3D Animation

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3D Animation
From Models to Movies

Adam Watkins

CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC.

Rockland, Massachusetts

Copyright 2001 by CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, INC.

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way, stored in a
retrieval system of any type, or transmitted by any means or media,
electronic or mechanical including, but not limited to, photocopy,
recording, or scanning, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Publisher: Jenifer L. Niles
Interior Design/Comp: Publishers Design and Production Services, Inc.
Cover Design: The Printed Image
Cover Image: Adam Watkins
CHARLES RIVER MEDIA, Inc.
P.O. Box 417, 403 VFW Drive
Rockland, MA 02370
781-871-4184
781-871-4376(FAX)
chrivmedia@aol.com
http://www.charlesriver.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper
All brand names and product names mentioned are trademarks or service
marks of their respective companies. Any omission or misuse (of any kind)
of service marks or trademarks should not be regarded as intent to infringe
on the property of others. The publisher recognizes and respects all marks
used by companies, manufacturers, and developers as a means to
distinguish their products.
3D Animation
Adam Watkins
ISBN 1-58450-023-9
Printed in the United States of America
00 01 02 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CHARLES RIVER MEDIA titles are available for site license or bulk
purchase by institutions, user groups, corporations, etc. For additional
information, please contact the Special Sales Department at
781-871-4184.

To my incredibly intelligent and

boastfully beautiful wife, Kirsten.
Your patience and help makes writing (and living) worthwhile.

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Chapter 1

The 3D Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
SOME GENERAL TERMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
BUILDING A 3D PROJECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
TUTORIAL INTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 2

Understanding the Digital 3D World . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

THE 3D WORLD AROUND US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
What Is Digital Space? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Digital Space through Project Windows and Virtual Cameras . . . . .13
Computer Drawing Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Moving in the Digital 3D Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
MASTERING MODEL MOVEMENT AND MANIPULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Positioning Objects in Axis Defined Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
World/Object Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Rotation Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Scale Functions and Relative Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
DUPLICATING TO AVOID DUPLICATING EFFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
POWER OF GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
ENOUGH THEORY ALREADY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 3

Carving Out Modeling Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

EFFICIENT MODELING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
MODELING TYPES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

vii

CONTENTS

viii

POLYGON MODELERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
SPLINE-BASED MODELERS AND NURBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
EXTRUSIONS, LATHING, AND SKINNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Straight Extrusions and Extrusion Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Extrusions Along a Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
Lathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Skinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Chapter 4

Advanced Modeling Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

BOOLEAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Some Boolean Caveats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
DEFORMATION LATTICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
VERTEX LEVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
STANDARD DEFORMATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
METABALLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
HYPERNURBS OR SUBPATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
TERRAIN MODELING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
ALTERNATE MODEL SOURCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
MODEL FORMATS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Chapter 5

Texturing Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

TYPES OF TEXTURES (PROCEDURAL AND BITMAPPED). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
TEXTURE MAPPING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Spherical Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
Cylindrical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Flat Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124
Cubic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
UV or UVW Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126
TEXTURE CHANNELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
A NOTE ON MAPS AND THE COLOR PARADIGM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
TEXTURE CHANNELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Luminance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137

CONTENTS

ix
Fog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Bump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Specular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Chapter 6

Advanced Texturing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

CREATING TEXTURES FROM SCRATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
EXPANDING THE MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Chapter 7

3D Illumination Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

SHEDDING LIGHT ON 3D ILLUMINATION SYSTEMS .
THE THEORY OF LIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CONTROLLABLE QUALITIES OF LIGHT . . . . . . . . . .
FUNCTIONS OF LIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
FULFILLING THE FUNCTIONS OF LIGHT . . . . . . . . .
LIGHTING WHAT YOU KNOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chapter 8

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214
219
221
225
227
231
254

Seeing the Power of Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

WHAT IS RENDERING? . . . . .
POST-RENDERING EFFECTS .
RENDERING DPI . . . . . . . . .
RENDERING SETTINGS . . . . .
RENDERING TIME CONCERNS
COMPRESSION . . . . . . . . . .
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chapter 9

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256
260
264
266
273
274
303

Moving on to Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

ANIMATION STANDARDS . .
THE ANIMATION PROCESS
ANIMATION TRACKS . . . . .
RENDERING . . . . . . . . . . .
MOVIE FORMATS . . . . . . .
SIZE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
COMPRESSION . . . . . . . .

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306
308
312
319
320
321
322

CONTENTS

WORKFLOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Chapter 10 Boning Up on Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

HIERARCHIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
MOVING HIERARCHIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Forward Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .332
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Chapter 11 Concepts of Believable Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

THE ARC .
WEIGHT . .
A LOOK AT
EXERCISES

.......
.......
MOTION .
.......

