DNA Animation-palooza
For my work with Kyle and Vincent in Ottawa, I wanted to showcase more of the interesting configurations of DNA rather than simply passing the DNA through the nanomembrane.
DNA Dual End Blockage and Clearage:
DNA Flossing:
DNA Stuck to nanofilter:
These are all fine to show the pore being blocked at multiple levels, but they don’t really capture the bending of the DNA polymer faithfully. To better animate this behavior, I changed my methods of animation, relying on shape keys (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zijo8ly6pyI) to modify the path of the DNA helix. An example is seen below, redoing a DNA translocation across the NPN
DNA NPN-ssNP translocation:
The contiguity and scale of the bending make it more believable than the rigid, tubular confinement of the path as animated previously. I’m also working on animating new concepts from the Ottawa group, where DNA can enter from ssNP membrane and be trapped in the nanocavity, forming a place where other molecules can be introduced and react.
DNA ssNP translocation:
DNA/MBP ssNP exit translocation:
Notice that there are bits of random motion to some of the red proteins. This was my first attempt to create brownian motion on our particles. The DNA will also experience these motions, but animating them on the long strand has been difficult.
DNA/MBP ssNP exit translocation + wiggle:
Combined with the shape-key animation demonstrated earlier, we have some better tools for animating this motion. The animation below shows an example of the path animation with random noise (blue), compared to the DNA as a rigid object with random noise scale, rotation, and locations (pink).
DNA ssNP translocation shape keys+wiggle:
If we want to make the other proteins diffuse in the chamber, we can imitate it with a particle system.
Adding some time before the DNA begins to move allows the particle system to have a better density/distribution of proteins (though this took twice as long to render).
We have the right concepts, now we need to tie it all together.