thanks all, I apologise for my poor explination but I think Stevie G is closest to what I mean.
What I am looking for is a CAT scanner (or MRI) simulator. These scanners reconstruct an image using volumetric techniques, so a slice through the body will appear 'solid'. If we did the same with lots of surface rendered anatomical models, a 'slice' through this type of body (I do this by putting a camera at the mouth of the tunnel and using a narrow camera clip range to simulate slice thickness) would reveal mostly blackness surrounded by a 'halo' of anatomical organ- either the inside or outside of the model (depending on which way the surface is bending at the time). However the interior appearance is mostly black, so it looks 'empty'.
This isnt so bad if the depth of field (the clip range) is very wide because you can see further into the inside of the model, but it looks a little unrealistic. What I tend to do here is combine the clipping plane with clipped fog so the inside 'fades away', but it still ends up looking black and empty.
I thought that if the camera clipping plane could be given world coordinates and if that the camera clip was eg. 5mm, then the model's interior surface (the inside)could be interactively reconstructed (stretched from one side of the exterior surface to the other side) say 2mm inside the camera clip, and that this interactive reconstruction could be matched on a plane parallel to the face of the camera, and move with the camera clip. This would give the appearance of a surface rendered model being 'solid'.
Its all a bit beyond me, but if the project takes off I will look into hiring someone to sort it out if its possible.
Cheers Shawnus
What I am looking for is a CAT scanner (or MRI) simulator. These scanners reconstruct an image using volumetric techniques, so a slice through the body will appear 'solid'. If we did the same with lots of surface rendered anatomical models, a 'slice' through this type of body (I do this by putting a camera at the mouth of the tunnel and using a narrow camera clip range to simulate slice thickness) would reveal mostly blackness surrounded by a 'halo' of anatomical organ- either the inside or outside of the model (depending on which way the surface is bending at the time). However the interior appearance is mostly black, so it looks 'empty'.
This isnt so bad if the depth of field (the clip range) is very wide because you can see further into the inside of the model, but it looks a little unrealistic. What I tend to do here is combine the clipping plane with clipped fog so the inside 'fades away', but it still ends up looking black and empty.
I thought that if the camera clipping plane could be given world coordinates and if that the camera clip was eg. 5mm, then the model's interior surface (the inside)could be interactively reconstructed (stretched from one side of the exterior surface to the other side) say 2mm inside the camera clip, and that this interactive reconstruction could be matched on a plane parallel to the face of the camera, and move with the camera clip. This would give the appearance of a surface rendered model being 'solid'.
Its all a bit beyond me, but if the project takes off I will look into hiring someone to sort it out if its possible.
Cheers Shawnus