3D House Screen-shots

These are some images of the 3D house that I created using 3ds Max.

E-zine: 3D - The Basics

3D is quite quickly becoming one of the more popular areas of the media industry, becoming a more major part of the film industry, as well as evolving more within games, in fact most popular games will use some sort of 3D rendering. 3D modelling isn’t just linked to the more popular parts of the media industry though; 3D models are constructed for construction companies, and estate agents also to show how a house will look when it has been constructed. Today, the amount of realism that you can achieve using 3D programs is certainly impressive, and it would be difficult to tell the difference between a real image, and a high quality 3D render.

Although 3D programs can be unbelievably complex and difficult to get your head around, there a few basic techniques that need to be mastered in order to get a good 3D scene. They involve modelling (building objects out of shapes), texturing and lighting. In essence to be good at working with 3D, you need to think 3D. What I mean by this is that to create an interesting looking vase, you have to start off with the absolute basics. Probably by drawing an object such as a box, or cylinder and further shaping it using the options available to you in whatever 3D program you are using.

3D objects are implemented in animations and games in the same way effectively, objects are generally created separately to allow the 3D program to run faster, then they are put in a scene together, this is called merging. When objects have been merged, textures are added to them, as well as lighting. Beyond this, would be sort of going beyond the basics of 3D modelling. For example if it were an animation, key frames can be created to move objects in different ways, and for games a physics engine might be added.

I will be referring to a popular 3D program called 3Ds Max in any examples given. 3Ds Max is extremely popular in the computerised three dimensional world, more in terms of gaming and modelling. The program does boast quite an impressive animation system; however, other 3D programs are more commonly used for film and animation. If you are a student, you can get 3Ds Max free for four years here - http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=14185424

The first thing to try and understand with 3D objects is that they are made up of sides, or faces. The most basic item to visualise is the cube; it has 6 faces (or sides). In terms of 3D modelling, these are called polygons. So, polygons make up objects. Now, on as well as polygons, objects have edges that can be manipulated (as well as polygons). Obviously the edges just connect the faces to each other, they are on the edges of the polygons. The last basic feature of a 3D model to understand is that the corners of an object are called vertexes. So basically objects are made up of polygons, edges and vertexes, all of which can be manipulated in different ways using various tools to achieve a shape that you want.

If you have 3D software, it would be good just to select different shapes (such as boxes, or spheres) and have a play. A lot of what you learn in terms of shaping objects comes through practice; there is no textbook way to create an object you see in your mind.

There are many online tutorials to show you how to create certain objects, but creating your own ideas is obviously essential for your own work. The point I’m trying to make is that you need to be able to use your own thinking and skills to create objects. A good thing to do would be to start simple. For instance, start with something like a table or a chair. You could very basically draw a cuboid, with four longer boxes for the legs of the chair, and another tall box for the backrest. Even the most complex objects can be broken down into smaller, simplified objects. Perhaps before even opening up a 3D program, it might be a good idea to try and just draw the object you are trying to make.

There are many ways to manipulate 3D objects, these include converting objects to an editable polygons, this basically means that you can then change the shape of it by selecting the sides, vertexes or edges. In order to create more complex objects, we need more polygons then we usually start with. The amount of polygons can be set as you create the object, or later on as a modifier. This is again referring to the program 3Ds Max. For an object you can put a long list of different modifiers on, which all do different things. In terms of modelling perhaps one of the more important modifiers would be ‘edit poly’ modifier. It just allows you to move the shape around in almost every way, for the shape that you want.

Lighting can be achieved using 3D programs in several ways, but there are two major categories; lighting from a source (like a 40w bulb) and environmental lighting, such as the sun. Depending on how you want your scene to look, will depend on the lighting to choose from. For example if you would a room to have sun coming in through the large patio doors, you would implement a sun system (you can even set the time and date to your location for precise lighting). Or perhaps you would like a basement type model that has a few ceiling lights, you would implement regular photometric lights. Lighting is an important reason to keep your models to the scale you would want the model in real life. A 40 watt bulb isn’t going to light up a room that’s completely off scale.

The amount of polygons that a shape has will directly affect how quickly that object renders. The more polygons an object has, the slower the render time will be. What I mean by ‘rendering’ is basically showing how the object will actually look in what is called the output window. If you were to be working with a full quality object to edit, it would take a considerable amount of time and you would need an extremely high spec system to work on!

