Tuesday 14 July 2009

Digital 3d Animation An Art Or A Technical Skill

By Jasque Brisk

From the times of the ancient cave paintings to the present days, art has taken many contours and forms. With the time passing art has modified its form and with rapid advancement in modern technology, computers have had their impact on art. Animation, which is an important art form of our society, has entered the domain of computer technology from its traditional beginnings.

An application of 3D Computer Graphics, 3D Animation is the art of creating moving images with a 3 dimensional photo realism on a 2 dimensional screen. 3D Animation holds its distinction from 2D animation due to its depiction of remarkably realistic animated pictures. 3D Computer Animation is used in motion pictures, computer games, architecture, simulations, models, special effects and in whatever way it can be used to portray a message.

3D Computer Animation consists of an elaborate process of 3D modeling, texturing, animating and rendering. 3D Modeling is the process of digital sculpting of any item or environment in its 3D representation through specialized software. Texturing gives a realistic coloring to the 3D models, which makes it possible for the audience to relate to an object or a person, or even a place in a 3D Animation. It is much like painting into pencil sketches and gives the model its finished shape.

During the animation stage of the film creation process, the basics remain the same as have been used in the traditional version. 3 Dimensional Animation is mostly based on two main techniques: Key-framing and Motion Capture. Key-framing, like traditional animation, is also based on the slight gradual changes to create an optical illusion of motion, by determining two or more key frames or positions representing a unit of animation. The only dissimilarity is that the in-betweens in this case are calculated automatically and filled in by the computer. Before it was done by the animation assistant who was manually drawing all the frames in between the key frames. That's the cause all these frames were called in-betweens.

The basic concept behind the Motion Capture technique is to portray the emotions, expressions and movements of a 3 Dimensional animated character as realistically as possible by recording of movements of real actors and models, and translating them into a digital model. 3D Animation usually uses a much faster frame rate than the conventional animation, which are about 24 frames per second, in order to sustain the realism of movement and to create an effective impression.

Many persons are inspired to pursue a career in animation, but often end up only with a small course which only helps them learn how to work with different software which does not ensure proficiency in 3D Animation. Schools like Gnomon School of Visual Arts and Academy of Digital Animation can provide the appropriate formal education and technical facilities that are fitting to a professional animator. It is always best to enroll with an Animation school which focuses on quality.

To excel as a Three Dimensional animator, if you are capable of original and creative work. You should be mastering fundamental design programs like Flash and Photoshop. You should have a good understanding of 3 Dimensional Modeling and should be able to master the function of animation variables, the fundamental structures that make up life-like 3d models in an animation.

You should have strong basics of art and must have a deep knowledge and understanding of how colors work. You will be constantly playing with them for the rest of your lives. You must have a good sense of shade and light, which actually sum up the basics of all visual artists. Besides the software knowledge, it is your sense of film-making and story-telling which will help create an exiting animation.

How can Computer 3D Animation be of some practical use to a web page developer, who is not too much into the technical details? Animators can create animations on quite a decent level through a number of available software for this purpose. Luxology Modo, Softimage and Motion Builder are some of professional 3D animation software, but these are mostly used by experienced animators. It is a good idea to research their features by reading their reviews out on different websites and decide which one suits you better. There are other software for web site designers and simple animation, such as Anim8or, RealSoft 3D and 3d flash animator, which are much simple to use.

Web site developers could use 3D Animation to their advantage by adding animated content on their web pages. Not only will it express messages more effectively, but it will also attract traffic to their Internet pages. With all the ease with which you could create your very own 3D communication and presentation tools through a myriad of specialized programs, not using them could in fact cost you a competitive edge.

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