Maxon Computer, a developer
of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation, and rendering
solutions, announced that two of its customers, Nucleus Medical Art and
artist Betsy Kopmar, have created film projects using MAXON software
that are included in the prestigious SIGGRAPH Computer Animation
Festival. The Computer Animation Festival, celebrating its 36th year,
is an internationally renowned forum for presentation of the world’s
most innovative and stimulating computer-generated animated films;
festival screenings run through August 7. Nucleus Medical Art’s film,
"Atherosclerosis,” is part of the festival’s Juried Films category.
Juried Films include visual effects, animated shorts, student
animations, scientific and musical visualizations, experimental
subjects, and more. The Best in Show Award qualifies the winner to be
considered for nomination in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences Best Animated Short Film category.
Betsy Kopmar’s work, "Night Fishing with Cormorants,” is a curated entry in the Visual Music category, which features films marrying music and imagery. Nucleus Medical Art and Kopmar chose Maxon Cinema 4D to take their projects from concept to creation. Atherosclerosis, a three-and-a-half minute-long animation, provides a realistic view of how plaque forms within a coronary artery over time, eventually breaking free and causing a heart attack. The studio’s creative team relied on Cinema 4D’s Studio Bundle, particularly the MoGraph module, to develop the ultra-dense models required to create repeat structures, such as blood flow, LDL, and blood vessel walls made of hundreds of cells.
With realism paramount, Nucleus artists turned to Maxon BodyPaint 3D to simulate the texture of a living heart and utilized several other Cinema 4D modules, including HAIR, for generating cellular pseudopods, the arm-like extensions on cells, and Dynamics to create the natural bounce that occurs when migrating cells bump into each other.
Betsy Kopmar, painter, artist, animator, and instructor at Ex’pression College for Digital Arts, used Cinema 4D software to create her film “Night Fishing with Cormorants,” selected by the Computer Animation Festival Programming Committee for inclusion in the Visual Music category. Kopmar’s technique involves no sketches or storyboards; instead, she uses Cinema 4D’s Cappuccino motion sketch tool within the MOCCA module to draw freehand and then connects the sketches with MoGraph objects, particles, colors, and camera. The 3D renders are then mixed in Modul8, a VJ (video performance artist) software that allows Kopmar to work on footage clips in real-time and record to a QuickTime movie.
Screening Dates, Times and Locations
Atherosclerosis
(Screening within the Digital Schoolhouse Reel) Friday, August 7th 8:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom