Professionals Geoff Cheung and Joyce Hui host a Reddit Q&A on their careers in the medical illustration and animation field
Intro
Back in September of 2020, two professional medical illustrators, Geoff Cheung and Joyce Hui hosted a Reddit AUA where they answered questions about what it’s like working in the medical illustration and animation field. Below is a summary of some interesting tips and quotes from the session.
About Geoff Cheung
Geoff Cheung is a prolific medical and scientific illustrator, animator and visualizer. He operates Carbon Coded Studios, is a collaborator at Digizyme Inc., and an instructor on the BioViz portal, Clarafi.com. Check out his latest biomedical work the Carbon Coded instagram!
About Joyce Hui
Joyce Hui is Head of Art & Design at AXS Studio Inc., where she has worked for 9 years in a highly competitive and successful 3D medical animation studio specializing in visualizations for the pharmaceutical, and surgical device industries. Check out her work on her portfolio site and instagram.
There were a lot of questions about their typical day of work as medical illustrators. Here are some of Geoff and Joyce’s responses to those type of questions as well as tips on how to avoid burnout:
“Typical day(s) for myself can be quite varied. Because I primarily do contract work, I wear many hats. I might be storyboarding for an animation one day, modeling/ rigging/ animating another, or just focusing on a single illustration. Having graduated from one of the Medical Illustration programs, I was trained in all aspects of Medical Illustration and Animation production from start to finish. Depending on how specialized you want to become, your workday may look quite different than mine.”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
”Hello! I work in a small studio, so I also tend to wear many hats! I’m usually on several projects at the same time, and my time is split between art directing, doing previz (storyboarding animations, putting together wireframes for interactive projects), doing UI/UX design, creating illustrations, and performing management tasks. A lot of my day involves collaborating with my talented coworkers. My hours are typically 9–5:30, but because our work is project-based, there can be some longer days.”
Joyce (rurupoi)
“Day-to-day I mentioned somewhere on here that my role varies. I’m involved in many aspects of production given my role as a contractor. Perhaps Joyce will have more to add here.
Burnout is definitely very real! I have to admit it was a learning process for myself, learning when to stop. On one hand, there’s the perfectionist side where you want to create good work, and you tend to keep going. On the other, you’re dealing with responsibilities and expectations from coworkers and from clients. I don’t feel I have much advice except to say, “know your value and learn to say no.”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
”At the studio I work at, it’s all project-based so the amount of work can fluctuate, so there isn’t really a day-to-day routine.
Echoing Geoff, burnout is definitely an issue! The advantage of working in a studio is having the support of a team, so the production coordinator and managers will (hopefully) try their best to make sure workloads are reasonable.”
Joyce (rurupoi)
It was also useful to learn about how Geoff and Joyce entered into the field of medical illustration:
“Hi! I did my undergraduate in Biology (BScH) at Queen’s University with a focus on animal physiology. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue a Master’s in biology, and I’ve always enjoyed art, so I took a year off after graduating and enrolled in a few art courses at the Toronto School of Art. During that time, I learned about the Biomedical Communications program at the University of Toronto (MScBMC), and thought that would be a really great way to combine my interests in both science and art. I decided to put together a portfolio and applied (successfully)! After graduating, I joined AXS Studio and have been there since.”
Joyce (rurupoi)
”I also happened to go to Queen’s University for a BScH in Life Science. I was very lucky. In my first year, I had tried to take on art classes, but they weren’t able to accommodate me. A counsellor suggested I speak with the Anatomy Department because she had heard through the grapevine that they might need help. I spoke with a Dr. Ron Easteal who along with his colleagues were extremely happy to bring me on to help them with their course materials. By that stroke of luck, I was actually hired to help illustrate for their anatomy course. I know other students before me and since have worked with the department.
As a result of my work, when I started a research course in my last year in undergrad, I was tasked to investigate and create illustrations of the female rat pelvic anatomy. You can see one of those pieces posted in the subreddit.
