Trevor Danehy and Tom Anderson, students from the IDIA Immersion Seminar, designed and produced a 3D visualization of a therapeutic process developed by Dr. Tom Sevier of Performance Dynamics. Students worked with state of the art software and a commercial anatomical 3D model with over 4,000 parts to realize a professional quality and dynamic scientific illustration for an external client.
The ASTYM simulation was an animation used to visualize specific effects and treatments of tendonosis. Information was gathered from ASTYM researchers to turn a complex, unseen procedure into a visual explanation. Choosing a design style was a challenge because 3D animation in the medical field has a different goal than most common animations. There needs to be a balance between accuracy and simple, clean visuals. Various shader styles were considered to properly display the internal processes of the human arm accurately, while avoiding anything realistically gruesome or visual clutter that would be detrimental to explaining the complexity of the human body. Transparent, yet visible objects were needed, so students opted for a dynamic incidence shader, which would shade the curvature and sides of objects while leaving the middle portions transparent enough to see what lies under them. Bright glowing colors were used to highlight particular tendons and separate muscles from each other.
Links
Performance Dynamics