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Zygote’s Heart 3.0 is a triumph of art and medicine

Amongst the greatest challenges of the digital content creation community is creating accurate models of something as complex as the human body. Most approach it like artists, looking at source material and replicating it best they can. One small company, Zygote, approaches the challenge like scientists. They have set out to create accurate and detailed 3D models of our biological world, from the smallest microbes to a complex 3D model of an entire human body.

Zygote’s latest model of a heart, posted on their website www.3dscience.com is their latest triumph. Zygote’s Heart 3.0 the first and only model of a heart to use MRI and CT scans as source material, making it the most accurate 3D heart ever. This is emblematic of what is certain to be a booming field of DCC - 3D medical visualization - which is used both for entertainment and education. As the biotech industry continues to evolve and expand there will be an increasing need to disseminate and visualize information in the most accurate and communicable way possible, through 3D.

To better understand this growing and important sector of DCC, I shot questions to Bryan Brandenburg, CEO and Chief Science Officer of Zygote, and Roger Clarke, VP of Production at Zygote.

Zygote’s Heart 3.0 – the most accurate 3D model of a heart to date

Scientific Method

As should be expected from Zygote, possibly the only DCC company whose CEO also holds the title “Chief Science Officer”, the approach to mapping the 3D heart was incredibly scientific. Like mentioned before, they used CT scans and MRIs, instead of a model, to develop the geometric templates of the heart. The medical data they used enabled them “to determine tissue thickness, precise valve placement and true human heart shape”. Their textures are also “photo-real”, and were lifted “using source from human as well as pig specimens”. (Pigs and humans are anatomically very similar.)

Amazingly, their Heart 3.0 includes “deformation maps, deforming the surfaces of the geometry with bumps and indentations for anatomical features such as coronary circulation, fatty deposits and tissue textures”. In the coming year they will also create simulations of abnormal heart beats and “coronary pathologies effecting only portions of the cardiac cycle”. This means if you’re working on a project for, say, heart disease, they’ve got the model all ready for you. It also leverages “contemporary research” to ensure that all ventricular torsion motions and “the appropriate degree of twisting apex to base” were accurate. To be honest, I’m still not sure what that all means, but such scientific accuracy matters deeply for an audience that does.

The heart model was the first created using MRI/CT scans, but Zygote plans to make this standard for the rest of their products. They note that they are already “known for the most medically accurate models available for license”, but the “heart release provides a glimpse of the future of our next generation products”.


Artistic Tools

One may be surprised to find that although the source data came from MRIs, CT scans, and pig hearts, that many of the tools they used are run-of-the-mill 3D modeling programs. All the 3D work was done primarily with four tools: Maya, Cinema 4D, Mirai, and Modo. Brandenburg and Clarke were sure to pay compliments to Cinema 4D, noting that they loved “the texturing tools found within Cinema 4D’s paint package Body Paint”.

Zygote’s Heart 3.0 also comes ready for animation. They created morphs for the heart, so no rigging was necessary. It is available and compatible with most major 3D toolsets.

This goes to show how advanced the average 3D art program has become. It is now advanced enough to ensure the 3D accuracy demanded by a 3D medical visualization company like Zygote.


Many and Growing Uses

Already, Zygote’s models have made their way into educational settings, such as classrooms and textbooks, as well as into the realm of entertainment on the big screen. Their anatomy model has been on display in Sony Picture’s Hollow Man, in shows such as “Miracle Workers” and “Law and Order”, and will be in an upcoming IMAX movie. Its been used for magazines like Scientific American, TIME, and Business Week. Their models have even been used by the US Military. Apparently everywhere there’s someone looking to accurately visualize some part of the human body.

The models don’t come cheap to the individual buyer. But at $1,200, the model of a human heart is a bargain for a production studio, magazine, or textbook publisher who would otherwise have to tackle the Herculean task of modeling something as complex as the human heart by itself, with its own artists.

As the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors continue to become one of the largest parts of our economy, the need to visualize anatomy and biology will become all the more important. It helps medical students learn, corporations demonstrate product ideas, and regular people understand in an uncomplicated way exactly how advanced medical processes work. The more accurate their models get, the more Zygote will be contributing to this important and growing field.

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-- Jacob Heller, DCCCafe.com Contributing Editor.

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