Their are lots of advantages to making 3d graphics compared to 2d graphics, however their are limitations to making 3d graphics which might not occur in 2d. For example, when creating 3d graphics yuo have to consider your poly count? Your poly count is the amount of poly’s being rendered per frame, you render your 3d graphics in a wire frame state first rather than shaded because it is much quicker. The poly’s are what make up the 3d object and the more complex and detailed the object the higher the poly count will be.
Another problem with having a high poly count is that the file size will be very high, an this general means you will need a high quality CPU (Central processing unit) to render your work. The better the CPU the more poly’s it can handle and render at once so this gives you quicker work pace but this type of high end equipment has a high end price tag and is expensive so not everyone can afford this type of equipment.
Polygons vs Triangles
Triangles are polygons, but polygons aren't necessarily triangles. All polygons that have more than 3 sides can be broken down into triangles. The polygon count is the total number of all polygons ( including triangles ), while for the triangle count, the polygons are broken down into triangles, so it's not longer a mix of n-sided polygons and triangles, it's all triangles. For instance, say there is 1 quad, and 1 triangle in a scene. The poly count would be 2, but the triangle count would be 3 because a quad is broken down into 2 triangles.
Triangle count vs Vertex Count
For GPUs, all that matters is how many vertices need to be processed, and how much of the screen the triangle will be covering.
It's true that 4 vertices may form 2 triangles, or it may form up to 4 triangles (i.e. overlapping each other) and the latter will cause the GPU to process the same 4 vertices more times. However modern GPUs have large enough caches that will store the result of the vertex, making this problem meaningless. Any decent exporter (or even the modeling application) will be arranging the vertices in a cache-friendly way. It's not something the artist has to worry about.
Rendering Time
Rendering an animation can ber very time consuming and take hours. Their are ways of avoiding this when you just want to render your animation so you can test the motion and tweak it to the way you want. When you just want test this you should turn off everything that isnt neccersary and will slow down the process like all the detialed shading or hide all enviromental objects that are not needed. These techniques can reduce rendering times by a lot.
Real Time
Occurring immediately. The term is used to describe a number of different computer features. For example, real-time operating systems are systems that respond to input immediately. They are used for such tasks as navigation, in which the computer must react to a steady flow of new information without interruption. Most general-purpose operating systems are not real-time because they can take a few seconds, or even minutes, to react.
Real time can also refer to events simulated by a computer at the same speed that they would occur in real life. In graphics animation, for example, a real-time program would display objects moving across the screen at the same speed that they would actually move.
Non Real Time
Sometimes abbreviated as NRT, non-real time is a term used to describe a process or event that does not occur immediately. For example, a forum can be considered non-real time as responses often do not occur immediately and can sometimes take hours or days.
Relection/Scattering
Light scattering is simply millions of reflections but in different directions cause by the rough surface its bouncing off of. Reflection is light that is bouncing off a smooth object at the same angle as it came in but in the opposite direction. Refraction is caused by light slowing down while traveling through an object which causes it to change direction slightly.
Shading
Shading refers to depicting depth in 3D models or illustrations by varying levels of darkness.
Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio Max, is 3D computer graphics software for making 3D animations, models, and images. It was developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and can be used on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is frequently used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization.
Maya
Maya is an animation and modeling program used to create three-dimensional ( 3-D ), full-motion effects. Maya incorporates the natural laws of physics to control the behavior of virtual objects in computer animation. Maya can produce videos that are more life-like than has been possible with less sophisticated programs. Versions are available for both IBM-compatible and Macintosh operating systems.
Until the development of Maya (and similar programs such as Fizt ), realistic rendering of certain natural effects, such as smoke blowing in a breeze, the rotation of clouds and dust in a tornado, or the sag and movement of clothing caused by gravity, was difficult or impossible to achieve. In addition to simulating the movements of objects and particles, Maya makes it possible to portray emotions in animated characters by enhancing facial expressions and the realism of body language. Some technical people at animation studios have begun taking courses in Maya. The program has been used in numerous movies, including Twister and Stuart Little .
