Unit 68: 3D Environments

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1 Unit 68: 3D Environments 1. Various different industries make good use of 3D Environments to create quality and professional products. A prime example of this is the gaming industry, which has been impacted heavily by the use of 3D. This is because the jump from 2D to 3D made many new types of gameplay and genres available such as horror, as well as adding much more potential to create immersive and enjoyable experiences. 3D is also used in film and television, as it opens up many new possibilities for animation, which was previously stop motion and 2D, which were much more limited in what they could display and achieve. 3D is also used in Architecture because it can be used to show the attributes of a proposed design, helping in the process of building a structure. 2. Cinema 4D is an example of a software used to create 3D environments. Many reviews praise Cinema 4D for being easy to learn and having quick and quality results. This software is also praised for exceeding in modeling, animating, lighting, texturing, and rendering. A model made in Cinema 4D Blender is another example of a 3D environment software, This software is free, giving it an advantage over other programs as this makes it much more accessible to people with low or no disposable income, while still being capable of creating quality results.

2 Blender is also capable of fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, and soft body simulation, as well as having its own integrated game engine. Blender particle simulation Another software commonly used is Zbrush, which is very effective at creating dense and complex fibre systems which can be converted into splines for rendering in other 3D packages, making it a good choice for the creation of things such as foliage and furry creatures, while also a good choice for somebody who uses multiple different 3D softwares to accomplish different tasks. A disadvantage of Zbrush however would be that the GUIs are complicated, making it difficult for newer users to create quality products. Zbrush fibermesh

3 3. Architectural Walkthrough The image above has been used by an architectural development company in a walkthrough of a property, demonstrating all of the features and properties of the house. It is clear that in architectural 3D, the focus is on displaying the building internally and externally. Therefore, simple ambient lighting has been used in this image to illuminate the building. Making the walkthrough realistic would be unnecessary and time consuming to produce and render. 4. Geometric theory within game development is a way to model objects or characters in the game, which are created by using an initial mesh. The way in which this mesh is created is through the process of combined polygons. A polygon is a 2D shape with the three features, a Vertex, a face, and an edge. These polygons join together to create the mesh that defines the shape of a polyhedral object in 3D graphics and modelling. A basic polygon

4 5. One of the biggest issues with 3D modelling is that the file size of a 3D environment can sometimes be large, leading to issues with limited space on a computer. This can be caused by a large amount of polygons in a single object or model. Too many polygons in a 3D environment within gaming can also lead to a loss in frames per second, which can ruin the experience for the player and make the game very unresponsive and frustrating to play. High polygon count image Low Polygon count image The image on the left may be a good quality model, but there are a lot of unnecessary polygons on the model, especially on the character s face. As a result, the file size, render time, and framerate will all be negatively impacted by the model in game. The image on the right however, has less polygons. This means it will be easier to render, will not have a bad impact on framerate, and does not have a large file size. One advantage that 2D has over 3D is that in 2D you do not have to worry as much about the complexity and file size of your models. 6.

5 Gameplay from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim This image demonstrates many different geometric techniques in 3D. One clear technique is that hypernurb modelling has been used on to create the player s weapon in order to make the edges look more smooth and reduce polygon count. Another technique to note within this image is that the textures/materials and foliage up close are of high quality, but in the background, the resolution of the terrain textures/materials are much lower. This is a technique that has been used to improve performance of the game while still allowing the player to have a large render distance to see off into the distance. The rubble to the left of the image was made by primitive shapes that have been extruded and textured to look like the ruins of a destroyed building. While the terrain to the right of the image is a smooth subdivision surface, made by relatively simple meshes. 7. Examples of some common viewing modes that are used when creating 3D (in cinema 4D) models are: Perspective, left/right, front, and top. Perspective mode will likely be the most frequently used in most 3D modelling scenarios, (in cinema 4D), but there are some situations where using the other display modes will come in handy. The Top view for example, allows you to view certain polygons, lines, splines etc in a way that may be more easier and more effective than viewing it from the perspective view. As a result, the model you are working on may become much easier to edit in the top view.

6 Perspective, Top, Right, And front views in Cinema 4D A few examples of common modelling tools would be: Extrude, resize, and loft. These are basic tools used to edit models. Loft allows you to generate a mesh by sweeping a shape along a path. Extrusion serves the same purpose as Loft, but the path is always in a line. 8. Gameplay from Planetside 2

7 This image shows a 3D environment that has been made from a mixture of both subdivision surface (HyperNURBS) and primitive shapes. I think it is likely that the developers used the perspective view to edit the primitive shapes (such as the trees and buildings). I think this because the perspective view allows you to rotate and zoom the camera freely, making the editing of these objects flexible. On the other hand, i believe that a birdseye (top) view has been used to edit most of the basic terrain. I think this because the floor is very smooth and organic, and in the top view it would be easy for the developers to pick and edit the ground mesh as they choose. 9. 3D modeling has many different types of lighting that are available to the users: Spot Lights shines light in an area, projected in a cone, good for illuminating or emphasizing a small area, like a torch Point Lights similar to a lightbulb, and shines light from a point outwards, like a lightbulb Area Lights casts directional light rays from within a set boundary, such as a fluorescent light or window light Physical sky light mimics the light of the sun, used to make the most realistic experience possible Ambient light cast soft rays in every direction 10. Gameplay From Dragon Age 2

8 The main source of light in this image is from the spotlight in the top left, suggesting that sunlight is coming through a hole in the cave, to the right you can also see the glow emitting from a point light, likely a torch. You can tell that these are the only source of light as other parts of the image are relatively dark (top right). 11. Textures and materials are used to paint a mesh to add color (and sometimes realism) to a model. These are used to create more interesting environments within 3D. Textures and materials can also be used to hide the polygon count. Good textures can disguise a model, making it look more detailed than it actually is. Without Texture With Texture

9 12. Gameplay From Starcraft 2 This image is an example of textures and materials used to create an environment. Galaxy Editor

10 The Editor that was used to create this game has its own texture pallet, allowing most of the map s surfaces to be created more easily and efficiently. This makes methods like material editing unnecessary and saves time. The other models however are textured from scratch, it is easy to hide the polygon count however, since the game is viewed from the top down, meaning that the textures do not have to be too detailed to be effective. 13. Rendering is the process of creating an image based on data stored on a computer. OpenGL is a graphical interface API used to interact with a GPU to achieve hardware accelerated rendering. DirectX is a collection of APIs for handling multimedia related tasks, similar to OpenGL, but DirectX is used for different platforms such as the xbox 360 and xbox one. 14. Gameplay from Infamous 2 The rendering technique likely used in this scene is real time rendering as this is used for most interactive media. This method s goal is to show as much information as the eye can process in a fraction of a second (one frame), the output being 1280x720.