Columns:: Campus Closeup

since 12/15/98

Columns::August 20, 2001

UGA receives more than $54 million in new gifts, pledges
Consultants: Pay and classification system should be revamped
Collaborative effort begins
Montana administrator chosen to lead UGA’s international programs
Moving experience
New assistant dean named for Tifton ag and environmental sciences
Kudos
Great universities require great faculty leadership
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Campus Closeup

According to computer-aided design specialist Thel Melton, the most challenging parts of his job are learning animal anatomy and keeping up with changes in the software he uses to create models and animation for medical illustration. Photo by Peter Frey

THEL MELTON
Computer-Aided Design Specialist
Educational Resources
College of Veterinary Medicine

TIME IN CURRENT POSITION: Two years.

JOB DESCRIPTION: “I use a computer to create three-dimensional models and animation of animal anatomy for medical illustration. I can show organs, bones or the nervous system of an animal from multiple sides, and I can animate them to show any kind of change or motion. What I like to say is, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then animation is worth a thousand pictures.
“The first job I did showed the different types of colic in a horse, which can result from a twisted intestine. I animated the twisting of the intestine to help teach students and show our clients who bring their horses here what is actually going on inside the horse. A 3-D illustration makes the process so much easier to understand.
“Right now we’re working on a big project to show what happens inside wounds while they’re healing--what happens down in the layers of the skin when a cut or a scratch occurs.”

A TYPICAL DAY AT WORK: “I start with a storyboard--little thumbnail sketches on paper. Then I move into the modeling stage where most of my time is spent, working on a graphics computer that creates objects in 3-D or animates them. The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and the toys in Toy Story used the same program.
“The first thing we try to do when a faculty member brings in a project is to see if 3-D is really necessary. Could we teach this using 2-D animation? We all have our strong suits here in educational resources, and a lot of projects require everybody’s input. We’ve got medical illustrators, graphic designers and photographers.
“Most of my work boils down to getting on the screen what’s in my head. The final product that I give to the faculty is usually a CD containing a QuickTime movie.”

MOST REWARDING PART OF MY JOB: “When faculty members come in, and I see their faces just kind of light up. Or when a student says, ‘Oh, okay, now I see.’ To see that light bulb go off above someone’s head when they finally understand something because they can see it from all sides, that’s probably the most rewarding thing.”

MOST CHALLENGING PART OF MY JOB: “I have to keep learning anatomy and what’s happening in the body. Every time somebody brings in a new project, there are new problems to solve.
“Keeping up with changes in the software is tough, too. They upgrade it about every nine months. It’s a very complex program. All kinds of special effects.”

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE: “I started at University Printing as an artist and taught myself to use a Macintosh computer. About five years later, I came to educational resources. When a faculty member had a project that needed 3-D animation, we got an inexpensive program and started messing around with it. And that’s how it began.”

IF I WAS NOT DOING THIS JOB, I WOULD MOST LIKE TO: “Work in industrial design--redesigning things to make them more efficient.”

OFF-THE-JOB INTERESTS: “I have a bunch of them. I like white water canoeing, I’m a home brewer, a Georgia Bulldogs football fan--I only miss about one game a year--and I love golf.”

FAVORITE MUSIC: “I’d say alternative or rock. But I like just about everything.”

A BOOK I WOULD RECOMMEND TO OTHERS: “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. It’s British humor.”

THE PERSON I MOST ADMIRE: “My father. He put family first and made a lot of sacrifices for our family. He passed away about three years ago, but he’s still with us--with my brother, my sister and me.”

THE ISSUE THAT CONCERNS ME MOST ABOUT TODAY’S WORLD: “I think we have our social priorities mixed up. People we count on most--firemen, police officers, teachers--are the people who get paid the least, while entertainers get ridiculous amounts of money and complain when they don’t.
“To me that seems backwards. When baseball players go on strike because they’re not making enough millions, that seems wrong to me.”

--Dot Sparer

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Beth Roberts: Columns editor, Juliett Dinkins: Columns managing editor,
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