How to Make a 3D Cell Model

It is often difficult to relate a complex concept using words alone. Sometimes a visual representation can convey facts in a way that is more easily understood and remembered. One example of this would be attempting to describe the inner workings and parts of a living cell. Simply describing cell membranes and DNA without an image is far less effective than when your description is accompanied by illustrative graphics. One way to provide such graphics is to use a 3D modeling program to create a CGI model of a cell that can be rotated and examined. Creating a 3D model can be broken done into three different tasks.

Instructions

1. List all the parts of a cell (organelles), looking at images of these parts and drawing sketches of how you might want your model and its parts to look. You need to decide just how detailed you want our model to be. Although the images of cells as seen though microscopes are virtually colorless, it is a good idea when designing your model to plan on adding a different color for each of the parts to differentiate them from each other. This is an approach often used in anatomy books to show the various organs of the body.

2. Open a 3D modeling program. For the purposes of the article, Hexagon will be used, but any basic modeler can do this as well. Let's say you want to begin by creating the outer cell membrane. With the program open, click on the "Primitives" tab and select the "Sphere." Now use the mouse to draw a sphere in the scene. Go to the "Properties" panel and increase the divisions in the sphere to 30-40. Click "Validate."

3. Use the scaling function of the Universal Manipulator to change the object to better reflect the shape you are aiming for. For instance, a human blood cell is roughly the shape of a doughnut, except that instead of a hole in the middle, there is an indentation. Now change the selection mode to "Points" and start selecting points on the model. Use the "Universal Manipulator" to change the position of each to create your cell.

4. Use the mouse to select all the polygons on one side of the model and delete them. Select the "Surface Modeling" tab and click on the "Thickness" icon. In the "Properties" panel adjust the thickness. Since you are trying to relate concepts rather than exact relative sizes, make the thickness what you want.

5. Click on "Smoothing" and the shape will become more curvy and organic. Create all the inner parts of the cell in the same way. You can use "Cylinders" from the "Primitives" tab to create the "ties" linking the two halves of the spiral DNA. Once you have each part made and moved inside the cell half, go to the "Materials" tab on the left and change the color of each part to what you want it to be. Then export your model as a Wavefront OBJ file for rendering.

References

• The Cell