Introduction to 3D Art

3D art is created by manipulating polygon meshes and molding them into objects, characters, and scenes. 3D art is used in everything from print ads, to web sites, television, movies, video games, and beyond. 

So, what does it take to be a 3D artist? Well, obviously, you must have an eye for art. Most people who begin learning how to do 3D have some kind of background in drawing and sketching. Indeed, it's not unheard of for 3D studios to hire artists who have no experience in 3D art, based solely on the strength of a pencil drawing portfolio. Sculptors, who were previously limited to animatronics and claymation to enter the realm of live-action art, also tend to have an easy time making the transition to 3D. 

Even if you don't have formal art training that goes beyond the few classes you took in high school or college for the "easy A," you can still do great work in 3D. 

Useful Traits of a 3D Artist 

1. Patience. 3D artists need to be patient. Many beginners unfairly compare themselves to established artists possessing years of experience. While it can be a great motivator, and valuable source of inspiration, to examine another's work, don't obsess; 3D art is a diverse subject, and requires a lot of dedication and practice to get acceptable results. Some say that 3D is like Go, the ancient game of strategy: it takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. 

2. Sharp. 3D attracts a different breed of artist. 3D artists tend to have a strong background in computers, compared to non-digital artists. Experience in computer programming is common in 3D circles, though certainly not required. 3D artists have an eye for detail, and are extremely resourceful and self-sufficient. Oftentimes, problems you encounter in 3D won't have any analogy in traditional art, and may be no one around to help. 

3. Hard work required. If you want something easy, pick up a pencil and paper and start doodling. 3D art is not nearly as immediate in regards to results. One can spend, hours, days, and even weeks perfecting a 3D model before ever moving onto texturing, animation, or final renders. 3D art is unique in that it can require a broad array of skills, from drawing to acting, to successfully bring together a finished piece. The payoff is that, entering the 21st century, 3D artist are perhaps the most sought-after creative workers. 

4. Accepting of criticism. Eventually you'll feel motivated to submit your art for review by other artists. 3D artists can nitpick like no one else in the world, so be prepared to have even the slightest errors pointed out to you in exacting detail - especially if you're attempting to recreate anything remotely realistic. If you intend to work in a studio one day, your ability to accept criticism in stride will be crucial to the overall success of the team. 

Types of 3D Art

As mentioned earlier, 3D is a broad subject, and a typical finished picture will be composed of several - perhaps dozens - of hours of work in an array of skills. What follows is an overview of the subjects you'll need to learn to be a well-rounded 3D artist. 

Modeling - No, you won't be strutting your stuff on the catwalk anytime soon. At least, I hope you won't. Modeling is the act of creating a 3D mesh, whether the end result is a bug-eyed alien or a teacup. How you get to that finished model depends largely on the methods that make the most sense to you. 

Animation - Animation is the process of taking a 3D object and getting it to move. Animation comes in a few different flavors. There's keyframe animation, where the animator manipulates the objects on a frame-by-frame basis, similar to old hand-drawn cartoons. Other methods of animation include placing objects on splines and setting them to follow the path of the curve, or importing motion capture data and applying it to a character rig. Yet another way to animate is to use your 3D application's built-in physics engines, such as when your scene requires that objects fall. 

Texturing - Texture artists make models look pretty. Without some kind of texture art, everything will be variations of solid colors. The most common and accurate way to create a texture for a model is to "unwrap" the mesh (flatten it out) and paint over it in an application such as Photoshop. The final texture is then "wrapped" over the original mesh again. Depending on how a model is created, each section may have its own texture, i.e., a separate texture for hands, one for arms, and one for the torso of a character, all made to blend together seamlessly. 

Rendering - Rendering an image is typically the last step in any workflow pipeline, and is perhaps the most important part. It is a step often overlooked or glossed over by beginners, who are more focused on creating models and animating them. There are many aspects to creating a good final render of a scene, including attention to camera placement, lighting choices which may affect mood and shadows, reflections and transparency, and the handling of special effects, like fluids or gasses. 

