Jamescampbell18's Weblog

3D Development Software

jamescampbell18 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:09 +0000

Cinema 4D
Afterburn
Maya
3DSmax
Autocad
Unreal editor
Lightwave
Rhino
Havoc
3D Plus
Mojoworld
Poser -

Poser is a 3D rendering software package for the posing, animating and rendering of 3D polymesh human and animal figures. Akin to a virtual photography studio, Poser allows the user to load actors, props, lighting and cameras for still and animated renderings.

Natively using a subset of the Alias object (OBJ) file format and a text-based markup for content files, Poser comes with a basic library of human, animal, robotic, and cartoon figures.
Animation master
Milkshake 3D
Modo
softimage|XSI
Silo
Truespace
Zbrush
Pro/Engineer
SolidWorks
Catia
Zanoza modeler
Wings 3D
TopMod
Google SketchUp
Anim8or
Art of Illusion
AutoQ3D
Blender
Quake 2 Modeler

Taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_modeler

3D limitations

jamescampbell18 — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:59:12 +0000

Limitations of 3D – file size ,Poly count and rendering times

File sizeA main problem with having a high poly count in 3d is that the file size will be huge, and this generaly means you will need a high quality CPU (Central processing unit) to render your work and to send the file anywhere would take a while. 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 very heavy price tag and is expensive so many people can’t afford this type of equipment.

Poly count

Their are lots of advantages to making 3d graphics compared to 2d graphics, however their are also a few limitations to making 3d graphics which wouldnt not be a problem in 2d. For example, when making 3d graphics poly count has to be considered, 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 becasue 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.

Rendering times

Somtimes rendering an animation can be very tedious and time consuming and possibly take hours. Their are a few 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 testing the animation and other stuff turn off everything that isnt neccersary (e.g. geometry) so its just a wire frame as all this 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.

Photometric units??

jamescampbell18 — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:41:03 +0000

Photometric units whe way that light intensity is measured in, using LUMENS and CANDELAS. When measuring light you can use industry-standard luminous intensity distribution files like:

IES
CIBSE
LTLI

all these are very easily atainable from the majority of lighting manufacturers. Lighting can be measured and set to how you want it using these techniques in both a 3d enviroment and the real world.

Rendering hardware

jamescampbell18 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:53:09 +0000

API?

API or Application Programming Interface is a source code interface that operating systems and graphics libraries use to give support to requesting computer programs.

GPU?

A GPU is a graphics processing unit and is a device used in rendering for personal computers, games consoles and in workstations. The newer GPU’s are much more efficient at displaying computer graphics than the general use CPU’s.
This little piece of hardware can process very detailed graphics alot faster so when playing games with intesnly detailed graphipcs theres no comprimise to speed.

What is a shader?

A shader is a set of software instructions that is used by the GPU and 3d rendering programs to create the rendering effects.

Types of shaderThe DirectX and OpenGL graphic libraries use three types of shaders.

Vertex shaders
These can only affect vertices and can only change things about the vertex like colour, position and texture.
Geometry shaders
Can remove and add vertices from a mesh these shaders can also be used to generate geometry and add volume detail to meshes that would be far to difficult to process with a CPU
Pixel shaders
Also known as Fragment Shaders, they calculate the colour value of pixels when the different polygons made by the other shaders are rasterized. They’re mainly used in lighting effects and colour toning.

What is a render engine?

A rendering engine is basically programmed coding that that makes all the elements of the graphics being input available to see and gives a visual representation of the graphics and all the different elements.

James Clarke

James Clarke is the founder of Silicon Graphics, inc. his research and work helped create the fast rendering technologies to date. He is also one of the main factors in the creation of Netscape and owned the Netscape company.

John McCarthy

jamescampbell18 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:17:13 +0000

After reading the article on http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/ID797.html i would in my opinion say that John McCarthy was an innovator and an adapter of CGI because he was one of the main contributors of work to Artificial intelligance and was responsible for the coining of the term Artificial Intelligance.

Cartesian Co-ordinate System

jamescampbell18 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:34:27 +0000

When working with 3D graphics, we are working with the illusion of 3D space in a

two dimensional environment – the computer screen. To allow us to do this, 3D

software applications make use of the Cartesian coordinate system to create the

illusion of working in three-dimensional space. This is the same coordinate system

used for teaching algebra.

The Cartesian Co-ordinate System was first developed by French mathematician Rene Descartes in 1673. He did so in an effort to merge algebra and Euclidean geometry.

2-Dimensional Cartesian coordinate system

The 2-dimensional Cartesian system is mostly defined using two axes, both are

perpendicular to each other and are shown in the diagram below. The horizontal axis is labelled x.The vertical axis is labelled

y. These axes form the xy plane. The arrows on the

axes indicate that they extend forever in the same direction.

This means that a value on the x or y-axis can be positive (+) or negative (-) depending on

its location. The point where these axes meet is known as the origin.

This origin represents the centre of the coordinate universe.

3-Dimensional Cartesian coordinate system

Early in the 19th century, the third dimension of measurement (z) was added.

This axis is called the depth axis. This axis runs at right angles to the

xy plane and also extends forever in both directions. It is this third axis that enables

us to locate any point in three-dimensional space.

3-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system writing in xyz format

When trying to find a point in 3D space, it is written using the format (x,y,z). So, if your trying

to locate a point that is 9 units along the negative x-axis it would be written as(-9), and 10 units along the

positive y-axis would be(10) and 5 units along the negative z-axis (-5), we would display it as

(-9,10,-5)

How to remember the directions of the XYZ axes

As an aid to remembering the orientation of the x, y and z axes, the right-hand rule is used.

· Hold out the right hand flat, with palm facing up.

· Extend your right thumb out to the side, pointing right. This represents the x axis.

· Leave your index finger extended fully pointing away from you. This represents the y axis

· Point your middle finger to the sky. This represents the z-axis.

The direction that your fingers are pointing also represents the positive orientation of

each of the axes. This system is called a right-handed coordinate system.

The Cartesian coordinate system in 3D graphics software

Most 3D software applications present us with multiple views of the coordinate

system at the same time. In 3DS Max, these views based on the Cartesian coordinate

system are called Viewports

The Top, Front and Left views are known as orthographic or schematic Viewports as they only display 2 axes at

the same time. The Perspective Viewport presents a more 3-dimensional view

because it displays all three (x, y and z) axes at the same time.

(Some examples and images taken from the synergylearning studant material)

http://www.synergy-learning.com/