The Power of Procedural Animation
Why do innovations in 3D animation technology for Pharma matter? Your medical reviewer has just finished their review of the MOA animation you commissioned. This is the final review and the video goes live in a week. They previously reviewed and signed off on the storyboard and rough cut animation, with minor changes—mostly to the voiceover. But now they want a key visual changed late in the game and you’re frustrated and worried. You know this change will be costly and will likely blow your deadline. Or will it?
You pass the feedback on to your medical animation company and are pleasantly surprised by their response: “No problem. We built the whole peripheral nerve scene procedurally. We can dial up the number of axons and adjust those nodes of Ranvier with the push of a button. Here are a few variations for your medical reviewer to consider. And don’t sweat it, we’ll make that change and deliver the video on schedule.” You relax and breathe a sigh of relief. You’re happy you chose to work with a medical animation studio that continuously innovates.
In the world of medical animation, technological innovations play a pivotal role. They push the boundaries of scientific visualization and meet the demands of stretched scientific communications and medical affairs teams. By innovating medical animation workflows with procedural tools, medical animation companies like AXS Studio are delivering more impactful visualizations with greater flexibility and responsiveness for clients.
AXS 3D Medical Artist Brad Kwarta, our resident procedural animation guru, shares his thoughts on how incorporating automated tools in our workflow can provide unprecedented flexibility and efficiency.
Procedural Modeling: Flexibility in Medical Animation Creation
Traditionally, the process of creating complex organic models required labor-intensive sculpting done using conventional 3D software tools. Once completed, these models were often limited in modification options, making subsequent changes potentially costly and time-consuming. Procedural modeling has effectively revolutionized the way 3D modeling is done by enabling artists to make edits on the fly. Instead of meticulously crafting every detail by hand, procedural modeling tools work by following a set of rules. These rules, like a recipe, are encoded to generate complex scenes automatically. Just like tweaking the ingredients in a recipe, the medical animator can adjust parameters or add new elements. The tool responsively updates the model or environment. The learning curve for procedural techniques can be steep and challenging. Nonetheless, investing in the creation of custom workflow tools saves time and allows for endless possibilities in creative exploration.
“Mastering procedural modeling has allowed for significantly more flexibility in art direction with certain projects. Whereas previously some things had to be done entirely by hand, now medical animators can create non-destructive procedural workflows, and iterative changes to certain assets can be achieved within minutes, as opposed to hours,” Brad explains. “After programming the custom model, I can adjust the inputs to dramatically change the branching structure of peripheral nerves, or turn a group of spheres into a realistic epithelium with any topology.”
This procedural animation tool enables the quick generation of cellscapes with editable history, so that we can easily change parameters and change the downstream result.
Combining custom procedural tools to efficiently create a complex blood vessel environment.
Integrating with the Medical Animation Pipeline
Custom procedural animation tools don’t operate in isolation. They integrate with existing 3D programs, ensuring a smooth exchange of assets and data. “This reduces the need to hop between software applications, which can be time-consuming and technically complicated,” Brad says. “It also allows those proficient in procedural techniques to build tools for other team members. Everyone on our team is able to leverage powerful and versatile procedural tools, without needing to be an expert in tool creation.”
The efficiency that custom procedural workflows provide is undeniable. In the realms of scientific animation and medical animation precision is paramount and timelines are tight. Procedural animation enables animation teams to make real-time, art-directable changes to assets. And they reduce the time traditionally spent on manual adjustments. “For the same number of work-hours put in,” Brad points out, “we can create significantly more realistic and visually interesting assets and environments than before.”
Molecular modeling and data-driven protein conformation changes using Protein Data Bank (PDB) data
With this procedural DNA modeling tool, medical animators generate editable DNA geometry with customizable base pair sequences.
Charting New Paths with Procedural Animation
Using procedural animation workflows, medical animators are expanding the repertoire of reusable, procedurally generated assets. “At AXS Studio, we use procedural tools to model may tissues and biological activities. These include angiogenesis, cell fields, apoptosis, complex branching systems, particle simulations, and art-directable nerve cells,” Brad says. “We’re working on using procedural tools to: read PDB files; develop more complex branching tools; further improve upon apoptosis assets; create more realistic cell division; and build membranes that allow for improved vesicle budding. In the future, we’ll keep building upon our skills and asset library by taking full advantage of what procedural animation has to offer.”
Manipulating custom modeling elements to create procedurally generated branching growth.
Innovation in 3D Animation Benefits Pharmaceutical Clients
For scientific communications and medical affairs teams the benefits of working with medical animation companies that innovate with 3D animation technology are significant. Custom procedural workflows enable fast experimentation with complex cellular and molecular scenes to create visually compelling videos. The ability to swiftly iterate complex organic 3D models means enhanced flexibility in representing intricate scientific data and unprecedented responsiveness as project requirements evolve. Just take the example of the relieved Medical Affairs Director who didn’t have to blow their budget or timeline, thanks to the flexibility afforded by a procedural animation setup. It was a peripheral nerve in that example. The next time, it may be how a key molecule is depicted (eg. more or less atomic detail). With procedural modeling, the medical animator(s) can provide you with a few options and make the change, without delaying the project or adding cost.
Setting up a procedural animation network to simulate tumor growth.
In skilled hands, advances in procedural tools and techniques are enabling continued innovation in 3D animation technology for pharmaceutical animation. For medical affairs and scientific communications professionals, this translates to exciting and accurate visualizations, with the peace of mind that flexibility brings.
