Geometry Theory

What makes up a 3D mesh

A 3D mesh is made with 5 different types of elements. They are vertices, edges, faces, polygons and elements

Vertices are the points of the 3D mesh. For example a cube,there are 8 points in the cube that are essential parts, the 8 corners. Each point are called the Vertex.
Edges are lines segment between two vertices points. For example in the cube there are 12 line segments and each of the line segments are edges.
Faces is connected by set of edges. Picture on the right shows a cube. In a cube each whole faces are made of 2 triangles. Picture on the right highlights them. Each triangle face are made out of 3 edges/line segments.
Polygon is plane figure that are bounded by finite chain of edges/line segments.
Surface is a 3D collection of points whose cross section is a curved surface, or the boundary of any 3D solid.

Graphics Pipeline

The 3D pipeline is the process in which 3D objects  are turned into a 2D image on your monitor. There are many steps that the GPU has to go through in order to do that.

1) The computer determine the position of the objects in the 3D scene, this is done by processing every vertices and point to make up the model.

2) The computer will now calculate the position of the 3D objects from a cameras point of view and calculate where the 3D positions would be in a 2D view.

3) Any objects or part of an object that is outside the camera view are clipped from the 2D view this way it doesn't need to process any information about the objects. 

4) The lighting of the scene is processed information such as position and intensity, with this shading information is also applied.
There are 3 main types of shading, phong shading, gourand shading and flat shading.

5) The process of rendering the 2D image of the 3D scene as an array of screen pixels is called rasterization. This involves ensure the colour of each pixel that make up the 2D image.

6) Before that the image can resterization the computer needs to determine which 3D surface is hidden behind another from the camera view point. This is called Z-Sorting or Z-buffering.

 

Application of 3D

Televison
In televison 3D moddeling is used in mainly used in adverts. Here is a esample. London 2012 Olympics Games BBC TV advert official. In this advert all the character is made with 3D modelling also some of the enviroment also made with 3D modelling too. The mountains, the grass floor and the sand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3L8zlMfNB0 - This is the link to London 2012 Olympics Games BBC TV advert official.

Film
In the past, 3D model still haven't been use in films, but now almost every movies uses 3D model. One of the movie uses a lot of 3D model is called Avatar. In that movie, almost 80% of the film are created by 3D models. Picture below shows a screenshot of the movie. In this screenshot everything is created and animated with 3D models, planes, environment, robots, animal etc. It takes a very long time just to render a 30 second scene from the movie, that is why created these kind of movie with a lot of 3D model, it cost a lot of money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdxXPV9GNQ - This is the link to Avatar 2013 Trailer.


Games

Modern games everything are made by 3D modelling. Games like Grand Theft Auto. In Grand Theft Auto player can explore in a huge 3D world that created by 3D software. Player can move around in the game world how ever they want. By car, bike and plane or any vehicles that are available  in the game. Everything in the game are created by 3D model. Unlike in that past in some game they uses texture for walls. Most of the 3D model before they are create they always plan or hand draw out first how the model will look like and then create it in 3D software. But there are also different way of planning 3D model. For example taking a real life person and create him into a game character.
Picture below shows a comparison between real life person Francisco Randez and main game character Desmond Miles from Assassin's Creed game. It amazing how technology improve by time. Before there not even a 3D game, most game are all 3D. By time past, the technology gets better and better. Now days all the games are all created by 3D software.

Anime
Modern anime also uses 3D modelling as well, but they dont use 3D modelling for the whole anime or scene. They only render specific objective in specific scene. Here is a example of an anime called Gundam UC. The anime is 1 hour long each episode and in this anime almost half of the anime has a 3D model in it. Picture on the left is a screenshot from the anime. As you can see the Gundam are a 3d model, that is animated and fill with anime texture which make the model looks like anime.

Education
Education also uses a lot of 3D modeling, like simulators game. There are a lot simulators games right now. This is one of the easier way to teach visual learners as they would understand it more. people can download applications or simulators off the internet to use at home and study them. One of the most use simulators are air plane simulator game, it is use to train leaner air pilot. Good reason simulator games are better than trying in real lift, is because no matter how much you fail in a simulator game, you can always try again. In real life you might calls problem if you did something wrong and it might cost to repair the equipment.

Here is a link to a farming simulator game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHdeYCZYiwY - Here a link of Farming Sim 2013 (Learn how to become a good farmer!)

Shaders

Shaders are a small computer programs that uses in the final output of a 3d model, appearance in the graphic pipeline. There are two types of Shaders. Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader. Both of these shader are GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) component.They both uses in the final output render of the 3d object. In modern video games Shaders are used a lot to create a range of output effects to a 3d scene or to a 3d model.

Pixel Shader
Pixel Shader is a graphics processing function, it also known as Fragment Shaders, they are used to show lighting and shadow effects on individual 3d objects or the whole scene view. Simply is to make the 3d objects or the entire scene looks more realistic. The pixel Shader calculates the colour of a pixel on the screen, basically if you looking at a picture on your laptop. Pixel shader calculates what each colour is on the picture, then showing the picture on the screen.

Vertex Shader
A vertex shader is also a graphics processing function, it's uses to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment by performing mathematical operations on the objects' vertex data. Each vertex can be defined by many different variables. For instance, a vertex is always defined by its location in a 3D environment using the x-, y-, and z- coordinates. Vertices may also be defined by colours, coordinates. Vertices may also be defined by colours and textures.

Pre-Production Dairy

Today I have started to make the shoulder. To make the shoulder, I created a sphere because that is the shape of my robot but I will need to cut a bit of a side, so I created another shape, which is a box. I moved it to the sphere where the part I wanted to cut. Select the object you want to keep not the one you want to cut or delete. Then I changed standard primitives to compound object. Then click on “pick operand B” then click on the object you wanted to delete or cut .

