OUAN504 - Character & Narrative - Acting Up: Understanding 3D Modelling (Concepts, Principles & Limitations)

OUAN504 - Understanding 3D Modelling:

A Short History of Rendering

Way back when, early 3D models consisted of wireframe shapes that were simple representations of the everyday geometric shapes we know today. The beautifully rendered shapes and models we are able to create in this age started out with hidden algorithms. These began in the 1970's and allowed us to render curved surfaces as well as non-spherical objects.

In 1978, a wonderful gentleman named Jim Blinn who started out working for NASA creating computer graphics and animation for such things as the Voyager project. He went on to do a "simulation of wrinkled surfaces" - collgran.wordpress.com.  There is a shader named after him in Maya, this is probably why as he such an influence over 3D animation.

I wish to go on with the historical aspect of rendering and 3D animation, however, it would be more practical to look at some of issues I have come across when using 3D software and certain limitations I have experiences even though I touched on them in a previous post.

Experienced Limitations

Although I haven't been using 3D software for very long and have a huge way to go in order to at least get some sense from using it, I still believe that everyone's experiences are different and we all encounter different problems.

I find that when it comes to physically creating a model or character, it is incredibly complex to use textures with them that aren't the shaders (Blinn, Lambert etc.) as creating your own textures is a completely different skillset entirely and is baffling!

Poly count. Even though we haven't got round to creating insanely complex environments or characters just yet, I have noticed that when modelling smaller environments (grassy fields with mountainous rocks in the background for instance), if the poly count is high, it can take a good while to load up and even render. There has to be a compromise between quality of model and poly count as larger poly counts can mean in-game crashing if to be used for such purpose and long loading times.

The size of the files created when using 3D modelling is immense and can often lead to issues with inadequate computer space or processors. Not all animators are wealthy and having to fork out on the latest in computer hardware can be a bit of a setback.