BaHarrison's Weblog

The main 3D Development Software

baharrison — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:55:15 +0000

3D Canvas Afterburn

Xara 3D Maya

Adobe Dimension Unreal Ed

Amorphium Lightwave

Poser Rhino

Pixels Havok

Corel’s Bryce 3D Mojo World

Strata 3D Forterra’s OLIVE

Blender Newtek’s Lightwave 3D

Softimage XSI Electric Image Animation system

3Ds Max form-Z

Cinema 4D Massive

Houdini Modo

Silo Solidthinking

Truespace Zbrush

Mudbox Milkshape 3D

Grome DX Studio

Cheetah 3D Realsoft 3D

Anim8or Art of illusion

AUTOQ3D Equinox 3D

Makehuman MeshLab

openFX Terragen

Moonlight|3D Misfit Model 3D

AfterBurn is a production-proven volumetric effects plugin that has been used in cinematic productions such as Matrix Reloaded, Armageddon, Dracula 2000, K-19: The Widowmaker, HBO trailer, Mechwarrior3 cine trailer, various IMAX movies and games such as Warcraft3, Starcraft, Sin and many others.

This all-in-one solution enables rendering of ultra realistic effects ranging from clouds, pyroclastic smoke, dust, superb explosions effects, liquid metals, water and various procedurally defined “hard” objects.

Herbert Freeman

baharrison — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:55:05 +0000

Herbert Freeman was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany on 13 December 1925. His family moved to the United States in 1936, but Freeman entered the country only in 1938 after going through several visa rejections. Freeman got his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering at Union College and started his career at the Sperry Gyroscope Company, refining analog computers of the period and designing the company’s first digital computer.

Cartesian Co-Ordinate system

baharrison — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:19:29 +0000

René Descartes (March 31, 1595 – February 11, 1650)

Using the Cartesian coordinate system, geometric shapes (such as curves) can be described by algebraic equations, namely equations satisfied by the coordinates of the points lying on the shape. For example, the circle of radius 2 may be described by the equation x² + y²

A commonly used mnemonic for defining the positive orientation is the right hand rule. Placing a somewhat closed right hand on the plane with the thumb pointing up, the fingers point from the x-axis to the y-axis, in a positively oriented coordinate system

Two-dimensional coordinate system

http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/coordsys/coordsys.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_coordinate_system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes

Paul Debevec

baharrison — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:56:17 +0000

Why is paul debevec Significant in the production of computer graphics?

Paul Debevec is a research assistant professor at the University of Southern California and the executive producer of graphics research at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies. Paul’s PhD thesis (UC Berkeley, 1996) presented Façade, an image-based modeling and rendering….aka Spider-Man 2.1 (USA: recut version)

-http://www.debevec.org He developed a system for creating photoreal architectural models from photographs. Using Façade, he led the creation of virtual cinematography of the Berkeley campus for his 1997 film The Campanile Movie whose techniques were used to create virtual backgrounds in the 1999 film The Matrix. Subsequently he pioneered techniques for illuminating computer-generated scenes with real-world lighting captured through high dynamic range photography, demonstrating new image-based lighting techniques in his films Rendering with Natural Light (1998), Fiat Lux (1999), and The Parthenon (2004). He has also led the design of HDR Shop, the first widely used high dynamic range image editing program. Most recently Paul has led the development of a series of Light Stage devices that allow objects, actors, and performances to be synthetically illuminated with novel lighting. This technique was used to create photoreal digital actors for the film Spider Man 2. Paul received the first ACM SIGGRAPH Significant New Researcher Award in 2001, was named one of the world’s top “100 Young Innovators” by MIT’s Technology Review in 2002, and was awarded a Lillian Gilbreth Lectureship from the National Academy of Engineering in 2005

Spider-Man 3: The IMAX Experience

2.Superman returns

King Kong (2005) (senior supervisor: Light Stage 2)
… aka Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World (International: English title: teaser title)
… aka Peter Jackson’s King Kong (USA: promotional title)
Spider-Man 2

http://books.elsevier.com/us/bookscat/authors/defaultindividual.asp?country=United+States&authorcode=115756&community=&mscssid=3NGWE388S

Paul debevec was involved in the recovery of the 3D shape of an object from a collection of still photographs taken from various angle, he was famous for taking photos of buildings such as galileos tomb, the parthenon, vtican city, many other famous buildings.

