3D Game Animation For Dummies

Kelly L. Murdock has written about computer topics ranging from multimedia to JavaScript. He has also created 3D models for feature films and worked as a freelance 3D artist.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part I: Creating 3D Content for Games 3

Part II: Creating Interfaces, Modeling Scenery, and Texturing Backgrounds 3

Part III: Designing, Modeling, and Animating Game Characters 4

Part IV: Animating Game Cut Scenes 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 4

Part I: Creating 3D Content for Games 5

Chapter 1: Getting Started with 3D Game Animation 7

This Whole Place Is Full of 3D — Identifying 3D Game Elements 8

User interfaces 8

Backgrounds 9

Scenery and props 10

Characters 10

Cut scenes 11

Opening the Toolbox — the Tools Used to Create 3D Game Animations 11

Modeling, rendering, and animation software 12

Paint and texturing software 15

Compositing software 15

Hardware requirements 15

Creating 3D Games — Slightly More Complicated Than a Connect-the-Dots Puzzle 16

Game design 16

Art design 17

Integration 17

Testing 17

Learning the Big Picture 17

Chapter 2: Game and Art Design, and Creating Storyboards 19

Documenting the Game Design: What Exactly Does This Game Do? 20

Brainstorming 20

Gathering feedback 20

Writing a Game Design Document 21

Adding flowcharts 21

Obtaining approval 23

Growing Ideas into Design — Beginning the Art Design Phase 23

Sketching inspirations: You didn’t throw away your pencils, did you? 23

Compiling reference materials 24

Fleshing out details, and producing final designs 25

Labeling details 25

Creating Storyboard Documents 25

Types of storyboards 26

Specifying logical flow paths 26

Storyboarding cut scenes 27

Creating a master storyboard 27

Who’s Talking Now? Adding Dialogue 27

Chapter 3: Starting with Traditional Animation Basics 29

Layering Images — the Simplest Animation Technique 30

Look at the Birdie and Smile — Focusing the Audience’s View 30

Avoid complex motions 31

Displaying anticipation of intended motion 31

Emphasizing motion with exaggeration 32

Making foreground objects stand out 32

Do You Have a Good Stopwatch? Controlling Timing and Pacing 32

Establishing correct timing 33

Establishing pacing 34

Do I Need to Draw Every Frame? Accomplishing Efficient Animation Techniques 34

Posing characters and in-betweening 34

Using animation loops 35

Panning images 35

Animating Realistic Motions 36

Animating physically realistic reactions 36

Making realistic motion with primary and secondary motion 36

Developing a Unique Style 37

Part II: Creating Interfaces, Modeling Scenery, and Texturing Backgrounds 39

Chapter 4: Creating Game User Interfaces 41

Understanding the Basics of Interface Design 41

Identifying interface information 42

Defining interface backgrounds 43

Using interface fade in and fade out 43

Making the interface easy to navigate 43

Including sounds 44

Making the game area as big as possible: Maximizing interface real estate 44

Starting with a Layout: The Process of Interface Design 44

Importing drawing files 45

Building a 2D layout 45

Adding 3D Effects 54

Enhancing with 3D objects 54

Embellishing with 3D text 55

Beveling the interface border 57

Chapter 5: Modeling Scenery and Props 59

Discovering 3D Space All Around You 60

Moving about 3D Coordinates 60

Selecting scene views 61

Navigating scene views 62

Using coordinate values 64

Exploring the Various Modeling Types 65

Polygon modeling for man-made models 65

NURBS modeling for natural flowing surfaces 65

Patch modeling for curved surfaces 66

Moving, Rotating, and Scaling Objects 66

Transforming objects 66

Snapping objects into place 67

Aligning objects 70

Using pivot points 72

Learning the Art of Modeling 73

Using the easiest way to model 73

Starting with building blocks 75

Editing primitives 77

Building surfaces from curves and splines 78

Creating Lo-Polygon Models That Won’t Choke a Game Engine 83

Tips for reducing polygon count 83

Automating polygon reduction 85

Chapter 6: Adding Details with Materials 87

Defining Materials 87

Color 88

Transparency 88

Reflectivity 88

Refraction 88

Luminosity 88

Specularity 88

Bump map 89

Assigning Material Properties to Objects 89

Changing the view shading 89

Using preset materials 90

Creating unique materials 93

Assigning Material Properties to Object Parts 95

Chapter 7: Mapping Textures 97

Wrapping Texture Maps about Objects without Messy Glues 98

Positioning Textures with UV Coordinates 100

Offsetting a texture 100

Scaling a texture 101

Rotating a texture 101

Tiling a texture 101

Creating Seamless Textures That Tile Together: Look Ma, No Seams 103

