We also looked at paintings understanding from a painters view, as well as looking at film like Running Man, seven and even some work that Hugh worked on himself like Peter And The Wolf a Oscar winning animation. So all in all it was a fun day.

On the third Day we started setting up the lighting on our Stop Motion set ‘Princess P.M.S’ (thank god Hugh never asked for the name!) the first problem (and only problem) is that the set is viewed on a front view, Hugh stated lighting the set this way is… difficult especially on how we had it set up, if we could have a 3 point light set up then it would be a lot more interesting but alas we’re still we’re able to set up lighting.

Here the 8 minute video submitted and filmed (some filming was partially by me) rest by Abbie (http://abbiestabby.wordpress.com/)

The video shows our set, the lighting equipment used, one interesting instrument was a self engineered lighting set up with the ‘dimmer’ lights where each light dimmer is linked to a diode light, with the dimmers you can adjust the lighting which is perfect for stop motion sets that are at a reasonable size, the little diodes allow a lot of control on the lighting and they’re easily monouver around our set, so regardless of the set you can quickly set up a professional looking set with these little set up, rather lugging around lights that have the power of the sun and result in our set melting.

Another set up video from Ross Martin youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/yusake13

The little video above is the lighting finished on our set. So you’ll get a little view of our set that took A LONG TIME to build.

Another tour of where I animate:

The video above is a early view of our set before we started animating and setting up lighting. The only problem with our set (even at this point) is where the set is located, the lighting is poor, flat shall we say and outside it’s either raining or cloudy (Lovely British weather).

As always I’ll start with the bad news… Sadly (at this pooint) it looks like I won’t be laser cutting anymore of the stop motion characters due to problems with the laser cutter, in early post their require vector points the laser cutter is saying there is now too many, which is odd since the other images were drawn the same… However their is a glimmer of hope, there is a method of convert drawn images into vector which the laser cutter can copy off, if this method works (which would of resulted ina  much quicker method, instead of me drawing everything Flash) then we can still get all the characters yet!

The good news is that the set is all ready for animation! So are the 2 character cut ous which means we can start testing the animation and see how it looks on camera (images above).

We have a set which was built using blue tack and cutting up a large foam core board and sticking in ‘legs’ to support the back drop.

Luckily we have  aseveral tests all done, Abbie Rial (http://abbiestabby.wordpress.com/) has the lovely role as the editor (since oddly we can’t use Flash at University because the files just crash and Premiere just doesn’t want to live) in result she’s been editing all the footage together.

Test 1 -

Test 2-

Test 3 -

Clearly for each test we… get better for ideas we intend to have the first sequence animated to a nice quality these versions are just us, figuring out the kinks in the system.

Test 3 is test 2 slowed down, one aspect w eneed to grasp is timing, clearly we’re animating too quickly, so we need to get a grip of timing which can only be done through testing and alot of testing we will do!

Also for the ‘final’ test we (hopefully) will have a better room for animating, notice the light? It’s terrible we have a large window in the roof and we’re not allowed to cover it up… because of health and safety, so we don’t have full control of the lighting which is… bad since the animation won’t be as visually ‘stunning’ as it should be since the style works well with light bit can also look bad if poor light is used.

For creating the stick puppets I bought some plant stiks from my local pound shop and some blue tack and stuck the characters and thus we have out stick puppet style (as well as you can see our hands popping out).

As for the project it can go a lot of ways, we either make a ton of tests using the 2 characters MAIN key images or we find away to get the rest laser ed off, so far the easier method is looking nice since everyone on this project is frustrated and want to be done with it, the laser cutter has been the biggest pain and ideally would of been best to change but we didn’t see if this was the biggest problem, all the pre-production is done….. we just need more character key frames.

This project was stuck in development hell but now we’re animating, it just become infinitely more fun, for the test we’re just playing around with the characters and seeing what we could create, as you’ve notice we’re a little too fast but we’re getting better and this week following will either in result in more characters been cut or just us making more tests (or a little of both, who knows). But our deadline is very close so we’ll be working over time at this rate.

We finally have a set, set up! We just need the rest of the characters to be cut out.

As for the laser cutter I don’t believe I’ve stated how it works?

The laser cutter (well the settings we use) uses vector co-ordinates to cut out the shapes that have been ‘plotted’ (in this case traced in flash). The process so far has been that me and Ross draw and animate the ‘key’ poses for the animation. Drawing the key pose was…. hell, we had to draw over the laser cut out, sadly we didn’t have a light box at the time to help us with the key poses. I drew the Princess, Bee Hive, theatre curtains and bears, and all the backgrounds. As before Ross also drew up the backgrounds but for sake of time uses we used mine due to already been in flash ready for laser cutting.

Ross drew out the key poses for the wolf, designed the dragon and various backgrounds. For the wolf design Ross did a bloody good job, the wolf design is a lot more complex than the princess, so overall I think we both did a bloody good job!

