visual problems.

This is a perspective view of tissue cubes, showing a metastasis growing over time and eroding the trabeculae.

This is a color study with pencil crayon, showing a rib with associated intercostal muscle and a pathologic fracture.

I also created a series of tutorials in Cinema4D and After Effects for classmates for a group project we're working on. I honestly don't expect anyone to watch all 1hr+ of it, but the first couple minutes of the first one might give an idea of the scope of the tutorial.



Later,
Stuart

Fetal Transposition

The first assignment for the Medical Legal class I'm taking this fall was to look at a single view of a fetus and draw it at 90 degrees to the original. Most of the time when trying to understand something in three dimensions, I need at least two views, e.g. front and side. It was really an exercise in filling in the missing information using relationships and shading cues. I decided to try to block out the form in ZBrush to help out with the problem.
This is the original image:  

ZSpheres to figure out where all the limbs go:

And some rough sculpting to flesh out the form:

And the final image with side by side comparison. I didn't follow the sculpt exactly, since there were some points where it wasn't completely successful, and my first sketch attempt was not so great. But this is my second version, and I paid closer attention to the original image, and I think it is a reasonable approximation of a 90 degree transposition.

Well, lots of classes this semester and lots of projects on the go. I should be posting some leprous work soon, a ZBrush vertebra, and perhaps some Unity work in the near future too.

Later,
Stuart

Promotional page

For our business practice class, we are required to design a promotional "tearsheet" for something like the AMI source book that circulates. A full page advertisement is something around 1500 bucks for a year, so I'm unlikely to be doing that very soon, but it's a good thing to work on.

Instead of using 2D illustrations that I've created for the program so far, I wanted to make a new, single image page that highlights the animation process. So far I've blocked out the design, but there's lots of work to do to get the kind of rendering styles I have in my head. I still need to come up with a sleek logo too. Comments are appreciated.

Incidentally, the process of a bacteriophage injecting DNA into a bacterium was the first (very simple) scientific animation I ever created as far as I can remember, using Macromedia Flash in about 2003 maybe?

The tank is in progress, albeit slowly.

Later,
Stuart

Summer projects

I thought it would be good to update with semester end notes and my plans for the summer.

I officially finished spring courses last week with an 'Evolution of Medical Illustration' presentation and critique where I presented my artwork to faculty. My evolution presentation was on software use in the biomedical animation industry, and I think it went well. The critique was helpful and I got several ideas and solutions for improving my pieces from this semester. The good thing about digital media (although it's a double-edged sword) is that it is comparatively easy to go back in and correct problems, work up certain areas, and generally polish pieces for my portfolio.

This summer I've got a couple courses: Business Practice and Research Methods. I'll be creating promotional and administrative materials for myself (tearsheets, invoices, business cards, logos, cover letters, CVs - actually just one of each most likely). And I'll be doing background research for my master's research project (MRP), which I will elaborate on in the future.

A lot of my time will also be dedicated to self-directed learning in the software that I will be using for my MRP. Maya, Unity, Photoshop, and maybe some ZBrush just for kicks.

For Maya, I've started modelling a German WWII tank, the Panzer IV (Ausf.F2 to be precise).

For Unity, I've started going through this learning path: http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/learning_path.php?lpid=18

For Photoshop, I'd like to work on a series of sketches and digital paintings to improve my wacom skills and painting technique.

For ZBrush, well I'd like to at least get through this course: http://www.lynda.com/Zbrush-3-tutorials/for-windows-essential-training/642-2.html and then we'll see what happens. Hopefully some quick sculpts on a semi-regular basis to get my hand in.

It's always a risk publishing my goals, especially with so much going on. I know that the reality is that I won't get as far as I want in each of these areas, but maybe with some encouragement from my readers, I'll be able to keep all the balls in the air.

Later,
Stuart

Surgical Final

Back to back illustrations! Incroyable!

Clicken to embiggen.

Again, I'll probably rework some stuff over the summer to improve this illustration for portfolio purposes, but I'm fairly pleased with it at the moment. Considering how tough this course was, I think I learned a decent amount.

Oh, the more I look at, the more visual problems I see... ha, gonna sign off now. Wouldn't it be nice to finish something and then weeks later come back and say "Yes. Yes, it's perfect."?

