Movie Review: 3D Animation

3D ANIMATION PRODUCTION WORKFLOW

3D Animation, which can also be known as computer animation, are becoming more popular and widely known in the industry. There are many software available that are able to produce 3D animation and the ones that are more well-known are Cinema 4D, Autodesk Maya and Blender.

Even though 3D Animation is slowly taking over the film industry, it is a very time consuming process and an animated movie usually takes longer to complete compared to movies that are shot fully using a camera. There are many different stages involved in creating an animated movie and due to the different stages and processes, it can take years to create an animated movie. Examples of animated movies that took a long time to complete are

There are usually different departments in modeling as well which are organic modelers, hard-surface modelers and technical modelers. Organic modelers are the ones who sculptures the background, building the characters and other freeform surfaces while hard-surface modelers are in charge of modelling objects that are more detailed such as vehicles, weapons, props and buildings. On the other hand, technical modelers will modify the models made by the organic and hard-surface modelers by including parts such as a bone or skin that will change the look of the model, improving it by making it look more realistic. Models done by the technical modelers are then sent back to the organic and hard-surface modelers to sculpt facial expressions or any specific muscle that might be

Therefore in rigging, animators have full control on the movement of the models. Whether or not the animation requires it to be realistic or just like cartoons, it can be set up and giving it a range of motion for each part can be done by controlling points to either bend or deform. The rigging department is also involved in cloth simulation, cloth simulation enables the clothing/costume of a model move accordingly to the movement of other parts such as a clenching fist will result in the tightening of the top.

Animation

Animation comes after rigging whereby the rigged assets are animated using controls to match the desired shot, it is possible by setting movement in frames that plays back as an animation. 3D Animators create poses on a series of still images (frames) and in Cinema 4d, it can be done by using an auto-key feature where the assets/objects that are required to move will be auto-key after moving/rotating respectively to the shot and the total key frames will be according to the given length of the shot, usually 25 frames = 1 seconds, this can create the illusion of movement which brings the characters/objects to live.

Visual FX