Nina Denning

1. Pre-production

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

Pre-production is the first stage in the 3D production pipeline, which doesn’t make it any less important than the following stages, in fact it is often the most important. Pre-production is often the ‘backbone’ of 3D projects, it covers concept art, story boarding and many, many discussions with the team of the project. To have a production, there must be a main idea, the centrepiece of the project that needs to be explored through pre-production. Concept art is one way in which ideas can be explored. During the beginning of the very first ratchet and clank game, there were 40 people in the studio “focused on bringing (the) idea to life” (Fiorito, J. 2010). Dave Guertin, an insomniac character artist brought around some early concepts for ratchet and clank, while ideas are tossed around between artists and producers, the characters evolve until they are agreeable upon, its interesting to see how the characters progress from the original sketch.

Original concept for Ratchet by Dave Guertin (Guertin, D. 2000 – character artist).

Source retrieved from: http://d3cw3dd2w32x2b.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ratchet_1.jpg

Ratchet’s character progression by Dave Guertin (Guertin, D. 2000 – character artist).

Source retrieved from: http://d3cw3dd2w32x2b.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Ratchet_progression_sketch.jpg

Meanwhile there were environment artists working on creating a world the characters would fit into which is an important relationship between character and surroundings. Pre-production is where the movie or game will bring about a set of visual rules that must be followed to give the project consistence, and flow. In ratchet and clank they have a sci-fi, retro style (Fiorito, J. 2012) portrayed throughout the entire series which gives the name identity.

Early sketches by Chad Dezern and John Fiorito.

Source retrieved from: http://www.insomniacgames.com/ratchet-clank-10-years-of-concept-art/

Concept art isn’t the only faction of pre-production that needs to be discussed, story-boarding is another important feature. A storyboard is a bunch of ordered sketches and drawings showing the key frames and events in a comic-like fashion (Gulati, P. 2010), they help to develop a smooth sequence of events throughout the timeline. It gives a perception of timing and camera angles (Willett, N. 2010) that creates a momentum in which the audience or player follow. The storyboard is where the ideas have all been laid out to fill in the gaps, creating the final story that can then be referred back to throughout production as a visual reminder of the original plan and intention (Gulati, P. 2010). After the storyboard has been finalised and approved, layouts, model sheets and animatics can be created. Animatics can be used in animation to give an improved perception of the timing of the scene, and the accuracy of the motions.

References:

1. Gulati, P. (2010). Step-by-Step : How to Make an Animated Movie. 3D & Motion Graphics Envato Tuts+. Retrieved 27 June 2016, from http://cgi.tutsplus.com/articles/step-by-step-how-to-make-an-animated-movie–cg-3257
2. Fiorito, J. (2012). Ratchet & Clank: 10 Years of Concept Art – Insomniac Games. Insomniac Games. Retrieved 21 June 2016, from http://www.insomniacgames.com/ratchet-clank-10-years-of-concept-art/
3. Willett, N., Lee, I., & Castaneda, O. (2016). Animation Production Pipeline – Nora Willett. Physbam.stanford.edu. Retrieved 18 June 2016, from http://physbam.stanford.edu/cs448x/old/Animation_Production_Pipeline_(2d)_Nora_Willett.html

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2. 3D Modelling

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

The second stage in the production pipeline is 3D Modelling, this is where all the ideas and design concepts are created, from 2D images to 3D models. They are made using programs such as Maya and 3Ds Max to form the basic 3D shapes such as cubes and spheres (Willett, N. 2010). These basic shapes are then manipulated to become more complex and shapely, forming new edges and creating new faces, individually called polygons. Models are made up of a series of points called vertices which work as a mesh once connected (Boudon, G.2013). Modellers work not only in creating organic forms such as characters, but also hard-surface models such as weapons, buildings and vehicles to anything miscellaneous in-between (Gulati, P. 2010). Its important to have simple designs that give a lot of information. Modelling is where all the assets in the production pipeline will be created (Boudon, G.2013).

Spyro models by Xeratdragons and RubberRabbit2

Sourced from: (http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/spyro-and-cynder-57247.html),(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iyB3HbRujY)

Clank model (Jones, C. 2010)

Source retrieved from: http://www.insomniacgames.com/community/showthread.php?43577-Ratchet-and-Clank-Fan-Make-your-own-Clank!

