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Modelling Process:

Polygons:

Polygons are used to help create the base shape of your object, polygons are useful for creating all sorts of 3D models that can be used for animation, games or for show.

To create an object with a polygon you first need to start out with a basic shape, like a square and use various tools to edit and reshape the shape, you can also add other polygons to your shape to add to your object.

Extruding:

The extrude tool allows you to alter the shape of an objects face. For example, you can choose any face of a square with the extrude tool and you will be able to make the face stretch out from the shape or go into the shape.

Faces, Vertices and Edges:

Faces, edges and vertices are things that can be altered and changed in Maya.

If you have a cube, you can use multiple different tools to change each part of its shape. For example, you can extrude that faces of the blocks, rescale edges and move your vertices, all these will help alter your original shape.

Animation /Motion generation

Keyframes:

Maya uses keyframes for animation, a keyframe marks out an objects position and attributes at a given time. To set a keyframe for your object you have to select the object then hit the ‘s’ key, a red tick should appear on the timeline which shows you have made a keyframe for your object on that current frame. Doing this several times to your object (whilst placing it in different positions) should make a small animation. 

Lighting:

To create a light source, go to ‘create’ – ‘lights menu’ – and then select what light you want. You can move the light around the objects to create shading in the final render. you can adjust the attributes of your light, this includes the lights intensity, colour and decay rate.

Camera:

Cameras are used for animation and taking stills. You place the camera in an area around your object or background and position it to where you want it.

To create a camera, you have to go to ‘create’ – ‘camera’ and the select the type of camera you want.

To move the camera, you can use a track, the track allows you to move the camera horizontally or vertically on a track.

You can also make the camera track your object by selecting ‘camera and aim’ and position the camera to the centre of the object. And using the outliner, you can make the camera aim a child of the cube and your camera and perspective should track your object as it moves. 

Intended Application:

Film - Avatar (2009):

Avatar was a film that heavily depended on its CGI to make the film as realistic and believable as possible. The making of the film was dependant on the actors in motion capture to create the emotions and movements necessary to be used for the final animation.

The actors once suited up were surrounded by cameras to catch their every movement, this included a camera over their face to allow their muscle movement to be captured and translated to what the characters would be doing.

The animation would start off basic, with the animators capturing the important movements and features into the characters and eventually adding more and more detail until they had ‘true human emotion captured and performed by a non-human character’.

A virtual camera was created especially for the film, this allowed the director (James Cameron) to shoot scenes in on his computer. Whilst one of the actors would act out their role all Cameron would see was their avatar character acting out the 

same movements and expressions.

Game - Shadow of the Colossus - PS4 (2017):

3D modelling was used in Shadow of the colossus to create the world map as well as the characters in it.

Unlike its PS2 and PS3 games, the team (bluepoint games) decided to completely re make all the artwork for the game, making both the textured and the movement realistic.

They wanted to stay as true to the original as possible whilst rebuilding everything from the ground up. This meant all character design (Although being kept almost identical to the previous games was given more detail and movement)
When the game is run in its performance mode, the resolution was turned down slightly but the frame rate runs at 60 FPS, unlike the movie mode (4K) which is run at 30 FPS but has a higher resolution as well as certain render features were also improved. The developers wanted the game to be ran at 60 FPS as it made the characters move more fluently and gives the player a new sense of the world, unlike the older game which were only capable of 30 FPS.

The game has both a mix of animation and physics simulation

 throughout the game, the physics 

aspect of the game allows the 

character to step on each slightly 

raised platform or tile in the 

world and will raise with it.

 The animations include the running,

 jumping and attack moves performed 

by the player but is made more

 fluent by the physics engine

 used in the game.

 

Animation - Finding Dory (2016):

The making of this film was definitely not easy, one scene took two years to make.

The character Hank in finding Dory, the octopus, was one of the most challenging animations that Pixar has faced.

The character would not have been possible to have during the first film as technology had not progressed enough to have such a fluid and complex animation.

An engineer worked on Hank for about 6 months working out how to create a new type of curve that the character could use.

An early version of the character shows each tactical to be set up slightly differently to give each tactical its own movement.

About a year after they started, they had a breakthrough with the character animation as they were able to get the characters tentacles to stick, flop and unfurl like a real octopus.

If you moved a tentacle the whole body would react to the movement.

Once the animators had successfully created Hank, the textural artist made an animated texture to go all over Hank at a very cellular level, this helped them with his camouflage and interact with the environment in a more realistic way.