LightWave
LightWave is a software package used for rendering 3D images, both animated and static. It includes a rendering engine that supports such advanced features as realistic reflection and refraction, radiosity, and caustics. The 3D modeling component supports both polygon modeling and subdivision surfaces. The animation component has features such as reverse and forward kinematics for character animation, particle systems and dynamics. Programmers can expand LightWave's capabilities using an included SDK which offers LScript scripting (a proprietary scripting language) and common C language interfaces.
Blender
Blender is a suite of tools enabling the creation of and replay of linear and real-time, interactive 3D content. It offers full functionality for modeling, rendering, animation, post-production and game creation and playback with the singular benefits of cross-platform operability and a download file size of less than 2.5MB.
Aimed at media professionals and individual creative users, Blender can be used to create commercials and other broadcast quality linear content, while the incorporation of a real-time 3D engine allows for the creation of 3D interactive content for stand-alone playback or integration in a web browser.
Originally developed by the company 'Not a Number' (NaN), Blender now is continued as 'Free Software', with the sources available under GNU GPL.
Cinema 4D -
Cinema 4D is a 3d program to make 3d-images and animations. A big difference compared to a 2d-program like mspaint or photoshop is that you work in another dimension, so you can add deep to your images. The you can add lightning, and different type or surfaces to your objects you've drawn. Other programs like cinema 4d is 3d studio max, lightwave, blender or Maya.
The animated movies are made in some of these programs, for example movies like Finding Nemo or Shrek. So it's powerful programs if you know how to use them.
ZBrush
ZBrush is a digital sculpting and painting program that has revolutionized the 3D industry with its powerful features and intuitive workflows. Built within an elegant interface, ZBrush offers the world’s most advanced tools for today’s digital artists. With an arsenal of features that have been developed with usability in mind, ZBrush creates a user experience that feels incredibly natural while simultaneously inspiring the artist within. With the ability to sculpt up to a billion polygons, ZBrush allows you to create limited only by your imagination.
Designed around a principle of circularity, the menus in ZBrush work together in a non-linear and mode-free method. This facilitates the interaction of 3D models, 2D images and 2.5D Pixols in new and unique ways.
Sketchup
SketchUp is a computer program in which you can create both simple and complex 3D models fairly easily. It was originally developed by Google (so it is often called ‘Google SketchUp’) but has since been sold to Trimble. Currently there is a free and ‘pro’ version of the program available.
While SketchUp is extremely powerful, it is also relatively easy to use. If you just want to navigate an existing model and perhaps take some measurements, you’ll only need to know a very small subset of the available features in the program. For a quick overview of those, heres a video someone put together:
File Formats
The question with these are not what are file formats but which one will benefit you the most.
3D graphics combines a large area of applications such as gaming, interactive environments, movies, computer-aided design and manufacturing.
There exist many (dozens) of 3D file formats. In a second life discussion/bug formum (retrieved oct. 25 2010), "Theory Shaw" presented the following list:
3D Studio Max (.max, .3ds) AC3D (.AC) Apple 3DMF (.3dm / .3dmf) Autocad (.dwg) Blender (.blend) Caligari Object (.cob) Collada (.dae) Dassault (.3dxml) DEC Object File Format (.off) DirectX 3D Model (.x) Drawing Interchange Format (.dxf) DXF Extensible 3D (.x3d) Form-Z (.fmz) GameExchange2-Mirai (.gof) Google Earth (.kml / .kmz) HOOPS HSF (.hsf) LightWave (.lwo / .lws) Lightwave Motion (.mot) MicroStation (.dgn) Nendo (.ndo) OBJ (.obj) Okino Transfer File Format (.bdf) OpenFlight (.flt) Openinventor (.iv) Pro Engineer (.slp) Radiosity (.radio) Raw Faces (.raw) RenderWare Object (.rwx) Revit (.rvt) Sketchup (.skp) Softimage XSI (.xsi) Stanford PLY (.ply) STEP (.stp) Stereo Litography (.stl) Strata StudioPro (.vis) TrueSpace (.cob) trueSpace (.cob, .scn) Universal (.u3d) VectorWorks (.mcd) VideoScape (.obj) Viewpoint (.vet) VRML (.wrl) Wavefront (.obj) Wings 3D (.wings) X3D Extensible 3D (.x3d) Xfig Export (.fig) This is just a majority of the number of formats available.