Everything else - There are many other aspects to creating a good final product. Scenes must be correctly staged, usually working from a pre-visualization rendering, or a quick pencil sketch. Character models must be properly rigged for animation, an art in and of itself. In many big 3D firms, there may be a handful of artists whose sole purpose is to rig up models created by modelers for the animators to work with. Finally, most major software packages allow extensions on the base program in the form of plugins. Programmers may build in features necessary to complete a particular scene or style of animation. 

Your First Steps in 3D 

The first step in becoming a great 3D artist is to understand the concepts of 3D modeling, and how to create a model that will eventually be useful for animation. Later, you will need to learn the principles of animation, and how to bring your skills together in a fully rendered scene. 

3D art is a complex topic that can take months or years to learn. It is also an extremely rewarding venture, and one that is increasingly useful as art is increasingly created on computers. Digital art, and specifically 3D art, is still in its infancy when compared to traditional forms of art. The landscape is constantly changing, and, as a 3D artist, you will have to change with it. Perhaps, one day, your creations will mold the future of 3D art. 

Introduction to 3D Art                                                                                               

Introduction to 3D Animation

Wanna be a 3D Animator?

Good 3D animators are the most highly sought-after artist in the world of 3D. There's a reason for this: good animation is hard. Which is not to say that animation is hard to learn, but rather that making animation that is believable and entertaining requires a lot of skill and practice. Most people who become 3D artists rarely venture beyond modeling, and their forays into animation are inexpert at best, and cringe-worthy or unwatchable at worst. 

This is because animation requires a completely different skillset than 3D modeling. In fact, these two aspects of 3D art are so different that 3D modelers are rarely animators, and animators can rarely model. Established studios usually hire dedicated animators to do the bulk of the animation. Modelers, if they have any input into the animation process at all, usually stick with rigging. 

What you should take away is not that it's impossible to be a good modeler and animator, but that these two subsets of 3D art require different ways of thinking and usually do not share techniques. 

The Basics of 3D Animation

Animation in 3D applications usually happens in two primary ways. In major productions, both may be used. 

1. Key-frame animation - Keyframe animation, or keyframing, is the most well-known and oldest style of animation. In fact, there are examples of frame-by-frame animation dating all the way back to 1600 B.C. Egypt! Modern keyframing techniques date back to the early cartoons created by animation pioneers like Winsor McCay and Walt Disney. What may surprise you is that keyframing techniques have not changed much since the early 1900's - most of the basic principles still apply today. What has changed is that 3D software packages have made keyframing much easier to accomplish, meaning a broader scope of artists can learn how to animate. 

Keyframing is essentially changing the shape, position, spacing, or timing of an object in successive frames, with major changes to the object being the key frames. In traditional 2D animation, each frame is usually drawn by hand. When frames are shown in succession, as in a movie, the slight differences in each frame of animation create the illusion of motion. 3D software packages make keyframe animation easier by interpolating, or "tweening," the in-between frames. When animating a falling ball, for example, one key frame might be of the ball in mid-air, the next key frame may be the ball touching the ground, and the key frame after that would be the ball squishing down as the impact deforms its shape. All of the in-between frames are then calculated by the software automatically, including the squish at the bottom, making actual process of animation a matter of creating a few great key frames. 

2. Motion capture - Motion capture, or mocap, was first used sparingly due to the limitations of the technology, but is seeing increased acceptance in everything from video game animation to CG effects in movies as the technique matures. Whereas keyframing is a precise, but slow animation method, motion capture offers an immediacy not found in traditional animation techniques. Mocap subjects, usually actors, are placed in a special suit containing sensors that record the motion of their limbs as they move. The data is then linked to the rig of a 3D character and translated into animation by the 3D software. 

There are a couple downsides to motion capture which make it difficult for beginning 3D animators to learn. Firstly is the cost of mocap technology, which can run several thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. This means that most new 3D artists must learn to incorporate this animation style by importing mocap data into a project from a commercially available mocap library. 