References:

1. Gulati, P. (2010). Step-by-Step : How to Make an Animated Movie. 3D & Motion Graphics Envato Tuts+. Retrieved 27 June 2016, from http://cgi.tutsplus.com/articles/step-by-step-how-to-make-an-animated-movie–cg-3257
2. Boudon, G. (2013). How Does a 3D Production Pipeline Work. Digital-Tutors Blog. Retrieved 18 June 2016, from http://blog.digitaltutors.com/understanding-a-3d-production-pipeline-learning-the-basics/
3. http://www.insomniacgames.com/ratchet-clank-10-years-of-concept-art/

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3. UV Mapping

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

UV Mapping is the next stage in the production pipeline process, it’s the process that allows the model to be texturized. The ‘U’ and ‘V’ in UV refer to the x and y axis on the flat surface (Bobobobo. 2010), allowing the 3D model to be “unwrapped” from a 3D shape to a 2D net. For a model to acquire texture, it must be cut into individual surfaces that can be singularly worked upon, and then can be stitched back together to avoid overlapping of textures.

Captain Quark UV Mapping by (Nelva, G. 2016)

Source retrieved from: http://www.dualshockers.com/2016/02/19/ogle-the-beautiful-models-of-ps4-exclusive-ratchet-movie-vs-game-character-compared/

Captain Quark was cut into 19 different chunks to create a UV map, there were 25 different materials, 70 different textures, around 50,000 polygons to great this 4GB character worth of files. (Neva, G. 2016).

References:

1. ‘uv-mapping’ tag. (2010). Gamedev.stackexchange.com. Retrieved 20 June 2016, from http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/tags/uv-mapping/info
2. Nelva, G. (2016). Ogle the Beautiful Models of PS4 Exclusive Ratchet & Clank; Movie vs Game Character Compared | DualShockers. Dualshockers.com. Retrieved 25 June 2016, from http://www.dualshockers.com/2016/02/19/ogle-the-beautiful-models-of-ps4-exclusive-ratchet-movie-vs-game-character-compared/

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4. Texturing and Shaders

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

The texturing process is used to transform plain, stiff models into lifelike characters and substances. It helps increase the level of detail so models require less polygons and become more practical and functional. There are many great software packages that allow for easy texturing using photos, but more complex models may require unique textures that can be created in programs such as photoshop, (“The Process of 3D Animation | Media-Freaks.com”, 2016), where the desired texture may be painted and then transferred to the models surface. This can allow any model to become more lifelike, giving qualities of materials such as metal, fur, concrete, stone, bark, glass or even skin.

Shaders help define the surface of the model, telling it how it should react when light is shinned upon it, it basically chooses the material of the surface, so the texture seems more realistic (Masters, M. 2014). Shading help create shadow and depth in texture, allowing it to become more realistic and believable, tricking the mind into thinking it’s a real 3D object.

Textured Clank by youtube tutorial (2randomperson)

Source retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSet13UXRqM

References:

1. The Process of 3D Animation | Media-Freaks.com. (2016). Media-freaks.com. Retrieved 26 June 2016, from http://media-freaks.com/the-process-of-3d-animation/
2. Masters, M. (2014). 3D Texturing Terminology | Learning to 3D Texture. Digital-Tutors Blog. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://blog.digitaltutors.com/cover-bases-common-3d-texturing-terminology/

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5. Rigging

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

So now that the exterior of the model is completed, it looks all well and good, but just like people, models cannot move without a skeleton to help it move accurately, for example our heads cant do a 360’ turn, the model needs to know what it can and cant do, this is called rigging. Rigging applies points on the character that work like joints. (Masters, M. 2014). This allows the animators to freely move the character about without surpassing the physical boundaries inforced by the rigging, every rig is unique so is its corresponding controls (“The Process of 3D Animation | Media-Freaks.com”, 2016). Here is an excellent rigging animation reel by Itsakitteh on youtube.

Rigging doesn’t just apply to hard boned creatures, it can also be achieved on creatures such as a fish.