Paul Debevec created Interactive method for modelling architectural scenes from photographs and rendering these scenes using projective texture mapping. Paul Debevec has worked on techniques for capturing real-world illumination and illuminating synthetic objects with real light, facilitating the realistic integration of real and computer generated imagery. Paul Debevec I think is an adapter because he used existing technology to create his photographs, he makes 3D photos and objects from still photographs. I also believe he is a innovator because he worked tirelessly in his labs trying to perfect his method, he is now one of the most widely known men in the industry.

Production Pipeline

baharrison — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:52:43 +0000

Phase 1: Concept

Phase 2: Pre-Production

Phase 3: Production

Phase 4: Post Production

1. Film Development

2. Film and Event Representation

3. Film, Event and Personal Promotion

4. Advertising, Product and Web Development.

http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/index2.html

The v for vendetta storyboards are very visual, they have a rough images of wat to go off because there were comic books previously there to use as a guide.

Short Film Production

http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/articles/lj/0141/8589/8589f1.png

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP108.pdf

http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/696/696273p1.html

DreamWorks –

Script

No film regardless of how low budget, can be made without a script, and of course making the story before making it’s cast is an important part of any film and that’s where it all starts at DreamWorks. Writers slave for weeks on end coming up with a script to be handed in to the good people at DreamWorks.

The storyboards

Upon devising a decent enough script and screenplay it is then hand over to the artists at the storyboard department. This is where the artists work tirelessly to bring to life the story in a series of comic book like sketches. And with the producers approval the still images are digitally photographed and combined to produce a film reel. This story reel then put together with temporary sound and dialogue forms the basis of the whole film and is worked on for the following 18 months.

Visual development

The story reel is then passed along to the visual development department where the whole film is artistically modified to give a more enhanced portrayal of what the film might look like during this process final views on what everything looks like are made. This can involve anything from grate big sets and backgrounds to characters and props. The number of images produced during this process can range in their thousands if not tens of thousands.

Casting

Since the artists in the previous departments have already created the scenes the dialogue the script the characters the next step is usually to give the characters a little … character. Actors are brought in to perform lines for various scenes and the producers record them “acting out” the sounds to catch key expressions which can later help in the modelling process.

Modelling

During this stage of the production the design crew begin making simplified wire frame models of the characters according to the initial designs. These wire frame models are called armatures which are used as simple geometric models that are easily manipulated to the designers every whim. They are also used to create the basic animations required in the film and then later improved by adding textures and surfaces to complete the characters.

Layout

The layout as the name suggests lays out the plot of the film which help determine what thing hinders movement of characters, the spacing between them and others, the lighting, the set and other things the producers will make final changes to. The layout if produced using the covered wire frame models and block shapes and is called the animatic. The animatic maps out the entire film scene for scene.

Character animation

After finalizing the animatic layout of the film the characters are then brought to life by finalizing the motions and movements and synchronising the voice-overs and smoothing out the look of the characters it’s time to move on to the next part of the sequence.

CGI effects

After completing the characters movements and animations the work is handed over to the effects team. This is where anything that doesn’t act out a part but has an effect on screen is created. All the interactions that the characters make with the environment like casting shadows or wind blowing in the trees and the like are all done by this department. Every last detail of the environment has to be carefully worked out to give the environment a realistic and impressive feel.

In the example of DreamWorks’s Madagascar in the scene where the zebra Marty is surfing, the waves and the island in the background have had a lot of CGI effects. The back ground had various lighting effects put on to make it seem distant, and the waves had already been made to move during the layout and animation process but they ended up looking like solids so during this stage they put down the opacity and added foam to the top and ends and bubbles below the waves to make them seem more realistic.

Final touches

So there we have it, the characters and backgrounds are complete, the movements and animations are correct, the lighting and effects have been done all that remains now is to tidy up, by adding the soundtrack sound effects the editing to suit the time line the final score to the film and the whole press release and advertising and promotions need completing but the film itself is ready for release.

Long winded as that may seem, you must keep in mind that this process can take anywhere from between 2-4 years to do and that this is merely a summary of what really goes on behind the scenes.