Reiki Technician™

Hi everyone.

I thought I’d take a moment and explain how the illustrations for the Reiki Technician™ Manual are created.

The hand positions illustrated are not randomly placed on the figures, but rather an academic level of research is performed first to the best of my ability, and then hands are placed on specific points on the model inspired by the research.

All in all, it takes me on the average 90 minutes to complete one illustration, and in some cases 2 whole hours.

Here’s why:

All of the illustrations began in a 3D program, Daz Studio. The models arms were adjusted with the palms facing towards the viewer because that’s the common anatomical position in medical textbooks.

Here’s a wireframe view of the model:

Another view of the model with a default shaded-grey texture applied is here:

Once the position of the model was finalized, I applied a skin texture created in Photoshop that contains many common acupuncture points, and make that image ready in Photoshop.

Next, I rendered the figure so that it could be used in Photoshop, and then created a massively huge file (it takes up 10GB of RAM).

The images that follow accurately represent the working process that I go through, and they contain mistakes that are a regular part of the development process. I mention that now because you will undoubtedly notice that I have initially misspelled the title of the images as HepatitUs instead of Hepatitis… That’s because my initial focus is concentrated on the time consuming process of setting up the hand positions. Once that part of the project is complete I return to review it and make final corrections such as with the spelling of the title.

Notice in this example I have the M4 000 folder open, and within that folder are several additional folders, some of which are labeled with specific meridian names.

The folders such as Stomach, Spleen, Pericardium, and the others contain illustrations of the hands assigned to and positioned on each of the respective acupuncture points. In the next image, a folder containing the hand positions for the Liver Meridian has been expanded:

The right side of the image contains items labeled Liver 14 – right, Liver 14 left, Liver 13 right, Liver 13 left, and several more similar to that. Each one of those items when activated causes a hand to appear over the respective point.

In this example, the left and right side has Liver 13 & 14 activated. Notice that there is a set of hands underneath the Liver hands, and also notice that something similar occurs with the hands on the legs.

Once I’ve researched acupuncture points related to a specific ailment, I then work through the file and activate each one of them. The additional hands in this example are related to points of the Stomach and Spleen channels.

Once all of the points have been selected, I’m able to look at the entire image and begin a clean-up process that makes it easier to understand, and a bit more realistic for Reiki practitioners to use as a guide.

In the next image, I’ve removed the hands that were underneath Liver 13 & 14:

Now, if I were to create these illustrations illustrating each acupuncture point, the entire image would be a mess that would just confuse everyone, so I need to act on a judgment call that combines my skills in graphic layout and design, and my intuition.

I reposition the hands in this fashion (the following is a sequence of step-by-step images showing the manual adjustment process):

And now the positioning of the hands on the torso not only looks better, but they also cover the point that the deleted hands originally covered.

As I mentioned, illustrating a hand on each acupuncture point would be unrealistic, especially when the points are very close to each other.

I proceed in that manner, making similar adjustments for the front, side, and posterior views, and when I’m satisfied with the hand positions, then I switch the model to one with normal skin and clothing.

I review the file again, discover obvious spelling errors, make corrections, and then produce a series of images like this that are ready for publication on the web and in print:

Overall I’m happy with the results of the images. I feel they are good starting points for any level of scientific research that may be performed with Reiki, and for those new to Reiki who are seeking hand positions with a bit more reason behind their placement, these images serve to begin meeting that need.

Because it is taking me an enormous amount of time to create these images, and because I have over 150 remaining to create, if you would like to make a special request for an illustration please feel free to do so at The Reiki Learning Lounge or through Rick Rivard’s Threshold Reiki (Tera) discussion group.

Love & Light,
Kiyoshi Takahashi
Amazon Author Page