One of the biggest challenges I'm facing with the project is that 3D models are not actually 3D. For example, if the camera's clipping plane were to intersect an object you would see right through it and it would only appear to be paper thin. In other words, meshes don't have density or thickness associated with them, they are simply surface topology. This issue is especially crippling when trying to create software that is designed to go inside an object (in this case the human body) and explore its internal composition.

This rendering shows one possible solution to the problem:



Download video here

MRI scans courtesy of University of Washington Digital Anatomist Program


I call this technique deep rendering. I basically stacked graphical cross-sections (in this case, MRI rendering data), using proper increments and clipped through them with the camera. This way I am able to explore all internal components in full 3D real-time.

I actually was able to figure out how to colorize different organs to help distinguish them apart but couldn't get the shader to render real-time in Maya. Even if I had, this solution to the problem has very serious limitations so I probably won't be using it. An even better solution is to use geometry shaders which I plan to explore next so stay tuned...