Rigging a fish – triple joint solution (Bergeron, R, M. 2013)

References:

1. The Process of 3D Animation | Media-Freaks.com. (2016). Media-freaks.com. Retrieved 26 June 2016, from http://media-freaks.com/the-process-of-3d-animation/
2. Masters, M. (2014). Key 3D Rigging Terminology to Get You Moving. Digital-Tutors Blog. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://blog.digitaltutors.com/key-rigging-terms-get-moving/
3. Bergeron, R. (2013). Rigging a Fish – Triple Joint Solution. Ray McCarthy Bergeron. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://www.spunkyddog.com/2013/01/24/rigging-a-fish-tripple-joint-solution/

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6. Animation

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

This is my favourite part, the animation, where all the beautiful characters come to life in spectacular, well thought out movement. Animators are able to pose the character thanks to the rigging, in various positions, these poses are often exaggerated to better display the intent of the motion. Many many frames go into each movement, but an animator can often start with a key frame, go to the centre frame then finish with the end frame if it’s a short movement, this helps save time, though often the animator will play it back and if there is any mix up in the movement, they will add more frames (“Pose to Pose Animation”, 2016). The software is designed to add all the inbetween frames through ‘tweening’, meaning all the tiny frames inbetween the key frames. The more frames are inbetween, the more consistent and lifelike the movement will be. This key by key sequence is used to give the audience an illusion of movement (“Pose to Pose Animation”, 2016).

“Given three keyframe shapes (shown in tan), our method smoothly interpolates the intermediate shapes (shown in blue), providing a useful tool for animators to rapidly create keyframe animation sequences.” – (IEEE. 2011)

Sourced retrieved from: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

 Even though computers are a huge help to animators in creating a sequence, and speeds up the process, theres still a lot of work and thought put into each movement, the animator must consider timing, gravity and the previous, following actions to give a believable movement.  (J. “Timing and Spacing in Animation”, 2014)

Animated gif from the movie Tangled.

References:

1. Pose to Pose Animation. (2016). Minyos.its.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/anim_pose.html
2. Multiresolution Mean Shift Clustering Algorithm for Shape Interpolation. (2016). Ieeexplore.ieee.org. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ieee_pilot/articles/05/ttg2009050853/figures.html
3. Timing and Spacing in Animation. (2014). Computer Graphics & Digital Art Community for Artist: Job, Tutorial, Art, Concept Art, Portfolio. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/timing-and-spacing-in-animation/

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7. Lighting

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

One of the first special effects that get applied to a model or scene is lighting. Lighting is the key when it comes to how you want your character to come across, the same character can be seen in a completely different way depending on how they are lit (Simonds, B. 2010).

Image sourced from: https://bensimonds.com/2010/06/03/lighting-tips-from-the-masters/

This image displays the affect different lighting can have on a character, the light shinning from above gives a “noble” look while the light from underneath gives a “menacing” view while the light from behind just displays an intriguing silhouette. (Simonds, B. 2010)

There are many different types of lighting that can be applied, a basic three point lighting setup has the key light which is meant to capture the most attention, there is the backlight which gives the character more definition and the fill light used to lighten up the tone of the surrounding area.

Basic three point lighting setup.

Image sourced from: https://bensimonds.com/2010/06/03/lighting-tips-from-the-masters/

Lighting is not only an important feature to add to the character but its also used to capture the feeling and tone of the environment, whether it is morning, midday, afternoon or night can be portrayed through the correct placing of lighting. The texture of the surface being lit also needs to be taken into account, for example metallic surfaces would bounce back the light, reflecting it.

References:

1.  Simonds, B. (2010). Lighting tips from the Masters. BenSimonds.com. Retrieved 17 June 2016, from https://bensimonds.com/2010/06/03/lighting-tips-from-the-masters/

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8. Rendering

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

Rendering refers to the process of generating an image from three-dimensional data stored within a computer (Birn, J. 2002.). It’s usually one of the final processes involved in producing a scene, taking everything from lighting, movement, model, and effects and turning it into a readable, operational file. The rendering takes the 3D file and creates a picture of each pixel within that scene which requires extensive calculation, it allows for countless controls over the scene such as the simulation of motion-blur, refraction of light, atmosphere and colour. (Birn, J. 2002). Rendering is notorious for taking a long time, utilizing hundreds of high speed computers for months of even years when it comes entire animated movies. This is a “render farm” that Pixar uses to store the rendering computers that working 24/7.

