3D animation is a rendering of 2D computer-generated objects modeled polygons in a three-dimensional geometric space. To explain what 3D animation is, we first must break it down into parts. All objects in the 3D world are made up of polygons (faces), vertices, and edges. Faces or polygons are 2D shapes like a square or triangle. Polygons are planar and need multiple polygons to create a curved surface. A cube contains six polygons or six squares. Vertices are the connecting points of the edges and the edges are the connecting lines of the faces. An object can be anything that contains faces, edges, and vertices. The object can be a box, house, even a teapot. Objects can be split apart or connected to make new objects.
There are many ways you can model an object. An object can be modeled by drawing lines then applying modifiers to them. Say you decide to draw a line with some curves and what not in it, like so.
Now that we have the line, we can apply a modifier to it. How about we use the lathe modifier. The Lathe will then take that line and rotate it around a chosen axis. This specific program is called 3Ds Max 2014 and the axis are: X is left and right, Y is forward and back, and Z is up and down. We will rotate the line around the z-axis. Let us see what we get.
The line formed into a pawn piece from Chess. The more common and favorite form of 3D modeling is box modeling. This technique is where a standard primitive shape such as a box, sphere, cylinder, etc is used as the basic beginning shape. Polygons are then selected and extruded outward to desired length. The polygons can be rescaled by the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis. The object might come out a little “blocky” depending on the shape and method of polygon editing. Adding the mesh smooth modifier to object will create more polygons to smooth out the edges and make the object more round as the picture of the plane above shows the results of this.
After the object is modeled, next is the material. The material is like the color of the model, but can be more than that. Mapping an object correctly with the right material can save a lot of time in modeling. Material can be applied to the object in many different ways. The material can be applied as though it was dropped on, it can be wrapped around it like a sphere or cylinder, or the material can be applied to each polygon. The material's opacity level can be adjusted rendering it clear like water, glass, etc.. The material can posses a reflective attribute giving the object mirror like qualities. There are many different patterns you can give the material. For example: checker, swirl, smoke, gradient, and etc..
Now our object (plane) is modeled, rounded out, and has material applied. Last thing to do is to animate the plane. The basic idea to animate the object is to move the object to a new location for each frame. Then render each frame as an image in sequence. The images are then added together to create a video or short animation. A camera is created to give the best view of the animation. The camera can stay in one place and not move at all, the camera can follow an object or always be looking at the object. The camera is locked onto the plane in the animation.
Polygons on the plane can be animated individually, which means that the propeller can be animated to rotate. The second video does not have the propellers spinning, but it does have something special at the end.
There is a finished product of a cube with its polygons being extruded to form a block like plane. Then the polygons multiply and round the object with a polygon multiplier. The plane is then mapped with material and animated to create a real 3D animation.
3D animations can be used in different special effects. The main way 3D animations are use in the movie industry is when they are adding the animation to a scene where they want something but are not able to have it there in real life. For example, maybe a plane flying in the sky or a building that they want to animate to explode and crumble to the ground. Most of the time, animation is placed into film by using a technique called camera tracking. Which is were they take video footage and break it down to frames and use a software to calculate the movements in the footage and the camera motion. The software then takes the tracks and composites them into three dimensional space accurately. That way when a 3D animation is placed into the scene, the camera is animated in a way that goes along with the frames so that the object doesn't move. Camera tracking is very tedious and if not done perfect will make the animation slide about. This video is footage taking in front of the Computer & Engineering Building and was camera tracked. A fountain was placed in the scene to make it look like it is really there. The camera tracking is not perfect, so the sliding effect is noticeable.
3D animations can be used in different special effects. The main way 3D animations are use in the movie industry is when they are adding the animation to a scene where they want something but are not able to have it there in real life. For example, maybe a plane flying in the sky or a building that they want to animate to explode and crumble to the ground. Most of the time, animation is placed into film by using a technique called camera tracking. Which is were they take video footage and break it down to frames and use a software to calculate the movements in the footage and the camera motion. The software then takes the tracks and composites them into three dimensional space accurately. That way when a 3D animation is placed into the scene, the camera is animated in a way that goes along with the frames so that the object doesn't move. Camera tracking is very tedious and if not done perfect will make the animation slide about. This video is footage taking in front of the Computer & Engineering Building and was camera tracked. A fountain was placed in the scene to make it look like it is really there. The camera tracking is not perfect, so the sliding effect is noticeable.
Information on this page was acquired from the 3D Modeling & Animation I class at Eastern Washington University, taught by Brian Kamp.