MDU115.2 Production Pipeline
Pre-production
Pre-production is the first port of call when starting an animation project. It is the original concepting of what you want to make and breaking down the aspects into manageable segments to create a better workflow throughout the project.
This concepting gives a super strong foundation to any animation project, whether you are using sketches of a character for modelling or scenic photography for level design and composition, the preproduction improves the next steps from initial idea to implementation.
3D Modelling
3D modelling is the art of taking a primitive object and sculpting it into something completely new. This ranges from modelling simple spaceships to high detailed characters. This process starts by looking at how an object is made up. 3D objects are made of polygons which are most simply defined as the faces of an object, the points in which these polygons meet are known as vertices or verts.
By manipulating these aforementioned polygons and verts 3D artists can sculpt almost anything. If they have correctly used the animation pipeline through pre-production they will have concept art they can use as reference images to create their final model.
Texturing, UV Mapping & Shaders
Texturing is a multiprogram task in which a 3D artist must create a 2D unwrap of the base model they have created. Once this is completed they can take this unwrap into programs like photoshop or other image editing software to paint on details, this could be flesh or paint on a car. This step can provide great detail on a model and even hide some of the models flaws. Once completed the 3D artist can pull the coloured image into their modelling software and apply the texture to the model. The next step is to apply materials to your textured model, this step is known as shading. You can change the opacity, transparency and reflection and more of a material to give your coloured model its desired look. For example if you had modelled a spray paint can and textured the label you would still want a reflecting metal aluminium finish on the can, which can be achieved through shading.
Rigging
Essentially rigging is what takes your 3D model from a sculpture to an animation, firstly by adding a skeleton to the model and then skinning it. This is one of the most complex and time consuming parts of animation, not because you can’t just chuck bones into a model but to perfect all of the joints through skinning so there are no strange tears or morphing when animating takes concentration and skill. Rigging also benefits from the pre-production images as having strong concepts of how the character should move through imagery leads to a problem free rig.
Animation
Now that the character is textured and rigged it's time to bring them to life. The process of animating a character utilises keyframes, the animator must manipulate the characters rig for every frame in an animation setting keyframes every 24 frames. This allows a full animation to be played and looped. It takes a lot of frames and tiny manipulations to get realistic or even drastically unrealistic movements for your model.
Lighting
Lighting can completely change the way a consumer perceives the model you have sculpted. This is due to the way light can convey tone and mood so simply. Having a low light facing up towards the face of your model produces strong shadows on the facial feature and exudes an ominous tone whereas if the light was shining down from an angle the model would be in full light which even though the same model would provide a different feeling. There are also a variety of different types of lights that artists can use to light their models, for example directional lights which cast light down to a specific point or area lights which illuminate from a centrepoint.
Rendering
Rendering is the final process of the animation pipeline, this is where the 3D artist uses their 3D program to break down the image into pixels and “Draw” them all together into one final image. There are many ways to change how fast and detailed the render is but these are also affected by how long the render would take. You can boost render times by using multiple computers to render out different parts of an image. Below is the primitives render I worked on, using dark dank lights to convey the shady underground boxing gym I had modelled.
Compositing
The core tenant of compositing in animation is the amalgamation of different visual mediums into one final render. To accomplish this a 3D artist must make use of different layers, for example using rotoscoping in streaming which could have been an animation made in Maya which then has been put through a video editing software to be used in the streaming overlay.
Bibliography
Andreula, M. (2018). Understanding Texturing for Environment Design. [online] 80.lv. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/understanding-texturing-for-environment-design/
Fairley, R. (2018). Getting Started With Adobe After Effects | Videomaker. [online] Videomaker.com. Available at: https://www.videomaker.com/videonews/2014/08/getting-started-with-adobe-after-effects
Geymonat, M. (2018). Video Game Characters: Sculpting, Texturing, Rigging. [online] 80.lv. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/video-game-characters-sculpting-texturing-rigging/
Goodall, C. (2018). The Animation of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. [online] 80.lv. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/the-animation-of-hellblade-senuas-sacrifice/
Murphy, L. (2018). No-A: The Production of The Blockbuster Indie Animation. [online] 80.lv. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/no-a-indie-film-interview/
Telksnys, J. (2018). 7 Tips For Better Lighting in Unity. [online] 80.lv. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/7-tips-for-better-lighting-in-unity/