Microbial Musings

Happy Fat Tuesday! Here is a festive little Mardi Gras bead animation piece we put together to brighten up your week! See if you can spot the science elements peppered throughout…

And while we’re at it, what would Fat Tuesday be without the FAT? Speaking of which, here are a clump of fat cells (also known as lipocytes or adipocytes) from a recent project MadMicrobe has completed. Adipocytes, the type of cells that primarily compose adipose tissue, store energy in the form of fat within large globules in their cytoplasm. Enjoy your Fat Tuesday festivities today, and remember these little guys are lurking within, ready to help you store whatever extra “energy” you throw at them! 🙂

Mitch and Mike headed out to St. Louis this week to meet up with the nice folks at 2e Creative. It’s always fun to watch people’s reactions after we let them experience our VR demo. 🙂

Thanks 2e for the great afternoon of brainstorming, amazing BBQ
…and giving us the opportunity to squeeze in a little sight-seeing to boot!
St. Louis, thats one big old metal arch you got there!

Happy New Year!
We are all happy to announce the addition of another talented microbe to our growing team of science creatives.

Luke Letellier has a degree in film production, and several years of experience in 3D visualization, with a focus on technical animation and motion design. Prior to joining the MadMicrobe team, Luke has created animation projects for the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Defense, Virgin’s Hyperloop One, and Marriott International. 

Hailing from the woods of rural Maine, Luke enjoys the quiet life of the country, fueling his love of cinematography and contrasting with his expertise in cutting-edge animation technology.

When work’s over you’ll probably find him catching squirrels in his office, troubleshooting someone’s old VCR, or solving complex technical animation rigging conundrums (usually for Mitch).  Check out Luke’s animation showreel below along with a few stills of his work:

Below is a little peek under the hood of our cellular tree ornament miniature world. Created in Cinema 4D and rendered in Arnold. Thanks for looking!

We are happy to welcome Ezra Kortz to our team as Senior Medical Animator! Ezra’s artistic talent, technical skills and medical illustration education make him a perfect addition to the MadMicrobe family.

Ezra was born in San Francisco and raised in the southwest. He is formally trained in art and design (BA, Cornish College of the Arts Seattle, Wa). He also holds a degree in medical animation and illustration (MS from UIC, Chicago).

Ezra has experience in a multitude of areas pertaining to medical 3d animation, visual effects and digital art\design. He has worked extensively for studios in Los Angeles and NYC, both in the FX and medical animation field. In addition to this, he has freelanced for numerous corporations, constructed a CG department for leading NYC digital retouch studio and owned his own medical animation company.

In his free time Ezra enjoys spending time with family and friends as well as outdoor activities such as sailing, camping, snowboarding and biking.

Ezra is thrilled at the opportunity to be part of the team of talented and authentic individuals that make up MadMicrobe Studios.

Check out some of Ezra’s work on a few recent projects below:

MadMicrobe recently completed a project showcasing Boston Scientific’s WATCHMAN device; a device implanted into the left atrial appendage of the heart to help protect patients with AFib from potential stroke-inducing blood clots.

In order to clearly show the location of the procedure within the left atrial appendage (LAA), our team needed to build a custom cross section of the heart in zBrush.  This appendage can be challenging to isolate effectively within even the most accurate 3D heart models, so we created a stylized cross section which not only shows the appendage but also clearly shows the left and right ventricles, the valves within, as well as a clear view of the right atrium.

Once the model was built and approved by the client, our team was then able to begin the process of texturing and lighting, as well as positioning the device within the LAA. Below is a test styleframe rendered using the Arnold render engine.

After identifying the assets needed for the animation, we began the look-dev process for the human figure, device and an x-ray version of the heart for use throughout some of the motion graphics sections of the video. Below are a few of our early tests.

The most challenging task of the project , and in many device projects we work on, was rigging the WATCHMAN to correctly unfurl once deployed via a catheter into the LAA. This was accomplished with many of the great rigging, mograph and deformer tools native in Maxon’s Cinema 4D.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

MadMicrobe goes VIRAL! (Literally)

Beware Trick or Treaters… There are some scary creatures lurking in your neighborhood this evening—too small to be seen with the naked eye! We hope you enjoy this fiendishly fun little promo our team put together to help celebrate one of our favorite holidays.  Happy Halloween!