Ribosomes were added to the rough ER using MASH distribution on mesh. There are about 6,000,000 ribosomes in a real mouse fibroblast (1) but only about 200,000 are simulated for this project.

Resources:​

• (1) Bionumbers.org: BNID 113783 - Yewdell JW, Reits E, Neefjes J. Making sense of mass destruction: quantitating MHC class I antigen presentation. Nat Rev Immunol. 2003 Dec3(12):952-61. DOI: 10.1038/nri1250 

The set of ER models were cut with booleans in ZBrush for this cross section. There are 2,000 nuclear pore complexes simulated here, a realistic number (2). The depth of field in the right image was done in After Effects using Frischluft Lenscare. The size and shape of the golgi was changed after feedback to better reflect an animal cell (right).

Resources:​

• (2) Bionumbers.org: BNID 111130  - Adam SA. The nuclear pore complex. Genome Biol. 2001 2(9):REVIEWS0007

I experimented with animating the budding and merging of the golgi using MASH-distributed nParticles. Originally I had hoped to show a cross-section of vesicles passing between cisternae, but that ended up being unnecessary, so we only see a static outer view in the final animation.

The nParticles in each cistern and bud were controlled with deform clusters. I tried several different amounts of particles, but at 90,000 nParticles, the simulation became very heavy and slow to work with, so even though some parts of the mesh still look holey, it wasn't feasible to increase the density of particles further. I was advised that the buds and stacks (left) were too thick, so the final animation uses a finer static model instead (right).

To get Blobert's main newspaper to fold and flap, I used an nCloth plane with the edges and centre constrained to a rig. This way, I was able to control the translation and folding of the newspaper while retaining the more subtle warping movements (left).

The falling and wrapping newspapers were accomplished using MASH reproMesh (highlighted in green, below) and a merge node. Originally I had planned to use nCloths, but MASH ended up being much easier to control. There was some clipping within the geometry, so I manually animated three newspapers to block most of the problem areas (highlighted in white, right).

For the newspaper print, I knew I wanted to design it myself and include references to my classmates' projects. Above (middle) is the first experiment with mapping an image made in Photoshop onto the newspaper plane (left). On the (right) is one of the final shots with newspapers wrapped around Blobert.

Below are the final outside and inside spreads that were mapped onto each side of the plane, made in InDesign and Photoshop. The headings and subheadings are in reference to my classmates' projects. For the images used within the newspaper, I quickly threw them together in Maya based on shots from those respective projects. The body text is taken from my project proposal.

In my previous website, I linked each article headline to a classmate's website, but I can't do that easily with this one. 🥲 

So here are individual links to those websites below:

Laser Baby Training Program Opens

Dinosaur Fossil Discovered with All Four Legs Stolen

How Big is a Cell?

Scrambling for Sugar

O Death, Where is Thy Sting?

Bat Flight Under Scrutiny

City in Peril after Power Plants Lose Resources

Hospital Waiting Rooms Fill with Comic Readers

New Genes Identified in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Medulloblastoma Researched Finally Escapes Hedge Maze

Mad Scientist Develops Super Virus Thanks to Online Module

Biostatistics No Longer Most Dreaded Course

Man Attempts to Fight Bacterial Infection by Doing Yoga

In Vitro Fertilization Lab Eggs Brought into Light

Student Wins 50th AMI Award for Beautiful Cells

Thousands of Tiny Trucks Discovered in Veins of Anemic Patients

Elderly Patients Excited to Attend Follow-Up Visits

Student Makes a Fortune over Pharma App

For the sandwiches, I started out by sculpting and assembling the individual ingredients. I initially tried to animate them with nCloth so I could get the deli meats to fold dynamically, but I ran into too many problems with objects clipping through each other (top left), and the simulation times began to rack up. So I decided to switch to MASH dynamics, which calculates much faster at the cost of the ingredients remaining stiff.

After all of the frames were rendered out of Maya, I composited them together in After Effects. Here I applied colour correction, motion tracking, text, sound, time remapping, 3D camera, depth of field, and I used masks to fix animation errors. Below is an example of the layers of renders and effects that went into a single frame of the final animation.

To thank you for scrolling all the way to the bottom, here is a blooper reel of many of the mistakes I managed to record during the production of this project. Many other mistakes were made, of course, but they were not as visually entertaining. Enjoy!