H O P P E R P E D I A ©
-Brian Hammons
3D Modeling
3D modeling is the process of developing a surface representation of an object in three-dimensions. The result is called a 3D model. 3D models are created using a collection of date points in 3D space. Models can be viewed from a variety of angles, they can be rotated and the view can be zoomed in and out. 3D modelers can export their models to files, which can then be imported into other applications as long as the metadata is compatible. Many modelers allow importers and exporters to be plugged-in, so they can read and write data in the native formats of other applications. High end 3D software packages contains features that support or allow the animation of models. Some are able to generate full-motion video of a series of rendered scenes (i.e. animation).
3D models are used in a wide variety of fields. The medical industry uses detailed models of organs. The movie industry uses them as characters and objects for animated and real-life motion pictures. The video game industry uses them as assets for computer and video games. The science sector uses them as highly detailed models of chemical compounds. The architecture industry uses them to demonstrate proposed buildings and landscapes through Software Architectural Models. The engineering community uses them as designs of new devices, vehicles and structures.
Representation
Almost all visual models used in games and film are shell models. Shell models represent the surface, e.g. the boundary of the object, (like an infinitesimally thin eggshell). These are easier to work with than solid models. Surfaces are not finite, a digital approximation is required: polygonal meshes (and to a lesser extent subdivision surfaces) are by far the most common representation, although point-based representations have been gaining some popularity in recent years. Level sets are a useful representation for deforming surfaces which undergo many topological changes such as fluids. The process of transforming representations of objects, such as the middle point coordinate of a sphere and a point on its circumference into a polygon representation of a sphere, is called tessellation. This step is used in polygon-based rendering, where objects are broken down from abstract representations ("primitives") such as spheres, cones etc., to so-called meshes, which are nets of interconnected triangles. Meshes of triangles (instead of e.g. squares) are popular as they have proven to be easy to render using scanline rendering.
Scene setup
All geometry in 3‑D space, e.g. objects, can be viewed from any angle, revealing the lighting from different angles. Scene setup involves arranging virtual objects, lights, cameras and other entities on a scene which will later be used to produce a still image or an animation.Lighting is an important aspect of scene setup. As is the case in real-world scene arrangement, lighting is a significant contributing factor to the resulting aesthetic and visual quality of the finished work. As such, it can be a difficult art to master. Lighting effects can contribute greatly to the mood and emotional response effected by a scene, a fact which is well-known to photographers and theatrical lighting technicians.
Color & Texture
Adding color & texture to a model's surface brings the object to life. Most 3D modeling software allows the user to color the model's vertices, and that color is then interpolated across the model's surface during rendering. The most common method of adding color information to a 3D model is by applying a 2D texture image to the model's surface through a process called texture mapping. Texture images are no different than any other digital image, but during the texture mapping process, special pieces of information (called texture coordinates or UV coordinates) are added to the model that indicate which parts of the texture image map to which parts of the 3D model's surface. Textures allow 3D models to look significantly more detailed and realistic than they would otherwise.
Animation
3D models are often animated from within the 3D modeler (software) that created them or exported to other programs. Animators makes use of a technique called "keyframing", which facilitates creation of complicated movement in the scene. With the aid of keyframing, one needs only to choose where an object stops or changes its direction of movement, rotation, or scale, between which states in every frame are interpolated. Often extra data is added to the model to make it easier to animate. For example, some 3D models of humans and animals have entire bone systems so they will look realistic when they move and can be manipulated via joints and bones, in a process known as skeletal animation.
Render Farm (Wranglers)
A render farm is a computer cluster (multiple computers or processors) built to render computer-generated imagery (CGI), typically for film and television visual effects, using off-line batch processing. Each frame usually can be calculated independently of the others, with the main communication between processors being the upload of the initial source material, such as models and textures, and the download of the finished images. Over time, advances in computer power have allowed an image to take less time to render. While simple images have generally always been produced rapidly, more realistic and complicated higher-resolution images can now be produced in more reasonable amounts of time. To manage large farms, one must
introduce a queue manager that automatically distributes each frame(s), or portion of the frame (tile) to the many processors. The software is typically a client–server package that facilitates communication between the processors and the queue manager. Recent research has explored the feasibility of reprogramming modern video cards to do rendering in the card's hardware.
Major packages
• 3ds Max (Autodesk), originally called 3D Studio MAX, is a comprehensive and versatile 3D application used in film, television, video games and architecture for Windows. It can be extended and customized through its SDK or scripting using a Maxscript. It can use third party rendering options such as Brazil R/S, finalRender and V-Ray.
• AC3D (Inivis) is a 3D modeling application that began in the 90's on the Amiga platform. Used in a number of industries, MathWorks actively recommends it in many of their aerospace-related articles[1] due to price and compatibility. AC3D does not feature its own renderer, but can generate output files for both RenderMan and POV-Ray among others.
• Aladdin4D (DiscreetFX), first developed for the Amiga, was originally developed by Adspec Programming. After acquisition by DiscreetFX, it is multi-platform for Mac OS X, Amiga OS 4.1, MorphOS, Linux, AROS and Windows.
• Blender (Blender Foundation) is a free, open source, 3D studio for animation, modeling, rendering, and texturing offering a feature set comparable to commercial 3D animation suites. It includes features such as multi-resolution sculpting; retopology painting; 3D view texture painting; and other features. Blender is developed under the GPL and is available on all major platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD, Solaris and Irix.
• Carrara (DAZ Productions) is a fully-featured 3D toolset for modeling, texturing, scene rendering and animation.