Creating noisy tiles 104

Filling a solid tile 104

Matching opposite edges 104

Creating Raised Texture with Bump and Displacement Maps 106

Using bump maps 106

Using displacement maps 107

Creating Realistic Environments with Textures 107

Using reflection maps 108

Adding a background image 109

Creating a skybox for backdrops 110

Painting on Textures to Add Dirt and Grime 111

Efficiently Coloring Objects with Vertex Colors 113

Baking Textures for Quick Model Loading 113

Chapter 8: Creating Effective Lighting 115

Starting with a Basic Three-Point Lighting Configuration 116

Exploring the Different Light Types 117

Point light 117

Area light 117

Direct light 117

Ambient light 117

Spot light 117

Creating Lights 118

Changing Light Properties 120

Using light color 120

Changing light intensity 120

Enabling shadows 122

Setting falloff 124

Using Light Special Effects 124

Adding lens flares 124

Adding fog 126

Making glowing lights 126

Creating Realistically Lighted Scenes with Raytracing, Radiosity, and Global Illumination 128

Raytracing 128

Radiosity 129

Global illumination 129

Creating a Prelighted Map for Quick Scene Loading 130

Part III: Designing, Modeling, and Animating Game Characters 131

Chapter 9: Techniques for Modeling Characters 133

Modeling Methods 134

Knowing when to buy instead of build 134

Creating low-polygon models 134

Using symmetry 134

Using a default stance 134

Using mesh smooth features 135

Modeling the Torso 135

Chamfering edges 137

Sculpting muscles 137

Cutting limb holes 141

Creating and Attaching Limbs 142

Tapering limbs 144

Lofting limbs 146

Connecting limbs 146

Bridging limbs 148

Modeling Hands and Feet 148

Extruding fingers 148

Adding a thumb 150

Modeling shoes 151

Creating toes 153

Adding nails 153

Connecting hands and feet 153

Mirroring the Body 155

Making the Body Proportional 156

Getting “Ahead”: Creating a Head 158

Extruding a neck 159

Using Booleans 160

Modeling the windows to the soul: Creating eyes 161

Creating a nose 164

Creating ears 166

Creating a mouth 166

Adding facial hair 168

Sculpting the head 168

Creating Hair 170

Adding Accessory Props 170

Modeling clothes 170

Dressing a head 171

Adding jewelry 171

Embedding weapons and props 171

Chapter 10: Discovering the Basics of 3D Animation 173

Pacing an Animation with Frame Rates: What’s the Going Rate? 174

Changing the frame rate 175

Setting the total number of frames 176

Moving the Time Slider to select a frame 176

Creating Simple Animations with Keyframes 177

Animating an object by creating position keyframes 177

Animating an object with rotation and scale keyframes 179

Creating an attribute keyframe 181

Locating keyframes with the Animation Controls 183

Copying and pasting keyframes 184

Automating the creation of keyframes with Auto Keyframing 184

Moving an Object Along a Path 184

Animating an object moving along a path 185

Tracking an object’s motion with trajectories 185

Ghosting objects to get a sense of their motion 186

Using Animation Editors 187

Viewing animation graphs 187

Synchronizing animation keys 188

Chapter 11: Animating Characters 193

Rigging Characters to Move Realistically 194

Creating a skeleton that lies under the character 194

Setting constraints so the object doesn’t move when it shouldn’t 198

Controlling character motion with kinematics 199

Creating a Realistic Skin 201

Skinning a character 201

Setting a bone’s influence 202

Adding deformations to create muscle bulges 203

Animating with Bones 204

Integrating Motion Capture for the Ultimate in Realistic Motion 207

Lots of dots: Motion capture hardware 207

Unique motion capture systems 208

Buying motion 208

Chapter 12: Animating Facial Movements 209

Creating Morph Targets: The Character of a Thousand Faces 210

Working on a clone 210

Creating a blend control 211

Learning to Talk: Speaking the Basic Phonemes 213

Syncing Facial Movements with a Soundtrack 213

Building Controls for Handling Eye Movements 214

Chapter 13: Automating Reactions with Dynamics 217

Incorporating Physics: I’m Glad I Don’t Have to Calculate This by Hand 217

Soft and rigid body objects 218

Special object types 218

Making objects immovable 218

Defining Physical Properties Such as Gravity and Friction 220

Defining object properties 221

Defining forces 221

Using constraints 223

Part IV: Animating Game Cut Scenes 227

Chapter 14: Animating Scene Elements 229

Using Cut Scenes: All the Stuff That Happens Between Game Levels 230

The pregame show 230

Introducing the game 230

Explaining the game 231

Tell a story with animation 231

Presenting High-Resolution Images: What to Do After the Animations Are Finished 231

