3D Computer Modelling & Animation in Commercial Context

3D In commercial Context

In this first Blog I will be talking about the applications of 3D modelling and animation and how they are applied in a commercial context, in other words it means how the 3D fits into advertisements and there's so many examples especially when the technology gets better and outcomes become more futuristic.

So lets get a little it into the history of 3D, the first ever display of animation was in FutureWorld in the years 1976, that little piece contained a animated moving face and hand, this piece also features in a short film called A Computer Animated Hand which was published in the 1972 which was created by a student named Edwin Catmull as well as his friend Fred Parke. Down below you will see a video of the animation:

From this clip not only can you see a hand moving closing and opening but also a face and moving eyes, bare in mind this was made in 1976 when technology was not as advanced as now but still looks good. To look at the full history of Animation and Modelling click here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_computer_graphics#History

So lets get into the question of how 3D is applied in commercial context, well we see 3D animations and modelling everywhere one of the examples is an iPhone commercial, yes we have all seen the iPhones commercials but when you see the phone in a white background shining as it turned around, you will notice that its too perfect to be real and this is where 3D modelling comes in, the phone is 3D modelled which means its perfect all around here's an example of an Digital Arts A-Level student who created an Apple iPhone advert using Autodesk 3DS Max

It looks pretty good, almost as good as the real Apple advert right? Well here's another way 3D comes into commercial context. Computer Games, firstly let me just show you a few images of 3D modelling used in video games: 

As you can see from the image this is from a game called Gears Of War and they use 3D Modelling to create characters such as these, but GOW is not the only gaming company to use 3D modelling, take Call of Duty for example they have plenty of models to create, another example is GTA they have to create individual buildings and trees so they look all different to each other, a program called 3DS Max which i mentioned before allows the creators to create amazing models.

One more thing  I should mention is Real-Time Rendering which basically means that images or outcomes are created in real time of an action of the viewer or player. Movies and TV shows are rendered before they are broadcast to the live audience, this is because a person cannot change an outcome of a film or TV show!

So that was modelling in Computer Games but what about the animation in Video Games, well it is as important as the modelling side, because without animation a game would simply not be fun and would not sell which many companies wouldn't want that to happen! So in order to animate the company focuses on one of the characters lets take CoD as an example, one of the soldiers can be used as our model, now what the creators do is make various actions such as walking forwards and walking backward, moving side to side, all these will have the effect of your body as well as the clothes and everything around you. Once all the animations are done they copy them to the rest of the characters and modify them slightly to make them look apart from each other. 

Motion capture is also used in the 3D animation in games, a person wears a costume and sensors on their body, the cameras then capture the sensors of the body movement. Imagine a person jumping up and then down, the cameras then record the points on the suit and convert them into an animation, once that's done the game makers can put the characters models that they have created before and they can see how they move with the animation, here i will post 2 videos, the 1st one is explaining more in depth of how 3D animation is used in games and the 2nd one is simply showing how motion capture is used in 3D animation in the Video Games: 

Polygons in 3D

Now lets talk about Polygons in 3D as they are really important when designing or building anything 3D, some polygons are Edges, Faces, Vertex, and lastly Boarder these can be found on every 3DS Max software and its usually seen on the Modify Panel when you convert an object into a Editable Poly.

Border - This is a linear section of an object so an edge of a hole for example a bottle, the bottle will have a boarder on the body and on the lid, another example can be if you create a cylinder and then delete one of the ends then it will make a hole from there you can edit the boarders!

Vertex - Vertex is corners of the objects or points as some people call it. You can edit an object vertex so for example if you have a sphere but want to edit the middle you don't have to select each of the faces instead select the points and do what ever you want with them, this will only effect the selected points not the rest of the object.

Faces - Faces are sides of an object so if you have a Cube and select the Face tool you would be able to select 6 Faces, each face can then be editable to your liking without effecting the rest of the faces. 

Edges - Edges are the lines of a face or of the object, lets use a Cube for this example, as i said before a Cube will have 6 faces then each face will 4 edges. All together a Cube will have 12 edges, edges consist of 2 vertices's the forms a side of a polygon.

Point Cloud 

A point cloud is something used by many people who deal with 3D modelling, it allows them to see set of data points in the coordinate system usually on the bottom of the software if you're using 3Ds Max. These point are called as X, Y and Z they can help you move models around the scene to a very specific measurement. Here is an example of X,Y and Z:

The point cloud also allows you to see every single point in a model here is an example: 

Current 3D Software 

There is loads of programs that are used in 3D Modelling and Animation industry especially in Commercial Context. In this part I will be talking about the 3 most popular 3D software that are used by High End professionals such as DreamWorks, Disney and JCDDecaux UK. Each of these companies need a good and reliable software to work on so I'm going to evaluate 3 of the software's and pick one that I think deserves to be acknowledged! 