Next is turning those pencil drawing into vectors, just to note reason they were pencil drawn was originally the key poses were going to be pencil based and then cut out but due to time issues it would be ‘quicker’ to use the laser cutter…. boy was I wrong. Next is vectoring up the designs in adobe flash by tracing over the image previously drawn. I wanted the rest of the group to learn flash for this purpose but they never bothered to learn it, so in result this task was handed down to me (ffffuuuu). Once the drawings are all traced, they then need to be re-sized to be cut. In flash and from paper they’re the wrong size, so I need to convert the pixels into millimetres over wise the images are too big. So the task was for me and Ross to figure out the right size, once we got the correct measurements it’s basically basing everything else on the similar measurements (basically we find out one size and then adjust according to the size of the object that’s been modified).

First time round we did this, we were unaware of the sizes, we didn’t know the laser cutter cuts in millimetres, luckily we fixed this but did cost us affair bit of time. Another problem was getting a technician to teach us how to use the laser cutter, sometimes he wasn’t in and we needed a key or the machine was in maintenance (for 2 weeks!) so due to the laser cutter its… been the biggest threat and the core of our problems. why not change it? Sadly it’s too late for it, also I’m too stubborn to change…

The measurements were adjusted inside illustrator, I export the flash file type to a FXG which allows me to open the file inside illustrator which then allows me transform their sizes. One problem here is the images were not all the same size so I had to create a master ‘image’ and adjust the other images by eye to get them accurate, another time consuming task. Next is importing the ai file into the laser cutter to cut.

While in illustrator sometimes the file acts.. funny especially when I sometimes move the image (see black copies of the wolf) which results in two line sbeen placed and when exported for the laser cutter I had to adjust the lines by removing them and keep doing this until I only have one line art or the laser cutter will cut round it make more passes, damaging the image we want.

Next problem is getting the laser cutting options correct, we first had to modify the laser cutters strength, I set mine to ‘foam board’ and adjusted the settings accordingly, I had to do 4 tests by cutting up cubes, the settings were:

• Cut through – 4 passes – velocity: 3.00 – Max Power 7.5.

This setting was best since over options melt the actual core, which is something I don’t want, other options didn’t cut through etc so these options turned best.

After that it’s a matter of getting them cut out which turned out to be hell since getting hold of the laser cutter is first come, first serve and it would make life MUUUCH easier if we could book it.

As for progression I’ve managed to get out the wolf, trees and the tower, sadly we couldn’t get the plants (too small and they broke off every time we tried popping them out, we sadly broke).

As for progress we have a set and THIS week we’ll have a animation test, I’ll post a link here with the visual of the set, which I had to produce a back drop by cutting the sides up, placing another piece of core so that it’ll stand (easy!). I gave the other two members Ross and Abbie to complete the animatic with animatic and for her to finish the storyboards.

Images below are some sketches me and Ross have completed and various of older stiff (like the storyboard I did before we changed our idea).

The project is very close to the animation stage, luckily we have till the 21st of May so we’ll make it in time.

Just to note sadly Bridghe has dropped out of our course so sadly we’re a 1 person down but luckily she helped massively with her character designs, so we got that out of the way first.

The curtain image sadly won’t make it the laser cutter (we decided it’s best not to be sued, even the my idea of the curtains been puled by cloth would be a cool stop motion effect), the problems were making it stand and it may also cover up the design (say like the tower, when I adjusted the size

This has really set us back something fierce and as I stated in my last post that getting hold of the laser cutter could be difficult was a correct prediction….. Oh bugger~

But overall we all decided to go with the laser cutter due to the quality and getting hold of card for it to print is difficult, so in stead we’ve gone with the foam core, for this week the laser cutter is FREE so it’s a matter of getting them cut out and then slapped in front of a camera.

Even if we’re unable to get a mass amoutn of animation done, a small 30 seconds would be great! Visually they look fantastic, which you can see in the gallery of me holding them:

Currently me and Ross drew out the backgrounds and are currently building the set, before that Abbie and Brighde were drawing up the storyboards, which are now complete (ergo look at their blogs)!

The other image in the gallery clearly looks odd but those are pencil drawing of the dragon and princess, those are the keys for the animation (so far there is 7 of the princess) I drew the Princess while ross has drawn out the Dragon and wolf (still in production, it’s going to be me, ROss and Abbie drawing them to get them finished)

For the process to keep them accurate we used the princess (and wolf) as the main reference, we traced around them and then adjusted them accordingly, using the storyboards we determined the poses, mine look a little stiff but the way ee’re animating them, it will complement the style, otherwise these are very difficult to draw without a lightbox but they’ll do the job nicely.

The next process is to vector them up for the laser cutter, I take in the scan drawing (likes so in the gallery) trace over their lines and then send them into illustrator for them to be cut up onto foam core and thus there ready for animation.

For this week we intend to get scene 1 done, if we can do that then we’re 1/3rd complete, if we can keep it short it’ll look great if we focus on it, otherwise there’s no real problem at the moment, once everything is cutout then we’re good but it’s bets if can HAVE something animated first….

Mooore goodnews…. the laser cutter is under maintenance for 2 weeks (FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUU) but our lovely tutor has given us nice little window of opportunity to get the work done so we have a couple of extra weeks (assuming we can’t hit 5th Of May).

