Table of Contents

Cover

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Publisher's Note

Dedication

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

Who Should Read This Book

What Is Covered in This Book

Chapter 1: 3D Animation Overview

Defining 3D Animation

Exploring the 3D Animation Industry

The History of 3D Animation

Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Production Pipeline

Understanding the Production Pipeline’s Components

Working in 3D Animation Preproduction

Working in 3D Animation Production

Working in 3D Animation Postproduction

Using Production Tools

Chapter 3: Understanding Digital Imaging and Video

Understanding Digital Imaging

Understanding Digital Video

Chapter 4: Exploring Animation, Story, and Pre-visualization

Using Principles of Fine Art and Traditional Animation

Building a Good Story

Using Pre-visualization Techniques

Chapter 5: Understanding Modeling and Texturing

Modeling

Texturing

Chapter 6: Rigging and Animation

Rigging

Animation

Chapter 7: Understanding Visual Effects, Lighting, and Rendering

Creating Visual Effects

Lighting

Rendering

Chapter 8: Hardware and Software Tools of the Trade

Choosing a Computer

Using Monitors/Displays

Working with Graphics Tablets

Using 3D Scanners

Setting Up Render Farms

Finding Data Storage Solutions

Choosing Software

Chapter 9: Industry Trends

Using Motion Capture

Creating Stereoscopic 3D

Integrating Point-Cloud Data

Providing Real-Time Capabilities

Working in Virtual Studios

Appendix A: Answers to Review Questions

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Appendix B: Gaining Insight into 3D Animation Education

Linda Sellheim

Larry Richman

Steve Kolbe

Appendix C: Learning from Industry Pros

Brian Phillips

Jim Rivers

Rosie Server

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1: 3D Animation Overview

Figure 1-1: Da Vinci’s study of the arm

Figure 1-2: Example of a medical rendering

Figure 1-3: Forensics animation showing gunshot trajectory

Figure 1-4: Example of indoor and outdoor rendering for architecture

Figure 1-5: Example of augmented reality through a webcam. The paper the boy is holding has a marker that will allow the software to know where to place the image.

Figure 1-6: Replica of the Z1 computer in the German Museum of Technology

Figure 1-7: Colossus computer used to break coded messages in WWII

Figure 1-8: The same polygon sphere with flat shading on the left and Gouraud shading on the right

Figure 1-9: The Utah teapot in 3ds Max

Figure 1-10: Screenshot of Pong

Figure 1-11: Original Macintosh computer with a graphical user interface

Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Production Pipeline

Figure 2-1: A graphical breakdown of the 3D animation pipeline

Figure 2-2: This example of a film script shows basic written formatting.

Figure 2-3: A small snippet of a storyboard from a short animated film

Figure 2-4: A simple character in the default-modeling pose

Figure 2-5: Character concept sketches

Figure 2-6: An environment design

Figure 2-7: An environment sketch

Figure 2-8: A way to envision the assembly line of the 3D-animation production stage

Figure 2-9: A proxy representation (top) and the final model (bottom)

Figure 2-10: Images from a 3D layout in sequential order to demonstrate the basic look of the images

Figure 2-11: A head modeled by hand in Autodesk Maya with polygons

Figure 2-12: A raw laser scan of a head by a NextEngine desktop 3D scanner that was then converted into polygon geometry and viewed in Autodesk Maya

Figure 2-13: A parametric model made using SolidWorks

Figure 2-14: Final model before textures have been applied (left) and the same model after the textures have been applied (right)

Figure 2-15: Final model with its control rig turned on

Figure 2-16: Image of a still from a short animated film

Figure 2-17: A shot before (left) and after (right) color correction

Figure 2-18: The production triangle

Figure 2-19: An example of a Gantt chart for animation

Figure 2-20: A PERT chart

Figure 2-21: Sample shot sheet from a short film

Figure 2-22: A lighting- and rendering-tracking sheet in use

Chapter 3: Understanding Digital Imaging and Video

Figure 3-1: A grid pattern: the most common misconception of pixel layout

Figure 3-2: Examples of pixel geometry on four different monitors

Figure 3-3: An image displayed at 1280×720 (top), 320×180 (middle), and 80×45 (bottom)

Figure 3-4: A raster image and a vector image magnified 2,400 times

Figure 3-5: The effects of anti-aliasing

Figure 3-6: Representation of simple point sampling

Figure 3-7: The original image with a pixel grid overlaid onto it (left), a representation of the simple sampling of pixels to create the image (center), and the image with anti-aliasing applied to create a more accurate image (right)

Figure 3-8: Representation of anti-aliasing sampling

Figure 3-9: Screen capture of an image in Adobe Photoshop with the RGB channels open

Figure 3-10: The blue solid layer is on top of the green layer, but adding an alpha layer enables the green in the text to show through.

Figure 3-11: The original render (top left) and the alpha channel for that render (top right). In compositing software, a straight alpha creates a darkening along this magnified edge (bottom left), but the pre-multiplied option compensates and provides correct color.

Figure 3-12: The original render (left) and the render after a few extreme level changes (right). Notice the banding along the surface of the ball on the right.

Figure 3-13: CIE XYZ color space with the RGB color mode represented within the triangle

Figure 3-14: Square, NTSC, and PAL pixel shapes

Figure 3-15: A 3D rendered sphere on a square-pixel monitor and an NTSC television

Figure 3-16: A sphere rendered out squashed in the square-pixel display to look correct on an NTSC television

Figure 3-17: An extreme example of a very limited (and round!) safe area on an old TV

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!