Unit 66: Geometric Theory, Mesh Constructs & Constraints

Vertices: A point in three-dimensional space

Curves: 3D modelling method which will rely on curves to generate surface geometry.

Edges: Helps define shape but can also be used to transform them

Polygons: these are straight sided shapes made by 3D points and the lines that connect them.

Elements: These are a group of polygons which are connected to each other by the same vertices.

Face: The dace of a shape which will fill in the emptiness between edges.

Primitives: Building blocks of 3D basic shapes such as cubes, pyramids, cones and spheres.

Box modelling is a technique which allows the artist to use a low-resolution primitive, e.g. A cube or sphere and modify the shape by extruding, scaling or rotating the faces and edges, this will allow them to create a rough or somewhat accurate draft of what the final model will look like. 

Extruding and scaling is a technique which would allow a person to extrude/scale the face of a shape, which are the flat panels that create the whole model, these techniques are good and simple but lack the overall complexity when you want to create a more complex model which cannot use primitive shapes. 

There are three types of constraints in 3D modelling, the first being polygon count, the polygon count is important when making models as the game needs to run and it’s in ‘real time’ which would be a video game. When playing a video game the polygons will render on whatever the player is looking at, this is why in cutscenes the game looks so much better this is because the polygons are pre-rendered. The second constraint is file size, this is important as most games on disk and all the information needs to be compressed onto the disk, however sometimes with technology getting better some games offer both disk with the information on. There are ways to make the file size smaller such as changing the render resolution, or reselect the textures of things in the game or you could use ProOptimizer when playing games. The last constraints is rendering time, this is important too, this is saving the 3D model as a 2D image. Rendering time in 3D modelling can either take seconds or days depending on poly count and how much work there is involved in the model.

Unit 66: 3D Software

Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered in San Rafael, California, and features a gallery of its customers' work in its San Francisco building. The company has offices worldwide. Its U.S. locations are California, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Michigan, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its Canada offices are located in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.

The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, who was a coauthor of the first versions of AutoCAD. AutoCAD, which is the company's flagship computer-aided design (CAD) software and Revit software are primarily used by architects, engineers, and structural designers to design, draft, and model buildings and other structures. Autodesk software has been used in many fields, and on projects from the One World Trade Center to Tesla electric cars.

Autodesk is used by making various sized polygons that can be edited in several different ways. In Autodesk the user is able to make very small but intricate designs that can be joined together to make one larger design. the benefit of this is that each individual part can be edited and tweaked to fit the users desires and needs, also they can edit the part to fit the design so that it is flush rahter than having to completely remake something in one piece.

ZBrush

ZBrush is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting. It uses a proprietary "pixol" technology (see below) which stores lighting, colour, material, orientation, and depth information for the points making up all objects on the screen. The main difference between ZBrush and more traditional modeling packages is that it is more akin to traditional sculpting.

ZBrush is used for creating "high-resolution" models (able to reach 40+ million polygons) for use in movies, games, and animations, by companies ranging from ILM and Weta Digital, to Epic Games and Electronic Arts. ZBrush uses dynamic levels of resolution to allow sculptors to make global or local changes to their models. ZBrush is most known for being able to sculpt medium- to high-frequency details that were traditionally painted in bump maps. The resulting mesh details can then be exported as normal maps to be used on a low poly version of that same model. They can also be exported as a displacement map, although, in that case, the lower poly version generally requires more resolution. Or, once completed, the 3D model can be projected onto the background, becoming a 2.5D image (upon which further effects can be applied). Work can then begin on another 3D model which can be used in the same scene. This feature lets users work within complicated scenes without a heavy processor overhead.

Game Engine/ Epic

The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although initially developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including platformers, fighting games, MMORPGs, and other RPGs. With its code written in C++, the Unreal Engine features a high degree of portability and is a tool used by many game developers today, with it being source-available. The most recent version is Unreal Engine 4, which was released in 2014.

Unit 66 3D Modelling: Applications of 3D Modelling

History of 3D Modelling 

3D models have been an recurring feature in gaming since the 1990's, the majority of games over the last two decades have featured 3D models. But 3D models are not a recent discovery, they have been around since the as early as the 1960's. But because of technological restrictions it took years for 3D modelling to really come of use , and for many different purposes. Animation has been a important tool for the development of television and film industries, 2D animation has been used in cartoons for years, and many modern films use CGI(Computer Generated Imagery) to create a scene which could not have been done in real life without killing a stuntman or two. A example on a 3D animated film would be Toy Story(1995). Toy Story was not the first 3D animated movie, but it could be described as the most famous example. Toy Story would use an animation variable called "Avar's"- also known as a hinge. Woody- one of the main characters in Toy Story- would have 212 in his face and 712 for the rest of his body. An Avar controls part of animated object, sets of Avar's create the animated objects movement for each frame. An Avar is similar to how motion capture works, but motion capture will only be as good as the actor moving around, 3D animation is limitless, it just takes a lot of time- Toy Story took 4-5 years to make.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avar_(animation_variable)

http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/pixars-animation-process.html 

In the 1990's 3D animation became a lot cheap due to more powerful and obtainable computers, because of this the video game industry could venture into 3D graphics, in the mid 1990's game like Super Mario 64 were being released, and consoles like the PlayStation were powerful enough to render 3D models and animation.

There are six main industries that use 3D modelling the most, these industries are: entertainment, gaming, architecture, publishing, advertising and marketing and finally geology and science. Below is a more detailed about these industries and how they use 3D modelling. 

Entertainment

Theres not a big film or tv show that comes out of hollywood without extensive use of 3D modelling, it is primarily used in special effects to make the environments that never existed before and supernatural occurences that unfold quite naturally, but it is not uncommon to have shots where things are added that you might not realise are artificial at all. 3D graphic artists using computer graphic imaging, more commonly known as CGI, can remove things from scenes as well as add them in an example of this would be taking out trees from a scene that is meant to be a densely populated city scene.

Gaming

another area where 3D modelling software is evident is in the area of gaming. Video games are become more and more realistic since the era of Pac man but the games industry has only started using 3D modelling in the 1990's as i have previously stated above. Whether it is destroying aliens or driving hypercars faster than anyone in the real world possibly could, the scenes, props, and even the people in games are starting to look like real people more and more like real scenes, props and people with each new game that comes out. 

Architecture

For decades, renderers would “flesh-out” plans and blueprints into a drawing, usually somewhat realistic, that was essentially the first “picture” of the new building. Welcome to the future. Now, these renderings are done on the computer, and you can add motion and depth, so clients can see a “fly-by” that illustrates all angles of vision (including a birds-eye or ground perspective view). Additionally, the views can go inside the structure, too. This way, clients know exactly what they’re in for on their project.

Publishing

Publishers of textbooks and other illustrated books are making use of 3D modeling more and more. It allows them to show pictures that otherwise they might not be able to get, for various reasons, including access and copyright issues. Sometimes, the illustrations may be fantastical, and they can help show an artist’s version of something that mankind has never seen, like historic events or visions of the future.

Advertising and Marketing

3D modeling artists can help advertisers and marketers depict their products in the ideal state. It allows companies to render new cars, new product packaging and prototypes at drastic savings. If it doesn’t ‘play’, they can fix it by merely changing the computer model. Additionally, once they have developed the right rendering, they can use that to sell the item before they have to invest capital in production.

Geology and Science

Geologists and scientists can use 3D modeling to create models that simulate earthquakes and landforms, such as ocean trenches, that let them see the affects of stresses. Additionally, they can simulate motion, like flight patterns, including various factors that affect them.