I think moral of this story, aka my advice, is to get out there, speak with counsellors, mentors, and professors. Start building connections because you never know when they might come in handy!”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
A lot of people asked for their advice for those interested in studying medical illustration. Geoff and Joyce has sage advice:
“Disclaimer: Having gone through one of the graduate programs, my opinion will be very biased. I think the graduate programs are extremely good at providing students with the skills and knowledge to succeed in the industry. The greatest value is how they train us to approach and solve different communications problems, problems that are very specific to science and medicine. For example, we often are depicting things that are not easily captured or seen to begin with. How we synthesize data and turn that into something ‘visible’ can be tricky because you don’t want to mislead or miscommunicate a particular aspect of the science.
Of course, I work with a brilliant bunch of colleagues many of which have not come into medical illustration from one of those programs. So yes, it definitely can be done! Generally, many of these colleagues are experts in their own respective fields, and they come in by offering that expertise.”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
“Hi there! My suggestion would be to keep practicing. If you have access to anatomical specimens where you work, that could be a great way to practice drawing anatomy, since you can observe and draw the specimen from different angles (versus only referencing books). I would suggest using reputable sources as references, such as anatomy atlases (there are a lot of incorrect medical illustrations on the internet!)
It might also be helpful to take an anatomy course – learning about the function of anatomical structures can help strengthen your understanding of why things look the way they look, why they’re positioned in certain ways, etc.
In addition to practicing anatomical drawings, I would also suggest focusing on drawing fundamentals, such as rendering 3D forms with light and shadow, and observational drawing skills.”
Joyce (rurupoi)
There were also questions about the application process to some of the schools:
“It is true, many students applying to the University of Toronto come from a science background. However, as you’ve been told, coming from an illustration degree is perfectly fine with the right prereqs! It would not count against you at all. In fact, and I mentioned this in an earlier answer, schools generally prefer to see work that isn’t medical or scientific because they want to focus on your fundamentals. I believe in the end, schools would still look at all the student has to offer. They want students who can handle the science, and also have strong technicals. I also don’t want to speak on behalf of the school admins, so again, if any admins are around, do chime in. Otherwise, I would suggest you reach out to alumni from the other schools as well to hear about their own school’s approach to accepting students.
I mentioned in a previous answer, I got started by working as a freelance illustrator for my University’s Anatomy Department, helping them create illustrations and diagrams for their courses, and by doing so, landed a research opportunity in my last year where I dissected rats to create illustrations from observation. My undergrad degree was in Life Science.”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
”Just to add on to Geoff's answer, I don't think I had any medical/scientific work in my portfolio (granted, I did apply many years ago…) I do think schools would value your art fundamentals and ability to communicate effectively through visuals, vs. experience in medical/scientific visualization. Also deferring to school admins, though!”
Joyce (rurupoi)
Many people asked about the skills they would need to develop or what tools of the trade they can learn.
“Hello! I’m kind of old school, so I still love to start with pencil and paper for my sketches and thumbnailing. I would recommend getting familiar with digital painting and design tools. I primarily use the Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects), but I think skills are easily transferable from one software to another, so there are more affordable options out there! For example, I started with PaintTool SAI before Photoshop, and Affinity Designer can be a good substitute for Illustrator. If you’re interested in 3D, I would definitely recommend Blender (free and open-source). Here's a great article on free digital tools."
I was familiar with digital painting tools before entering my grad program, which I found to be really helpful (so I could focus on other areas of study rather than trying to learn the tools).
There have been a lot of unexpected changes in my journey! I started as a 3D medical animator and illustrator, moved into storyboarding, then wireframing and UI/UX design for interactive media, and now I find myself in management (and still doing production work).”
Joyce (rurupoi)
“On my end, I tend to do everything digital from the get-go mainly for production workflow reasons. Learning to sketch and draft in Procreate and Photoshop is a must in my opinion, whether you’re starting in those programs or with pencil first.
