The files for the project are quite large, it takes about 5 minutes to save the largest files. (I know, I know, of course a 32k x 32k image is going to take a long time, what did you expect? Well, I expect my computer to be magical, that’s all. The images for various zoom stages are composed separately (using the same outline as the basis to maintain consistency) and I will be substituting more detailed renderings as needed for the appropriate levels of magnification. I had them grouped as layers for a very short period of time, until it was clear that additional layers seemed to exponentially increase the time required to save my file. This may seem like child’s play to an experienced programer, but I am enjoying learning about it.

In order to be most compatible with the google API, the images are made with these particular pixel dimensions:

256 x 256 ——— 1x magnification
512 x 512 ——— 2x
1024 x 1024 —— 4x
2048 x 2048 —— 8x
4096 x 4096 —— 16x
8192 x 8192 —— 32x (slightly smaller than the 40x equivalent magnification
16,384 x 16,384 — 64x
32,768 x 32,768 — 128x (slightly larger than the 100x equivalent magnification)

I do realize these won’t be precisely accurate, since the first onion image is not exactly at life size – but the 1024 size gets closer to the actual size so I am rounding the estimated measurements up one degree (so the 16,384 is closer to the “40x equivalent”, and the 32k image will be rendered slightly smaller than “100x equivalent”). This should not be an issue for the cricket and for the Paramecium, since the 256 x 256 should be more than enough space for “life size” (a single slide, in the case of the unicellular organism). For larger life forms in the future, these measurements will be adjusted accordingly.

Prof. Kevin Ponto found software for splitting images into ready-made tiles for use in Google Maps API formats: Maptiler Free online, which promises incredibly quick working time: (2 minutes as opposed to 122 minutes, and half the finished file size). This program has very good prospects but is limited to 10,000 px images and it leaves a watermark on the image that is tiled. I will try this one to see how it compares to another free version from Mike Courturier: Tile Generator – test map loading this weekend, hopefully.

Maptiler Start: The next level (costs ~$28 USD, not bad) does not put a watermark on, but it is still limited to 10k pixels and requires(maybe?) 2 CPU cores. That end size will bring us to approximately 40x zoom, which equates to the lowest lens on a standard compound microscope. I have been developing the drawings at 32,768px, which gets me slightly above 100x magnification, which would be ideal. The highest level of magnification would be 400x magnification, but that may be reserved for the Paramecium… (which I probably should have started with, being a single-celled organism…)

Maptiler Pro: The next (and most expensive level at ~$560 USD) offers unlimited size, so I could get the zoom I want, but in addition to the hefty price tag it requires (maybe?) 4 CPU processors.

I think I’m willing to wait a few hours for images to tile. We’ll see though, perhaps a step up would be worth it.

Also posted on jwhisenant.wordpress.com

I have had several helpful conversations over the past week, and there have been many good thoughts and suggestions regarding this project.

Kandis Elliot – Scientific Illustrator: Botany Dept./Zoology Dept. 
Kandis had lots of advice and was very generous about sharing her process when approaching scientific illustration – after meeting with her I immediately went and made a reference sheet for Photoshop keyboard shortcuts (I knew the basics, but when you are able to fly through the toolset, it cuts your work time down significantly). We talked about information design, image rendering, and dinosaurs!

Sarah Friedrich – Scientific Illustrator and Media Specialist: Botany Dept.
It was very fun to speak with Sarah (after I went to the correct floor…) It is incredibly helpful to explain the scope of a project to different people, even just to articulate my own thought process out loud, as well as hearing alternate perspectives. We talked about layers of design (especially for organisms with multiple systems to represent: digestive/nervous/endocrine/etc) and were tossing around ideas of how that might be approached as a layering process to integrate the system representation, or if they would be completely separate.

Mike Clayton – Photographer/Collection Manager: Botany Dept.
An incredible resource for imaging suggestions – and generously offered the use of the Botany Dept compound microscope with a screen viewer, on Fridays. In addition to the comprehensive resources of the UW, he recommended looking for existing slides from Ripon Microslide for any specific botanical material. He has also compiled some fantastic images of plant material using a nice quality flatbed scanner (one of the many helpful tips: for 3D objects that you don’t want smashed against the glass: scan with an open top in a dark room – the resulting images are dramatically lit with a deep black background).

Some images from the UW collections: excellent reference points for 40x versus 100x magnification. Right now the only available slides are of root tips, so I am growing an onion from a common bulb in order to get leaf cell samples… (I had one in the kitchen but my industrious housemate discarded it… oh well) For the actual rendering, I am drawing one root’s worth and use it for the other root tips as well, adjusting for different curves, etc).

Marianne Spoon – Chief Communications Officer, Science Writer for the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery
We met to go over the scope and plans for this project. Marianne had some great presentation format suggestions – I had been focusing mainly on the individual images but she was talking about how viewers might encounter the image options on a hypothetical website (i.e. possibly in a compiled image with hotspots on an where people could click on an onion/cricket/etc and then go to the zoomable map view. She was also wondering if the image would go even farther out, zooming out to a room, a building, a country, a planet. Perhaps something to consider in the future – maybe seamlessly link to a separate zoom map, since my files are getting quite large just from a “lifesize” viewpoint! She made me really start thinking about the larger integration of these anatomical maps into their intended application or something that I might not have anticipated!

In other news, I have several reference drawings from our entomology lab cricket dissections last week, so I have started compiling initial sketches of the internal systems for an upcoming map.

(also posted on jwhisenant.wordpress.com)