The other downside to mocap is that the end-result is often far from perfect; mocap animation usually requires clean-up from keyframe artists to make it look more realistic, especially if the character being animated does not have an anatomy or proportions similar to those of a human. 

Learning 3D Animation

Animators must have a keen understanding of motion, movement, and acting. It may surprise you that the best animators take acting lessons - this helps them understand how their own body moves, and makes it easier to transfer that understanding into believable animation. 

Keen observation may be the most important skill to develop as an animator. Observe life around you, and how things move. Make sketches, take notes, and try to give meaning to what you observe. Don't study just animation. Learn from film, theatre, and even comic books to understand how poses and movement create moods and nonverbally communicate messages. New animators would do well to learn from the old masters of 20th century animation - Walt Disney, Art Babbitt, Grim Natwick, and Ken Anderson. The principles used to bring characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny to life are still as relevant today as they were back then. Indeed, the first place a new 3D animator should look is to the old animation manuals of 2D artists. Consider picking up "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams from your local book dealer. While written as a book about hand-drawn animation, it contains everything you'll need to know about good animation techniques in the 3D world. 

The beginning 3D animator will want to focus on basic objects first: how to make a ball move from one place to another, and how to make it bounce. Later, as you explore character animation, you'll need to understand what makes a good walk cycle, and how to cut down on "float," a common problem for new animators where the character moves as if underwater. The software used is not important, at least in the beginning, as animation packages all have the same basic features. 

3D animators must also have a good grasp of how models are rigged for animation, especially character animators. The "bones" used in a rig must be placed in a way similar to that of a living creature. Animators must also learn how to use inverse kinematic (IK) setups for their character rigs to reduce the amount of time spent keyframing. 

Above all else, animators must practice their craft. Like modeling, animation requires time to learn, and even more time to master. Even experienced animators may create dozens, or even hundreds of test movies before getting a good final result. A good animator can make an average model come to life, while even the best model can be made to look amateurish by a poor animator. Persistence will pay off, as a skilled animator can very well be the most important team member to a production. 

Introduction to 3D Animation                                                                                 

Introduction to 3D Modeling

3D Modeling

Modeling is the process of taking a shape and molding it into a completed 3D mesh. The most typical means of creating a 3D model is to take a simple object, called a primitive, and extend or "grow" it into a shape that can be refined and detailed. Primitives can be anything from a single point (called a vertex), a two-dimensional line (an edge), a curve (a spline), to three dimensional objects (faces or polygons). 

Using the specific features of your chosen 3D software, each one of these primitives can be manipulated to produce an object. When you create a model in 3D, you'll usually learn one method to create your model, and go back to it time and again when you need to create new models. There are three basic methods you can use to create a 3D model, and 3D artists should understand how to create a model using each technique. 

1. Spline or patch modeling: A spline is a curve in 3D space defined by at least two control points. The most common splines used in 3D art are bezier curves and NURBS (the software Maya has a strong NURBS modeling foundation.) Using splines to create a model is perhaps the oldest, most traditional form of 3D modeling available. A cage of splines is created to form a "skeleton" of the object you want to create. The software can then create a patch of polygons to extend between two splines, forming a 3D skin around the shape. Spline modeling is not used very often these days for character creation, due to how long it takes to create good models. The models that are produced usually aren't useful for animation without a lot of modification. 

Spline modeling is used primarily for the creation of hard objects, like cars, buildings, and furniture. Splines are extremely useful when creating these objects, which may be a combination of angular and curved shapes. When creating a 3D scene that requires curved shapes, spline modeling should be your first choice. 

2. Box modeling: Box modeling is possibly the most popular technique, and bears a lot of resemblance to traditional sculpting. In box modeling, one starts with a primitive (usually a cube) and begins adding detail by "slicing" the cube into pieces and extending faces of the cube to gradually create the form you're after. People use box modeling to create the basic shape of the model. Once practiced, the technique is very quick to get acceptable results. The downside is that the technique requires a lot of tweaking of the model along the way. Also, it is difficult to create a model that has a surface topology that lends well to animation. 

