My role in the project

For my part I took on the challenge of animating the heart pumping, visualizing the flow of blood through the heart, and programming the application. To accomplish these tasks I used a combination of ZBrush, Maya, and Unity3D.

ZBrush

• Assisted group members in optimizing the heart model and creating UV, texture, and normal maps.
• Learned how to create blend shape animations within ZBrush by utilizing the layers function and exporting to Maya 2016.

Maya

• Developed a working knowledge of Maya's general interface.
• Created animated arrows to simulate the flow of blood using rigged models, IK splines, and spline animation.

Unity 3D

• Refined C# programming skills.
• Created an augmented reality and touch control interface.
• Learned how to create a cross section effect using a combination of a camera clipping plane and an unlit shader.
• Explored creating 2D blood flow animations using the trail renderer particle effect, was ultimately scrapped in favor of 3D arrows.
• Researched methods of incorporating 2D animations into the project that can be played on a mobile device.