3D MODELING
3-D modeling is the use of software to create a virtual three-dimensional model of some physical object.
3-D modeling is used in many different industries, including virtual reality, video games, 3D printing, marketing, TV and motion pictures, scientific and medical imaging and computer-aided design and manufacturing CAD/CAM.
3-D modeling software generates a model through a variety of tools and approaches including:
simple polygons.
3-D primitives -- simple polygon-based shapes, such as pyramids, cubes, spheres, cylinders and cones.
spline curves.
NURBS (non-uniform rational b-spline) -- smooth shapes defined by bezel curves, which are relatively computationally complex.
2-D geometric polygon shapes are used extensively in motion picture effects and 3-D video game art. Creating approximations of shapes made with polygons is much more efficient in raster graphics, which are required for real time 3-D gaming.
In art for video games and motion picture effects, a model might start as a rough-out using polygon primitives or NURBS, or as a design made by following contours on multiple 2-D isometric views. If the model is to be animated, careful consideration of the arrangement of continuous edge loops must be maintained in the model’s polygons around areas of deformation such as joints. A model that looks good stationary will fold faster than Superman's laundry in animation when the appearance of the stationary end model is all that’s considered during building.
Once a model is adequately built, an artist might arrange the coordinates of the model to match its 2-D textures in a process called UV mapping, a process that is kind of like trying to design and tailor with a computer mouse. Areas that require more detail are given more space in the UV map. This can be done either using a repeating texture such as a checker board as a place holder or by using an existing texture.
Generally the next step might be to texture the model, which is to apply either hand-painted or photograph-based 2-D images, usually TGA (Targa bitmap), to the model that will define:
Its color with a color map.
Its reflectivity and reflected color with a specular map.
Its surface texture, defined through light-play with a bump or normal map, or a deformation map for actual added geometric detail.
Animated models require an extra step of rigging, which is like giving them a virtual skeleton with bones and joints along with the controllers to manage it. The way the texture of these joints influences the surface texture under deformation must be defined in skinning, where one paints the weight of joint influence on the textures directly on the models polygons; a polygon painted more heavily is more heavily influenced by a selected joint’s movement. The model is then ready for the animator.
More computational and expensive methods of making models such as NURBS may be used, along with complex shaders that interact with particle-based light, in rendered graphics when real time is not a necessity.
OVERVIEW AUTODESK MAYA 3D
Maya, is a 3D computer graphics software that runs on , originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation (formerly Alias. Wavefront) and currently owned and developed by Autodesk, Inc. It is used to create interactive 3D applications, including video games, animated film, TV series, or visual effects.
MENTAL RAY
The primary feature of Mental Ray is the achievement of high performance through parallelism on both multiprocessor machines and across render farms. The software uses acceleration techniques such as scanline for primary visible surface determination and binary space partitioning for secondary rays. It also supports caustics and physically correct simulation of global illumination employing photon maps. Any combination of diffuse, glossy (soft or scattered), and specular reflection and transmission can be simulated.
Mental Ray was designed to be integrated into a third-party application using an API or be used as a standalone program using the .mi scene file format for batch-mode rendering. Currently there are many programs integrating it such as Autodesk Maya, 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD, Cinema 4D and Revit, Softimage|XSI, Side Effects Software's Houdini, SolidWorks and Dassault Systèmes' CATIA. Most of these software front-ends provide their own library of custom shaders (described below). However assuming these shaders are available to mental ray, any mi file can be rendered, regardless of the software that generated it.
Mental Ray is fully programmable and infinitely variable, supporting linked subroutines also called shaders written in C or C++. This feature can be used to create geometric elements at runtime of the renderer, procedural textures, bump and displacement maps, atmosphere and volume effects, environments, camera lenses, and light sources.
An image of diamond rendered using Mental Ray in CATIA V5R19 Photo Studio.
Supported geometric primitives include polygons, subdivision surfaces, and trimmed free-form surfaces such as NURBS, Bézier, and Taylor monomial.