• Cinema 4D (MAXON) is a light package in its basic configuration. The software is for lay users. It has a lower initial entry cost due to a modular a-la-carte design for purchasing additional functions as users need them. Originally developed for the Amiga, it is also available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.
• Cobalt is a parametric-based Computer-aided design (CAD) and 3D modeling software for both the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. It integrates wireframe, freeform surfacing, feature-based solid modeling and photo-realistic rendering (see Ray tracing), and animation.
• Electric Image Animation System (EI Technology Group) is a 3D animation and rendering package available on both Mac OS X and Windows. Mostly known for its rendering quality and rendering speed it does not include a built-in modeler. The popular film Pirates of the Caribbean and the television series Lost[3] used the software.
• form•Z (AutoDesSys, Inc.) is a general purpose solid/surface 3D modeler. Its primary use is for modeling, but it also features photo realistic rendering and object-centric animation support. form•Z is used in architecture, interior design, illustration, product design, and set design. It supports plug-ins and scripts, has import/export capabilities and was first released in 1991. It is currently available for both Mac OS X and Windows.
• Houdini (Side Effects Software) is used for visual effects and character animation. It was used in Disney's feature film The Wild.[4] Houdini uses a non-standard interface that it refers to as a "NODE system". It has a hybrid micropolygon-raytracer renderer, Mantra, but it also has built-in support for commercial renderers like Pixar's RenderMan and mental ray.
• Inventor (Autodesk) The Autodesk Inventor is for 3D mechanical design, product simulation, tooling creation, and design communication.
• KeyCreator (Kubotek) KeyCreator developed by Kubtotek USA is a 3D direct CAD modeler used by mechanical designers. It is extensively used in manufacturing and supply chains due to its ability to import and edit many CAD formats.
• Lightray 3D (Sxcreations)Lightray 3D Developed by Sxcreations, is a 3D Polygonal Modeling, Rendering and Animation piece of software it has extensive import/export capabilities it is only available on Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7
• LightWave 3D (NewTek), first developed for the Amiga, was originally bundled as part of the Video Toaster package and entered the market as a low cost way for TV production companies to create quality CGI for their programming. It first gained public attention with its use in the TV series Babylon 5[6] and is used in several contemporary TV series. Lightwave is also used in film production. It is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.
• MASSIVE is a 3D animation system for generating crowd-related visual effects, targeted for use in film and television. Originally developed for controlling the large-scale CGI battles in The Lord of the Rings,Massive has become an industry standard for digital crowd control in high end animation[citation needed] and has been used on several other big-budget films. It is available for various Unix and Linux platforms as well as Windows.
• Maya (Autodesk) is currently used in the film and television industry. Maya has developed over the years into an application platform in and of itself through extendability via its MEL programming language. It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
• Modo (Luxology) is a subdivision modeling, texturing and rendering tool with support for camera motion and morphs/blendshapes.and is now used in the Television Industry It is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.
• NX ( Siemens PLM Software) is an integrated suite of software for computer-aided mechanical design (mechanical CAM), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) formed by combining the former Unigraphics and SDRC I-deas software product lines.[13] NX is currently available for the following operating systems: Windows XP and Vista, Apple Mac OS X,[14], and Novell SUSE Linux.
• Silo (Nevercenter) is a subdivision-surface modeler available for Mac OS X and Windows. Silo does not include a renderer. Silo is the bundled in modeler for the Electric Image Animation System suite.
• SketchUp Pro (Google) is a 3D modeling package that features a sketch-based modeling approach. It has a pro version which supports 2D and 3D model export functions among other features. A free version is integrated with Google Earth and limits export to Google's "3D Warehouse", where users can share their content.
• Softimage (Autodesk) Softimage (formerly Softimage|XSI) is a 3D modeling and animation package that integrates with mental ray rendering. It is feature-similar to Maya and 3DS Max and is used in the production of professional films, commercials, video games, and other media.
• solidThinking (solidThinking) is a 3D solid/surface modeling and rendering suite which features a construction tree method of development. The tree is the "history" of the model construction process and allows real-time updates when modifications are made to points, curves, parameters or entire objects.
• Solid Edge ( Siemens PLM Software) is a commercial application for design, drafting, analysis, and simulation of products, systems, machines and tools. All versions include feature-based parametric modeling, assembly modeling, drafting, sheetmetal, weldment, freeform surface design, and data management.[16] Application-programming interfaces enable scripting in Visual Basic and C programming.
• SolidWorks (SolidWorks Corporation) is an application used for the design, detailing and validation of products, systems, machines and toolings. All versions include modeling, assemblies, drawing, sheetmetal, weldment, and freeform surfacing functionality. It also has support for scripting in Visual Basic and C.
• Swift 3D (Electric Rain) is a relatively inexpensive 3D design, modeling, and animation application targeted to entry-level 3D users and Adobe Flash designers. Swift 3D supports vector and raster-based 3D animations for Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight XAML.
• trueSpace (Caligari Corporation) is a 3D program available for Windows, although the company Caligari first found its start on the Amiga platform. trueSpace features modeling, animation, 3D-painting, and rendering capabilities. In 2009, Microsoft purchased TrueSpace and it is now available completely free of charge.
• Vue (E-on Software) is a tool for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D environments. It was most recently used to create the background jungle environments in the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean films.[17]
• ZBrush (Pixologic) is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting tool available for Mac OS X and Windows. It is used to create normal maps for low resolution models to make them look more detailed.