3DS Max

This Software is used by many people, commercial companies such as JCDDecaux UK and other companies such as Apple will be using 3D to create 3D models that stand out and take the attention from costumers. So why is 3DS Max good to use, well there is Tons and Tons of tools to use and so many possibilities, when I started using 3DS Max I had no clue on how to use it but after few weeks on modelling on the Software I got used to it and now i can do loads of cool stuff by my self. 

But this software also needs some good computers to process all its models so a computer will have to have a good CPU to make sure its all processed well, also it needs a big RAM so that the data can be stored. In rendering you will need a good computer to render each frame, if you're doing a model which is a High Quality you will only need about a minute to render. If you're doing animations or walk through using the cameras in 3DS Max then you will need more time and can usually take from 1 day to 30 days, its better to have a render farm which basically means many computers that are on ALL the time and rendering the animation sequence.

Maya

Maya is also another popular software's that man companies and even people such as freelancers use to create their 3D models and create amazing animations. But Maya is not only used for 3D animations, it is in fact also used in Video Games many games are created by the help of Maya, some companies such as Namco, Epic, Core and most popular EA and Bungie use the software to create outstanding games. One in particular Bungie uses Animations for the game Halo 2 Here is a short video.

As you can see from the video they are simple graphics and as you may know Halo 2 is a bit old so the technology has changed through the years. You can see the textures and those sharp curved edges that made the game amazing, the character has its own Armour and looks amazing, the game also uses some basic shapes that make the game environment playable. Here is another video where Maya is used in Video Games.

Okay so the requirements that Maya needs to work firstly is an Operating System. Now Maya will not work on Windows XP because it is very OLD! The best Operating Systems it will work on is Windows 10, 8.1 and Windows 7. It will also work on Apple Mac OS 10.9.5 and newer, also on Red Hat and CentOS 6.5 Linux OS. CPU has to be at least 64 bit to make sure you get the best out of the software, at least 4GB of RAM but it is recommended that 8GB is installed and also at least 4GB of free disk space! Companies such as EA and Bungie will definitely have those requirements checked and probable have bigger processors and more Memory.

Cinema 4D

Cinema 4D is another one of my favourites, even though I have not yet used it but from what i have seen its on the top of the list. So who uses Cinema 4D well, people who make movies of course, it is used to make CGI but its also used to help architectures, used in gaming and in Advertising this program is an easier version of Maya and 3DS Max which is less complicated and easier interface one film company that used it is Warner Bros in the film "Pirates of the Caribbean" They used the Cinema 4D Technology to make the faces if characters such as one of the pirates as the picture shows.

One more awesome feature of Cinema 4D is body paint! It doesn't mean the body pain you get in shops, it basically a texture that is very rich and authentic textures which look like the real textures. In a film called "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" Body Paint is used in that film to make the scenery and environment and also characters look very realistic. In the picture you can see the person holding a burger and it almost looks as good as the real one.

Here is a video of different ways that Cinema 4D Maxon has been used in advertising. 

Technical Requirements 

In this section i will explain the technical requirements needed for a 3D computer in the commercial context.

Firstly everything revolves around the hardware in a computer, it is important that the computer is compatible with all the rendering you will be doing depending on how detailed the project is. If its a small video of an product it might take a day to render but for movies like Up and Big Hero 6, it might take a few months. So here is a list of requirements a computer needs to render good quality images.

CPU GPU and RAM, now you might need different quantities of each depending on what system you are using to produce 3D images. In my research i have found that not much of the stuff is needed as long as its enough to process what you need, a person posted that they were using 8GB of RAM and a GTX 550 for a long time and it still did well for it. - https://www.quora.com/When-buying-a-new-PC-for-3D-modeling-and-rendering-which-one-is-the-most-important-factor-CPU-GPU-or-RAM

A 3D computer also needs a lot of storage memory, you can use external storage where you can render your files on to, but sometimes the software you're using needs the storage too, for example when i was using 3Ds Max i found out it does backups or extra saves if anything goes wrong with the program. It is good to keep some storage free for that as if you loose anything then when it tries to save it wont be able to because there isn't any space and you would have to do it all over again.

A good processor is also recommended to process all the pictures you are trying to render, i5 and i7 Intel cores are good if you have i4 then you might want to consider buying a new computer, you can use other processors but make sure its compatible with the computer.