So for the two weeks WE will have all the wolf, Princess animations complete as well as little extras like the bee hive, bear etc.

The artists working on this project are:

Alex Murphy (me)

Abbie Rial

Ross Martin

Brighde Wilson

The idea at the moment stands as a fairy tale princess going to a convent store to buy chocolate and cigarettes, however getting to store proves tricky… The theme is set in medieval times and the set is within a forest with a store located at the end which for a fairy tale can’t be all that odd.

Before we even got this idea we chucked ideas around to understand what we was making, how we would make it etc.

FOr themes and sets we chucked these ideas:

• Medieval
• science (laboratories)
• A bed room
• underwater
• jungle
• steampunk (gah)

I opt for  avoting on this part and out of 2 votes for Medieval, that sector won but Brighde said about a ‘fairytale princess’ then it clicked and I bellowed out ‘FAIR TALE WE CAN USE THAT AS OUR THEME’ thus fairytale themed.

At this point we decided on what roles we were going with and to what strengths we can be used to determine the speed and quickness, as well as trying to minimize human error within the project.

For pre-production stage we nominated Brighde for character design, she has a very strong ability in creating original characters and is very quick at it, so best job role for her.

Abbie is the storyboard artist, like Brighde she is also very fast at drawing up (accurately and visually pleasing) storyboards, therefore best role for her.

Me and Ross were given the role of background designs, Ross is very strong with his drawing ability and I’m very comfortable with digital software, therefore both us can work together on designing the forest stage for the background.

For animation we chucked around ideas of how we would animate, one idea was one person animated to keep consistency, problem here is workload and the unfairness to other who want to animate, therefore the idea of ‘key animator’ and inbetweeners , sadly ‘inbetweening’ is impossible due to lighting and position of the camera, therefore coming back will be a problem.

The best idea which is what we decided to work on is we all animate (well lead, technically we will all be together on the project) so we will split the storyboard up and tackle the hardest parts and since we have 3 hours per lesson to animate this we can split the time up for each person to animate a certain section then we swap, however everyone else will be present when animating so even in animating everyone will be working together. So it should be fun.

When we was deciding on the set I got the idea of a theater, which I got inspiration from Paper Mario and The Thousand year door (gamecube game) and I got the idea of the ‘special effects’ because we decided on giving the princess powers and we decided to use after effects, I.. personally don’t want to use after effects because it will look odd with digital effects on stop motion (especially on this animation style) so the theater idea came to mind and thus we decided to incorporate it into our set design.

The next stage is how the story would be told. One idea was she would be walking around, next idea was a dragon which Abbie came up with and we stuck with it, originally the princess would of got sick of the dragons presence and shoot it with a gun, another idea idea was it gets blown etc but we wanted something  a bit more cemented, so we wanted a story to follow up to that

We then decided to chuck out ideas on where she is and what she is doing, at this point we didn’t even know she was stressed or angry.

The next process was she was going to encounter a monster or a person and she would deal with them in a unique way.

One idea was a griffon, cherberues and cymeria but I voted against due to complex nature and thinking of the nature of the animation.. so nah!

So we went with a Naga idea (snake/human monster can look like a human or serpent like), we all had an idea of how to animate it, although me sound tricky, we went with a motion of  a caterpillar or  a worm in a comedic fashion, the Naga will then proceed to ‘hit’ the princess which he misses and the princess makes a gesture, he then proceed to whip her again but is in turn caught and dragged away, she then comes back, wiping her hands and then continues her merry way.

Next she encounters a wolf, he looks like a gentlemen, back in fairytale law, wolfs were considered predators which portrays males in heat, so a wolf is used as symbolic, she then proceeds to the wolf who is trying to be sly and ‘pull’ her, she then kicks in the crotch, he falls to ground writhing in pain, she then continues her merry but in a more aggressive walk cycle.

She then counters the Ogre/troll, which roars at her, she then in turns roars back, which blows the ogre/troll away, she finally then arrives at the convenient store which a dragon pops it head out, she’s furious and he doesn’t want any trouble, he then gives her the cigarettes and chocolate in a grocery bag and leaves.

Originally the ogre came before the wolf but we swapped them around since the whole ‘attacking’ the wolf has made her furious, so shouting at someone seemed… logically, also made the story flow better.

For the dragon we suggested several heads but… decided for just the one due to not giving us lot a heart attacking when animating.

For more of out ideas we recorded our thoughts when we were discussing them, which is can be listened here (link).

For the animation, we are going with a 3D style effect, so the theater will be decided in a 3D style as to oppose of the 2D down angle view, we mapped out the stage here on this A3 card, which shows the layout of the set: (image)

We’re going to animate the scene by pulling each segment, which allows us to show the motion of walking while in fact the character is stood in one place, ergo theater style animation.

However for problems we’re going to do a test next week to see how the animation will work., we’ll then see if it executes well and fix any problems early so that we don’t have to worry about them in later future.