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344
346
346
364

Chapter 12 Advanced Animation Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

CENTER OF MOTION . . . . . . . .
WALKING IN ARCHES . . . . . . . .
ROTATIONS DURING WALKING . .
CHARACTER IS IN THE DETAILS .
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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366
367
368
369
391

Chapter 13 Animation Compositions and Editing . . . . . . . . . . . 393

SHOT STRENGTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SHOT SIZE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SHOT COMBINATION . . . . . . . . . . . .
NLDV (NON-LINEAR DIGITAL VIDEO) .
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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394
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401

Chapter 14 Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

GENERAL SPECIAL EFFECTS TYPES .
COMPOSITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SOFTWARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
GENERAL RULES TO CONSIDER . . . .
EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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404
407
407
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412

CONTENTS

xi

Chapter 15 Getting the Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

3D JOB TYPES . . . . . .
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
THINGS TO DO . . . . . .
DEMO DONTS . . . . . . .
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . .

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414
416
416
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419

Appendix A About the CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Preface

3D is hot. Its hard to find any form of entertainment today without some
form of digital art incorporated. The number of professional 3D production
and digital art teaching jobs is staggering. The technology moves so fast that
without one eye fixed on the emerging trends, a 3D artist quickly finds his
equipment obsolete. To top it all off, with all this technology, there are a lot
of people making digital images, but not a lot making good digital art. We
have all seen it. The Web is littered with images made with all sorts of 3D
packages. When the images are made by those fooling with all the buttons,
pull-down menus, and random features offered in a particular application,
the results are, well, less than inspiring. When these images are made by
those who understand 3D and its athletics, the results are fantastic.

The Purpose
and
Organization of
This Book

Good 3D art is a curious combination of astute technical prowess and

acute artistic observation and understanding. In this book, we will approach both areas in a variety of ways. First, we will take a look at the theory behind the various principles of 3D. There are many places to look to
find push this and this will happen, pull down that menu and that other
thing will occur. But if you understand why something happens and what
the principle behind it is, you will be better able to manipulate the tool to
create what you have in mind.
Once you have a general idea of the theory of the 3D principle, we will
dive right in to look at the technical concerns. What do you push to get the
result you want? When should you use which methods to achieve the desired
affect?
Finally, this book will deal with aesthetic issues of 3D and composition.
We will look at ways to make sure your work is not created by a 3D techxiii

PREFACE

xiv

nician, but by a 3D artist. To do this, we will be analyzing trends in motion

picture and animation. We will look at design issues and the ideas behind
effective composition. More ethereal concepts such as timing and editing
will be addressed, and we will lend an ear to the nonvisual elements of good
animation like music and sound effects.

Is This Book
for You?

Since this book contains both theoretical and hands-on treatment of 3D issues, it is a book that beginner, intermediate, and advanced users can use.
Most every area of current 3D will be touched upon. If you are just beginning your exploration of 3D, start right from the beginning and work
through to the end of the book. By the end, you will have an excellent grasp
of 3D concepts and techniques. If you have some modeling experience and
just want to brush up on some of the ideas behind the various methods,
you may want to skim Chapters 3 and 4 and jump right into the texturing
sections of Chapters 5 and 6. If you are an advanced user and know your
modeling and texturing, you may want to skip Chapters 3 through 6 and
jump directly into the sections on lighting and composition. If you happen
to be one of those folks who has a good grasp on the whole enchilada of 3D
construction and animation, Chapters 56 and 1316 will still be of
tremendous help in putting those polishing touches on your projects.

How to Use
This Book

This books chapters are all tied together by some unifying tutorials. The
purpose of these tutorials is to allow a hands-on approach to understanding the ideas presented. If you are just getting started, use these tutorials as
you read along. The CD contains a demo version of Cinema 4D XL and a
full version of Strata 3D that are used to create some of the tutorials, and
will give you a good chance to see which packages work for you while helping you understand the theory presented.
However, each chapter can also stand on its own as a piece of reference
or a sort of mini-tutorial. If you are an experienced 3D user, jump right to
the chapters you are most interested in. Chapters can be referenced at a later
time without having to do a lot of backtracking into previous chapters to
understand the train of thought. Hopefully, this book will be one that will
stay well used on your desk and referred back to as your projects merit. So,
regardless of your past 3D experience, lets get started.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jenifer for her patience in guiding me through the process.

Thanks to my fuzzy, rowdy fish Roz for keeping me sane.
Thanks to Mrs. Eva Torres and Ms. Francis Till for their invaluable instruction those many years ago. Without their excitement for writing and
knowledge, and their deft skill in passing it on, I wouldnt know or be able
to write about what I know today.
Thanks to my thesis committee, Alan Hashimoto, Dennis Hassan, and
Bob Winward, for their help and suggestions through the process.
Extra thanks to Alan Hashimoto for his provided opportunities and
guidance.
Thanks to Maxon, Newtek, and Strata for their assistance in securing
demos and other versions of the software used to prepare this book.
Thanks to the quake-posse (Amber, Kyle, Nate, Anson, Colleen,
Grandpa, and Kirsten) for those late-night-sanity-saving frag-fests.
Special thanks to my folks, Kaye and Dr. Will Watkins, for all their love
and support, and for always teaching me to work hard and do right.

xv