Image sourced from: http://www.slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-a-look-at-pixar-and-lucasfilms-renderfarms/

References:

1. Birn, J. (2016). What is 3D Rendering?. 3drender.com. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://www.3drender.com/glossary/3drendering.htm
2.  Sciretta, P. (2010). Cool Stuff: A Look at Pixar and LucasFilm’s Renderfarms – /Film. Slashfilm. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://www.slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-a-look-at-pixar-and-lucasfilms-renderfarms/

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9. Compositing

Posted on 22 June, 2016  in MDU115

Compositing is where the special effects team takes most of the action, this is where the visual effects such as explosions take place, along with final touch-ups and editing. For live action movies, this can be where the live footage is blended with computer generated footage to create a scene. (Chang, A). An example of an animated movie that contains a heap of special effects is The Good Dinosaur. Pixar needed double the amount of special effects to create this insane scenery. 

Image retrieved form: https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/09/pixar-studios-doubles-effects-in-upcoming-film-the-good-dinosaur/

Water plays a big part in this movie, which was a challenge to Pixar’s animators, they featured more than 125 shots of the water, the river scene alone takes up more storage in special effects than the entirety of special effects in Cars 2, (Zakrzewski, C. 2015) this would’ve taken a loooooong time to render.

References:

1. Zakrzewski, C. (2016). Pixar Studios Doubles Effects In Upcoming Film ‘The Good Dinosaur’. TechCrunch. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/09/pixar-studios-doubles-effects-in-upcoming-film-the-good-dinosaur/
2.  Chang, A. (2016). The Process of 3D Animation | Media-Freaks.com. Media-freaks.com. Retrieved 26 June 2016, from http://media-freaks.com/the-process-of-3d-animation/

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Highlight in the history of 3D graphics

Posted on 24 June, 2016  in MDU115

Animation is an ever changing and evolving process, from the first animated cartoon Fantasmagorie in 1908, to the latest 3D animated feature films such as Zootopia and all the milestones in-between this time-span. Picking just one highlight is so difficult, but for me it has to be between the first animated feature film to be hand drawn, Snow White and the seven Dwarfs, and the first fully computer animated film, Toy Story. Why not both?

Snow White, the first full length animated feature that runs for a total of 83 minutes, released with colour and sound, created using a remarkable 1.5 million cells (“history of animation”, 2016). Snow white was a big risk for Disney, it cost a total of $1.7 million to bring to the big screen which was substantially significant for its time (Simon, B. 2016). Disney made use of a multi-plane camera to “create an illusion of depth”.  It took 4 years for this masterpiece to come to life, it was one of the first cartoons to display human characters, because of this, live actors were used to help perfect the cells and make human movements more realistic, how clever (Simon, 2016). After three weeks of being available, Snow White sold 17 million copies (“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)”, 2016). Snow White was a significant highlight in the history of 3D graphics as it portrays the capability of story telling through drawing and art, its collaboration with the use of sound and colour made it an innovative step forward in the film and animation industry, breaking the boundaries of animated movies for years to come.

Cover for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Image sourced from: http://www.filmsite.org/snow.html

Walt Disney with Shirley Temple and his oscar for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Image retrieved from: https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1939

Toy story was the first feature film to be completely 3D animated, yes there were extensive use of drawings, sculptures and photographs going into the concept and ideas department, but the final cut you see on screen was done entirely on computers. This was such an innovative success by the team at Pixar, it sparked the need for Finding Nemo and the Incredibles. 1993 was the beginning of the Toy Story journey, it all seems so fantastic on screen its hard to believe that it almost got denied an audience, after a year of production a rough cut was shown to Disney and it was ordered a shut down, Pixar saw its potential and fought to keep it going (“Pixar”, 2016), lucky they did! Toy Story led animation companies such as Disney and Pixar into a new era of modern storytelling and computer graphics, creating mind-blowing realism through the use of this new technology. Though Toy Story took a huge leap of faith delving into this part of film-making so early, it became a huge success eventually grossing more than $192 million at the domestic box office and $358 million worldwide proving it a revolutionary success (Bishop, B. 2015) Toy Story was also able to strengthen the relationship between Disney and Pixar, allowing more room for remarkable movies well into the future.

