Master Collection

I just got myself Adobe CS6 Master Collection. Master means you have to be very good to use it. No not really, it just includes everything and the kitchen sink. Except for some things. Like Lightroom 4.
After opening each program once, here are my initial impressions.

Some pros:
- The splash screens are cool! Very trippy.
- Photoshop doesn't turn off my mouse wheel settings
- The apps finally work with Aero snap
- Illustrator is 64-bit... hopefully that will solve an export memory issue I was having
- Finally have access to InDesign, Acrobat, and umm... SpeedGrade?

Some neutral, literally:
- Photoshop is dark!
- Illustrator is black!
- Flash is still pale grey.

Some cons:
- Photoshop said it would import all my "presets"... but my preferences did not get imported.
- The apps still don't look cohesive... quite diverse in fact.


This time Adobe won't come out with a new version immediately after I buy it. Ha, take that Adobe. I'll post an image next time... maybe something I created with CS6!

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

Neuroanatomy concept

My final sketch for neuroanatomy illustration on the blood brain barrier:

Note that this isn't a final piece. I'll be rendering it by importing illustrator paths into photoshop and going to town on it with paintbrushes. It's intended to be a textbook figure. Like most people, I decided to take up the whole page with picture. My textbook wouldn't have many words.

 Fur test and model of a "generator" (in quotation marks because there's no generator that actually looks like this).

I posted these images on facebook originally, but now they're here, for those people that don't use facebook. I've been continuing to try to sort out how best to manage my various "sites". This blog will continue to be the source for all important information, updates, and images. I mostly post links to new blog posts on facebook, but occasionally I'll post a WIP image that may or may not end up on the blog too. I'll post various links and thoughts too sometimes. Just if you're curious about my facebook updates or are worried about missing stuff. :)

My main website is progressing steadily too. Still will be a while before it can go live, but pieces are slowly coming together.

Later,

Stuart