This character model was created in 3D Maya, primarily as a way to experiment with several concepts in modeling, texturing, and rigging I had recently learned. For example, I included IK/FK switches in the arms, and stretch controls in the arms, legs, and spine that can be turned off and on as needed, subsurface scattering to give the characters skin a more realistic look, and nCloth dynamics to simulate the hair and a red dress, to name a few.
In December 2011 I was hired by Paul Dutchak, Ph.D., a researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, to come up with a creative way to distill his research about fat metabolism and the protein FGF21 into an interesting image. Dr. Dutchak’s paper was accepted for publication in the journal Cell, and he was invited to submit an image related to his research to be considered for the cover. After much collaborative brainstorming, we came up with the idea to make a cartoon based on Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.
In November 2011 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science’s Discover Days reptile exhibit. Each of my classmates and I was responsible for building, rigging, animating, and rendering our reptile of choice in 3D Maya. We collaborated to develop an interactive application in Adobe Flash that would give kids a fun way to explore the animated reptile models we created. I was responsible for developing the ActionScript 3.0 needed for the interactive functionality of our final project.
