Stem Cell Visualization

Artwork Finished Projects
1

As part of a school presentation, I thought I would apply some Blender skills to visualize stem cells. Here’s how I used the time:

Modelling: 30 min.
Sculpted sphere and nucleus with a subdiv.
Duplicating: 15 min.
Shading/Lighting: 2 hours (the right diffuse/volume/translucent/glossy blend took some doing)
Mainly I had problems with the nucleus visibility; I ended up using a ramped fresnel as the factor to mix glossy with refraction.
Render: 2 Hours, 1000 Samples (left it overnight).
I rendered into two layers; alpha mapped foreground and background.
Compositing: 15 minutes (early morning composting :D; I had some node groups that made life easier, so probably more like 1 hour)

final.jpg1920×1080 240 KB

Comments?

2

nice work man. the materials look good, very organic looking. Maybe some SSS to make the material look a little softer?

Looks really good though mate :slight_smile:

3

Thanks! I think you’re right; some SSS, and perhaps also a bit of work on the procedural surface could have helped.

Something to keep in mind for next time, I suppose :)!