A polygon mesh is a collection of vertices, edges and faces that defines the shape of a polyhedral object in 3D computer graphics and solid modeling. The faces usually consist of triangles, quadrilaterals or other simple convex polygons, since this simplifies rendering, but may also be composed of more general concave polygons, or polygons with holes.
Box Modeling
This is a technique that is used in 3D modelling where the model is created by modifying primitive shapes to create a rough draft of the final model, in most cases. A primary function of box modeling involves extruding and scaling the faces, which are the flat planes that make up a model.
Extrusion Modelling
Extrusion is a method of adding geometry to a polygon primitive, and one of the primary tools a modeler uses to begin shaping a mesh.
Through extrusion a modeler manipulates the 3D mesh by either collapsing a face in upon itself (to create an indentation), or by extruding the face outward along its surface normal—the directional vector perpendicular to the polygonal face.
Extruding a quadrilateral face creates four new polygons to bridge the gap between its starting and ending position.
Primitive Modeling
This is the simplest way of modeling three dimensional objects. Using geometric primitives such as cylinders, cones, cubes and balls, complex models are created. This approach ensures easy construction as the forms are mathematically defined and precise. Primitive modeling is mainly used in developing 3D models of technical applications.
Specialist modeling
During last decades different research lines has been explored to improve the humancomputer interface in CAD systems. Sketch-based interfaces and modelling (SBIM) is an
emerging research field, and seems to be able to create the computer tools required to shift
(Igarashi and Zeleznik, 2007) to a new paradigm where sketches should be used as input to
create digital engineering models in a true computer-aided ideation environment. Recent
advances in the field of SBIM promise better integration of those separated worlds (sketching
The branch of mathematics concerned with the properties and
relations of points, lines, surfaces, solids, and higher dimensional analogues.
In computer graphics many applications need to alter or
manipulate a picture, for example, by changing its size, position or
orientation. This can be done by applying a geometric transformation to the
coordinate point’s deļ¬ning the picture. These notes cover the basic theory of
two-dimensional (2D) geometric transformations.
Cartesian coordinate system
A coordinate system in which the coordinates of a point are
its distances from a set of perpendicular lines that intersect at an origin,
such as two lines in a plane or three in space.
Third Axis (in a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system) the axis along which values of z are measured and at which both xand y equal zero.
Geometric Theory & Polygons
A vertex is a corner point of a polygon, polyhedron, or
other higher dimensional polytope, formed by the intersection of edges, faces
or facets of the object.
In a polygon, a vertex is called "convex" if the
internal angle of the polygon, that is, the angle formed by the two edges at
the vertex, with the polygon inside the angle, is less than Ļ radians;
otherwise, it is called "concave" or "reflex". More
generally, a vertex of a polyhedron or polytope is convex if the intersection
of the polyhedron or polytope with a sufficiently small sphere centered at the
vertex is convex, and concave otherwise.
Mesh
Also called mesh topology or a mesh network, mesh is a network topology in which devices are connected with many redundant interconnections between network nodes. In a true mesh topology every node has a connection to every other node in the network.
There are two types of mesh topologies: full mesh and partial mesh.
Full mesh topology occurs when every node has a circuit connecting it to every other node in a network. Full mesh is very expensive to implement but yields the greatest amount of redundancy, so in the event that one of those nodes fails, network traffic can be directed to any of the other nodes. Full mesh is usually reserved for backbone networks.
Primitives
The term geometric primitive in computer graphics and CAD systems is used in various senses, with the common meaning of the simplest (i.e. 'atomic' or irreducible) geometric objects that the system can handle (draw, store). Sometimes the subroutines that draw the corresponding objects are called "geometric primitives" as well. The most "primitive" primitives are point and straight line segment, which were all that early vector graphics systems had.
Surfaces
In technical applications of 3D computer graphics (CAx) such as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing, surfaces are one way of representing objects. The other ways are wireframe (lines and curves) and solids. Point clouds are also sometimes used as temporary ways to represent an object, with the goal of using the points to create one or more of the three permanent representations.