Speaking of rendering, when working on a project it is common to turn all of the render setting right down to what is called draft mode. This is just because when you need to check how a texture looks or how the lighting will work on a scene a high quality render can take a considerable amount of time, having low render settings allows you to just take a quick, or basic look at the object or scene. When rendering the final scene, this is usually when the render settings are turned up to a higher value.

I am of course talking about rendering as a whole; there are in fact many elements that are involved with rendering, that achieve different results. These elements include the amount of reflections and refractions. Bear in mind that when a scene is rendered (well one that has textures and lighting) the program has to calculate to the light will react with the textures, and how where the light will reflect/refract depending on what you have the settings to. Along with this comes the image precision, as well as the shadow precision. All in all, if you turn down a setting it will generally decrease the rendering time, but for a lower quality image. As with the object shaping, it’s a good idea to have a play with settings, to get a feel for them. Just be prepared to wait a while for the more high quality settings.

In terms of animation, the same programs that are used to create 3D objects are also generally used to animate the objects. The beauty of creating your own objects to animate is that there really is no limit to what you can create for yourself. Obviously there are some constraints, for example an object with millions of polygons (or sides) will take too long to render, or even edit. But other than the program constraints, it is a free sort of process. Referring back to 3Ds Max, there are a couple of ways to animate. Firstly you can turn on ‘smooth animation’ in which the program automatically calculates a smooth path if you move an object from one point to another. Another type is of course just the classic animation, which involves moving an object without automatically calculated smooth movement. The two methods of animation that I have talked about all concern key frames, the animation is made up of frames and key frames are selected frames on which movement can take place. The painful part of the animation process is the rendering. One high quality will take several minutes to render on a system that is reasonably good, but this is in effect only one frame. A twenty second animation at twenty five frames a second will amount to five hundred frames. So a high quality animation can take many hours, even days to fully render. So it is a generally a good idea to do a few low quality renders, and to double check everything before hitting the ‘render’ button, because if something needs to be changed slightly it could become very time consuming. In terms of export types, there are two set methods. You can export the animation as an image sequence or as a video type (such as an .avi file). The advantage of exporting the render as an image sequence is that should anything go wrong during the render stage, you have all of the frames up until the point of corruption; however you will have to use an external program to export all of the images as an image sequence. By exporting the animation as a video type, it is already ready to play when the render is finished, but should the render corrupt mid process; the whole render will be lost.

To further understand the implementation of 3D objects within the interactive media industry; let’s take a look at a popular game, inside an increasingly popular area of the interactive media industry. ‘Portal 2’ (an award winning 3D puzzle game) has perhaps some of the most impressive 3D models seen in 3D games, but they had to start somewhere, right? Correct. Even the most complex models are made up from the more basic techniques. Granted, they may use more complex methods with different interfaces and game engines but the whole concept of 3D remains the same. 3D games have been said to be much more immersive, as they are so much more realistic. In fact, I strongly recommend trying out a 2D game, then going to a 3D game. Many more 3D games will have more in-depth storylines, and interesting features (this is not all of the time though).

Although you create almost anything from your imagination using 3D programs, there are constraints. We have already talked about the time issues on higher quality renders, and that having too many objects in the same scene can cause problems when editing them. These are some of the main constraints of 3D programs, but others will include the 3D file types. 3D programs that create 3D file types can obviously only be read by that program. This is fine when sticking to the same program, but you wouldn’t be able to for example create an object in 3Ds Max, and then use a different program to animate it. Other than this the only major issue is processing power. For a program such as 3Ds Max to run, it needs a relatively good system. That old laptop that has been hidden away for the past four years is very unlikely to run it. Even the more advanced systems whilst rendering will not be able to run any other programs during the render. This is because so many calculations are being made at one time, and possibly for a long amount of time.

Computer generated 3D modelling is certainly a difficult subject to get your head around; it’s definitely not something that can be understood overnight. But as with many parts of the media industry, it is best to try and research the computerised 3D as much as possible, whilst giving it a go yourself. Experience has much to do with a good modeller. In the industry today, as with many parts of the interactive media industry, it is rapidly expanding, with more and more 3D films and games being released with better results.

I did it.

Apologies for the later blog post, but I have finished the modelling for all of the objects for my house, they have also been textured. The most difficult objects to texture included the walls, and elements of the television stand.

The walls (well, the external ones) were difficult to texture because if I textured the walls with bricks, the internal walls would also show bricks as their texture. I learnt that you can set an ‘id’ for each face of the model and add a multi/sub object texture to it. This basically means that you can add many different textures to one object, on different sides of it.

However, this still did not work as I would apply a set of textures to the walls and whilst one texture would work with the size, or mapping I had on it, another side of it wouldn’t as it had a different texture.