Later,
Stuart

Neuro thus far

It's actually been a while since "Neuroanatomy Illustration" finished, but I'm only now uploading my "final" illustration because the semester is officially finished! Which is to say I've still got one project to finish and hand in today, and one project to start and present before the next round of classes begins. I'd like to rework this illustration when I get a chance (in the summer perhaps) after I get some more practice in digital painting.

I haven't received any email from the contact form on my website, which is fine, unless someone's tried, because then I haven't got it. So let me know if you've already tried that form of communication.

Later,
Stuart

Journal Cover Final

I don't know how the time goes by.

Well that introspection was fun. Here's my final journal cover. Had some rendering crises (pl.) but I managed to enlist the help of four iMacs to get through it. I probably didn't optimize my render settings quite as well as I might, but I couldn't afford to spend time trying to dodge memory errors while optimizing every little value.
I think overall I'm pretty happy with it, considering I only opened C4D for the first time in January.

Hope you like it. Come Monday I will have officially finished classes for this semester, so next week I'm hoping to update and cleanup my website with some more info on current and past projects (and get rid of the lorem ipsum). So there will be a fair amount more info on what this journal cover is supposed to mean. It does all have a reason. It's not just a random collection of lab equipment and a rodent; but that will have to wait. Just a note, I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I haven't optimized the site for mobile devices or older browsers, particularly Internet Explorer, so if you do want to see what my site is supposed to look like, please try a modern browser like Chrome or Firefox (yes, I know IE is getting better).

Still one more intensive weekend of work, then I've got another project to do before end of April, and my first committee meeting to prepare for (yay, master's project!). But despite all that, I'll have some time to unwind and slow down at the end of April.

Later,
Stuart

Site Launch

At long last, I have the pleasure of announcing that my website is officially live and online.

Stuart Jantzen or Biocinematics (not sure what kind of title I should give it yet).

You can reach it a number of ways, but uoft.me/stuart is probably the preferred method for me, because UofT tracks traffic for me, which is nice, and I've had some problems with stuartjantzen.com not always redirecting properly (refreshing the page usually works though).

So go ahead and explore!

Disclaimer: The site is still very much in progress, so you'll find a lot of Lorem Ipsum (i.e. dummy text) and many links are "broken" (i.e. redirect to my error page) because I haven't created all the content yet. It takes a lot of time, and I have several other pressing projects on the go. Eventually though, this site will be the center for all my content. Please do send me any comments or problems or questions you have, either on my contact page, on facebook, or here in the comments of the blog. Or email (mail@stuartjantzen.com). I've not had any problems yet with the comment form or the email address, but I'm still wary of the process. So, if you want to make sure I get it, request a reply from me in the message, and then if you don't hear from me, try again or let me know in another communication channel.

Hope you enjoy it, and keep in mind there will be many tweaks and changes over the days and months. And years. So keep checking back.

Later,
Stuart

Lab assembly

Getting most of the elements together for the journal cover. WIP render of the stage so far. There's a hamster conspicuously missing here, but it's on the way. Getting the fur/hair system working will be a fun challenge. Nick suggested I use hair instead of fur for more control and faster rendering, and after seeing the difference, I very much agree.

Later,
Stuart

"Dissect that peritoneum" or "Gallbladder, stat!"

It's crunch time at BMC. In the next ~2 weeks, we got 5 projects due, one exam, one grant application, one committee meeting to arrange, and another project to mostly complete, although the deadline got pushed back, so that's all good. To be perfectly honest, I'd say... half of them are fun. The other half is a bit of a grind. Notice how I used both "half is" and "half are", so I'm sure that one of them are correct.

This is a panel from surgical illustration assignment 3. I did see this procedure in person; three times actually:

It needs to be tweaked (along with the other 5 figures) before Monday, but I'm happy enough with it (relieved may be a better word) that I'm posting it now. If the carpet wasn't grey before, it would be now from the eraser crumbs. One of the panels will get fully rendered in Photoshop for the final assignment.

That's all for now. I'm sure as projects become finished, I'll be posting more frequently. And of course there will be the big reveal for the biocinematics site.

Later,
Stuart