SGI: Computer Graphics

Does anyone work with geometry generated by CAT scans?

I'm handing one for the first time (a Tarbosaurus skull imported into Maya). And I'm having a few issues trying make a smooth-seeming (chrome) surface. I've done normal averaging, poly vertice averaging, lots of poly reduction, and the effect is still a bit weird looking.

What format is the scan saved as? Is this skull file created from a 3D scanner (via lasers etc..), or from an actual CAT scan? I've had some experience with CAT scans, but the software that I was using wasn't Maya. I believe it was OsiriX DICOM Viewer - a Mac program. I was only able to view them with the version of Osirix that I had. I wasn't able to export them.

You said that you are having a hard time creating a chrome looking surface. What does it look like now? Can you post a screenshot? Have you tried merging verticies or doing a polygon cleanup? Sometimes there may be non-manifold geometry that will cause strange things to happen to the look of the object. I don't find that reducing the polygons makes anything better. If anything, it makes it worse.

Forgot about this. Yeah, the file was converted to obj, and imported into Maya. For whatever reason, the UVs were really crazy mixed up kids, and resetting them fixed it.

Why do I always forget about UVs?

Anyway, reducing the polygons was going to be something did anyway, since the file only included the cranium and I was going to have to match its appearance to the mandible once I finished it. Here's where it's at now...

I can see what you mean about the original, but I don't think that the details of the original are in your smoother image. It seems that the entire shape has been scaled in on itself and all the details lost. I'm not sure what your end result is supposed to be though. Just out of curiosity, how many Polys were in the original OBJ file? What did you end up using for the chrome texture?
Looks good!

Thanks!

Actually, I'm after a simplified abstraction while maintaining all the relevant anatomic features (antorbital fenestra, postorbital fenestrae, the orbit and nares). Looking at it now, I think I should keep the teeth as they are in the original. So I really should CSG those out and use them later. *(This is rather more art than science. )

The chrome texture is a slightly modified from the original chrome shader in Maya.