So in the end I had to completely detach in the inner walls from the outer walls, and just apply separate texture maps to them.

Now all I need to worry about is the lighting, and I’m good to go.

Furnish...ment

The objects for the house are a work in progress. Needless to say they are taking much longer to shape and put together than I first thought. In terms of texturing, this has been perhaps the easiest stage of creating the objects.

I have started with the objects for the lounge area; this includes the television table, sofa (which I made a few days ago), the table and a chair. I also have a basic counter set up for the kitchen as well as a fridge, but I will need to obviously make the furniture for the bedroom and bathroom. From my current I can tell that making the furniture for the bathroom will be the most difficult part, with so many odd shapes!

Right, back to work…. Wish me luck!

Progress

I have finished the planning stage for my house for the most part, except for some furniture that I will need to fill in the rest of the house. The final floor plan design that I think I am happy with (after quite a few ideas) will be a one story, one bedroom house with more of an open plan design.

I have actually begun (after many hours of classroom learning sessions) to create the structure of the house in 3ds Max. The exterior and interior walls as well as the floor of the house and the roof have been made. All I really need to do now structurally is put in holes in the right places for the doors and windows. I will be trying to have as many larger windows as possible, so when I put in a lighting system, the house will have a nice amount of light shining in (using a sun system).

Also, I have found out that it will be a lot less time consuming to create the objects in separate files, to work on only one object at a time. This is so that the program will run faster. When I have finished an object, I can merge the file into the house file, then obviously adjust and tweak it to fit into place. 

3ds Max House

For my next assignment at college using the skills that we have been taught in class, we have to create our dream house. With such a flexible brief set, a 'dream house' could literally entail anything, so in depth planning is definately in order of which I have started.

I have the ground floor planned out, with more detail about where the main objects will go (television, appliances etc.). All there is left to do planning wise is really create the plan for the first floor and decide on the measurements to use in 3ds Max. The measurements will have to be realistic as I will be using photometric lighting, meaning that the lights will relate to the power of real bulbs.

The design of my house is quite open plan, the kitchen will be slightly raised and there will be no walls between the kitchen, dining area and living room.

I will be updating this blog as I progress further with the house, by finidhing the planning stage and actually start with 3ds Max.

Delving in to the world of 3D modelling

Today at college, we got taught how to use the basic primary sort of interface within 3ds Max, a program to create 3D CGI models, and animations. I have to say, upon opening up the program it all felt a little daunting. This wasn't just because it was a new program, and that I was alien to it, it was because I had never seen a program with this many tools and options. It was a complex web of things I didn't even know existed.

However with the help of my lecturer and trusty laptop, I managed to gain a very basic understanding of the program and proceeded to build this table type object. But as my lecturer put it, 'We have only scratched the surface of this program.'

For my next assignment with this particular lecturer, it will be based around 3D architecture using the program. So in the coming weeks, I will be learning more and more about 3ds Max, scary yet unbelievably exciting.

Flash banner - Update 5

The Flash work is done. It has been emailed to the client for feedback. I should imagine I need to possibly change some things and tweak some elements, so I have left time for this. Most of what I need to do now is involving the production file, getting everything together and such. However I don't think that the file will be as large as my animation project, just because this was a much shorter project, and not as time was needed to complete it.

I feel that I have created banner which ticks all of the boxes of the project. Although it is not too over the top in terms of funky animations and colour schemes, because it is for a building company. That means that it needs to look attractive but still retain professionalism and look modern.

Flash banner - Update 4

After finally getting my head around the design and how to make it work, I'm making relatively quick progress in Flash. It has it's expanding feature as well as a link to their temporary website for now (it will be linked to their proper one when it is up) and an email link.

All there is really left to do is the part that when a user hovers over a thumbnail image it will pop up as a large image, and the rest of the banner will fade slightly into darkness, to bring out the image more. I am fairly confident I can do this as I have made Flash websites before, and this project seems like a sort of mini - site but with more eye catching features.

Flash banner - Update 3

I have got most of the graphics in order. Grants Precast has a temporary site of which they have put up to test some functionality and gain feedback etc. Anyway the main point is that I am allowed to take images from the site to use in the banner which is a great help as I don't have any images currently of Grants Precasts original work.

I feel that a few images, probably three large ones will do to show off their work. Obviously I am going to try and get three of the best images, to make a better impact on potential customers.

Last time I mentioned I was a little lost in terms of the file size of the banner, after a little more research I have come to the conclusion that I will create the banner as I have designed it and just try to keep the file size as minimal as possible.