Box modeling is useful as a way to create organic models, like characters. Box modelers can also create hard objects like buildings, however precise curved shapes may be more difficult to create using this technique. 

3. Poly modeling / edge extrusion: While it's not the easiest to get started with, poly modeling is perhaps the most effective and precise technique. In poly modeling, one creates a 3D mesh point-by-point, face-by-face. Often one will start out with a single quad (a 3D object consisting of 4 points) and extrude an edge of the quad, creating a second quad attached to the first. The 3D model is created gradually in this way. While poly modeling is not as fast as box modeling, it requires less tweaking of the mesh to get it "just right," and you can plan out the topology for animation ahead of time. 

Poly modelers use the technique to create either organic or hard objects, though poly modeling is best suited for organic models. 

A Workflow that Works 

The workflow you choose to create a model will largely depend on how comfortable you are with a given technique, what object you're creating, and what your goals are for the final product. 

Someone who is creating an architectural scene, for example, may create basic models with cubes and other simple shapes to create an outline of the finished project. Meshes can then be refined or replaced with more detailed objects as you progress through the project. This is an organized, well-planned way to create a scene; it is a strategy used by professionals that makes scene creation straightforward. Beginners, on the other hand, tend to dive in headfirst and work on the most detailed objects first. This is a daunting way to work, and can quickly lead to frustration and overwhelm. Remember, sketch first, then refine. 

Likewise, when creating an organic model, beginners tend to start with the most detailed areas first, and flesh out the remaining parts later, a haphazard way to create a character. This may be one reason why box modeling has grown to be so widely popular. A modeler can easily create the complete figure before refining the details, like eyes, lips, and ears. 

Perhaps the best strategy is to use a hybrid workflow when creating organic models. A well planned organic model is created using a combination of box modeling and poly modeling. The arms, legs, and torso can be sketched out with box modeling, while the fine details of the head, hands, and feet are poly modeled. This is a compromise professional modelers seek which prevents them from getting bogged down in details. It can make the difference between a completed character, and one that is never fleshed out beyond the head. Beginners would be wise to follow this advice. 

Mesh Topology 

Another aspect of proper workflow is creating a model with an ideal 3D mesh topology. Topology optimization is usually associated with creating models used in animation. Models created without topology that flows in a smooth, circular pattern, may not animate correctly, which is why it is important to plan ahead when creating any 3D object that will be used for animation. 

The most frequently discussed topology is the proper creation or placement of edgeloops. An edgeloop is a ring of polygons placed in an area where the model may deform, as in the case of animation. These rings of polygons are usually placed around areas where muscles might be, such as in the shoulder or elbow. Edegeloop placement is critical when creating faces. When edgeloops are ignored, models will exhibit "tearing" when animated, and the model will need to be reworked or scrapped altogether in favor of a properly-planned model. 

Next Steps 

The next step to creating great models is simply to practice and examine the work of artists you admire. Some of the best 3D modelers are also fantastic pencil-and-paper artists. It will be well worth your time to practice drawing, whether you're a character creator or a wanna-be architect. Good modeling requires a lot of dedication. You'll need to thoroughly understand the software you're using, and the principles of good 3D model creation laid out above. Character artists will need to learn proportion and anatomy. 

By understanding these basics of modeling you'll save yourself a lot of frustration and discouragement, and you'll be well on your way to becoming a prolific 3D artist. 

Introduction to 3D Modeling
                                                                                                  

An Introduction to 3D

By Vivek Kumar Bhojnagarwala

3D models are created by manipulating polygon meshes and molding them into objects, characters and scenes. 3D art is used in everything from print ads, Web sites, television, movies, video games and beyond.