John Lassetter with Toys, Buzz and Woody – Associated Press (1999)

Source retrieved from: http://www.tampabay.com/features/movies/disney-pixar-has-250-toys-and-games-ready-for-the-debut-of-toy-story-3-in/1073512

References:

1. history of animation. (2016). History-of-animation.webflow.io. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://history-of-animation.webflow.io
2.  Simon, B. (2016). The One That Started It All… The Making Of Snow White – Animated Views. Animatedviews.com. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://animatedviews.com/2002/the-one-that-started-it-all-the-making-of-snow-white/

3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). (2016). Filmsite.org. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://www.filmsite.org/snow.html

    

4.  Pixar. (2016). Pixar.com. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://www.pixar.com/features_films/TOY-STORY
5.  

   Bishop, B. (2015). Toy Story, 20 years later: how Pixar made its first blockbuster. The Verge. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/17/8229891/sxsw-2015-toy-story-pixar-making-of-20th-anniversary

    

6. The 11th Academy Awards | 1939. (2016). Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1939

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Blog of a practitioner

Posted on 24 June, 2016  in MDU115

One piece of work that has always inspired me is Tangled. I completely adore the story of Rapunzel, and Disney’s remake was brilliant. Something about Tangled really stuck with me after seeing the film on the big screen, i loved the story, the music was brilliant, the characters were well thought out and the art style was gorgeous. One artist made a serious contribution to the art in tangled, Dan Cooper. Dan Cooper worked on Tangled as the co-art director, this meant he had the challenging role of directing the creative vision, but he did more than that. Cooper was in charge of the key lighting throughout many scenes of the film, maintaining the tone and mood of the frame to fit within its context. One of the challenges for Cooper wouldve been Rapunzels hair, it glows therefore it creates its own form of light. These started out as paintings over a GC render. Here’s a link to Dan Coopers blog: http://dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au

Key lighting from Tangled by (Cooper, D. 2012).

Source retrieved from: http://dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/tangled-lighting-keys.html

Cooper explains a simple frame is passed from the animators to the director to the leads in lighting, then back to him to give the lighting key a shot. Cooper gives a lot of credit to other artists for his final key. Dan Cooper really displays the importance of lighting in any given sequence through his art which can be shown through these comparisons. 

Key lighting from Tangled by (Cooper, D. 2012).

The picture on the right has much more depth, mood and tone than its previous counterpart. I feel that the reason why lighting was so important in Disney’s Tangled, is because the movie had so much light to give! From the brightly coloured landscapes, the floating lanterns to Rapunzel herself…. “And at last i see the light!!!” 

Source retrieved from: https://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2016/02/Rapunzel-pushes-a-lantern-in-Tangled.gif

Tangled to me is an animated masterpiece and i feel Dan Cooper played a huge part in making it so beautiful, creative and inspiring.

References:  Çooper, D. (2016). Dan Cooper’s blog splotch. Dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au. Retrieved 28 June 2016, from http://dancoopersblogsplotch.blogspot.com.au

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1. Pre-Production

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115

This project required very little pre-production since the whole sequence had already been planned out and made, though the centrepiece treasure chest needed to be created in 3DS-MAX from start to finish. I did look at different styled treasure chests before starting the project to get some ideas of style, colour and model shape but I must have been dreaming because I have never before used 3DS-MAX, so instead I wisely decided to stick with the tutorial.

This is the production pipeline provided for the treasure chest.

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2. 3D Modelling

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115

I followed the tutorial slowly and carefully though I ran into my fair share of tedious problems that after spending an hour or so trying to fix, only to realise it was a single button stuffing me up which made it a really good and slightly annoying learning process. The chest was formed from two main rectangles, continually using the ‘inset’ and ‘extrude’ function to create form and depth into the polys. Creating ‘loops’ and ‘connecting’ edges played another important part in the modelling process. Eventually, after restarting numerous times due to crashes, my terrible incremental saving and frustration I made the simple chest model mesh, with a few slight changes I made such as the lock and handles which I soon came to regret (cocky amateur). I did learn however that even slight movement of edges will eventually prevent you from creating a neat UV-Map, though there was no going back.