MAKING 3D ENVIRONMENT
A very unique Blender 3D course about the creation of environments, taught by environment artist Rob Tuytel. Through out each of the many lessons you are introduced to the powerful and free Blender 3D program. After becoming familiar with the Blender user interface, students will learn how to create a landscape design from scratch. Additional videos in this series teach students how to apply materials, lights and even advanced node systems (principled) to their models. Finally, this series will show students how to make an organization plan and create a very advanced environment scene including buildings and characters.
The final course scene was rated well on Artstation with more than 340 + likes. Find out what makes an artwork special and be part of the developing process.
You will learn:
We start with installing Blender and making some simple objects. We get in touch with the Blender interface and I will show the most used buttons in this course. This comes with full in depth lecture documentation ( PDF) .
We continue with making a fence and add a simple wood texture. You will get in touch with the UV image editor and learn how to apply textures on your model. Then I will explain the material editor and show how nodes work (principled shader) . You will learn how to make a simple shader combination to add moss on the fence. I will also show some other shaders like transparency and translucency. This chapter includes a Material node book ( PDF ), a must have for making good looking materials
After these lessons we start with the building process, first making a simple building, but after making some progress we will start creating more advanced buildings, including ornaments. We Use Unity 3D to import the models including baked maps.
After completing the buildings, we start with the nature part and I will explain how to make grass, flowers, weed, rocks and trees. We will use 'The Grove 3D' to generate trees. After the nature part we will make a landscape scene and add all the objects including a sand path with water puddles.
After the nature chapter we will focus on atmosphere and lighting, using the point and sun lamp to make a light setup. We will also use an environment map to light the scene. In the end we will use some atmosphere fog to create mist in the scene.
Then it's time to create the final scene, we start from scratch and use a scene map as a reference and make a rough setup. From that point we build the scene and face all the challenges that comes with environment modeling. In the end we do a final review and finalize the scene.
Mental Ray is fully programmable and infinitely variable, supporting linked subroutines also called shaders written in C or C++. This feature can be used to create geometric elements at runtime of the renderer, procedural textures, bump and displacement maps, atmosphere and volume effects, environments, camera lenses, and light sources.
An image of diamond rendered using Mental Ray in CATIA V5R19 Photo Studio.
Supported geometric primitives include polygons, subdivision surfaces, and trimmed free-form surfaces such as NURBS, Bézier, and Taylor monomial.
MAKING 3D ENVIRONMENT
A very unique Blender 3D course about the creation of environments, taught by environment artist Rob Tuytel. Through out each of the many lessons you are introduced to the powerful and free Blender 3D program. After becoming familiar with the Blender user interface, students will learn how to create a landscape design from scratch. Additional videos in this series teach students how to apply materials, lights and even advanced node systems (principled) to their models. Finally, this series will show students how to make an organization plan and create a very advanced environment scene including buildings and characters.
The final course scene was rated well on Artstation with more than 340 + likes. Find out what makes an artwork special and be part of the developing process.
You will learn:
We start with installing Blender and making some simple objects. We get in touch with the Blender interface and I will show the most used buttons in this course. This comes with full in depth lecture documentation ( PDF) .
We continue with making a fence and add a simple wood texture. You will get in touch with the UV image editor and learn how to apply textures on your model. Then I will explain the material editor and show how nodes work (principled shader) . You will learn how to make a simple shader combination to add moss on the fence. I will also show some other shaders like transparency and translucency. This chapter includes a Material node book ( PDF ), a must have for making good looking materials
After these lessons we start with the building process, first making a simple building, but after making some progress we will start creating more advanced buildings, including ornaments. We Use Unity 3D to import the models including baked maps.
After completing the buildings, we start with the nature part and I will explain how to make grass, flowers, weed, rocks and trees. We will use 'The Grove 3D' to generate trees. After the nature part we will make a landscape scene and add all the objects including a sand path with water puddles.