As you can see here. The sphere has been cut and I move it into the robot. But more importantly I’ve reduce the polygon. Because I have the limits of 1500-2500 polygons also because some part of the shape you can’t really see it so is better get as less polygon as you can then you won’t have a large file for the NPC.

Next Stage I started to make the arms as you can see that the left. First I did made the right side then I made another copy of the shoulder and moved it to the right side of the robot. Lastly I created the arms joints; it is the two small purple spheres that I’ve selected it.

After that, I created the arms and legs. It is very simple to make the legs, just by using cones and sphere with no modification on it. To the arm it is very easy too. I used the Star tool created a diamond shape then I extrude, then I made another 2 copy. I made one of the copies longer and the other stay the same, then I put them all into place. Then I group them, made a copy of the arm, and then moved it into left arm put it into place. Lastly I have reduced the polygon. Lastly I’ve changed the colour of the robot, because the robot is made up of copper so I give an orange colour.

The next stage is the feet. To create the feet of my robot is very simple. I used line tool draw out the shape of the feet at side way view, then I extrude it and made 3 copies move them all in place.

Constraints of 3D

Constraints of 3D

Polygon counts
The first constraint is polygon counts. Polygon counts are always important for games, because different platform have different polygon counts limit. More polygon there are, the better and details the model looks, but also the more polygon the model are, the bigger the file it gets. That's why different platform can only support limited games, because some platform have powerful graphics card and RAM, some have less RAM and less powerful graphics card. 

Normally now modern day PC have strong powerful graphic card and they can support high graphics games like Titian fall, Watch Dog and all modern game platform games. Some powerful gaming PC can even support more higher graphic games and they will have no problem running modern platform games. Powerful gaming PC are more powerful than modern game platform such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. PlayStation 4 can support 1.6 billion polygons and that it's a lot for game console and for powerful PC can support more than 1.6 billion polygons. That's why when you playing a game, for example Tomb Raider or Assassin's Creed. You can simply see the differences between them.

Pictures below shows the comparison between different platform. As you can see that in the comparison both PC render are more detail and lighter than the modern game console. PC are always the strongest platform all time. There are even question about the modern day game console, saying that they might not be powerful enough to support future games.

Tomb Raider Comparison

Link to Tomb Raider comparison video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0PW_VGtKAI

Assassin's Creed 4 Comparison

iPhone

Modern day mobile phone such as iPhone and Samsung, they can support games with around or less than 7000 polygon counts limit. That is a lot for a mobile phone, for a platform that you can take with you anywhere anytime.

GTA San Andreas iPhone version

Picture here shows a game called GTA San Andreas in iPhone. This game was first release on PlayStaion 2 back in 2004. Now you can play this game on iPhone. It's amazing how time past. Before back in 2004, we can only run this type of games in PlayStation 2 or Xbox, but now we can play it in a phone. Technology keep improve by time, sooner we can run now modern games like Watch Dog on the mobile phone and  in the future we can even run more higher graphic games in game console and PC.









File Size

File size are very important, special in games. Modern game console run games on a disk. That means they have limited storage to put the game in, sometimes they even have two disk to install the game,because of the amount of the information and one disk is not enough. That's modern games always have polygon counts limit and have all the file size to the minimum without changing the quality of the work. That is also why why games looks different in different platform and it's also why when run the game on PC always looks better than game console, because PC can download the information from the net straight ahead, unlike game console which have all the information install into a limited storage disk.


Render Time



Render time is especially important for companies like Pixar. A company like them which make 3D movies, they can spend years just to render their latest movie. Usually rendering takes a very long time, but rendering speed can depends on the PC. If the PC have powerful GPU and CPU can reduce the rendering time. Another way of reduce the are change the option of rendering, for example like outcome format etc.

Comparing 3D Software Applications

Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio Max, is 3D computer graphics software for making 3D model animations, and creating 3D model. It was developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. 3ds Max is a very complex 3D software but it can create great detail 3D model, it is a very good 3D software for creating game model such as game character, environment and game object. It kind of complicated to use, but once you get use to the software, it is very handy to create amazing model such as high detail Robert and game character with high detail gear. 3ds Max supports 3D render.

3D Dragon Model created with 3ds Ma

SketchUp is a 3D modelling program for a broad range of applications such as architectural, civil, mechanical, film as well as video game design. The program highlights that its very easy and fast to use.Unlike 3ds Max that have a complex modifier tools. SketchUp is very good for creating game environment but its not good for creating game character, it can be good as 3ds max when creating character but it will take longer time than 3ds max, because 3ds max have some useful tools than SketchUp. SketchUp also supports 3D render.

3D environment created with SketchUp

Sculptris is a virtual sculpting software program. This 3D software is special good for creating 3D characters, because the software mainly focus on the concept of modeling clay. The software is medium difficulty to use, but once you get use to the software, you will be able to create amazing character model. This software are also kind of good for creating environment land mark, because of the modeling clay technique. Sculptris does not support 3D render, but you can export the file and import into software like 3ds Max which supports 3D render and you can render your model out in that software.

Batman 3D model created with Sculptris

Animation:Master is a 3D character animation application offered by Hash, Inc. The software includes tools for modeling, rigging, animating, texturing, lighting and rendering. The software a mainly focus on modelling, specially animation The software is mainly aim towards cartoon games, like Wii family games. It a very old tool, but it's pretty good and easy to use for cartoon games.

LightWave 3D is a 3D computer graphics software developed by NewTek. It has been used in film, television, motion graphics, video games development and more. This software focus on a lot of different media unlike other 3D software which design only for games. Seen the software focus on more media, it is hard than use even complex than 3ds Max. Not a lot of company use this software for games development. More company uses for films, television and motion graphics.