3D Modelling Software
In this report, I will be discussing the different types of 3D modelling software available that have different uses in the media industry and therefore, different purposes, and then geometric theory, mesh construction and the constraints to consider when discussing 3D models.
One the most popular ones is Autodesk Maya, developed by Alias Systems and originally released in 1998 (owned by Autodesk since 2005). It's used to generate 3D assets for use in television, film, game development and architecture. A virtual workspace is used to implement and edit media of a particular project to create a scene. They can be saved in a variety of formats, the most popular being .mb. Maya exposes a node graph architecture as scene elements are node-based. Each node has its own attributes and customisation. In Maya, the visual representation of the scene is based entirely on a network of interconnecting nodes which depend on each other's information. For the convenience of viewing those networks, Maya has a dependency and a directed acyclic graph.
Cinema 4D was made by the German developers MAXON and was released back in 1990. It is capable of procedural and polygonal modelling, animating, lighting, texturing, rendering and all the other common features found in 3D modelling applications. There are currently four variants available, a core Cinema 4D 'prime' application, a 'Broadcast' version with additional motion-graphics features and 'Visualise' which adds functions for architectural design. As an alternative, you can get 'Studio' which comes with all of the modules. A 5th variant, 'Lite' came out in 2014 and it came packaged with Adobe After Effects CC 2014. 'Lite' acts as an introductory version with many features withheld. The 'Lite' variant depends on After Effects CC, as it needs it running to launch and is only sold as a package component with After Effects CC 2014.
Blender was developed by the Blender Foundation and was released in 1998. Unlike the other two, Blender is completely free. It's used for creating animated films, visual effects, art. 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. Features include 3D modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, rendering, motion graphics, video editing and compositing. Current versions also feature an integrated game engine, but the upcoming 2.8 release will remove it.
Geometric theory revolves around creating and editing 3D objects. There are many different types of geometric theory required to go into this process. They include the vertex, which is the angular point of the shape, also known as where two lines meet, therefore, creating an angle. There's the the edges, which are join two vertices in a polygon or polyhedron. There's the polygons, which are any two-dimensional shape joined with straight lines. Triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons and hexagons are all example of polygons. As well as that, there's the face, which is any flat surface in a shape, the edge being the line where they meet. The final important type of geometry is the co-ordinate geometry. This is a branch of geometry where the position of the points on a plane is defined with the help of the co-ordinates. Using the two numbers of the co-ordinate geometry, a location of any point on the plane can be found.
Mesh construction is the process of creating objects with polygon meshes. These polygons are different forms of elements, which are vertices, edges, faces, polygons and surfaces. One of the techniques used for this is box modelling, which is a fairly common form of modelling. The best way to think how it works is to think about how kids build things out of Lego. Box modelling works the same way as that - the modeller simply creates the model that they want from cubes to get the basic shape of the model, then they go back to add the detail to the model before rendering and taking the finished model further.
Extrusion modelling works a little bit different to box modelling. There is a similarity where the modeller creates the model to a basic standard before going back to add the detail but this time round, the modeller starts with a single object, like a cube and then extrudes the object to a point where they can make out the shape that they want. Extrusion modelling is good for making basic objects but lacks the ability to create the more complex models.
There are a few constraints you need to consider when you make 3D models. The first one is the poly count. This is the number of faces on your object, which doesn't necessarily mean better quality. For a video game, it's best to keep the poly count as low as possible while still making the quality good to avoid the program slowing down from the amount of data. You've also got to watch out for file size. If you're just enjoying the game, there's nothing wrong with a large file, however, if it needs to be uploaded or shared, then large file sizes can be a pain. As a result, i.materialise won't allow anything larger than 100MB to be uploaded. You should avoid using N-gons (polygons with more than 4 vertices and edges). It's easier to use triangles and quads to construct your 3D models. Of course, you can always divided an N-gon into tris and quads, or even a combination of the two. As a result, they're always easy to remove by adding connecting edges between the border vertices. You also need to consider the rendering time. If you use a certain render engine to get the best result, you will get a longer rendering time. This is because the graphics card and processor work together trying to generate the frame that you want rendered. The better the processor and graphics card you have, the quicker the render time will be. The final important constraint is your level of detail. In 3D modelling, to improve the efficiency, the complexity of the model decreases as it gets further away from the players view and has less detail. This is shown with Mario in Super Mario 64.