Before 3D was shown or created it was manly advancements of technology in which different people and companies contributed, 3D first made its appearance in 1961:

• Before computers had GUI (graphic users interfaces) computer art was programmed using data and binary values until IIvan Sutherland created a sketchpad software which allows a user to use a pen to create the image, its is now known as a graphic tablet and pen and have all advance since the 1961, this was also the birth of computer graphic and graphic software
• Photoshop is then created by an employee of ILM (industrial light and Magic) in which added another boom to advertisement, film etc, also spawning another digital design which is illustration program called illustrator which used vector design that kept quality and never lose it.
• Disney finally goes digital and starts moving away from the traditional 2-D drawings, in result the first film Aladdin creates the use of 3-D and 2.5 D graphics that were impossible in 2-D
• Digital inking is now used and allowed animators to create a colour process which is cheaper and quicker to use.
• 1995 john lassenter crates Toy Story and various other 3-D shorts in which the 3-D entertainment really lifted off the ground and companies started viewing this as the next step for entertainment.

3D modelling is creating a three dimensional surface of an object, which is displayed using mathematical representation (the other term been meshing). Once the product is created its then known as a 3D model.

The model is designed using geometric shapes these been:

Rectangular Prisms –

Triangular Prisms -

Hexagonal Prisms -

Square Pyramids -

Rectangular Pyramid -

Triangular Pyramid -

Hexagonal pyramids -

Cylinders -

Cones -

Sphere -

To condense down the amount of shapes its usually split between: Polygons, triangles, cylinders, sphere etc basically Polygons are shapes with 4 or more sides. Any shape with fewer sides go with their own term (aka triangle).

With these shapes creating any visual image is possible; the limitation is the user skill and creativity.

As for how 3D came into what we see today, there wasn’t a single person who created 3D graphics but rather a history key people and software that advanced the creation, starting in 1961.

As for 3D representation in a computer is geometric data, using a Cartesian co-ordinate system (using x, y and z plots).

As for 3D, it really on algorithms equations and system, so in terms of 2D and 3D its rather blurry to explain since both can be created using the same software and method, the difference been looks and that is still isn’t explained since 3D graphics are not 3D until displayed (an example of a 3D method design that creates a 2D image is South Park).

3D computer files are contained in a graphical data file when been created, the 3D file is also known as 3D models which as before is data represented using three dimensional objects (polygons, triangles etc).

However they don’t have to be displayed as 3D until digital printing is used, which renders the image and creates a 2D dimensional image.

However 3D images and animation go through a lengthy process on been created, they go through construction of the shapes, then modelled and finally rendered.

Principle Animation –

As for the principle of animation its completely the same as 2D animation (been digital or traditional) the other difference been the medium of how they’re created, so the movement, weight and movement to the next key frame still apply, so learning 3D animation doesn’t require a whole new principle of animation but rather how to make them move in that aspect (aka Software wise).

As for animating in 3D, the process isn’t as simple as drawing the image firstly the design must go through a series of processes:

• Modelling
• Rigging
• Skinning
• Animating

Rigging the Character –

‘Rigging’ is mainly the set up of a character in a 3D environment, think of them as the bones of the character, these are what the bones which move the character around, hence a bone structure which is later used for the movement of the character.   Hence for example a bone structure inside the model, these will be manipulated and move the character so we can see the 3D model move.

Skinning the character –  

This process adds the effects of how the bones will respond once they start animating, so this process is very important pretty much gets the bones from the rigging process to behave and do what they’re meant to do.

Some special tools within specific software are sometimes designed for a certain process, for example same are used for facial expressions. This allows morphing of the face.

Animating –

Now the animating begins.

3D meshing –

‘Meshing’ is the starter area of creating a 3D object, its mainly a group of triangles, quadrilaterals or other shapes. The process of creating the shapes starts with the vertices (points) then are connected to create shapes or create edges, then faces, polygons, surface and finally the final product.

The meshing then contains all the geometric, vertices and x,y and z points within the actual shape, similar to that of vectors, they also contain mathematical values, so it never loses quality, shape or size. Therefore re arranging the shapes won’t lose quality.

The actual construction of 3D shapes can be constructed in a variety of ways:

Subdivide: split faces and edges into smaller pieces to create new vertices, hence an example would eb breaking polygons into smaller polygons like so:

Extrude: Used on faces or groups of faces by creating another face of the same shape and size and links them, hence creating a cube would be to copy a square face then link them to for a cube.

Inflation modelling and extrusion modelling are commonly used for creating complex shapes like heads, the method is the user traces a 2D image, from a drawing, photograph or digital image, the software then converts the image into a 2D image and finally creates a 3D image, the software looks at different angles and applies the vertices when necessary, afterwards the artist then shapes the image to his/her needs.

The most common method is using primitives which most 3D modelling tools use, basically you create a predefined mesh by using one of the common shapes been: pyramids, cylinders, cubes, spheres and 2D images (square, triangle).