Like Joyce, my journey’s evolved quite a bit. Started in pure 2D illustration, then moved onto research and storyboarding, then concept work, then 3D production. Nowadays I specialize in pre-production for the teams I work with (such as storyboarding, UI/UX, concept and ideation), but I still have my hands in all aspects of production.”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
One viewer asked which skill that they wish were taught more while in grad school:
“For me, I wish we had learned more zbrush. It was still relatively new at the time I was in school… Then again, there’s always new cool tech and software popping up all the time, so it’s really hard to keep atop everything!
When I started my first job, I had to create photoreal illustrations. Not something I ever learned, so I definitely had to pull up my sleeves and just power through. I definitely learned a lot from those first few weeks, and it’s really helped me grow as an illustrator. Likewise, when I started working at Digizyme, I learned so much about 3D production and molecular biology. The really great thing about this industry is you’re always learning new technologies and new scientific discoveries!”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
”When I was in grad school (which was many years ago…), there wasn’t much of a focus on graphic design. Design is a huge part of our work (e.g. layout, text labels, captions, other copy) and I think I was personally lacking in that department when I graduated.
I was a 3D medical animator in my early career. I’m usually an art director on projects nowadays and I don’t do the actual animating anymore, but having that technical experience really helps me understand and communicate with the team (vs. jumping into the art director role right away).”
Joyce (rurupoi)
Another user asked about using Procreate as part of their production process:
“I would advise against using only Procreate for practical reasons.
The only scenario I imagine you’d be able to pull this off is if you are a freelancer, working independently. This way you don’t have anyone else relying on file transfers, compatibility issues, or other dependencies. However, you will still have to contend with the clients and their requirements. Vector files for example aren’t very well supported yet, and even if you’re focusing on rasterized illustrations, you still have to export those files and format to suit your client’s needs.
If you work for a team or company, then you’ll have to adapt to pre-existing production workflows and systems. Even if you form a team from scratch, you’ll still have to contend with formatting for print vs digital, etc. As far as I know, Illustrator and Photoshop will still be production standards in the years to come.”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
”My suggestion would be to focus more on developing the skills, rather than learning a specific software. I think skills are pretty transferable from one software to the next. If you’re comfortable with Procreate, there will be a bit of a learning curve if you need to work in Photoshop later, just because the interface is different, but the core skills of drawing and rendering are the same.
It also depends on whether you’ll be freelancing or working in a studio. For example, we use the Adobe suite at our studio, and it would be challenging for the team to share files if someone only worked in Procreate. If you’re working on your own, I think you should use whatever software setup you feel most comfortable and productive with.
I do think there’s a lot of value in learning vector art because it offers more flexibility and scalability than raster art. Vector art can also be used to complement raster renderings e.g. graphic elements.”
Joyce (rurupoi)
Some viewers were interested in what it’s like to step into the field as a freelance medical illustrator.
“There are definitely many successful freelancers out there! For myself, I wasn’t comfortable doing that immediately after graduating, so I worked at larger studios for many years in order to learn and build on different skills. I’ve only worked in the States and Canada, and now I’m a contractor out of Toronto, so I can’t really speak to how that experience would be different where you are located.
Many of my past and currently colleagues didn’t go through the medical illustration graduate programs, so it’s definitely doable. I mentioned in another reply, the graduate programs are invaluable in training us how to tackle biomedical communications problems. By this, I mean we are trained to design pieces that manage an audience’s expectations, leveraging their existing mental models of a particular subject, guiding their eyes through an illustration, knowing when are where to add details and where to take them out, when it’s useful to use artistic license, etc. Part of how we learn all this is also by being surrounded by like-minded peers, learning from each other. For all the above, I feel going into the program was invaluable. As for my wonderful colleagues, most of them were experts in their own fields before they entered the field. Whether that’s getting a PhD in Molecular Dynamics or being an expert Zbrush artist and teacher, they had themselves trained to think the same way us graduates were trained. TLDR - Doable, but it will be a lot of work!”
Geoff (sciartgeoff)
