The following post is a wild collection of different scientific illustrations, work in progress and experiments I did for a bunch of projects and customers. I mostly work with Cinema 4D and different render tools (Maxwell and Corona are my absolute favorites ever since, although the internal C4D render engine also rocks) but I still try to get used to Modo because I am highly impressed of the mesh quality that this tool is capable of. 

Test setup to simulate a combination of different camera focal distortions in one rendering. I used this scene also to get used to the historical correct construction of vaults. The building in the back is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s ideal city.

Rendering in Corona to picture the decay of human brain cells after heavy alcohol dependence syndrome (ICD-10/9 compatible). 

Sand simulation without particle emitter via a second noise generator (Gaussian combined with Perlin noise) in the material’s reflectance channel. The whole scene is rendered with one material. The different reflectance values (towers compared with dunes) are generated on the fly through slope vector changes (the higher the speed of changes, more noise is added).

Physical correct erosion simulation for a geography handbook. The erosion can be applied either via displacment map or via true geometry. The subdivision values can be edited on the fly.

Small project to force Corona to render wireframe models and shaded models in one render cycle with physical correct occlusion and shadows. Still highly in beta.

Fractal noise generation – demo in 3D-space