Types of 3D construction –

Vertices method -

AS for the diagram above these are the points that will eventually make up a shape or object, in result with two or or more edges are met they then create a polygon or face, everything in a 3D model is made up of vertices, best way to think for them are of points on a graph and once all the points have been plotted it then creates the outline of a shape

Edge – The edge construction is a line between two vertices points, the boarder lines of faces and polygons.

Face – The shape is actually a triangle and is connected using 3 vertices points, once connected it transformers the edges and polygons.

Polygons – As stated before polygons are shapes with at least 4 sides or more, 4 sided polygons are mostly favoured due to having more sides usually effects 3D animation.

Operations on the 3D mesh –

Some other methods like Sketch based modelling can create low detail shapes but very quickly the user just draws the shape and the software creates into a 3D dimensional shape.

The opposite would be 3D scanners which takes pictures of real objects and converts them into a 3D dimensional object, this method is very useful since it can capture realistic images, not just image but also the colour, light etc in result creating very detailed objects.

The term for the visual of the mesh is also called a ‘wire frame’ which is the area that gets rendered:

Software tools –

Most notable software uses with 3D are:

Maya – Currently used in film and t.v industry, uses C++ as a plug in to create more effects

3DS MAX – Also used in the film, t.v industry, game animation etc it uses it own scripting languages to help create plug ins to help with animations.

Nuke – used in post production to bring a 2D image into a 3D perceptive (allows to edit images)

Cinema 4D – A low cost software package used for educational purposes. C

LightWave 3D – a high end CGI texture tool that helps with 3D programs to add more texture features.

Ocula – An add tool for nuke, helps find errors in edited images by using cameras for misalignment (basically a tool to help show where a misplaced shape or texture maybe placed).

Google sketch up – A free use 3D tool, more commonly used for building quick designs, normally used within companies like Arup that makes simple 3D designs to give them an idea for how a building will look, how certain objects need adding (like electrical wires or transformers) however only for a quick design.

Motion capture suit –

AS so far creating animations and 3D objects has been through the use of objects and then later key framing the objects

Rendering -

Rendering is the process after the creation of a 3D models has been completed (aka character, building, scenes etc) basically converting 3D objects into a 2D image with a 3D photorealistic effect.

Rendering can come in different techniques as of now the new methods of rendering are: Ray tracing, radiosity and scan line rendering which are methods to give objects more of a realistic effect, in fact it can create a realistic image.

The one of the most important aspect of rendering is getting light and reflecting correct, rendering plays a big part in this area, the types of lights and reflection methods are:

Real time and non real time rendering:

Real time: Real time rendering is an important aspect for games, also used in simulations, the desire effect here is speed rather than quality, due to been a game, the idea here isn’t realistic 9since usually games are more based on he fantasy world) a good example would be games like Super Mario and Megaman (NES) since they all had a frame rate of 60, this basically means the game runs at this speed and is rendering the graphics as it goes along, in result it gives clear quality but just not at a photorealistic (however this is slowly changing due to the next gen games) however as of this time this method is only used for gaming and simulations, mainly for fun and/or learning. The system could also used lens flares depth of field and motion blur, to give games and simulations are more of a ‘wow’ effect, due to the system been a real time, specific hardware parts have to be created, which are GPU’s (Graphics processing units).

Due to computers, phones and other gadgets now have a GUI (graphic user interface) they now require another processing cores to generate the graphics, while usually the CPU (central processing unit) so the GPU now take the job of processing the graphics while the CPU controls the other functions an example of a GPU would be graphics cards like Nvidia or Radeon.

Non real time – Basically the opposite of real time, instead of getting as much graphics rendered for the purpose of speed, non real time render more slowly for film, T.V which have a rate of 24,25 and 30 frames per second while games can be of 24 to 120 frames per second.

However the effect of non real time are more for photo realistic effect, so more advance methods wil be used like ray tracing or radiosity, these effects have been developed to the point now where the effect are realistic and using them is basically based upon the creativity and knowledge of the user (also software).

With these effects it allows to add realism, on how light hits an objects or reflects, how it can be combined with certain elements like rain, fire, water etc or any type of light radiation, hence the system built for these will be particle systems, caustics (uses the light refraction when light enters say the water and how it bends and refracts of objects) volumetric sampling  which is used to stimulate weather effects, hence using ray tracing and radioasity will be applied to give these effects a more photo realistic effect.

So in general real time is used to render graphics quickly (hence games will be played fast and are normal constantly moving) non real time considerate on been more detailed.

However the downside to non real time is the rendering of the actual graphics, as of before GPU’s are used to create the 2D images with photorealistic effect for games, films, t.v etc however if one wants to have photorealistic effect then hardware is the isuse here, rendering the graphics at very high quality and detailed can takes a very long time, depending on the hardware, some may takes, hours to render a single frame, for example Toy Story from Pixar took around 2 to 14 hours to render a single frame (hence this was in the 1990’s) and the hardware to be used is huge and very expensive, another example is Lord Of the rings, that required a hardware creation called a ‘RenderWall’ which a stack of GPU’s rendering the images, Lord of the Rings had around 32 thousand computers working on rendering process due to the realistic effect it had. Not just for processing but storage is also another key point, films like these requires gigabytes of data, heck even terabytes of information to be stored to the mess detailed, not so much for gaming but more for films.