My treasure chest model mesh.

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3. UV Mapping

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115, Uncategorized

I began “unwrapping” my model and soon came to the conclusion that my ‘slight’ changes made a huge unavoidable impact on my UVW. I spent a long time creating my UV Map, and eventually got into a really good step by step process of selecting polys, putting them into my planar map, ‘breaking’ 90’ angles, scaling them down, relaxing them and occasionally having to flip them vertically or horizontally while adjusting their size according to my checker pattern. I did notice a few of my nets that in the tutorial were meant to snap together were too different to do so, so I went with the ‘unique’ process of adding them all in individually ready for texturing. A few of my nets were a little wonky or distorted but that’s the result of my accidental edge movement in my modelling process.

My UV-MAP.

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4. Texturing

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115

I could successfully fit all my pieces in my map and uploaded it into Photoshop, I have a fairly strong knowledge in this program unlike 3D MAX so I felt it would get easier from here on out, I was wrong. For some reason my textured sides looked terrible on my model, not only being blurry and broken but had misplaced lines all over the place. My UVW looked reasonable compared to the tutorial but it just didn’t cut it for this process to work. I considered going back and re-doing my UV-MAP, but I was sure it wouldn’t make much of a difference unless I re-did my model which would’ve been extremely time consuming even though it would’ve been faster since It was my second…third.. maybe fourth time around all these processes.

The UV map is uploaded onto the model so when the UV is painted over, it has an equivalent effect on the model. Certain colours are used in the process to give it a certain colour palette for a stylised look.

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5. Rigging

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115

After giving up on my texturing (after MUCH frustration) I decided to not waste any more time and continue with the rigging. The process didn’t seem difficult since the hinge on the back is really the only thing that needs a pivot, though a hierarchy needed to be added with a base shape to be the master control. I needed to link the lid to the base and the base to the master control, and my added handles needed to be attached to my base. The linking went well though I had a little difficulty getting my pivot to face the right direction since my “affect pivot only” button was affecting more than just my pivot. I got there eventually, for the most part.

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6. Animation and scene assembly

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115

I was eager to move on to the animation sequence since key framing is something I’m very interested in. The version I had of the key frame timeline differed slightly to that of the tutorial but it didn’t affect its guidance too much. It was recommended to use Auto-key but I found Set Key to be quite useful as I changed my mind on movement a lot. I liked creating the movement of each object individually but found my timing was a little off, unfortunately my computer also refused to allow me to change the poses of the crabs so I did what I could without moving their claws. The trees, crabs, shells and starfish were easy to put into place but the animation for the chest took me a while to figure as my lid was opening before my chest fell, moving keyframes around fixed this. Merging all the intended features was fine but my grass just wasn’t loading in. Overall scene assembly was fun and creative.

Scene assembly and animation frame.

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7. Lighting and Rendering

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115

When trying to apply shadows to my scene to give it a less flat feel and provide the critters with some more depth I found light shadows underneath worked really well until rendered out where they looked a tad dodgy and slowed down the process considerably. Since the file didn’t need to be A+ quality, I decided to remove the shadows as my scene moved a bit too fast for them to make much of a difference. However I did apply an illuminator on the skydome as it created some ugly harsh shadows I didn’t like. For this task I rendered the file as a png with medium quality levels as it only goes for a few seconds. At first my render looked extremely bright and had no depth so I went back and applied an environment exposure assistant to help tone it down a little.

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8. Compositing and Video Editing

Posted on 22 July, 2016  in MDU115

After the scene is finished and rendered, the 440 pngs are then exported into a folder where they can be imported into adobe premiere pro to have the final edits made and extras such as a title and audio added over it. I didnt have access to a current adobe premiere pro so i had to use an outdated version and compile the pngs into one lengthy 64 minute movie, only to file it down to a 16 second shot. It was exported as an MP4 and retained a good sum of its original quality.

PNG’s ready to be imported into Premiere

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I. Finding a design.

Posted on 29 August, 2016  in MDU115

When searching for a model to be my asset production, I wanted something quite simple as I’m still very new to 3D Modelling. I originally wanted to do Gandalf the White’s staff, but it’s a very long model, which isn’t too good for the texturing process as there’d be a large seam.