An application-programming interface (API) is a set of
programming instructions and standards for accessing a Web-based software
application or Web tool. A software company releases its API to the public so
that other software developers can design products that are powered by its
service.
An API is a software-to-software interface, not a user
interface. With APIs, applications talk to each other without any user
knowledge or intervention. When you buy movie tickets online and enter your
credit card information, the movie ticket Web site uses an API to send your
credit card information to a remote application that verifies whether your
information is correct. Once payment is confirmed, the remote application sends
a response back to the movie ticket Web site saying it's OK to issue the
tickets.
Direct 3D
Microsoft Direct3D is a low-level graphics application
programming interface (API) that enables you to manipulate visual models of
3-dimensional objects and take advantage of hardware acceleration, such as
video graphics cards.
OpenGL
Originally developed by Silicon Graphics in the early '90s,
OpenGL® has become the most widely-used open graphics standard in the world..
NVIDIA supports OpenGL and a complete set of OpenGL extensions, designed to
give you maximum performance on our GPUs.
Graphics Pipeline
In 3D graphics rendering, the stages required to transform a
three-dimensional image into a two-dimensional screen. The stages are responsible
for processing information initially provided just as properties at the end
points (vertices) or control points of the geometric primitives used to
describe what is to be rendered. The typical primitives in 3D graphics are
lines and triangles. The type of properties provided per vertex include x-y-z
coordinates, RGB values, translucency, texture, reflectivity and other
characteristics.
Per-vertex lighting and shading
The basic process is similar to dynamic environment mapping
or cube mapping. Our proposed method is superior to those in that the accurate
ray direction is reflected in the resulted image at every vertex on the mesh.
Existing real-time techniques suffer from the differences between the viewpoint
for the environment map and each reflection point. The proposed method
minimizes this by finding an optimal viewpoint for the reflective or refractive
mesh. With a sufficient number of vertices and map image resolutions, the users
can render reflected images as accurate as ray tracing for all practical
purposes, except for reflected objects around ray converging points of
reflection on concave surfaces or refraction through convex lenses.
Clipping
Any procedure which identifies that portion of a picture
which is either inside or outside a region is referred to as a clipping
algorithm or clipping. The region against which an object is to be clipped is
called clipping window.
Projection Transformation
Projections transform three dimensional eye coordinates into
points in three dimensional clip coordinates. Three dimensional object
coordinates are projected onto the projection plane Which Determines how objects
are projected onto the screen. The projection matrix also defines the viewing volume,
the viewing volume determines which objects or parts of objects are projected
onto the screen. The viewing volume is an six-sided enclosure defined by clipping
planes, Primitives outside the viewing volume are not displayed.
Viewport Transformation
Conceptually, a viewport is a 2-D rectangle into which a
three-dimensional scene is projected. In Microsoft® Direct3D® Mobile, the
rectangle exists as coordinates within a Direct3D Mobile surface that the
system uses as a rendering target. The projection transformation converts
vertices into the coordinate system used for the viewport.
Rasterisation
To prepare a page for display or printing. Rasterisation is
performed by a raster image processor (RIP), which turns text and images into
the matrix of pixels (bitmap) that will be displayed on screen or printed on
the page. Various conversions may take place. For example, the mathematical
coordinates of vector and outline fonts as well as vector drawings must be
converted into bitmaps. Existing bitmaps may have to be scaled into
different-sized bitmaps.
Fragment Shading
A Fragment Shader is a user-supplied program that, when
executed, will process a Fragment from the rasterization process into a set of
colors and a single depth value.
The fragment shader is the OpenGL pipeline stage after a
primitive is rasterized. For each sample of the pixels covered by a primitive,
a "fragment" is generated. Each fragment has a Window Space position,
a few other values, and it contains all of the interpolated per-vertex output
values from the last Vertex Processing stage.
Display
When the complete pixels have been coloured they are then able to be shown on an electronic device or computer monitor.
The first game to be playable on a commercial machine, created by Malcolm Evans just through tinkering in his spare time, Monster maze is considered the forerunner of first person games we play today. The game was created for the ZX81 home computer which in the united states was known as the timex sinclair.
