Project:

This cover art was commissioned by Dr. Hayley L. Mickleburgh and Dr Noemi Procopio for the article titled: “Human Bone Proteomes before and after Decomposition: Investigating the Effects of Biological Variation and Taphonomic Alteration on Bone Protein Profiles and the Implications for Forensic Proteomics.” The cover art visualizes the application of forensic proteomics for postmortem interval and age-at-death estimation. The skeleton is a CGI rendering of one of the donors that was captured using photogrammetry, and the butterfly symbolizes the effects of decomposition outdoors on the body. The call out from the pelvic sampling location shows the significant proteins identified in this study, embedded in the bone matrix, which is likely an important variable in protein recovery. The study revealed variability in bone protein profiles due to time since death, age, and biological differences. This cover was created in collaboration with Sarah Gluschitz.

I was responsible for the CG scene creation, including all lighting, texturing, and rendering. The scene was created in  MaxonCinema 4D, and rendered with Redshift. Protein models were acquired from the protein database and exported as a 3D mesh from UCSF Chimera.
Compositing and final layout was completed by Sarah Gluschitz in Adobe Photoshop. 

3D Render

Final Design

You can view the entire article and cover for free on the ACS Publications website