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Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Animation
Project Type
Media
Audience
3D modeling, Animation
Zbrush, Keyshot, After Effects
PKD Patients, General Public
A 3D animation depicting the progression of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), highlighting the early, mid, and late stages of the disease. The surrounding anatomical structures were also modeled to provide better context for anatomy, illustrating the relative positioning between the kidneys, nearby blood vessels, ureters, and adrenal glands.
Planning
Preliminary research was done to get a better understanding of PKD. I sketched out four different stages of the disease that I wanted to include in the final animation. I also sketched out a simple storyboard to visualize the progression of the condition and map out the transition between stages.
Sculpting
I first modeled the healthy kidneys and the surrounding anatomy (adrenal glands, ureter, inferior vena cava, abdominal aorta). I then modeled the late stage cysts first using the "Inflate" brush and proceeded to work my way backwards by scaling the cysts down into the healthy kidney model for each stage.
Colour & Polypainting
Each object was filled with a base colour followed by alpha painting the general details of the cysts. Further details were added through polypaint using reference images of the diseased kidney, and refined through alpha painting. For the other structures, I painted on minor details such as small blood vessels on the adrenal gland and ureter, and bits of fat around the kidney to recreate a realistic texture.
Rendering in Keyshot
I created the UV and texture maps for each model, then they were brought into Keyshot for rendering. The "Plastic" material was applied to all models with values adjusted accordingly. I then added lighting and environment before rendering the turntable animation of each stage of the kidney disease separately.
The final animation was edited in After Effects.
Animation
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