The aim of the game was to see how long you could last in a maze with a tyranisouras rex and your only sources of help were the legs of which you stand on & points were awarded for each step the player took throughout the game, this may seem simple because technology has come a long way since 1981 but this game is what inspired most first person games you play to date.
Mainstream 3D
The fifth generation of games, most developers converted solely to 3D the first ones to reach this goal was games such as star fox & virtua racer.
the next era of games were moving to a more 3D friendly enviroment with games such as mario, sonic & zelda.Which were previously 2D became full 3d spaced games. There were many games that were tradionally in 3D that took the oppertunity for more enhanced game play, this was both great for marketing & created a trend, leaving only some games in 2D. The games industrys focus was now towards the newly announced 3D rather than the traditional side scrollers.
This was a new generation for the games industry and companys such as Rare & nintendo decided to embrace it thus creating the block buster golden eye.
Some time after the creation of golden eye many declined the option of using a cartridge with the now popular CD's which offered more storage than the previous devices.
Current Trends
With the technology used nowadays hyper realism is a standard element to creating a successful game. Because the gameplay for nearly every game is in real time & look almost like a character from a movie, there are now games which are the equivalant to the quality of which is in a movie making the games like an interactive film.
Examples of games which have these qualities are:
The increasing download speed will mean that 3D technology will have a huge part to play in the creation of future games on newly announced consoles such as the xbox one and Playstation 4.
3D in Animation First 3D Animation
The first known 3D computer generated animation was created in 1972 by Ed Catmull one of the pioneers of 3D technology, and at a later date became one of the founders of the now animation titan pixar.
Pixar tin toy
Tin toy is a short film which was produced in 1988 by pixar & directed by john lassester.
t's about a small toy named Tinny, who is trying to escape from Billy, a baby who wants to play with him and dribble on him. When Tinny tries to walk, his musical instruments on his back play notes. He then begins to run, but is chased by Billy. Tinny soon finds cover under the couch, and when he looks up, he sees that there are several other toyshiding, also afraid of Billy. While walking and trying to find the toy, Billy falls down and begins to cry. Tinny, feeling bad for the baby, tries to go and cheer him up. When he does, Billy just ignores him and plays with the boxes Tinny came in. Mad, Tinny tries to follow Billy to get his attention, but is still ignored. Near the end of the credits, other toys hiding under the couch come out from underneath and begin to play.
Accessing the technology
Whilst there may still be original forms of animation such as cell & stop motion which are still very popular types of animation, over the years computer technology is used more frequently than ever before & because of popular demand it is now accessible to the general public for an affordable price. Allowing people with not much experience to create amzing proffessional quality animations.
Techniques There are so many other kinds of techniques which can be combined with the 3D animation graphics techniques to make three-dimensional graphics. For example popular and frequently used functions in mathematical like gravity and simulations techniques. Various numbers of 3D animations have been frequently used for creating visual effects in recent movies. Rigging Before a 3D character model can be handed over to the team of animators, it must be bound to a system of joints and control handles so that the animators can pose the model. This process is typically completed by artists known as character technical directors or riggers.
A character rig is essentially a digital skeleton bound to the 3D mesh. Like a real skeleton, a rig is made up of joints and bones, each of which act as a "handle" that animators can use to bend the character into a desired pose.
A character rig can range from simple and elegant to staggeringly complex. A basic setup for simple posing can be built in a few hours, while a fully articulated rig for a feature film might require days or weeks before the character is ready for Pixar level animation.
Motion Capture
Motion capture is defined as "The creation of a 3D representation of a live performance." in the book Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games by Alberto Menache. This is in contrast to animation that is created 'by hand' through a process known as keyframing.
Motion capture (AKA Mocap) used to be considered a fairly controversial tool for creating animation. In the early days, the effort required to 'clean up' motion capture data often took as long as if the animation was created by an animator, from scratch. Thanks to hard work by the manufacturers of motion capture systems as well as numerous software developers, motion capture has become a feasible tool for the generation of animation.