The biggest use of computer hardware was the creation of the film Avatar, the system built for it had 35 thousand processing cores and around 3000 terabyte of storage.

So really real time and non real time have their pros and cons, it all downs to what effect you want and what hardware to use.

Ray Tracing –

The method is that the ‘ray tracing’ traces light from the eye back through an image plane then onto a scene and then it testes the rays on how it will hit an object, all images are tested, if the ray misses then the light from the background will hit the object, this applies to shading systems as well used within 3D environment, hence this method is very useful to apply since it adds the correct physics of how light will work.

However not all is well, it also has a problem with the rate of how the rays will work (aka aliasing) which is the frequency, in result the computer graphics can become jagged or show many problem with the shapes in result causing a visual problem.

An example of Ray tracing – : http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/raytrace/rt_java/raytrace.html

Another example of the effects ray tracing been used is from the film transformers:

Michael bay actually specifically told the animators and render artists to apply the Ray tracing, since it add that extra realistic effect, hence picture of Optimus, by looking at the parts, the lighting show how it can be shiny, dull etc in result it looks like a real robot.

Again from transformers, the creates showed how the use of Ray tracing helped give the effect:

First the set is created, next is adding the robots models, here are the main robots without much detail:

Here there rendered and added detail but not much light is added, its mainly the texture giving this effect, doesn’t really give much of a realistic machine been there:

In result Ray tracing is added and makes it look like its part of the set, adding that realistic effect, although a lot is due to texture and models of the robots, ray tracing is that extra shine that gives a realistic effect. This method was again also used in Pirates Of The Caribbean, Lord Of the rings, Jurassic Park etc.

Radiosity effect –

Unlike Ray tracing, this simulates light reflecting once off a surface, the effects simulate a more softer and natural shadows and reflections.

The creation was made by researchers at Conell in 1984 in which trying to create a simulation of ‘heat transfers’ for engineering and ahs been a problem since 1950’s, something made for engineering is now used for entertainment.

This effect again like ray tracing is applied onced the scene is set, hence it mimics a real world phenomena.

As an example:

Without the effect:

With radiosity and to add more textures with the effect on:

You get this look, a photoreasltic effect with a warm feeling to it and a natural look.

Other types of rendering effects also include:

Realistic rendering –

As in the title, this process creates realistic rendered objects, which in reality can be anything:

Clay Rendering –

3D models that represent a type of dewsign (like concept art or picure) and create a clay model, in which is the first process of 3D animation to see if it’s the design the animators want to use:

Wire rendering -

Or wire frame is the structure lines of the object, hence the dges of the polygons designs, its mianly clay modelling but just showing the wires frames instead of the rendered poloygons.

Cell shading –

Cell shading is basically turning a 3D graphic into something cartoony or toony (toon shading or cartoon shading) which produces a hand drawn like look.

The reason for this design is to create cartoon or comic style 3D animation.

For example South Park uses this method, due to South Park animated in a 3D environment, buildings and special animations are done using this method, for example:

3D printing –  

Not all 3D productions are all based upon mainly the entertainment industry; it also works very well in the construction and architect industry, 3D printers scan materials and create layers of the image and produce the 3D image of what the manufactory wants, advance versions create photo realistic images, this method is very useful since they could use a drawn design and create a 3D model out of it, in result creating that object into a real product.

In result it cans can tons of parts and create all sorts od products, its faster and cheaper method of assembling objects in a 3D world, while connected to  machine (like a wood work design) it can create the 3D object, aka a youtube link show an example of this process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7h09dTVkdw

Other processes of these are jewellery, footwear, car industry, engineering, construction, aerospace and medical industry.

For example here the medical industry using the 3D printing process:  http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2008/tc2008103_077223.htm

NURBS – Non-uniform rational basis spline –

In basic terms there curves which help create perfect quality images, for example its used to create 3D models, images, vevtors and animations. As for the curves these create a variety of shapes which are used for all kinds of processes which can be easy or hard to use.

The curve degree, rational curves and B –splines are used to create these lines and curves hence fixing out a shape and in result look like this:

As for displaying this information its mathematical equations using 3D geometry which creates a 2-D line, circle, arc or curve which can create any 3D shape.

NURBS as for the one I will use, are for illustration and animations purposes ony, the reason for this use is:

NURBS are used in the industry as standard use, due to communicating well with geometry. In result I can use this NURBS models to create any animation, illustrations etc which will contain the information (mathematically, hence the quality for example) for years to come.

NURBS accurately represent standards geometric shapes like lines, spheres, troi, circles and ellipses, plus other shapes like cars and human bodies.

The use in the industry –

Industrial light and Magic –  

As of 3D industry, Industrial light and magic (ILM) are likely one of the best of for visual effects that builds upon motion shots in films.