So, what does it take to be a 3D artist? Well, obviously, you must have an eye for art. Most people who begin learning 3D have some kind of background in drawing and sketching. It's not unheard of for 3D studios to hire artists who have no experience in 3D, based solely on the strength of a pencil drawing portfolio. Sculptors, who were previously limited to animatronics and claymation (clay animation), also tend to make an easier transition to 3D.

Even if you don't have formal art training that goes beyond the few classes you took in high school or college you can still do great work in 3D.

A 3D Artist must have following qualities:

1. Patience. Many beginners unfairly compare themselves to established artists possessing years of experience. While it can be a great motivator and a valuable source of inspiration, 3D art is a diverse subject, requiring dedication and practice. Some say that 3D is like Go, the ancient game of strategy: it takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to be master.

2. Detail. 3D artists tend to have a strong background in computers, compared to non-digital artists. Experience in computer programming is common in 3D circles, though not required. 3D artists need to have an eye for detail, be resourceful and self-sufficient.

3. Hard work. If you want something easy, pick up a pencil and paper and start drawing. 3D art isn't nearly as immediate with results. One can spend, hours, days, and even weeks perfecting a 3D model before ever moving onto texturing, animation or final renders. 3D art is unique in that it can require a broad array of skills, from drawing to acting, to successfully bring together a finished piece. The payoff is that 3D artist are perhaps the most sought-after creative workers.

4. Willingness to accept criticism. Eventually you'll feel motivated to submit your art for review by other artists. 3D artists can nitpick like no one else in the world, so be prepared to have even the slightest error pointed out to you in exacting detail - especially if you're attempting to create anything realistic. If you intend to work in a studio one day, your ability to accept criticism will be crucial to the overall success of the team.

Types of 3D Art

As mentioned earlier, 3D is a broad subject, and a typical finished composition will be composed of several - perhaps dozens - of hours of work in an array of skills. What follows is an overview of the subjects you'll need to learn to be a well-rounded 3D artist.

Modeling. Modeling is the act of creating a 3D mesh, whether the end result is a bug-eyed alien or a teacup. How you get to that finished model depends largely on the methods that make the most sense to you.

Animation. Animation is the process of taking a 3D object and getting it to move. Animation comes in a few different flavors. There's keyframe animation, where the animator manipulates the objects on a frame-by-frame basis, similar to hand-drawn cartoons. Other methods of animation include placing objects on splines and setting them to follow the path of the curve, or importing motion capture data and applying it to a character rig. Another way to animate is to use your 3D application's built-in physics engines, such as when your scene requires that objects fall.

Texturing. Without some kind of texture art, everything will be variations of solid colors. The most common and accurate way to create a texture for a model is to "unwrap" the mesh (flatten it out) and paint over it in an application such as Photoshop. The final texture is then "wrapped" over the original mesh again. Depending on how a model is created, each section may have its own texture, i.e., a separate texture for hands, one for arms and one for the torso of a character, all made to blend together seamlessly.

Rendering. Rendering an image is typically the last step, and is perhaps the most important part. It's often overlooked by beginners, who are more focused on creating models and animating them. There are many aspects to creating a good final render of a scene, including attention to camera placement, lighting choices which may affect mood, shadows, reflections, transparency and the handling of special effects, such as fluids or grasses.

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Indian Animation Industry

The first animated film from India is considered to be Ek Anek Aur Ekta, a short traditionally animated short educational film released in 1974 from Doordarshan's Film Division. Doordarshan is a government run public television service in India. The film is presented as a fable meant to teach children the value of unity. After its success, more shorts were produced by Doordarshan. This was the first time that original animated films from India were broadcast on national television in the nation's official language, Hindi.

The first Indian animated television series is Ghayab Aaya, aired in 1986 and directed by Suddhasattwa Basu.

The first Indian 3D animated film was Roadside Romeo, which was a joint venture between Yash Raj Films and the Indian division of the Walt Disney Company. It was written and directed by Jugal Hansraj.

Ek Anek aur Ekta
The song - Ek chidiya, anek chidiya even today is remembered by many. It brings back memories of times when we had only one TV channel, Doordarshan.