3D in Film and TV
The first 3D animation in film was the clip from earlier that was created by Ed Catmull made up of pollygons & was used in the film future world in 1976.
The breakthrough of 3D in film wasnt until the release of the Jurrassic park though, the release of the film was a titan among many other 3D revelutions to come. Almost every aspect of the dinasours featured were created using 3D software.
In modern times it is now very normal for a film to feature aspects of computerised 3D. Some examples of these are as follows:
Composites
While some people use the terms interchangeably, Rendering in layers is the process of rendering different objects in your scene separately, so that a different image is rendered for each layer of objects. Rendering in passes is the process of rendering different attributes of your scene separately. Here are three examples: Highlight passes (sometimes called specular passes) isolate the specular highlights from your objects. You can render highlight passes by turning off any ambient light and making the object’s diffuse shading and color mapping to pure black. The result will be a rendering of all the specular highlights in the scene, over a black background, without any other types of shading.
A depth map (also called Z-Depth or a depth pass) is a pass that stores depth information at each point in your scene. Some productions use depth maps rendered in a special depth map file format. Other productions use simulated depth maps which are rendered as standard image files just like any other pass, but with a depth-fading effect over objects with constant white shading. A shadow pass is a rendering that shows the locations of shadows in a scene. A shadow pass often appears as a white shadow region against a black background, a black shadow against a white background, or a rendering with the shadow shape embedded in the alpha channel. Cast shadows are where an object casts a shadow onto another 3D object or darkens an area of a live-action plate. Separate shadow passes can depict attached shadows, where an object casts shadows onto itself, such as the shadow a character's nose casts onto his own face. 3D Animation on TV The first 3D show to be made up of soely 3D was reboot created by the canadian production company mainframe in 1994, aswell as attracting many youths at the time of the release the show suprisingly caught the eye of the senior citezens due to the originality.
The setting is in the inner world of a computer system known by its inhabitants as Mainframe. The city is populated almost entirely by binomes, little creatures that represent either 1s or 0s, as well as a handful of Sprites, such as Bob and Dot, who are primarily humanoid creatures of more complex design and are the main characters of the series. Since the creation of 3D in film and TV the technology has come a long way and in the modern times production costs have lowered dramatically which has created a balance between that of the film industry compared to shows on the TV.
3D in Education
The 3D software we have access to these days means that not just in the game, TV & film industry is this form of work produced & used to a great standard, infact the results of teaching in 3D were significanty better than those who were not. Comparing two groups of children, one taking 2D and the other a 3D lesson, the researchers have come upon amazing results. The lesson, which normally requires two to three class periods to complete, was taught in just one class period. The test results were astounding: in the first classroom (normal lesson), the control group test scores increased 9.7 percent. But the group that received its lesson in 3D saw a 35 percent increase!
3D in Architecture In the olden days, architecture was known as the three dimensional discipline that heavily relied upon models and drawings to deliver information. The development of information technology and architectural advancements such as the Building Information Modeling and Computer Aided Design has totally changed the profession. Today builders and architects develop designs on computers, whereas the conventional style of architectural documentation have been set aside.
3D in Engineering Social interaction seems to be a hot topic for a number of major brands. Given the expertise in IT and programming from CAD vendors it is no surprise that many of them have jumped into social with their own community. Each of these is positioned to help designers and engineers share their knowledge, learn tricks, and get updates on their favorite (or most used) software, access crowd sourced files, and generally build a community of like minded designers.
3D in medicine
Using 3D technology is a great way to practice in the medical division & a great use to the health sector, most scientists believe that one day in the future it will be possible to 3D print a human liver.
3D in meteorology
This is a great use for meteorologists because it helps predict what the weather is going to be like and the current forecast.
An example of this 3D software is Terra 3D:
The artificial earth is represented by a three-dimensional object with 2 information layers. The first layer describes the terrain with a colored height model. The second layer uses original satellite images for the visualization of the clouds. All object and layer parameters can be modified and animated with a portable graphical user interface. After having adjusted all parameters, a high-quality animation can be rendered.
3D in product design
3D software is used by devellopers to to visualise products in a more defined way than on a standard piece of paper.
Here is an example of many things that were created through the help of 3D software.