Flash banner - Update 2

So, everything is good to go on the client side of things. Although I have been researching a lot on different types of web banner ads, because I'm slightly lost. There seems to be two major categories of banner ads, regular ads and rich media ads. For this assignment we have to create a rich media ad, but there are important elements to bear in mind.

The first element is the file size. I have looked up the regulations for web banner ads, they say that their file size can be no more than 40KB. This left me puzzled as there is no way I am going to be able to create a rich media banner of which includes animation and high quality and keep it below 40KB. By looking at other rich media ads, I can see that they haven't either, but then other ads are under this size. It's something I'm going to have to look into some more.

The next element is the size of the banner itself. I thought I would go for a banner that is a standard box banner type at the size of 300x250px. As a  requirement of the project is that the banner must expand, I thought an expanding size of 600x350px would be a good choice, because if it was any bigger it may take up too much of the screen for those using smaller screens.

I will be posting more updates on my findings and such very soon, in comparison to my other projects at college this one is very short.

Flash Web Banner

My next assignment at college is to find an external client, and create an interactive Flash banner for them. In class we have been taught how to combine Flash with HTML and Javascript so that we can make a drop down sort of banner within a HTML page.

My client is my dads business, Grants Precast. I thought that this would be a good idea as their new site will be being launched around the same time that the banner will be ready, so it can directly link to the site.

I will have to look in to web advertisement banners much more.

I did it.

Again, I must apologise for the time spacing between my posts, between animating and doing the paperwork for the project, it has rarely crossed my mind to update the old blog.

The animation is complete, and after having slight differences from the original animatic, I am quite happy with the result.

You can see the finished thing right here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ4xaaeXhhM&feature=g-upl&context=G20249a7AUAAAAAAAAAA

As I mentioned earlier, there are some slight differences between the finished project and the original animatic plan. I have changed these for a reason. I felt the final project with have more of an impact on the issue and problems it is trying to convey.

The next few things that I must do to wrap up this animation project is to show this to people, and gain feedback and write up an evaluation.

I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed this project for the simple fact that it was so different to my other college projects. Learning about 2D animation techniques has also meant that I have further knowledge in Flash; there is just so much you can do with it!

All in all, if you fancy a go at learning about 2D animation I really wouldn’t hesitate and go for it.

Animation - It's getting there.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I have been absorbed in the animation. All of the graphics and audio are good to go, and I have even started lip syncing with the characters.

All other movement including the passing of cars, and an oil rig has been done. So really the main chunks of the animation are almost done. For now I have the basic scenes set up at the right time. The next thing to really get done (although frustratingly time consuming) is the lip syncing. I have also made each of the characters mouths, including all of the basic shapes for speech.

The reason I have made each character their own mouth is because I wanted each one to be completely unique… and I feel that just using the same mouth over and over would detract from that, and lessen the impact of the graphical content.

Anyways, back to work I go!

Flash animation - the next update

I have found a news report that I have cut up to fit the length and style of my animation. From this I can see the main sections that I will need to include and therefore have drawn out an animatic. This is a new method for me, as I have not made 2D animations before, and when planning for projects that include video elements I have always used storyboarding. Basically animatics are a very basic hand drawn version of the final piece.

To see an example of an animatic click this link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinPTn-Rg-M.  

From my research, it is clear to me how I will go about beginning the actual animation process in Flash, how to export the video and how to use audio within Flash for an optimal performance in the final exported project.

I should mention the nitty gritty parts of the animation process too, if you haven’t read my previous post updating you on my animation project, it might be a good idea as I have mentioned a lot about the actual animation techniques I will be using.

Although before I begin animating, I would feel much more comfortable knowing I have all of the graphics work done. Not because I’m worried about these, I generally really enjoy the design process of a project as much as the technical parts. But if I am animating a scene and realise I need something extra, or do not like the graphics I have drawn then I would like to have spares handy to go asap.

This part of the project is definitely underway, as I have already created an animatic I know exactly what to create digitally, as I have drawings to work from.

As I have seen previously in a lip syncing tutorial, I’m going to first arrange the audio appropriately, as I have two pieces to import. These are the opening news tune, and then the broadcast itself. I do not have to worry too much about slicing up the news report in flash, as I have cut and pasted together the report from audacity.

 

On a side note in relation to this, I highly recommend that if you need any audio work done (generally low key) then go and download audacity here - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I’m not sponsored by audacity or anything, it’s just a brilliant program to get to grips with easily and above all, it’s free.

