Cashing in on 3D dreams

An Irish animation company is building a business producing scarily realistic animated images in 3D for the medical industry

PICTURES OF human torsos stripped clean of flesh to reveal the skeleton and organs; red blood cells racing along arteries; or skulls opened to reveal intact brains are all easily conjured up on your desktop with the help of the Science Picture Company.

The Irish firm creates and licenses high-quality three-dimensional (3D) animated images using the latest computer-generated imagery (CGI) tools similar to those used to make such blockbuster films as Avataror Transformers, says company director and co-founder Michael Grant.

There is a growing number of 3D animation companies springing up across Ireland, but most of them specialise in cartoons and animation for children. Grant and co-founders Eoin Winston and Eoin Kavanagh took a different direction, targeting the medical and science markets when they set up their animation company in 2008 and it has proved to be a good choice, says Grant.

Based at the Digital Hub in Dublin, the Science Picture Company employs three people full-time and has one part-time worker. It brings in consultants and specialist services when needed. “We are hoping to hire more people later this year,” says Grant.

The men have backgrounds in animation, Grant at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and Winston at Ballyfermot College of Further Education. The former then started to work in animation and later architectural visualisation, and the latter moved into scientific animation.

Grant admits to no prescience when he decided in 2006 – just as the property crunch came – to move away from the architectural sector into something new. The two were working in the same animation company and they got the idea of starting a business. “We decided we wanted to get out and do it for ourselves,” says Grant.

They had experience in the medical and sciences areas and knew that these sectors were attracting a great deal of finance, both for research but also as a result of commercialisation of discoveries. “It did seem like a good opportunity. Science and medicine seemed like areas that were going to grow,” he said.

How right he was. About 90 per cent of the company's current output is for clients based abroad, including Sky News, News Corp, New Scientist, the new iPad-based news publication The Daily, online news service Republica and others. Their customers are "anyone who uses medical or science related images," Grant says.

The delivery of still and video 3D animation depends on access to high-quality software and hardware, he says. “It is similar to what you see in special effects in films and 3D animation from Pixar (the animation studios). Computer animation can make things simple and quick.”

It still all starts with the skill of an artist, but it is more like sculpture than drawing, he says. On-screen drawings are developed and while under construction can be shaved and moulded like clay. “You can literally chisel out the shapes you want on the computer,” says Grant. “But at every stage it depends on artistic skill.”

Once completed, the real power of CGI comes into effect. The image can be viewed from any angle as an imaginary camera pivots over the on-screen image. It can be sliced in half or portions can be extracted and expanded to create a final still.

Animated video clips can also be developed from these still frame starting points, he says. The software is told what to do with individual image components and they follow the “rules” established for them by the artist. This allows blood cells to flow along the on-screen blood vessels as if they had been filmed.

Clients are finding new ways to use the expertise provided by the company, he says. Companies making medical devices have brought them secret new designs that the artists first “draw” onto the screen. Then the medical context in which they are set can be animated to produce a video clip that shows how the device works.

“I think this is going to offer huge potential for companies to use 3D to go beyond still images. They can use the more dynamic moving images,” says Grant.

The applications go much further, however, if expanded out into any context where 3D images might effectively be used to demonstrate a new product. It could involve mechanical parts in a car or illustrating how volcano ash might cause damage to turbine blades.

The company has developed a stock of 4,000 still images for science and medical areas and is producing new video clips to complement these. It can therefore act as a source for stock stills and video but can also provide services to companies involved in medical or scientific research to help illustrate what they do.

Grant does not rule out the possibility of involvement in classic animation in the future. “We are still very involved with anything to do with 3D animation. It is our roots,” he says.