maya’s blog

I haven’t written much about medical illustration lately, so I thought I would just check in.  I have been very busy at work.  Mostly with very good stuff - interesting projects - but just a lot.  Without giving away any proprietary information, here are some of the things I am working on:Short product animations are being created for monitors we display at our trade show booths.  When finished, they can also be used on the corporate website, in presentations, and on mobile devices.  I storyboard and plan them out with my bosses, and get approval from various product managers to make sure we are showing off the product correctly.  Then I use 3Ds Max, Photoshop, and After Effects to put together a “short clip”.  For the volume I can’t handle, we have been getting help from David Killpack, an excellent medical illustrator and animator in the Dallas area who builds animations in a similar manner (although I suspect he is faster than me) following our direction and boards.  Dave will also offer feedback and advice if he thinks we need to consider an alternate solution.  It is very nice to have this resource, although of course I am limited in how much I can send out.  At the moment, there are about 10 of these (15-30 seconds each) in various stages of completion, and each one is more urgent than the next, so I am looking forward to getting them finished.Another large project has been doing some 3d illustrations for a couple of operative techniques.  The process is pretty enjoyable - I manipulate the view in 3d and then take still renders for print, which I touch up in Photoshop before handing them over to a designer.  The challenge here is that the product  I am depicting has a million little pieces that I assemble for each shot.  I can’t wait to do these for some of our simpler devices!On the illustration front, I have a couple of slick, nicely rendered pieces to do, that will be used for ads and sales sheets.  These are what I most enjoy.  I hope that after the show season finishes (we exhibit a lot from October-March), I will have time to do a lot more of this type of work.  I begin with a sketch, then make a nice pencil drawing to scan in, or alternatively make a 3d still rendering, and then do my painting work in Photoshop.  Sometimes I will blend product photography into the final as well, depending on the desired outcome.Finally, I have some line illustrations on my to-do list.  These are to fill in gaps in an update to an existing operative technique.  They will be satisfying in their simplicity.