After the nature chapter we will focus on atmosphere and lighting, using the point and sun lamp to make a light setup. We will also use an environment map to light the scene. In the end we will use some atmosphere fog to create mist in the scene.
Then it's time to create the final scene, we start from scratch and use a scene map as a reference and make a rough setup. From that point we build the scene and face all the challenges that comes with environment modeling. In the end we do a final review and finalize the scene.
Phenomena consist of one or more shader trees (DAG). A phenomenon looks like regular shader to the user, and in fact may be a regular shader, but generally it will contain a link to a shader DAG, which may include the introduction or modification of geometry, introduction of lenses, environments, and compile options. The idea of a Phenomenon is to package elements and hide complexity.
MAKING 3D ENVIRONMENT
A very unique Blender 3D course about the creation of environments, taught by environment artist Rob Tuytel. Through out each of the many lessons you are introduced to the powerful and free Blender 3D program. After becoming familiar with the Blender user interface, students will learn how to create a landscape design from scratch. Additional videos in this series teach students how to apply materials, lights and even advanced node systems (principled) to their models. Finally, this series will show students how to make an organization plan and create a very advanced environment scene including buildings and characters.
The final course scene was rated well on Artstation with more than 340 + likes. Find out what makes an artwork special and be part of the developing process.
You will learn:
We start with installing Blender and making some simple objects. We get in touch with the Blender interface and I will show the most used buttons in this course. This comes with full in depth lecture documentation ( PDF) .
We continue with making a fence and add a simple wood texture. You will get in touch with the UV image editor and learn how to apply textures on your model. Then I will explain the material editor and show how nodes work (principled shader) . You will learn how to make a simple shader combination to add moss on the fence. I will also show some other shaders like transparency and translucency. This chapter includes a Material node book ( PDF ), a must have for making good looking materials
After these lessons we start with the building process, first making a simple building, but after making some progress we will start creating more advanced buildings, including ornaments. We Use Unity 3D to import the models including baked maps.
After completing the buildings, we start with the nature part and I will explain how to make grass, flowers, weed, rocks and trees. We will use 'The Grove 3D' to generate trees. After the nature part we will make a landscape scene and add all the objects including a sand path with water puddles.
After the nature chapter we will focus on atmosphere and lighting, using the point and sun lamp to make a light setup. We will also use an environment map to light the scene. In the end we will use some atmosphere fog to create mist in the scene.
Then it's time to create the final scene, we start from scratch and use a scene map as a reference and make a rough setup. From that point we build the scene and face all the challenges that comes with environment modeling. In the end we do a final review and finalize the scene.
The final course scene was rated well on Artstation with more than 340 + likes. Find out what makes an artwork special and be part of the developing process.
You will learn:
We start with installing Blender and making some simple objects. We get in touch with the Blender interface and I will show the most used buttons in this course. This comes with full in depth lecture documentation ( PDF) .
We continue with making a fence and add a simple wood texture. You will get in touch with the UV image editor and learn how to apply textures on your model. Then I will explain the material editor and show how nodes work (principled shader) . You will learn how to make a simple shader combination to add moss on the fence. I will also show some other shaders like transparency and translucency. This chapter includes a Material node book ( PDF ), a must have for making good looking materials
After these lessons we start with the building process, first making a simple building, but after making some progress we will start creating more advanced buildings, including ornaments. We Use Unity 3D to import the models including baked maps.
After completing the buildings, we start with the nature part and I will explain how to make grass, flowers, weed, rocks and trees. We will use 'The Grove 3D' to generate trees. After the nature part we will make a landscape scene and add all the objects including a sand path with water puddles.
After the nature chapter we will focus on atmosphere and lighting, using the point and sun lamp to make a light setup. We will also use an environment map to light the scene. In the end we will use some atmosphere fog to create mist in the scene.
Then it's time to create the final scene, we start from scratch and use a scene map as a reference and make a rough setup. From that point we build the scene and face all the challenges that comes with environment modeling. In the end we do a final review and finalize the scene.