As for the rest of my project I will be updating this blog on my progress, so if you would like to see the developments of my animation then keep reading! Or even if you would like to just have a look at the finished piece, I will upload it here first.

Flash animation, a project in progress

Our most recent assignment at college is to create a 2D animation, in a satirical fashion for our client (Imaginary of course) ‘Jib Jab’. Jib Jab specialise in creating these sorts of animations that poke fun at any major issues we see in the news these days.

So because it is for this client, we have a couple guidelines to stick to. The first of which is for the animation to be between 45 seconds and a minute long. The other was to, like Jib Jab, pick a topic in the news to make fun of.

Also I should point out that we have been learning about some basic animation techniques to use. I gather that the better the use the technique in our final animations, the better the grade we will get for it… I suppose.

These techniques include ‘frame by frame’ animation, ‘tweening’ and using the ‘bone’ tool.

Frame by frame animation – Basically one of the more classic methods of animation, you draw out each new frame of animation. In terms of my animation I will probably be using this for the lip syncing element.

Tweening – This is a tool in Flash to create smooth movement, generated by the program itself. In basic terms you can choose a frame to start with and then another with your character in a different place, then use the ‘tween’ option to create movement between the two frames that you have specified. For my animation I am thinking about using tweening for mostly any camera movement rather than character movement.

The ‘Bone’ tool – This tool (also in Flash) is much different from the techniques I have already talked about. This tool allows you to create the basic skeleton of a character underneath or behind the graphics. This is generally used for more realistic movements, and to use instead of the frame by frame technique in terms of movement. I am still undecided if, or where, I would use this for my animation.

Right off the bat I have an idea growing in my mind. I have decided to start gathering different news reports about the price of fuel at the moment, poking fun at the subject (without offending people obviously).

Keep following this blog for further updates; I will also post my final animation on here too.

2D Animation

We have recently been set a project to create a satirical styled 2D Flash animation, in the style of 'Jib Jab'. This means that we are basically going to create a comical animation, picking fun at some issue in recent news.

I have already pitched and presented my idea to my lecturer at college. My idea will be to make fun of a recent news report on the price of fuel, using the audio from the report and adding my own comical graphics to create the effect I want to achieve.

As I have already taken the audio from the news piece and sliced it up to around 50 seconds, my next move will be to develop an animatic. This will just be hand drawings outlining the animation with the audio piece added.

I will be posting more updates soon.

Cyanide and Happiness Short - A Review

This cyanide and happiness short is about a character named 'sad Larry' who meets with an old friend whist eating lunch. This old friend tries to cheer him up, but when that fails he kicks food in his face. It is a comedy themed animation, and is named appropriately as the cartoon is only around a minute long.

In terms of the storyline, obviously this animation is very basic. But because it is just a quick comedy type animation I feel that this cartoon does not need a good storyline, it is a very comical quick Flash animation. Because it is set in this style, the graphics are relatively simple as well, although the animation does run smoothly.

Again in this animation as the previous one that I reviewed the animation involves both frame by frame animation and tweening.

Leo and Satan - A Review

Leo and Satan is a comedy type Flash animation in which the storyline involves a little boy and Satan, the devil. In this particular episode Leo and Satan are playing video games when they lose the batteries to their controller, then after wrecking the sofa to get them Satan turns in to the huge demonic creature that he is, and breaks down in to hell in anger.

The storyline for this animation is somewhat lacking a lot in terms of the cartoon, but in my opinion are made up for with the funny antics included during nearly all of the episode. Furthermore, the style that the cartoon is made in, the storyline does not seem to be as important as what is actually happening on screen, it is more about a few quick laughs. Also, as the cartoon is only 3:22 minutes long it would be counter productive to introduce the audience to a complication storyline.

In terms of the actual animation used, there seems to be a mixture of frame by frame animation and regular tweening used in Flash. The frame by frame part is used for the lip sync parts of the animation and some movement, such as walking. There are usually tweens in the background moving simultaneously to the frame by frame part. The combination of these two types of animation makes for a very nice and smooth looking animation.

Upon further investigation, I also managed to find out that the animation was made at 25 frames per second. Enough for the cartoon to look smooth and at a high quality/frame rate but low enough for a decent upload speed to the web.

All in all, I give this animation an 8/10.

I'm going to make a cartoon!

For our next assignment at college we have been told that we will be making 2D animations. The only major thing we have been told about it is that it must be at least 45 seconds long, and it will be made in Flash.

In the next few days I will be posting my research on existing Flash animations, this will include what I did and did not like about them. The content of them as well as the actual animation techniques used.