As a company it was first founded in  1975 by George Lucas who wanted to create effects that ‘never been seen before’ so originally this little area of visual effects was for the use only in Star wars (the first 3) after the success of the films Lucas decided to expand this little niche of effects into something that is now the world’s leading visual effects.

The company is now known for creating the most relastic and best visuals in todays films, films including:

Jurassic park trilogy, Harry Potter franchise, Pirates of Caribbean trilogy, Transformers, Avatar, iron Man, War of the Words (2005), perfect storm, these are just a few of what ILM have created

As for a company they’re also helped the film industry advance as you now see it today, helping with each milestone, heck not just in film but also software as well.

For example John Knoll saw his brother using an unknown digital editing program that he had built and asked him if he could use it in ILM filing, his friend Thomas Knoll agreed to it and finished designing the program within the summer, this program today is known as Photoshop, after the use it was sold to Adobe to be used for editing photos, as of now a drawing tool as well.

ILM also influenced leading animators John Lassenter, who in 1980 was a digital animator for ILM, later moved to Disney and presented to the company a digital 3D animation and what movies they could create, although it took them nearly 10 years but they created Toy Story in 1995 even due to the problems and software isuses, they created something that would seem impossible.

Some examples of various effects they created:

The most notable use of t was used in ‘Perfect Storm’ where Ilm created a completely realistic storm effect.

Here is the ship and crew from Perfect Storm, the company used Maya to create the realstic effect, as well using C++ (a powerful programming language) to create the particles and reastic wave effects.

Basiclaly the image above is all digital, even the crew (in this shot) are also digital.

Heres the storm rendered, the company created as what we would see a ‘perfect’ storm.

As for a company it has won 15 best visual effects Oscars and 23 Scientific and technical awards noticed within the arts and science recognition due to helping and advancing digital animation that it is seen today.

As for milestones, the company has successfully created certain animation procedures and effects that was seen as impossible to create, these are:

• In 1999, ILM created the first computer digital and complete human anatomy in a reastic form, from perfect skin to rotting flesh (Imhotep from The Mummy)
• 1995 they created realistic fur and hair for animals in Jumanji.
• 1993 Ilm created the first to create realistic living, moving and complete anatomy of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
• 1995 Casper the Ghost was the first character to with emotions and personalioty, also been computer generated to take a leading role.

And various other advances.

ILM process on when creating Jurrasic park CGI:

Here for Ilm website they have an image gallery showing some of their films, if you place your cursor other the image it creates a box and shows you where each scene is either real or digital, here we have A.I (artificial intelligence) the only object in this film are the actos, the background is just a green screen.

From the film Iron man, the background is all digital, only real object here is the main actor and heck even the armor isn’t on him, he’s only wearing a motion capture suit, everything else is just a green screen (heck even cars arn’ there).

Finally a scene from War Of the Worlds (2005) in reality it’s a nice day that’s coming to an end, however in War of the worlds tripods are destroying everything, if you look carefully even some of the buildings aren’t there but been transformed (hence the brown building doesn’t have balloons and all the rubble and destruction is fake).

Digital Domain

Digital domain, like Ilm is also a visual effects, also working in the film, T.V and also video game industry.

You can think of digital domain as a rival company that’s on par with ILM, this company ash created effects in I, robot, Titanic, Transformers, Pirates Of the Caribbean Worlds end, Armageddon, Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many more.

The company started around 1993, getting known from the films, true lies, interview with the vampire and Colour of night.

However unlike ILM Digital Domain hasn’t created as much milestones when compared to ILM, in fact ILM is seen as better due to having more experience, however its created effects on par with ILM, most recent been in transformers.

In the film transformers Revenge of the Fallen, Digital Domain actually created the first digital character transform a realistic real person.

Quoted from 3Dartist magazine, page 33 isuse 18 “We had a hard time creating a digital human robot that transformers from an actual person (Actor Isabel Lucas) in which we had to create a new technique called “priceduralised deconstruction pattern” in which we created a robot emerging from Isabel.

Although the image doesn’t due much justice but in the film it looks very realistic and the animation looks fluent and you generally believe a robot came from this women.

So really Digital Domain can create just as impressive effects as ILM.

http://www.digitaldomain.com/ Other robots created also included a Robot called frenzy, another advancement with ILM that created a realistic robot that moves and interacts with the surroundings.

Another advancement Digital Domain created was making an older person but using a yoing actor, in this case in the Film Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where 52 minutes of the film was in fact Cgi shots and computer animation, the ‘old person’ isn’t there bnut layered other the actor.

http://www.benjaminbuttonfx.com/site.html

Valve Source game engine–

Another use of 3D design is in the game industry which ahs become ever popular since the release of the Playstation, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast.

Rather than advances in graphics, these companies have advance more in terms of programming with 3D, its mainly the hardware upgrades that’s advances these types of companies, however the most notable to pick out is Source game engine.

The game engines are designed for programmers, animators and musicians to work upon, basically building material that goes onto one area, which again ash features of them to use, which involves: An animation system

Render system

A.I system

Collision system etc.

In fact these types of engines have amass amounts of features which are then tuned into what game they want to create. Its basically a reusable development tool, so in which these types of tools take years to create but can be re used again and again.

