MODELLING

THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS OF

MODELLING IN THE INDUSTRYIt seems that 3D Models are appearing nearly everywhere in the media industry, it can be found in various places;

TV & Film

Animations

Video Games

Product Design

Education

Architecture

Science

Engineering

Print/Image Rendering

HOW ARE THEY USED?TV & Film

In TV and Film 3D Models are used to create large effects such as the robots in Transformers or to create environments and characters in films like Avatar.

There are minimal limits and the models can have a high poly count because they're not rendered out at real time, they're rendered for playback.

Animation

In animation the visual is commonly very cartoon looking, simply for the reason that the film is entirely animated, rendering times would be insane if everything were to look 100% realistic. Wreck It Ralph (2012) is a good example of a recent animation.

HOW ARE THEY USED?

Video Games

Just about everything in video game is 3D modeling, these can be simple things like triggers or could be more complex entities such as characters or the environment they live in.

Unfortunately video games render the models in real time meaning they can't have as many polys, although some advancements have been made over the years.

HOW ARE THEY USED

Educational Purposes –

3D Modelling allows teachers to show their students certain objects from body organs to engine parts. Everything can be shown on screen using a 3D model, where as getting the actual objects is pricey and sometimes may be a hassle.

HOW ARE THEY USED?

Engineering

3D modelling is used to create prototypes or even parts that can be printed off using 3D printers, this is much more precise than doing it manually as laser beams and mechanics are way more stable than the human hand.

HOW ARE THEY USED?For example if we look at Half Life 1 compared to Portal 2, both games developed by Valve and running on the same engine, Source. I’ve used these two games because of the reason stated before, they’re ran with the same engine so there is no having to compare different game engines.

If were to zoom in on Portal 2’s graphics we would still see some straight edges on things that appear to be circular, however the player is usually focusing on an objective no the graphics luckily.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iSwsHhem1yM/UHL23KyfKmI/AAAAAAAAEw4/b4ht_FQxrr4/s1600/Half+Life+1+PC.jpg

http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/16/15872/portal2_demomap0003.1.jpg

MODELLING AT HOME

The internet allows anyone to purchase and/or download 3D modeling software so that they can create their own models.

Here are a few different programs that allow people to create their own:

Blender

Autodesk Maya

Cinema 4D

3D Studio Max

BLENDER - SOFTWARE

Blender is an open source program which is a good for amateurs who are wanting to get into animation and modelling, with easy interfaces and for the simple reason that it’s free, so anyone can upload a tutorial on how to use it for anyone to learn.

This image to the right shows the interfaces within blender, everything seems to have it’s place and it looks somewhat neat. It’s also customizable, so you can rearrange tabs to your own liking.

CONSIDERING IT’S FREE

Blender has been used for special effects in TV and feature films, Friday or Another Day (Vendredi ou un autre jour) - a french film used Blender for it's special effects and won an award at the Locarno International Film Festival.

It has also been used on TV programs, Red Dwarf for instance in Episode 6 Season X, Blender was again used for special effects. 

AUTODESK MAYA

Autodesk Maya is a professional piece of software that is commonly used for creating video games, It can be used for 3D Modelling and Animation as well, Some people prefer to build a base model and improve it within some software called Zbrush.

Autodesk Maya allows the user to create 3D Modelling, Texturing, Rendering, Dynamics & Effects (Hair, fur, Particles, nCloth) and 3D Animation.

CINEMA 4D SOFTWARE

Cinema 4D is a professional software used for various things, ranging from architecture to engineering. On to the MAXON website - below is an image of what the program can be used for.

Cinema 4D looks to have a less complex UI, so it's probably suitable for new comers to 3D modelling, however I cannot include my own opinion as I have not used the program before. However I do have an image of the UI. There are also courses dedicated to teaching the software to people who are interested in it.

GEOMETRIC THEORY

3D Models are made up of smaller shapes, which are called polygons, these polygons then contain vertexes. The polygons are mostly triangles which can be manipulated by the vertexes to make larger shapes.

Depending on the amount of polygons justifies the speed that the model will render at, Polygons are nicknamed "polys" just for ease. Polygons do have a constraint to how many can be rendered per second.

WHAT ARE 3D POLYGON MODELS MADE UP OF?

Vertexes are pin points where edges intersect.

A face is the surface inside of the edges, these can be quadratic, or can be triangulated. Edges are single lines – Maya has a feature that allows to user to create a polygon with as many edges as they want, they can change it later using a split tool to cut it up and create more faces. When extruding edges it’s likey you’re going to want to get the vertexes as close to one another as you can, and merge them to make it one whole object.

MESH CONSTRUCTIONBox modeling is when the user starts out with a single cube and then manipulates and subdivides the cube to turn it into the shape they desire. Although this method is quick and easy to learn it's not easy to add immense detail.

