BROOKLINE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gaël McGill, founder & CEO of Digizyme Inc., today announced the launch of Clarafi (www.clarafi.com), a new science visualization hub that offers high quality training, innovative software, courses, and curated resources for scientists, graphics professionals, students and educators. As both a community and an online learning resource, Clarafi offers software visualization tools and resources that empower successful communication and learning of science concepts.
“Science visualization is a rapidly growing field and Digizyme’s team is in a unique position to support this community,” shared McGill. “The idea for Clarafi grew out of the enthusiastic response to the www.molecularmovies.com website and custom Molecular Maya software that we launched over eight years ago. We believe that the relevance of these techniques and the explanatory power of visualization tools is in increasing demand, as scientists expand their audiences, and classrooms of all levels increase their use of digital media and tools.” Building on this inspiration, the widely-used Molecular Movies Showcase, currently a popular resource for teachers, students and scientists, will be transformed into the Clarafi Showcase, and will continue to grow as a curated collection presenting “the best of science viz.”
The scope of Clarafi is broader, however, as the site will help democratize access to complex software tools and techniques previously less accessible to the average student, scientist, or illustrator. Among the innovative courses offered are “Molecular Simulation for Visualization,” “Introduction to ZBrush for Scientific Visualization,” “Storyboarding for Scientific Visualization” and a series of ‘behind the scenes’ tutorials, all of which will expand and strengthen the skillset of any participant.
As part of this debut and democratization initiative, Clarafi will also be the new home of Molecular Maya (mMaya), Digizyme’s plug-in for Autodesk Maya that enables users to import and animate molecular data. “We are particularly excited to announce the creation of a series of kits that greatly enhance mMaya’s functionality in areas such as molecular modeling, rigging & simulation and the automated creation of molecular environments,” says McGill.
Upon seeing mMaya’s first kit to be released at the launch of Clarafi – the dsDNA kit – molecular animator Drew Berry said, "Suddenly my arcane, multi-program pipeline for creating DNA animations became obsolete. Now in two clicks anyone can create beautiful, accurate DNA that's dynamic and fully interactive. In two clicks! With this kind of foundation for biomedical visualizations, it's mind-boggling to speculate on what's now possible, and what's coming next."
New courses will be launched on a monthly basis, and will serve to unite audiences across the science visualization profession, by building skill sets that reach beyond the lab, or expand the skill set of illustrators or animators focused on science explanations. Alongside these resources, Clarafi will enable idea exchange and professional development via membership tools and content sharing, and will incorporate community feedback into future growth.
Clarafi membership is free with registration, and both training courses and mMaya kits will be available for purchase (while the base version of mMaya will remain free). Student pricing will also be available.
Digizyme (www.digizyme.com) is a privately held Boston-based science visualization company founded in 1999. Digizyme innovates at the intersection of science, technology, art and learning to create accurate and effective visual context for understanding science. Team members combine graduate-level training in the life sciences with industry-leading skills in animation, experience design and software development. Our projects include digital textbooks, multimedia for museums, marketing/communication for life sciences companies, science curricula and innovative visualization software tools and training.