Argosy Publishing has made a dream come true for students and teachers wanting an easy to use, high quality, 3D interactive anatomy atlas. And the best part of all? It’s absolutely free.
Other 3D atlases like A.D.A.M’s Interactive Anatomy ($695) and Primal Pictures’ Complete Online Human Anatomy Series ($660) don’t offer the flexibility of real time manipulation of their 3D models. The Visible Bodyallows you to seamlessly zoom in and out, rotate in any direction, and go directly into the body just by using your mouse. You can also add and delete systems, make systems transparent, and isolate specific structures. And to top it all off they created a very clean and simple user interface.
I had the opportunity to interview the CEO of Argosy Publishing, Andrew Bowditch, on the development, motivation behind, and future of the Visible Body.
How long did it take to complete the Visible Body?
This has been a five to six year project. We started by building models of various anatomical structures that we could then use to create animations for our clients. About two and a half years ago, we began to put the models all together and fill in the gaps. A huge challenge was to create the programming and user interface so that people could use the Visible Body as a whole and online. I wouldn’t say it is ‘complete’ — we have lots of ideas that we are working on to continually improve on it. But we felt that it is already a very useful tool, and that’s why we decided to release it publicly now.
Is there a team dedicated to completing the Visible Body or do your employees work on it alongside other projects?
We have a core team that is mostly dedicated to Visible, but occasionally some of them work on other things to help pay our bills. But it took an enormous amount of effort and dedication to get Visible Body to where it is now — definitely not a part time side project.
Currently the Visible Body can only be viewed on Internet Explorer on Windows, when can we expect to see the Visible Body across all platforms?
We are about to start working on a Mac version of the Visible Body. It is hard to say how long this will take, because it is going to require a whole new round of intensive programming, and we know from experience that it takes a lot of innovation, hard work, and trial and error to get such a complex program on the web. That being said, we want everybody to be able to use the Visible Body, and that includes everyone who can’t now due to platform incompatibility. We are dedicated to ultimately making this product platform-neutral.
Bryan Christie. I had seen this name over and over again in the fine print every time I saw a beautiful medical visual in a magazine. From Scientific American to Newsweek it seemed like Bryan Christie’s crisp, clear, and aesthetically pleasing visuals dominated medical editorial illustration. Problem was I had never heard of him in the rather small sphere of medical illustrators.
Turns out he’s not a medical illustrator.
Bryan likes to refer to himself as a 3D illustrator who just happens to do medical illustration. And he happens to do it extremely well. “My studio isn’t strictly a medical studio; we take on a variety of work. It’s more of an informational design/illustration studio.â€
His work falls into a variety of topics that include:
I can only describe Bryan’s work as beautiful simplicity. He is a master at taking out all of the extraneous information, all of the distracting details, and focusing solely on the pertinent information. He strips everything away without ever making his visuals boring or static.
So what makes Bryan’s work so strong and compelling?
Simplicity
Clarity
Dynamic composition
Subtle use of color
Focus on information above aesthetic
He doesn’t find the need to try and make things look cool. “Whenever I try to make something “cool†it tends to just look like crap.†He lets the beauty take care of itself.
After I established my blog I finally had an excuse to contact Bryan and tell him what a fan I am of his work. He was kind enough to answer a few questions to share with my readers.
So who IS Bryan Christie?
Where did you go to school?
I went to “Fame” (Music and Art High School in NYC) for music. I
graduated in ‘91. For college I went to the Manhattan School of Music
conservatory.
Are you trained as a medical illustrator?
Not technically. I got all of my experience on the job. I’ve been
around art my whole life though. My mother is a painter, and my
father is an illustrator.
What inspired you to go into this profession?
Getting the rent paid. I wasn’t making a living as a musician in NYC.
In 1996 I asked my father, Andy Christie, if I could help him out at
his illustration and animation studio, Slim Films (slimfilms.com). My
father and his colleague Pete Samek were wonderful teachers, and I
picked it up very quickly. After a year I had my own studio in lower
Manhattan.
How long did it take for you to establish such top clients as WIRED and Newsweek?
