3D modelling

3D Modelling

3D is used in various media industries in the world that includes games, films and music videos that use different software and programs that is used differently in all the industries.

Software/Programs:

The programs/software used in 3D modelling can be varied on the way the layout of the controls and tools have been set out but they al have the same tools but with a few differences to how it works. An example of a program that is used to make 3D modelling, animation and rendering is Autodesk Maya that is mainly used by game companies to create assets and environments, an example of this is that it is used create visual effects for games like Halo 4.  Autodesk Maya is also used by film and television to create 3d objects/assets in the industry as well as some environmental features; an example of a film, which uses Autodesk Maya, is Hugo that was used to create the graphics another example is of how television uses Maya to create visual effects like in The Walking Dead which is used to give the zombies in the series a more dead look and to make the make up seem more real, the software is also available to everyone compared to other 3D software which is made for an individual  who created the software. Autodesk Maya is available for all computers like Windows and OSX Mac but is around £300 per machine.

Another program used by the industries, is Vue that is used to create 3D environments as it was used to create the visual effects in Pirates of the Caribbean as it created the jungle environments for the films. It is also used to render and animate in 3D as well.  The software is used by a lot of big filmmakers such as Industrial Light and Magic where it was used to create the backgrounds/scenes for films like Indiana Jones and DreamWorks animation where it was used to a create films like Kung Fu Panda in which it was used to animate the whole film.

Rendering:

Real Time:

Rendering can be spilt into various types, such as one of the ways you can render in 3D is in real time, which is generally used, in interactive media like computer games which renders at rates approximately around 20 to 120 frames per second which can vary between games with certain instances such as how big the game is and how complicated the textures are as the idea of real time rendering is to get as much on the screen as possible, an example of a game that uses this to a high extend is GTA as the city it is set in has to load as the player moves through, to which it uses a grid system where the map is spilt into a grid and as a player gets close to a section it will start to render so the basic blocks will appear and as they closer more textures appear and the section they left will start to un render giving more power to the area currently being rendered. Also with real time rendering the primary goal of it is to achieve photo-realism or the closet thing possible to it that at the minimum for a human eye to look like it can see movement is 24 frames per second. Some of the rendering software that can simulate so it looks real is: Visual light which can be spilt into being able to see motion blur, depth of field and lens flare which can lead to the game or simulation looking real when it really it is merely just a simulated piece of a camera. Which is a basic method that is employed into interactive media as well as the rise in processing power for computers which has been advanced highly in technology in the last few years which has increased the degree of realism in real time rending which has helped incorporate techniques like HDR (High Definition Rendering).

Non Real Time Rendering:

This is mainly used with non-interactive media like films and television, which are opposite in one aspect to real time as it is much slower than the latter, this allows it to have a higher quality with limited processing power. Also in NRT the rendering is very different from RT because the time it takes to render can take a lot less or a lot more as it can take to render between a few seconds for simple things where as for complex scenes it can take several days.

Pre Rendering:
Pre rendering is another process that is used to render video not in real time; instead it renders video that has been previously rendered on a more powerful machine. Pre rending is used in games and CG films, in games it is mainly used in the cut scenes and where previously used in other parts of games before 2000 such as in the game Maximum Force which used 3D pre rendered levels but had 2D sprites as enemies which was done to make the game look more realistic. Pre rendering has also been used in entirely for CG films like Toy Story.

Shading:

Shading is used to describe the surface’ appearance on a 3D model, which is connected to rendering in some ways. There are various types of shading some being:

Flat Shading - this is the general technique used to shade each polygon on a single object based on its position and light source direction.

Gouraud Shading - this is a fast vertex shading technique used to simulate smooth shaded surfaces.      

Texture Mapping – a technique used to put spaced areas onto polygons.

Phong Shading - a technique used to simulate large shaded surfaces and specular highlights.

Cell Shading – which is a technique used to imitate the look of a hand drawn object.

Bump Mapping - used to simulate wrinkled surfaces.

Geometric Theory:

In 3D modelling the most basic thing used in mesh modelling are vertexes, but when two of this points are next to each other they create an edge, in which three next to each other will form a triangle, which the simplest polygon that can be made in 3D modelling, as well as another basic polygon that is made which is made up of 4 edges which will form a square, which are otherwise known in 3D modelling as faces as well as many faces of polygons together bound by the vertices they share are known as elements. In 3D modelling there are some polygons that are known as planes, which are non-collinear points, which allows triangles to exist of the surface of planes but not always on more complicated shapes like squares as it is easier because they are more surface normal than the more complex shapes which means that they are a three-dimensional vector perpendicular.  Although many current modeling programs like Auto desk Maya do not strictly enforce the theory as in modeling programs an example of this is that it is possible for two vertexes to appear in the same location and still give the appearance of an edge.

Mesh Construction:

Polygon meshs it is possible to create your own vertexes and faces  to create polygons, it is easier to create them using tools found in 3D software programs like 3ds Max.  to do polygon meshs there are two simple tools which used to create them which are:

Subdivide – which is a tool used to make vertexes which in turn splits faces and edges up to raise the polygon amount.

Extrude – this tool that is applied to a face, in which you can create a new face coming from it that is still connecting to the existing face, which is generally used to expand objects.

Another way people use polygon meshs is called inflation modeling or extrusion modeling, in which the user of the program will create a 2D object to trace over a drawing or photograph to get the outline of it, in which the user will extrude that 2D object into a 3D object.

Displaying 3D Objects:

In this I will be talking about various programs and game engines.

Programs:

OpenGL is a cross-platforming programming interface, which is used to render in 2D and 3D computer graphics and is mainly used by in CAD (Computer Aided Design), virtual realities, flight simulation, video games, scientific visualization and information visualization. OpenGL has a lot of popularity since its release one of the reasons for this is its documentation as the main subjects are spilt up into manuals known as books which are: The Red Book which is used as a tutorial and a reference book for a programming guide. The Orange Book, which is used as a tutorial and reference book for shading language. The Green Book, which is used for its knowledge on the X11 interfacing, and GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit), which is part of the programming for the X window system. The Blue Book, which has a poster size diagram of the structure, idealised that OpenGL had implemented as well as being a reference manual and hard print out of the man pages for OpenGL. And the final book is known as the Alpha Book, which is used as a manual for interfacing and programming Microsoft Windows. This can help developers in many fields learn how to program things into various different areas such as video game programming of events or A.I behaviour in a Microsoft published game.

Direct 3D is a base for the graphics API for the Xbox and Xbox 360, which is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems as it is part of their Microsoft DirectX application programing interface package and is such owned by them. Direct 3D is used to render 3D graphics where it is important to have high performance such as in video games. But mainly Direct3D is a 3D render, which is the rival of OpenGL, to which has many commands within the program that allow the user to do 3D rendering but is lacking behind as Microsoft strives to update the program so it can be supported on the latest technology in graphics cards, but it can offer full vertex software emulation but lacks no software pixel emulation as it lacks that hardware.

Game Engines:

A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games and also serves on what the game will look like and how the game is played depends on what engine it has but this also depends on what the games art style is.

An example of a game engine is:

Vision is a multi-platform 3D game engine used by various companies like Ubisoft and TimeGate Studios, in which they use it for their games like Ubisoft will have used it to create and develop there games. The current engine is known as the Vision Engine 8 and has a wide range of features such as: that it has A customizable rendering pipeline that ships with source code and includes normal maps, dynamic illumination, shadow maps, multi-threaded particle engine, HDR (High Dynamic Range), post-processing.