Digging Up the Past
Year
2024
Project type
3D Design
Primary Audience
General Lay Audience
Client
Shay Saharan
Medium
Magazine Editorial
Tools
Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Zbrush, Procreate
Description
The recent discovery of ancient sex-chromosome aneuploidy uncovers the earliest known cases in human history. Through burial site analysis, insights into how these individuals were treated postmortem provides key information how these individuals were integrated within their societies. This editorial piece aims to creatively and narratively conveys the findings of this study, emphasizing the intersection of genetic science and historical anthropology.
Preproduction
The preproduction phase began by exploring variations of ideas that represented the study but maintained a focus of narrative in an indirect manner. During this stage, several concepts were developed, focusing on the overarching themes and visual shapes that would ultimately inform the final composition.
This was followed by a composition sketch to identify the 3D assets in the piece.
Once the 3D assets were identified, block-outs of the inorganic models were designed and created in Maya, while organic shapes were sculpted in ZBrush. Anatomical structures were derived from data-scanned sets, cleaned in ZBrush, and imported into the Maya scene for production. At this stage, the focus was on refining form design and addressing any troubleshooting needs to ensure a cohesive workflow.
Production
The 3D models were refined and finalized within the Maya scene, with chromosomes extruded, beveled, and framed to align with the composition sketch. The scene was then exported as a PNG and brought into Illustrator to establish the layout and make necessary adjustments to the composition. Materials were applied to the models, and the final adjustments were incorporated during the compositing stage to complete the piece.
Reference: Anastasiadou, K., Silva, M., Booth, T., & others. (2024). Detection of chromosomal aneuploidy in ancient genomes. Communications Biology, 7(14). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05642-z