3D Development Software

Unreal Editor
Is 3D Design sofware for ingame level creation, Unreal Ed normally comes bundled with the games that use it, such as Tom Clanceys Rainbow 6 :3 Raven Shield and Splinter Cell Chaos Thorery. Unreal Editor is a subtractive-based 3D level design software, this means that the start of a level in Unreal Ed is a large mass in which you use brushes that can be shaped like standard primitives like speres and cubes to hollow out a space to play on, put into simpler terms its like having a tree and cuting into it with various tools until you have a canoe or like making an ice sculpture. However this method of 3D Design makes it very difficult to make articulate shapes and geometry, to get round this problem Unreal Editor utilises CSG or Constructive Solid Geometry and the use of Static Meshes, CSG is where you use simple geometrical shapes to create a more complex one by a series of boolean options.

CSG examples

CSG Tree

Other level design sofware such as Qoole (The Level editor for the Quake series) use additive-based 3D this is much more what people expect where you start with nothing and build up, kind of like painting a picture, you start with a blank sheet and the more you put on the more complex it becomes.

3D Studio Max (pending)

LightWave 3D

LightWave is 3D design software created by NewTek, inc. Compared to other 3D software such as Unreal Editor it is very high end visually and technically. LightWave or LightWave 3D has been available to the public from 1994, although up until now this program would only run on the operating system Amiga, the newest version that came out in august last year features cross compatibility with many other operating systems such as Windows including the x64 of XP, the Apple Mac operating system Mac OSX and even Linux.
It was one of the First 3D software programs to feature the Radiosity render option with full caustics light render support as well as the standard scalene render .
(caustics is the end result of what light rays look like when they have been reflected or refracted through and object I.e. water, glass, or both.
Most of the processes that occur in LightWave use multi-threading, and it also comes with an integrated SDK or Software development kit and LScript, these can be used to make things compatible with consol game platforms or other operation systems similar to C, however only programmers are likely to understand how to use this tool.
LightWave was used for special effects in the films Star Wars, 300 and Sin City, it was also used for the special effects of many TV-series such as Star Trek Voyager, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5.
Unlike other 3D programs like 3DSmax and Maya, LightWave is mad up of two separate programs each being dedicated to its own specific task. These two programs are Modeller for surface building and editing, and Layout for advanced lighting and animation.

General Requirements:
System RAM: 512 MB minimum requirement, 1 GB recommended
Graphics Card: nVidia FX 5200 series (minimum)
ATIFireGL V 5100 (minimum)

Graphics support: Full OpenGL (OpenGL 2.0 support, or ARB_shading_language_100 OpenGL
extension in earlier versions, required to use GLSL features)

Driver: Latest from chipset manufacturer
Dedicated Video RAM: 64 MB per display minimum requirement, 128 MB recommended
Minimum Screen Resolution: 1024×768 minimum requirement, 1280×1024 recommended
Hard Drive Space: 230 MB for program installation (not including content)

Price (Full version) LightWave 9 = £1000

3D World Studio

3D World Studio is designed by Leadwerks and when compared to LightWave is very simple. It is a Constructive Solid Geometry modeller (CSG) and was designed to be “easy to use” requiring very little in the ways of technical skills to get a decent result from the program. It is used mostly by modders and people from computer game companies to show concepts of levels and missions within a game environment. It is also used by Architects who need it for walkthroughs of potential new buildings.
CSG is a form of Intelligent geometry that uses shapes called Solids. CSG solids are simple convex objects, made out of intersecting coplanar faces.
Co planar is when all the vertices’ of a Face are along the same path, and Convex meaning that all the Faces in the shape point away from each other.

Download Price £40

Disk Price +Extras £60

Rhino 3D

Rhinoceros 3D (Rhino 3D) was developed by Robert McNeel & Associates, originally it was only a plug-in used for Autodesk’s AutoCAD program (CAD = Computer Aided Design) but is now a stand alone program, it specialises in NURBS modelling (Non-uniform rational B-spline) NURBS modelling is modelling with highly articulate curves and rounded surfaces. These curves are obtained by moving control points that act in the same fashion as Bezier Handles in 3DSmax.To buy the latest version of Rhino 3D (version 4) from scratch, it would cost you £600To update to Rhino 3D Version 4 from Rhino 3D Version 3, it would cost you £300 To purchase the Flamingo add-on that enables raytracing and radiosity within Rhino 3D would cost you an extra £350And to purchase Penguin, a non photorealistic renderer addon would also cost you an extra £150

So if you were really serious about Rhino 3D and you wanted all its capabilities it would cost you £1100 to buy from scratch or £800 to go from Version 3.

System requirementsPentium4, CoreDuo or higher processor (or equivalent AMD processor)

512MB RAMNVDIA graphics card. The GeForce consumer cards work well with Rhino, for heavy users we recommend the Quadro cards.Scrolling mouse

Rhino 4.0 runs only on Windows XP Pro, XP Home, Vista and Windows 2000.

Windows x64 is not supported and will not be until the required development tools and libraries are available.