Because of my connections, I was working for clients such as
Scholastic and Popular Science from the start. After my first year of
freelancing I took a job as assistant AD at Scientific American
magazine. It was a wonderful experience (that’s where I met my wife,
Molly). I also made many contacts. In fact, I first met Karl Gude
when I commissioned him to illustrate a piece on scuba tanks for
SciAm. At the time he was the director of graphics at Newsweek. That
was a very propitious hire on my part: he later hired me at Newsweek,
and now he’s curating an exhibit of my work at MSU!
My time at Scientific American was formative. It was when I first
became aware of the connection between science and art. The old
issues from the 1960s and ’70s really influenced me. Each page is
filled with the most elegant, quiet line art. It’s so beautiful. Many
of those spreads look like modern art to me. That elegance and
clarity is something I always strive for in my work. As an artist
working in 3D, I find it is very easy to be seduced by all the
possibilities and special effects we have at our disposal. My
strongest work is always the clearest work. Beauty tends to take care
of itself; it’s secondary to the information.
Do you work alone or do you have employees?
I have an associate, the indispensable Emily Cooper. She specializes
in the natural world projects we take on. I call upon freelancers
consistently, namely Joe Lertola and George Retseck.
Do you prefer to work on a Mac or a PC?
I’ve never worked on a PC, so I can’t really say. I’m happy with the Mac.
What are some of your favorite programs? (Illustrator, 3D Studio Max, etc.)
I work in Lightwave. I’ve really grown to love this application. At
first it’s a pretty intimidating interface, but as I’ve grown
familiar with it, I feel like it’s invisible, like I’m actually
holding the work. I also use Illustrator and, of course, Photoshop. I
try to minimize my time in Photoshop; I find it’s best to think of
myself as a sculptor who takes pictures of my work. So I avoid
creating content in Photoshop and primarily use it for color correction.
Since first seeing his illustrations Bryan has quickly become one of my favorite illustrators and will continue to be an inspiration to me and my medical work. Thanks Bryan!
__________________________________________
Bryan Christie Design is based in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Bryan currently has a print exhibit of his beautiful work at Michigan State University from September 23 to November 16, 2007, sponsored by The Studio for Creative Inquiry and the School of Journalism in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
The curator, Karl Gude, put together his own short interview with Bryan. Watch it below!
Many of the medical animation studios are located here in the United States. That’s because demand for medical animation is higher here than anywhere else in the world. We can thank the big pharmaceutical companies and their deep pockets for that.
But today Street Anatomy goes across the pond to the UK to interview the owner and founder of the lead medical animation studio, Medi-Mation. I first heard of Medi-Mation after reading that they were chosen for the monumental task of re-doing Dorling Kindersley’s famous Human Body Book using 3D illustration. The book is gorgeous, well designed and gives a fantastic overview of the structure, function and disorders of the human body. Read about the process of creating the 900+ illustrations and animations here at Digital Arts.
In this interview Rajeev answers my questions about his business, how it came to be, the state of the medical animation industry, and gives tips to those interested in becoming medical animators.
Medi-Mation essential info Owner: Rajeev Doshi Specialties: Medical animation and illustration Location: London, UK
Can you give a brief synopsis of your background prior to Medi-Mation?
I completed a PhD in Cancer Gene Therapy before I realized that I would only ever be a mediocre scientist. A friend of mine had just opened an animation school in New York (www.3Dmirage.com) so he agreed to train me if I gave him a hand with the running of the business. Thus ensued an intensive 3 months whilst I filled my brain with all things 3D it was almost like a 3 month cramming session!
Anyway, I returned to the UK and eventually found a position to set up the 3D animation department for a medical agency. I subsequently ran that for 6 years before getting itchy feet, leaving to set-up Medi-Mation in April 2006.
How long have you had your business?
Just over 1 year
How many employees do you have?
3 including myself
What type of computer programs and equipment does your company use?
All powerful PCs (Dual core, 500Mb graphics cards, 22 monitors!)
Software wise we use 3D Studio Max, Brazil for rendering, Combustion and After Effects for compositing.
Do you incorporate real human data sets (e.g. MRI and CT scans) when building 3D models?
Our core anatomy model sets are based on those from Zygote (www.3Dscience.com) and which we’ve upgraded in-house. They developed some of the original models using real human data sets I believe. However one very interesting technology is a plugin for Lightwave called Volumedic it allows proper 3D manipulation of real human data sets and which we have played with, the possibilities are huge for this!
Medi-Mation essential info
