Rigging & Texture Painting...
The internal skeletons that are most often used to animate characters are called animation rigs. These controls are also called IK rigs because many skeletons are rigs or chains of controls that use the inverse kinematics(IK) animation technique.
In projects with a large volume of animations the setting up of these animation controls is usually the responsibility of a technical director while the animators devote themselves to animating after the basic controls are set up.
Most three-dimensional computer animation projects make extensive use of textures for the geometry. Many of these textures are painted by hand directly with a digital paint system or with traditional materials and the scanned. Photographic textures that are captured on film need to be scanned, and those captured with digital cameras are just transferred digitally to the computer system.
Photographic textures usually require some touch-up or color balance before they can be applied to the geometry. Texture painting and touch-up is usually done by painters, often shared with the visual development team. In some instances the texture painters have to work with the technical directors who are in charge of developing procedural textures (Fig.1.1).
1.1 This is an example of texture to smoke from the maxwell material base.(next limit, All rights reserved.)
Character Animation...
Three-dimensional character animation done with keyframing techniques stars with rough animation, which consists of blocking the broad motions using placeholder geometry. The secondary actions and the facial animation are added next, and finally the details and the timing of overlapping motion are fine-tuned. In some studios animation details and technical animation (like hair and clothing) that are done usually after character animation is complete or almost complete are called animation finaling. The character animation tasks are usually divided among different individuals or teams. A common way to parcel out the character animation deliverables is by characters present in a single scene. The animation of characters in crowds is usually assigned to a separate technical animation team. Flipbooks contain many still frames and are useful to preview and fine-tune the animated sequences(Fig. 1.2).
1.2 This is an example, various versions of animation. ( The art of 3d computer animation and effects & Animation survival Kit, All rights reserved.)
Effects animation and technical Animation.
The effects animation team is typically in charge of animating the natural phenomena, like rain, wind, and fire. Most of the techniques used to animate these types of effects are procedural and require some or much scripting, therefore this ask is also referred to as technical animation. This team is usually composed of technically oriented animators, and in some productions they also take care of animating crowds, clothing, and hair. (Fig. 1.3).
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| 1.3 The lighting of the scene is finaliced and rendered after most or all of the animation is in place. The frame on top includes motion blur and depth of field rendering refinements. (Images from the motion picture ANTZ, Dreamworks L.L.C and PDI, reprinted with permission of Dreamworks Animation in The art of 3d computer animation and effects). |
- Using Volume Lights
When light shines through fog, smoke, or dust, the beam of the light becomes visible. The effect is known as a Volume Light. To add a Volume Light to a scene, choose Rendering ➪ Environment (or press the 8 key) to open the Environment dialog box. Then click the Add button in the Atmosphere rollout to open the Add Atmospheric Effect dialog box, and select Volume Light. The parameters for the volume light are presented in the Volume Light Parameters rollout.
You can also access the Volume Light effect from the Atmospheres and Effects rollout in the Modify panel when a light is selected.
“Using Atmospheric and Render Effects,” covers the other atmospheric effects. n Volume light parameters
At the top of the Volume Light Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 20.14, is a Pick Light button, which enables you to select a light to apply the effect to. You can select several lights, which then appear in a drop-down list. You can remove lights from this list with the Remove Light button. |
| 3ds Max 2011 Bible |
You have four options for filtering shadows: Low, Medium, High, and Use Light Smp Range. The Low option renders shadows quickly but isn’t very accurate. The High option takes a while but produces the best quality. The Use Light Smp Range option bases the filtering on the Sample Volume value and can be set to Auto. The Sample Volume can range from 1 to 10,000. The Low option has a Sample Volume value of 8; Medium, 25; and High, 50.
Note
Only Shadow Map type shadows cast shadows through volume fog. n The Start and End Attenuation values are percentages of the Start and End range values for the light’s atten-uation. These values have an impact only if attenuation is turned on for the light.
The Noise settings help to determine the randomness of Volume Light. Noise effects can be turned on and given an Amount. You can also Link the noise to the light instead of using world coordinates. Noise types include Regular, Fractal, and Turbulence. Another option inverts the noise pattern. The Noise Threshold limits the effect of noise. Wind settings affect how the light moves as determined by the wind’s direction, Wind Strength, and Phase.
Figure 20.15 shows several volume light possibilities. The left image includes the Volume Light effect, the middle image enables shadows, and the right image includes some Turbulent Noise.
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| Light Basic 1.0 |