Rhino will not run on Mac OSX, Linux or any other operating system

Interactive Computer Graphics Overview

The phrase computer graphics was created by William Fetter in 1960 and work in this field officially started when Ivan Sutherland in 1963 showed the computers potential to be used for interactive drawings. However 3 major barriers were discovered that made the computer graphics potential slow to develop.  

1. The high cost of computing at that time meant that only very few universities and industrial companies could afford to spend so much on these machines for research purposes only
2. nobody really understood in-depth the requirements that were needed for an effective computer graphics system
3. the complexity of system software and application software was massively underestimated

 However over the years the prices of computer soft and hardware dropped significantly and in contrast the quality of the software and hardware rose by quite a large margin. The Operating systems continued to improve enabling ours and the computers ability to cope and interact with the software. There were great advancements in the mathematical algorithms needed for generating pictures more so for the generation of 3D objects, so that creating something as simple as a line on a computer was no longer a near impossible task. 

In Note

An algorithm is a definite list of well-defined instructions for completing a task; that given an initial, state will proceed through a well-defined series of successive states, eventually terminating in an end-state. Algorithms originated as a means of recording procedures for solving mathematical problems such as finding the common divisor of two numbers or multiplying two numbers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm) 

The progress of computer graphics was so but by the 1970’s it had become an accepted and powerful new form of tool used by engineers, scientists, designers and artists alike. Today the focus has shifted from the hardware, to the software. As high performance PC parts are readily available to the public via many different companies, so the further improvement of algorithms to create more sophisticated software has become more prevalent.

Cartesian Co-ordinate System

3D software packages use the Cartesian Co-ordinate System to create the illusion of working in a 3d environment on a 2D surface i.e. your computer screen, all 3D bases like games programs use this system to locate any point anywhere at any time. 

French scientist and philosopher Rene Descartes was the one who invented the Cartesian Co-ordinate System in 1637, he created this system in order to merge algebra and Euclidean geometry.

The CCS (Cartesian Co-ordinate System) when it was invented originally consisted of only the X axis (width) and the Y axis (length) and the place where these axis meet called the Origin, the two axis run purpendicular to eachother and exstend indefinatly in both the minus and the positive directions enabling us to find any one point anywhere on a 2 Dimentional area. This makes the 2 Dimensional CC System.

In the 19th century a 3rd Axis known as Z or Depth was added this axis goes down through the x,y origin at a right angle with the addition of the Z axis this created the possibility to be able to find any point anywhere in a 3 Dimensional volume.

William Fetter’s Significance

William Fetter (1928-2002), an art director who worked for Boeing, was a computer graphics pioneer and the first to draw the human figure using a computer (above)

He also Created the term Computer Graphics to describe the work he did at Boeing  

William Fetter fits into the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE’s four categories of: Pioneer, Innovator, Early Adapter, and Follower as an Early Adapter. He was an adapter because he worked as a Art Director for Boeing and while he was there in order to create the interior of a plane he used a computer to accurately map the first human body on a digital interface in the early 60’s.

Dreamworks CG Movie Production Pipline

PRODUCTION PIPLINE 

1. Concept. A concept is created, and depending on the type of film it can be inspired by a wide variety of sources if the concept is chosen the script is then wrote.
2. Script. The script is handed over to the storyboard team one page at a time, they read the page and create a series of comic book sketches to tell the story
3. Storyboards. If the director and producer approve then the storyboards are digitally photographed and put together to create a story reel a (small sort of flip pad) these are combined with temporary music, sound effects, and voice over’s. This takes about 18 months to finish
4. Artwork. once a story board is underway the visual development team take them and begin to design the proper look of the film with attention to detail from the characters to the environment, right down to the last prop you took for granted. Thousands of drawings, paintings, blueprints, sculptures and models are created for this step.
5. Casting. after storyboards are drawn, and characters and sets are designed the casting then begins to find the voices for the characters as the voice caster is never seen in the final production what he or she looks like is not important, the producers and directors cast with there ears. The actors are video recorded doing the voices so the animators can capture key facial expressions and character reactions.
6. Modelling. next comes actually creating the character into 3d, modelers already know what the character looks like so they start with a wireframed construct then when animation is needed they have a sort of chopped up character so the character is there but wherever a limb (such as a finger joint or knee joint) would connect has not yet been formed together this way the animators can freely move the joints of their models.
7. Layout. Using the characters in there basic form, layout artists use rough shapes (like un detailed trees) to form a basic scene for which to move the characters around in (the characters move around as if frozen, no animation is present at this stage), this is done to determine the right camera movement as well as the character placement, spacing, lighting, geography and scene timing. The entire movie will be created in this way, giving a digital picture of each scene before the character animation actually begin the.
8. Character Animation. After the scene has been completed and the sequence works out well in the simple layout form, the animators begin to animate the characters bringing them to life within the scene syncing them with the vocie actors. They articulate the thousands of controls that are created during the Modeling phase to bring each character to life and to synchronize them to the voice performances.Effects