Heart painting

Recently finished is a small study of the internal heart wall – specifically the trabeculae carneae formations that run rampid in both ventricles.  Their function?  Opinions seem to vary, but they probably aid in contraction and the prevention of too much suction, besides offering a lovely visual surprise when you first dissect a real heart.

For anyone interested in other unique views of the heart, a priceless collection of videos is available via a University of Minnesota project: http://www.vhlab.umn.edu/atlas/index.shtml Not only can you look at internal structures from a myriad of angles, but you can also choose from a range of different hearts, which really underscores how common variations in structrues can be.

Heart TrabeculaeAvailable for purchase on etsy.

Inner Ear in 3D

I rendered out the vestibulocochlear model and threw it into VRWorx, a simple little program that doesn’t offer the best interactive features, but is great for simply displaying a model or virtual scene.

InnerEar_bony (Object)

InnerEar_endo (Object)

Sarcomere poster, nearly finished

Happy thanksgiving all! Below is a poster about body tissues you probably weren’t using much today – skeletal muscle!

There was a final crit earlier this week on histology posters – I delved into the sarcomere and myofibril, the fun little network of contractile proteins within the muscle cell responsible for movement.  There are still adjustments to be done (color balance, too many warms), but all in all, is nearly done.

Projects like this always serve as a good lesson for everything that is not yet known about the human body. Actin and Myosin? Their stories have been told very well, but the Z disk and M line? not nearly as easy to research. There are always more proteins and elements than you originally assume, which if nothing else, certainly keep things interesting.

Muscle_Poster_web

More vestibulo-cochlear apparati

Here are more finished renders of the lovely vestibulocochlear apparatus, and it’s internal endolymph (paralymph not shown) fluid system.  Those black shadows c4d loves are harder to change than you’d think, even after messing with shadow and ambient occlusion colors.

bony_cochleaendolymp

Editorial

Below is an editorial project for a selected journal cover – the article this image relates to was about Still’s heart murmer, fairly common in school age children.  It’s a fascinating benign murmer that was likened to the sound of an Aeolian harp – this if this harmless murmer is heard in children, they can be told they have a musical heart.  This author’s theory was that the blood flowing through the chordae tendinae of the right ventricle produced the characteristic pitch and humming sound.

And for all you curious ones out there, here’s an actual recording of one:http://www2.umdnj.edu/~shindler/still.html

editorial_compB_flat

Aria Painting

This has been done for awhile, but I’ve only recently scanned it and comped it together in Photoshop.  Occasionally I feel like breaking away from the whole medical subject area, or anything representational.  I’m really interested in relationships between music and visual arts and love the concept of Kandinsky’s art and the series of nocturnes by Whistler.  This painting ranks among my favorites: Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket.  There are more and less successful ways to do abstract paintings, and Whistler nails it in this one.

Moving on, below is a painting I’m calling “Aria”.  Fun with colors, composition, shapes, and movement!

aria_comp

Cochlea model in progress

Below is a render of an in progress model.

I love really abstract pieces of anatomy like the vestibulocochlear apparatus!  They’re so fun to sculpt.  The end output will be a rotatable qtvr that shows labels, nerves, and the endolymph within the bony apparatus.

Next those black shadows need dampening…

cochleainprogress

Sarcomere 1.0

I’m working on a poster about sarcomere and myofibril architecture and function.  To that end, I’ve been finding out all sorts of fun facts about specific lengths and compositions of different myofibers.

With a significant amount of pdb data, here’s round 1, more revisions and updates coming. Click for a larger view, lots of proteins that can’t be seen in the small version below.

Sarcomere

Basic Lipoprotein Coat Renders

I was playing with making lipoprotein phospholipid membranes this morning — the top is a whole and cut view of an HDL particle. Eventually these will be filled with cholesterol, triglycerides, and coated in apoproteins, and lit better.  The bottom is VLDL – notice how much larger it is!

Rendered with caustics and some subsurface scattering.

whole and cut views of phospholipids that make up HDL

whole and cut views of phospholipids that make up HDL

half of the phospholipids that encase VLDL particles

half of the phospholipids that encase VLDL particles

Before and After: Kidney Update

I revisited a piece from last December — issues that had not stood out to me at the time suddenly seemed really obvious. Saturation was upped, wet lights put in, color reflections added, and the terrible masking job was softened.  Disregard the labels on the first one, they’re not important for this, unless of course you’re terribly curious about the anatomy of one of the cutest organs.

Click for a larger view of the after – on the default view I thought it only fair to give the two versions equal size.

BEFORE:

kidney_labeled_sm

AFTER:
kidney_update_web