Fabrication des images de synthèse 4: Entrée dans l’univers 3D

Part 4 of our case on the steps of the manufacturing process of an image synthesis

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Modeling

It has defined the look of the characters, the ambiance of the decorations, … the first tests of creating CG can begin. The goal is to create spinners or turnovers that represent an item in 360 degrees.

For this, we may have to reference the actual sculptures in clay. This was the case for example for Pixar for the movie “Rebelle” :

The tool par excellence to model of the synthesized images is a software that is called Maya. Developed by Autodesk, it is now inescapable and so powerful that people will be tasked to work specifically on this software to ease the work of graphic designers. They may even create new features within the software : Maya has its own scripting language : MEL (Maya Encrypted Language). These people halfway between graphic design and software development are called TD (Technical Director).

Attention to the abuse of language : when we speak of creating a 3D model, we are not talking about moving the stereoscopic image for viewing with 3D glasses, although this is also the case for more films.

The term “3D” refers to three-dimensional space of the software which are modeled characters, as opposed to the traditional animation that drew and animated the characters on paper, in “2D”.

Rigging

This term has no real equivalent in French. It is necessary to define the handlers that will distort the 3D model. It is very important for facilitators to be able to move the character as they wish, knowing that such a position will be impossible to realize, that such part of the character is rather independent of the rest, etc, A good rigging will move an eyebrow, enlarge the commissure of the lips, move easily to a specific model (a snake that undulates, an insect that hops around, etc ) of course, no one reinvents the wheel, and a good number of setups and rigs for the characters are stored in “banks” of objects, derived from previous achievements and ready to be reuse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9qeXfWOXR0

Arnaud