NeuronBuild 1.8

Written By Nicholas Woolridge

An animation of a neuron model built with NeuronBuild
From Neuromorpho file: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31095552
NeuroMorpho.Org ID: NMO_115383
Neuron Name: jy160630_A_idA
NeuroMorpho.Org Ascoli GA, Donohue DE, Halavi M. (2007) NeuroMorpho.Org: a central resource for neuronal morphologies.J Neurosci., 27(35):9247-51

I’m very happy to announce that I have released a new version of NeuronBuild, a python script plugin I created several years ago for Maxon’s Cinema4D, a 3D modelling, animation, and rendering application. NeuronBuild allows users to import neuron morphology data downloaded from neuromorpho.org, an online repository, and automatically generates accurate 3D models for use in science illustrations and animations.

A neuron model rendered with Arnold in C4D R21. Pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12160971 NeuroMorpho.Org ID: NMO_06193 Neuron Name: Pyramid-IIIC-2-5M-10 NeuroMorpho.Org Ascoli GA, Donohue DE, Halavi M. (2007) NeuroMorpho.Org: a central…

A neuron model rendered with Arnold in C4D R21.
Pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12160971
NeuroMorpho.Org ID: NMO_06193
Neuron Name: Pyramid-IIIC-2-5M-10
NeuroMorpho.Org Ascoli GA, Donohue DE, Halavi M. (2007) NeuroMorpho.Org: a central resource for neuronal morphologies.J Neurosci., 27(35):9247-51

What’s New:

  • I fixed an issue where astrocytes and other glia wouldn’t make a model.

  • I fixed some bugs where odd combinations of the options might create weird results

  • I added the ability to create a single spline object from all the dendrites, axons, etc. (and a single rail spline as well). This can be used as a proxy for the full model, or as a path for animations of signal impulses, or in a mospline object to create growth, etc. Right now these are created outside the main hierarchy, but I may want to change this...

  • I added options to put the model into a volume builder and volume mesher. This will simply create a single mesh that can be used for further modelling or to get better shaded results when rendering. NOTE: the resolution is set deliberately low, since the volume mesher could create many millions of polygons and potentially crash C4D if you are not careful. So, once the model is created, adjust the Voxel Size attribute of the Volume Builder object downward in increments until you are happy…

You can learn more, and download the script at Github.


Nicholas Woolridge