Tech Showcase

Do you want to bring added liveliness to your work? Could understanding watercolor come in handy in an age of digital illustration? Watercolor can be used to add complexity and memorability, which ultimately leads to increased engagement and learning retention. The showcase will cover 1) the process I use to create watercolor illustrations (including recommended materials, a still life I’ll paint from life, & time-lapse examples), 2) tips for digitizing your work, and 3) suggestions for how to integrate watercolor into your fast-paced & digitally-dominated illustration workflow.

[Keywords for this Tech Showcase: Watercolor, Digital Art, Illustration Techniques]

Laura Roy, CMI, is passionate about applying her skills toward improving the accuracy and effectiveness of medical education. She received her MA in Medical & Biological Illustration from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she was recognized with the Frank H. Netter MD Memorial Scholarship in Medical Art. Laura is also the recipient of the Inez Demonet Scholarship. She has created visuals in various media for a range of institutions and companies, and her 3D printing work has been featured in JAMA. Laura works as a Medical Illustrator at Osso VR and teaches upper level scientific illustration and digital art/illustration in the Biological/Pre-Medical Illustration program at Iowa State University.

Keeping your digital asset organized can become a daunting task, especially when the content you create must be assessed across a department or throughout your entire organization. Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software can be your best ally when it comes to the organization and distribution of digital illustrations, photographs, animations, videos and music files. In this session you will learn the best practices and applications for this technology.

Vincent DiPaola is President/Founder of Torino Systems with over 20 years of experience in digital asset management, metadata and taxonomy design, workflow processing, project management, training and development. Vincent has provided strategic direction and consulting on Digital Asset Management (DAM) implementations including metadata and taxonomy design for a variety of Fortune 500, Government, and Educational Clients.

This tech showcase aims to demonstrate a variety of methods for creating a lipid bilayer in 3ds max and to identify the pros and cons of the various methods. Examples will include, but not be limited to, PFlow, MassFX, Compound objects, and using standard geometry instancing.

[Keywords for this Tech Showcase: 3ds Max]

Kevin M. Brennan is a Certified Medial Illustrator and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Visualization Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to joining the faculty in 2012 he worked at Argosy Medical | Visible Body as a Medical Animator and Senior Content Developer. He completed his MS in Biomedical Visualization at UIC in 2005. He currently teaches courses in animation and compositing. Additional interests include molecular visualization, particle systems/dynamics, and rendering using V-Ray, Arnold, and Redshift. Kevin is also involved with the Journal of Biocommunication serving as a Board Member and Co-Editor.

Learn how to use Adobe Photoshop filters and techniques to achieve closely spaced and organic cellular environments. No need to sketch out individual cells! Great for stylized histology slides. See demonstrations on how to use Median, Smooth Selection, and Bevel & Emboss for shortcuts to achieve cellular landscapes.

[Keywords for this Tech Showcase: Photoshop, Art, Cells, Histology, Organic]

Carolina Hrejsa is a certified medical illustrator and a self-proclaimed Photoshop master. She has worked for Body Scientific International and has experience in the publishing industry for over 10 years. She has developed a fast workflow, software shortcuts, and scripted actions to stay competitive and create renderings fast and efficiently.

Boolean operators can bring even the beefiest computers to their knees, but the Zbrush Live Boolean feature makes cutting a breeze! Learn how to stack, create and output complex, easily editable models. Access and tweak parts of your DICOM renders that were completely hidden before. Want to see internal anatomical structures? Simple. Porous bone? No problem. Add and subtract in 3D to your heart’s content. It’s like geometry but better!

[Keywords for this Tech Showcase: ZBrush, Boolean, Liveboolean, 3D, Animation, Modeling, Workflow, CAD, 4r8]

Melanie Connolly is a freelance Medical Illustrator, Animator, and Biomedical Visual Communicator located in Austin, TX and specializing in the creation of dynamic and clear 3D animations and illustrations in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Owner of www.mecovisuals.com and co-owner of www.ChicagoMedicalGraphics.com

This tech showcase will introduce considerations for planning a frame-by-frame animation in Adobe Photoshop and the post-production compositing in Adobe After Effects.

[Keywords for this Tech Showcase: Traditional animation, Animation, Photoshop, After Effects]

Emily Ling is a Digital Media Producer and Animator for the JAMA Network. Outside of that, she’s a compulsive sketchbook filler.

Affinity designer combines the vector capabilities of Adobe Illustrator with the raster fluidity of Photoshop into one easy to use, super affordable, program. This tech showcase will demonstrate the seamless vector/raster personas and how you can instantly switch between the two toolkits without leaving the artboard you are working on.

[Keywords for this Tech Showcase: Affinity Designer, Desktop, Adobe, PhotoShop, Illustrator, Pixel, Vector, Raster]

Mandy Root-Thompson is a Certified Medical Illustrator in private practice in Westerville Ohio and an adjunct instructor of CORE Studio and Biomedical Illustration at the Columbus College or Art and Design. As a medical illustrator she works with medical, legal, and scientific professionals to communicate complex information to a lay audience in the form of patient and consumer education materials and demonstrative exhibits. She has a bachelor’s degree in illustration from the Columbus College of Art and Design, a teaching certificate from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and a Master of Science in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago. With a background in advertising, marketing, education, and biological and anatomical sciences, it is her goal to communicate scientific concepts to the general public and to help her students understand their full potential as both artists and academics.

Unity has added new tools in its 2019 update that are especially useful for medical interactive developers. This showcase will briefly discuss these tools, provide examples of their relevance to 3D medical applications, and demonstrate how to use the powerful node-based ShaderGraph and Visual Effect Graph to create shaders and complex particle effects without code.

[Keywords for this Tech Showcase: Unity, Interactive, Medical, Application, 3D]

Liza Knipscher graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2018 and works at Barrow Neurological Institute as a 3D Interactive Programmer/Modeler. At Barrow, she uses Unity to build applications for neurosurgical education and communication. In her free time, she makes extremely silly virtual reality games. She currently resides in Phoenix with a small plastic cactus that is unable to die: the perfect pet.