Sculpting is when the user starts out

with a sphere and manipulates it by

pulling and pushing around vertexes

and creating subdivision layers, a lot

like the sculpting of clay, hence the name.

Z-brush is a great software for sculpting.

Extrusion modeling is a lot like box modeling however the user start out with a line instead of a cube, it's the extruded out to create a face and then continues to create an object, although this method is quick it's hard to make curves without a large amount of polygons.

COMMON PRIMITIVESCommon primitives are the basic shapes that a most commonly used in 3D modeling, common primitives are included within most 3D software, these include:

Cube

Flat Pane

Pyramid

UV Sphere

Isometric Sphere

Cylinder

Torus - Ring

And in some cases

Helix – Spring

The best thing about common primitives is their extremely low poly count.

The image to the left shows the common primitives and what they look like.

API

Graphics API is coding that tell the graphics card what it needs to be doing, if the coding is wrong it won’t work. Two common API’s are Open GL and Direct X.

Direct X is distributed by Microsoft and is compatible with Windows 95 and any later versions of the operating systems.

It’s also used for the XBOX console.

Open GL however is mainly used on PC and PlayStation3. and is multi language, meaning it can be written in Java, C++, not French and Spanish.

TEXTURES

Textures don’t come in all shapes and sizes however they do come in different… shiny-ness?

There are 4 main textures in Autodesk Maya, Blinn, Phong, Phong E, Lambert – Autodesk Maya allows the user to change the glow, transparency and reflectivity, there are other options that can be changed to get the desired effect, for instance, glass or water.

When texturing, models will be UV mapped, for instance when texturing a face the base image will look pretty scary, however once on the actual face it will look rather normal – if done correctly. Any blemishes can be detailed further by using bump mapping.

RAYTRACINGRaytracing is a shader/rendering technique in which light is directed through pixels and generates the shadow, I have created a demonstration using a glass texture from the video game Minecraft, inside I have made a smaller object with a transparent texture and have added made it more reflective by changing the attributes..

BUMP MAPPING

Bump mapping is an option to give a texture more “oomf”, by giving a texture a bump map it will allow the user to add depths to textures, it’s mapped out by using image files.

Bump mapping is great as it doesn’t take as long as individual polys but still gives the desired effect.

As seen here, I have used Minecraft textures again to show how bump mapping works and looks.

CONSTRAINTS – POLYCOUNTWhat are the limits of using 3D Modeling?

Over the past few years technology has advanced meaning more processing power - meaning it's faster, which is why video game graphics have improved; the polys are rendered in real time and are a lot quicker, however there is still a limit.

Polycounts need to be kept fairly low so that frame rates are smooth, other processes need to be kept in consideration, consoles and devices also need to run background applications.

There is a restriction to how many polys can be rendered per second, however this needs to be divided by the frames per second the game runs at, commonly 30fps, however some games are upgrading to 60fps. (fps - Frames Per Second)

CONSTRAINTS – RENDER TIME

Depending on the amount of fine detailing on models will effect render times, if a animated film is on a deadline and their animation takes too long, they could miss their deadline.

Video games aren't as effected by this because everything is rendered into the game when it's needed, that's why it's common for enemies to spawn. However if a video game has cut scenes with high detail a lot like Halo 4 (2012 343 Industries), then there is a small possibility of this happening.

CONSTRAINTS – FILE SIZEThe effects video games mostly, video games are commonly judged on their graphics, which is probably why Rockstar went full out on their game LA Noire, the face detailing is really well done, however the game is spread out onto 3 discs for that simple reason.

Players will take variety of paths meaning that enemies or events must be rendered in according to what the player does, where as films and movies are linear, not interactive so to speak, unlike video games.

Halo 4 cut scenes actually fooled a few people, the cut scenes are animated but few people though it was real actors - however they're cut scenes so luckily the were rendered before hand. But the game still needed a second disc for multiplayer.

CONSTRAINTS – INTERNET SPEEDS3D Modellers are very commonly freelance workers and to find the best you may have to hire someone from across the globe, now this brings up a constraint - Internet speeds. the more polys 3D models and/or rigs have the bigger the file size. It's very likely that whole scenes will be sent with multiple objects each object being built up of 1000's of polys, possibly more depending on what the scenes are used for. There is however a way to resolve this issue and that is to send hard drives and disks via the postal service.

Downloading video games for example will also be an issue, When downloading a video game it will download all assets, including 3D models (more than likely embedded). The bigger the game, the longer it takes. 

Multiplayer has to render objects within an area, for example Battlefield 3 known for it's big maps and huge multiplayer will need a good internet connection in order to play smoothly. Video games are getting much bigger and the filesizes are improving. GTA for example, just released has a secondary disc in order to download all the assets so the game is smooth, even within the huge map.