However the Source game engine stands out the most due to the 3D render, it can create all kinds of graphics and looks for example:

team Fortress 2 with a cel shaded 3D design, not only does it stand out from most first person shooters but also the most fun and popular, released around 2007 and is still popular today.

The engine allowed the use of a powerful render system that created this type of effect, next been the sue of 3D animation tools which in this system gives an unlimited amount of freedom to experiment with, rending from (as well as able to add) colour swatches and in result also can create realistic or cartoony worlds and characters.

Another popular game from Source designs is half life:

Came around 1990’s and still on going, the system allowed to create a realistic world in the present as well as futuristic, the system can range from a variety of renders which an create all types of worlds and characters.

Pixar –  

One of the World’s leading 3D animation for the film industry 9as well as the internet in which they create shorts).

Most notable films created are Toy Story trilogy, Monsters Inc, Bug’s life, the Incredibles, Up and Wall-E.

The company actually started with staff users for ILM, who later was bought by Steve Jobs in which they formed Pixar. The company today specifies in 3D children movies in which they create shows for public viewing.

The company first created (a test) called Luxo the lamp in which it plays with a little ball and acts like a child, however what saved the company (at this point it was losing money heavily and due to 3D not really known for public viewing for high end films it was losing quickly) so it created its first feature 3D cartoon film Toy Story in result the world was amazed by.

However the company did hit certain problems, like ILM actually tackled later, certain films like Monsters Inc and The Incredibles could not be animated in the 1990’s due to computer software problems.

The Incredibles wasn’t animated until 2005 where John lassenter created with a group a new set of ways they can animate the characters in a realistic way, as well as having super powers, u until then long hair couldn’t even be animated which was shown with the daughter of the family Violet.

As for Mosnters Inc Hair and ur wasn’t possible to add as texture or animation until the Film jimanji was created in which ILM broadcast ion how it was designed.

In result though in terms of miles Stone, the Incredibles was the First film to have  afully CGI moving character in which no other companies have created followed by adding long hair (may sound strange but adding features like this adds more characters and visual looks).

As for Toy Story it wss the first feature length film that was fully CGI.

Medicine –

Single photon emission computed tomography – Another type of imagery but not within the entertainment sector but for medical proposes.

http://www.ctisus.com/angioatlas/

Single photon emission computed tomography uses images from scan (MRI, Cat Scans etc) these scan systems are able to create images which is a great help for doctors to help diagnose patients.

The system uses scans, in CT scans they rotate around the patient, around scans are used and fire gamma rays, which are then detected and absorbed by these scans and create a 3D image which can be placed together to create an image, like the one above, it can be moved around, MRI work this way as well but detect Magnetic waves instead of gamma rays.

In result 3D medical imaging not only helps doctors understand the problem better with a visual look but also helps students, these types of imagery can be saved and stored and late be used, and the best way to learn is visually looking, not everything in a text book can really prepare you but having  visual look on it will not only help you understand but get the grasps of what you must do or how to problem solve.

Arup – 

Another use of 3D imagery I’d Arup a professional building company.

The company makes use of this tool to create new projects which give the designers a better visual look.

Not only does it allow them to see what the end result may look like but also helps with planning, in which a 3D image will drastically help them in their designs, from where it can be placed, the height weight etc.

With the software they can create any type pf building or design, with it been data it can be saved and pass around which allows other artists to edit and play with until their happy with the end result.

   Not just for the use of building but also other parts that help create buildings, for example electrical purposes, the company creates wires, transformers etc to be added or placed next to the building, this method allows them to give it an insight in planning and visual looks, as well as other ideas on what voltage the building will use.

Bibliography –

http://www.jjonaitis.com/tuto/tuto1.htm

http://www.turbosquid.com/

http://www.helpingwithmath.com/by_subject/geometry/geo_shapes3D.htm

http://www.spatial.com/products/3d-mesh

http://www.howstuffworks.com/search.php?terms=3D+computer+graphics

http://www.ehow.com/about_5655500_invented-3d-animation_.html

http://www.ntchosting.com/multimedia/3d-graphics.html#3D_animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwzYuhduME4

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/technology-explained-what-is-cgi-animation/

http://www.unixtools.com/cgi.html

http://www.animationarena.com/principles-of-animation.html

http://www.3drender.com/glossary/3drendering.htm

http://www.netapp.com/us/communities/tech-ontap/tot-1007-bringing-avatar-to-life-hk.html

http://www.realtimerendering.com/intersections.html

http://www.design-engine.com/feature.php?feature=71

http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/raytrace/rtrace0.htm

http://www.simnet.is/hildurka/content/tut1page.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7h09dTVkdw

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-3d-printing.htm

http://knol.google.com/k/3d-graphics -

http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/3d/cell_shading.html

http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/southpark/

http://www.rw-designer.com/NURBS

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/perfect-storm.htm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/how-the-incredibles-works.htm

http://source.valvesoftware.com/

Here is an example of me and my friend Abbie using lightwave software

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