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Well it all starts with a basic idea for a 3D Still (picture), then it's the process of booting up the PC and loading
3D Studio R4. To start the average 3D Still off, I need a mesh (3D Model) and some ideas for how to present it to
the world. Normally I have the meshes ready to render (Make a picture with colors and FX from a Mesh inside 3D Studio). But to explain the process more correctly, lets pretend I have to build the Peregrin from scratch! 1: MAKING THE 3D MESH The real first thing is to have as much reference material as possible to work with, this means videos, pictures and if possible blue prints of the actual model of the craft. Then careful measurements are made and the process of actually building the model in 3D Studio starts. Most 3D Packages have several methods of building 3D models. In 3D Studio three main methods are used. Using the 2D Shaper (One part of five components in 3D Studio) we build 2D shapes of the vessels contours and outlines. Building in the 2D Shaper is rather like using the line drawing tools in most modern 2D art packages such as Corel Draw and Fractal Paint. We make 2D shapes that represent the contours or outlines of parts of the 3D Objects that make up the ship. Each ship can be made up of many 3D Objects just to give the illusion of one big complex 3D Shape. The wireframe picture below shows you just how complex the 3D meshes can be. The Peregrin is one of our most un complex ships! With Booleaning you can add and subtract objects with each other. This best example of this method is that some detail is cut into the hull of the Peregrin in the wireframe shot. This is because we have booleaned it in. So in the 3D editing stage we Well as I said above we make some objects by making their 2D contours and importing them into the next part of 3D Studio called the 2D Lofter. This allows us the to main methods of 3D creation in 3D Studio.
One is to make the object like the contours lines of landscape on a mapp. The shapes are imported along a path (which
can be a straight line to another complex shape). Then the shapes are lofted (Other process can be added at this
point to scale the shapes or bevel them etc.) and then the shape is imported to the 3D editor.
Another method of doing the above is to make a front/Top and Side view of a shape and import these into the 2D
Shapers Fit command, which then makes the 3D Object for us and imports it into the 3D editor.
Above are the two main methods for shape creation. These both have there own advantages and disadvantages and both are normally used many times in the creation of a complete mesh. 2: EDITING THE 3D MESH As you can see from the above many objects have to be created using the first two methods, but even with these to powerful methods not everything can be created. Editing of a mesh occurs in the third component of 3D Studio called the 3D Editor. This is perhaps the main part of 3D studio were I spend most of my time. The third method of mesh parts creation is to create actual 3D shapes in the 3D Editor by letting 3D studio build simple 3D Objects such as boxes/circles etc and then editing them with the commands of the editor to resemble the shapes you require. You can also edit objects made through the shaper and lofter and make them fit in better with the overall mesh. Apart from being able to re-shape the objects through simple commands such as scale and move etc. 3D editor has the most powerful of the creation and editing commands at its disposal (And also the command which cause the most problems!) It's a mathematical 3D process called Boolean. This allows to cut 3D Objects into each other rather like glue parts of a plastic model kit together. import all the shapes into 3D Objects and create new 3d Objects and edit, cut, add and generally refine the 3D mesh till it looks like the object we are supposed to be making! 3: ADDING TEXTURE MAPPS Texture mapps are 2D pictures made in 2D paint programmes or even photos that are wrapped around 3D Objects to stop them appearing as wireframe models and look 3D (Real). For the texture mapps for the top of the main hull of the Peregrin. I used watercolors, chalk and ink pen in Fractal Paint to make it. I then apply that image to the top of the hull and when I hit the render button the ship now appears to have panels and be a tad rusty and beaten-up. When adding textures we can define all sorts of things from how shinney the surface should be to what color to even weather it should be self-illuminating or not. This is all performed in Studio's 5th component module called the Materials editor. Getting all this right is half the battle of making a nice picture and can take a long time as you often have to render the ship each and every time you make a small change to one of its texture mapps. The mapps themselves can often take a long time to draw and paint. Mapps can be used to give the impression of decals (lettering) to glows and reflections (and just about anything else!) 4: LIGHTS CAMERAS AND ACTION Just putting one white light on the ship is not enough. I often use many spotlights just like a proffessional photographer to light many aspects and details of the ships and their backgrounds. In 3D Studio we have many options on how to use our lights and the way in which they should intereact with other lights and objects. The of the main uses is to give the impression that bright objects in the shots are casting their own lights. we even have three methods of casting shadows in the scenes and three different forms of lights to use (Ambient/Omni and Spotlights). For the 3D Stills I normally use mainly spotlights and the odd omni light, I never use ambient lighting as this wouldn't exist in space at all! In cameras I use a 35mm or a 70mm depending on the shot and the aspect ratio. below is the Peregrin with its mapps lite by one bright shadow casting spotlight and several fill spotlights.
5: ANIMATION AND POST-PRODUCTION This is performed in the 4th of Studio's component modules, called the keyframer. In the keyframer I have set up a basic animation of the peregrin flying towards the camera and using a SFX package made a sun flare in the background that dissapears and reappears as the peregrin swoops infront of it past the camera. The stars and Flares and glows are setup in a part of the keyframer called Video post. Now all the elements of the mesh, mapps, lights, cameras, and SFX and animation all come together to make the final 3D Still (JPEG Picture). The below picture took about 1 minute render (thats for studio to put all the above together and make it into a still picture).
6: AFTERWORD This page is very basic and is meant for beginners and people who have no-idea what a 3D package is or can do. I hope you can understand it and its not to "techie". For more advanced information let me know and I'll respond by e-mail (Buttons below). We might also add some tutorial files on how to do certain things in R4 and Max. |
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