Image retrieved from: http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=UC1386

I decided to take on one of my favourite games weapons, the wrench off of Ratchet and Clank…. but there are so many.

Image retrieved from: http://o0demonboy0o.deviantart.com/art/Ratchet-and-Clank-OmniWrench-Pack-533617568

It was hard deciding which one, but i eventually went for the more basic model.  I chose this design because it seemed simplistic but still challenging, it held a lot of room for cool texturing and effects.

Image Retrieved from: http://ratchet.wikia.com/wiki/File:OmniWrench_Millennium_12.jpg

Once I picked my design I went hunting for a 3D Model someone has already created so I could see their wireframe and what sort of primitive shapes they used as the base model.

Image retrieved from: https://www.yobi3d.com/#!/search?q=3d%2520model%2520crescent%2520wrench

I found this really neat model on Yobi 3D,it gave me a solid knowledge of the structure I needed to create and how many poly’s were needed.

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IV. Baking.

Posted on 1 September, 2016  in MDU115, Uncategorized

So with my wrench, I didn’t build a low poly and high poly model, I figured my original was as simple and as detailed as I wanted it. This meant I only had to bake a colour ID map and an Ambient Occlusion. An ID colour map basically just says which part of the model a certain texture will go on. My ID map began by having the same colour on all objects that are the same, since they’re going to be the same material, I soon realised I needed to change this because the grain on some textures were opposite to the grain on the other part of the model. I went back and made a new ID map with a unique colour for almost every part of my model. Ambient Occlusion maps are used to determine how much light should be shining on parts of the model such as the corners and sides, this went well the first time.

My Colour ID and Ambient Occlusion.

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II. Modelling.

Posted on 1 September, 2016  in MDU115, Uncategorized

After I found the design I wanted it was time to start modelling. I began by creating a plane so I could have my reference image behind my construction, this helped with the sizing of my model. I started with primitive shapes such as cylinders,  cubes and spheres. Using the vertices I dragged them out to fit the reference image and added some loops to have more to work with. Making sure everything was planar and straight I started combining my pieces to construct the wrench. I used a lot of symmetry and mirror effects to save time. My model was starting to piece together, there were a few mistakes and overlapping vertices my teacher kindly helped me fix, it was a little different to the original model but i wanted it to be a little less chunky as the Insomniac art-style suggests.  I also needed to add some support chamfers so the edges weren’t so sharp.

My 3D model in 3Ds Max.

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V. Texturing.

Posted on 1 September, 2016  in MDU115

This is the step i had the most fun on, though i did run into a few troubles. I used Quixel Suite to texture my model, i imported my Obj. File which is my model and my maps, ready to begin texturing. I got used to the controls pretty quickly and took my time choosing the right textures and colours for my model, i wanted it to look similar to its respective model but a bit more detailed. I used mainly metals such as aluminum and silver. I played around with some masks and 3D painting along with the numerous brush and opacity options. I did do quite a bit of painting on my model but when i lost my work it was a bit late to start it all again. Through my texturing i created maps for the metals in my model and how rough it was along with the albedo which is the colour.

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III. Unwrapping.

Posted on 1 September, 2016  in MDU115, Uncategorized

As I was using 3Ds Max 17 I could just use the inbuilt “unwrap”, though doing it manually may have given me a better result, it is my least favourite, tedious thing to do in 3D Modelling, so I was happy to give it a miss. Next time I will definitely edit the map manually with some breaks and welds. Overall the UV was packed quite nicely.

The automatic Unwrap of my model.

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VI. Rendering.

Posted on 1 September, 2016  in MDU115

I rendered out a few screen shots of my model on Quixel but didn’t go so far as to making a video. Instead i decided to upload my model into Sketchfab. I will definitely be editing this model since i didn’t quite get to finish it the way i wanted to. This is my “finished” model outcome, I’m pretty impressed with the ability of Quixel even from my narrow use of it and I’m happy with the results. Here is a few of the rendered images from my model and this is the link to my model on sketchfab: https://sketchfab.com/models/8b1859821a444457acb2a825116cefee

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