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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · 14d

congrats James!

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Aug 23

Algonquin vibes 🇨🇦

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Aug 18

ahh, the joys of reuniting with my studio PC after 8 months 🥲 #makersmagic

a picture of a man holding a razor with the words " theroseinthedarkness.tumblr " below it

ALT: a picture of a man holding a razor with the words " theroseinthedarkness.tumblr " below it

media.tenor.com

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jul 25

12 is noticeable but 13 and 14 both look similar! You probably don’t need to go higher for resolution unless you’re trying to achieve something else?

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jul 19

I am not, I just like this sentence

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jul 3

some fun graphics in today's story about smell 👃

read it here: www.quantamagazine.org/how-smell-gu...

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jul 2

Just had a discussion about methane geometry for a piece we’re working on re: climate!

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 26

can anyone in #cartography or #mapping help me find a plate-carree/equirectangular projection of Pannotia? (ie: this planet?)

Would greatly appreciate it!

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 20

Love the blue-white range

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Reposted by mark belan | science illustrator + info designer

Teeg @teeketch.art · Jun 17

God, I genuinely hate it every time I need to open and use illustrator.

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 11

I’m into the liquid glass, I dunno why everyone’s so upset about it 🤷🏼‍♂️

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 8

These are beautiful

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

wow, 'that' place is really dead for sci comm/sci folks isn't it.... nothing hits there anymore!

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

This was such a fun, new creative pipeline to explore - a visual like this wouldn't be possible otherwise. I have so many ideas for how to expand this in new ways for the graphics reporting we do at Quanta.

Stay tuned! And subscribe to Quanta for more math and science news!

www.quantamagazine.org

Science and Math News | Quanta Magazine

Illuminating mathematics, physics, biology and computer science research through public service journalism.

www.quantamagazine.org

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

The final result? A 3D web environment that presents as a clean, 2D, flat vector style! 🎯

Ie: what you're seeing is a 3D space that is rendering as a flat, vector graphic. No need to painstakingly hand-make every frame of this animation into a vector, or host a super-heavy GIF/video file!

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

For the artistic part, I exported these 3D animations and, using Spline.Design, created toon shaders that mimicked Quanta's 2D vector style. ✅

I could then set parameters that mimic the look and appeal of reading these animations as flat graphics on our website!

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

A need in this story was to show an arrow moving across various surfaces: the position, direction, and perspective of this arrow changes - a lot.

First, I modeled these things in Cinema4D, and animated the motion of the arrow across the surface. This was the "science": accurate motion + geometry ✅

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

🤔 I had to think outside of the box to meet two goals:

⚛️ 1) How to capture the complexity and 3D needs of this story? (the "science" part)

🎨 2) How to make this look like it belongs to Quanta (and function like it)? (the "artistic" part)

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

Quanta's style is 2D vectors, which is industry standard: web graphics should be scalable + lightweight, but cool 3D work tends to produce rasters (complex, but heavier, unresponsive, and pixellated). Add lighting, shadows, angle changes, etc., and it's hard to both produce and host vector graphics.

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

One of the challenges in this story was figuring out how to produce graphics that captured the dimensions of these structures.

Naturally, it makes sense to use animation whenever describing motion, but how to capture this in 3D - while retaining our 2D Quanta style - was a big obstacle.

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 7

Check out this new story at Quanta about quantum geometry - new research about the hidden shapes that underlie the quantum behaviors of a crystal.

I had so much fun producing graphics for this cool story with @shalmawegs.bsky.social + @nattyover.bsky.social.

www.quantamagazine.org/first-map-ma...

First Map Made of a Solid’s Secret Quantum Geometry | Quanta Magazine

Physicists recently mapped the hidden shape that underlies the quantum behaviors of a crystal, using a new method that’s expected to become ubiquitous.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Reposted by mark belan | science illustrator + info designer

Shalma Wegsman @shalmawegs.bsky.social · Jun 6

For my latest story at @quantamagazine.bsky.social I dug into cutting edge research that’s using geometry to understand the bizarre quantum behaviors of materials. Huge shoutout to @markabelan.bsky.social for bringing the abstract ideas to life with 3D graphics!

Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · Jun 6

Physicists recently mapped the hidden geometry that underlies the quantum behaviors of a crystal, using a new method that’s expected to become ubiquitous. @shalmawegs.bsky.social reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/first-map-ma...

First Map Made of a Solid’s Secret Quantum Geometry | Quanta Magazine

Physicists recently mapped the hidden shape that underlies the quantum behaviors of a crystal, using a new method that’s expected to become ubiquitous.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Reposted by mark belan | science illustrator + info designer

Ben Brubaker @benbenbrubaker.bsky.social · Jun 3

I was the guest on the latest episode of Quanta's new podcast, chatting with @pateljournalist.bsky.social about theoretical CS and my recent time vs space complexity story. It was my first time on a podcast — really fun to try out a new medium!

Quanta Magazine’s Science and Math Podcasts

Listen to Steven Strogatz interview leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time on “The Joy of Why” podcast, or stay informed about math, physics, biology and...

www.quantamagazine.org

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · Jun 2

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mark belan | science illustrator + info designer @markabelan.bsky.social · May 28

Cool graphic! 🤓🥸

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