One the most popular ones is Autodesk Maya, developed by Alias Systems and originally released in 1998 (owned by Autodesk since 2005). It's used to generate 3D assets for use in television, film, game development and architecture. A virtual workspace is used to implement and edit media of a particular project to create a scene. They can be saved in a variety of formats, the most popular being .mb. Maya exposes a node graph architecture as scene elements are node-based. Each node has its own attributes and customisation. In Maya, the visual representation of the scene is based entirely on a network of interconnecting nodes which depend on each other's information. For the convenience of viewing those networks, Maya has a dependency and a directed acyclic graph.
Cinema 4D was made by the German developers MAXON and was released back in 1990. It is capable of procedural and polygonal modelling, animating, lighting, texturing, rendering and all the other common features found in 3D modelling applications. There are currently four variants available, a core Cinema 4D 'prime' application, a 'Broadcast' version with additional motion-graphics features and 'Visualise' which adds functions for architectural design. As an alternative, you can get 'Studio' which comes with all of the modules. A 5th variant, 'Lite' came out in 2014 and it came packaged with Adobe After Effects CC 2014. 'Lite' acts as an introductory version with many features withheld. The 'Lite' variant depends on After Effects CC, as it needs it running to launch and is only sold as a package component with After Effects CC 2014.
Blender was developed by the Blender Foundation and was released in 1998. Unlike the other two, Blender is completely free. It's used for creating animated films, visual effects, art. 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. Features include 3D modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, rendering, motion graphics, video editing and compositing. Current versions also feature an integrated game engine, but the upcoming 2.8 release will remove it.
Geometric theory revolves around creating and editing 3D objects. There are many different types of geometric theory required to go into this process. They include the vertex, which is the angular point of the shape, also known as where two lines meet, therefore, creating an angle. There's the the edges, which are join two vertices in a polygon or polyhedron. There's the polygons, which are any two-dimensional shape joined with straight lines. Triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons and hexagons are all example of polygons. As well as that, there's the face, which is any flat surface in a shape, the edge being the line where they meet. The final important type of geometry is the co-ordinate geometry. This is a branch of geometry where the position of the points on a plane is defined with the help of the co-ordinates. Using the two numbers of the co-ordinate geometry, a location of any point on the plane can be found.
Mesh construction is the process of creating objects with polygon meshes. These polygons are different forms of elements, which are vertices, edges, faces, polygons and surfaces. One of the techniques used for this is box modelling, which is a fairly common form of modelling. The best way to think how it works is to think about how kids build things out of Lego. Box modelling works the same way as that - the modeller simply creates the model that they want from cubes to get the basic shape of the model, then they go back to add the detail to the model before rendering and taking the finished model further.
Extrusion modelling works a little bit different to box modelling. There is a similarity where the modeller creates the model to a basic standard before going back to add the detail but this time round, the modeller starts with a single object, like a cube and then extrudes the object to a point where they can make out the shape that they want. Extrusion modelling is good for making basic objects but lacks the ability to create the more complex models.
There are a few constraints you need to consider when you make 3D models. The first one is the poly count. This is the number of faces on your object, which doesn't necessarily mean better quality. For a video game, it's best to keep the poly count as low as possible while still making the quality good to avoid the program slowing down from the amount of data. You've also got to watch out for file size. If you're just enjoying the game, there's nothing wrong with a large file, however, if it needs to be uploaded or shared, then large file sizes can be a pain. As a result, i.materialise won't allow anything larger than 100MB to be uploaded. You should avoid using N-gons (polygons with more than 4 vertices and edges). It's easier to use triangles and quads to construct your 3D models. Of course, you can always divided an N-gon into tris and quads, or even a combination of the two. As a result, they're always easy to remove by adding connecting edges between the border vertices. You also need to consider the rendering time. If you use a certain render engine to get the best result, you will get a longer rendering time. This is because the graphics card and processor work together trying to generate the frame that you want rendered. The better the processor and graphics card you have, the quicker the render time will be. The final important constraint is your level of detail. In 3D modelling, to improve the efficiency, the complexity of the model decreases as it gets further away from the players view and has less detail. This is shown with Mario in Super Mario 64.
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