Rendering backgrounds 231

Rendering a title screen 231

Rendering marketing materials 231

Animating Cut Scenes: No Limits 232

Modeling for cut scenes: I can use NURBS! 232

Animating cameras: I finally have a chance to control the camera! 234

Animating lights (and not just a flashlight) 236

Animating textures: Just like television 237

Chapter 15: Animating with Particles 241

Creating Special Effects with Particles: A Treat for All the Pyromaniacs 241

Creating smoke and dust 242

Creating fire 242

Creating clouds 242

Pinpointing a Particle’s Starting Location with Particle Emitters 244

Using emitter types 244

Using an object as an emitter 245

Configuring Particle Systems: Randomness Is the Name of the Game 246

Setting particle rate 246

Setting particle life span 247

Setting particle shape and size 247

Spawning new particles 247

Changing particle materials 247

Creating a Blizzard: Combining Particles with Dynamics 249

Creating a Custom Particle with Instanced Objects: When Simple Shaped Particles Aren’t Enough 251

Chapter 16: Rendering an Animation 253

Creating Test Renders: Try It before You Buy It 253

Using the Render View window 254

Rendering an area 255

Selecting a view and range 256

Making animation previews 256

Exploring the Rendering Options 257

Selecting a format 258

Setting resolution 258

Using network rendering 258

Adding Effects at the Last Minute 258

Enabling anti-aliasing 259

Using the depth of field effect 259

Adding atmospheric effects 260

Adding motion blur 260

Raytracing Images for Realism 261

Cartoon Rendering: Saturday Morning Will Never Be the Same 262

Part V: The Part of Tens 265

Chapter 17: Ten Types of Tools Used by Game Companies 267

Introducing Your New Best Friend: 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Animation Tools 268

Maya 269

3ds max 269

Softimage XSI 269

Lightwave 270

Remembering Your Old Friends: 2D Painting and Drawing Tools 270

Photoshop 271

Illustrator 271

Painter 271

Z-Brush 271

Getting a Little Extra Realism: 3D Rendering Systems 272

Brazil Rendering System 272

Mental Ray Rendering System 272

Putting All the Pieces Together: Compositing Packages 272

After Effects 273

Combustion 273

Digital Fusion 273

Removing What Shouldn’t Be There: Video Editing Tools 273

Premiere 274

Final Cut Pro 274

Taking Your Designs Online: Web Creation Tools 274

Flash 274

GoLive 274

Making Your Voice Heard: Audition, an Audio Editing Tool 275

Animating Characters the Easy Way: Motion Capture Systems 275

Vicon Motion Systems 275

Motion Analysis 276

Animating a Talking Face: Lip Synching Systems 276

LifeStudio: HEAD 276

LipSync 276

Speaking the Programmers’ Language: 3D Programming Tools 276

DirectX 277

OpenGL 277

Chapter 18: Ten Creative Jobs in the Animation Industry 279

Producer/Director 280

Game Designer 280

Game Artists 281

3D Modeler 282

Lighting Director 283

Animator 283

Special Effects Artist 284

Tester 284

Grunt 285

Trainer 285

Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Land a Job as a 3D Game Animator 287

Gaining the Necessary Experience: First Things First 288

Developing software skills 288

Getting involved in creating games 289

Studying games 290

Finding Animation Programs and Schools 290

Knowing which degree to earn 291

Knowing which courses to take 292

Showing Off: Creating an Awesome Demo Reel 293

Creating a demo reel 294

Labeling a demo reel 295

Sending out demo reels 295

Establishing a Web Presence 295

Securing a domain name 296

Building an amazing Web site 296

Adding your work to an online gallery 297

Getting Feedback and Exposure 298

Entering Web animation contests 298

Entering animation festivals 299

Improving Your Skills 299

Learning from books 299

Training by video 300

Using Web tutorials 300

Attending workshops 300

Joining a user group 300

Attending Animation Conferences 300

Joining a Professional Organization 301

Knowing the Right People 302

Working Your Way Up 302

Getting your foot in the door 302

Getting on a beta test team 303

Starting as a junior animator 303

Making an internal move 304

Being Persistent 304

Appendix A: Using Game Engine Tools 305

Selecting a Game Engine 305

Using Game Engine Tools 308

Creating a User Interface 308

Accessing the GUI Editor 309

Creating a new GUI page 310

Adding controls and commands to a GUI page 312

Using the Mission Editor 313

Accessing the Mission Editor 315

Creating a terrain 316

Adjusting the Terraform 318

Texturing the terrain 319

Populating the environment 321

Moving objects 323

Defining the Scene Environment 323

Loading Maya Files into the Game Engine 326

Installing a DTS Export Utility 326

Changing default units 327

Exporting a Maya object 328

Viewing exported objects 329

Exporting textured objects 330

Exporting animation sequences 332

Making models available in the Mission Editor 333

Creating Interiors 334

Appendix B: Glossary of Animation Terms 337

Appendix C: Directory of Animation Schools 351

The Art Institutes 351

Ringling School of Art and Design 351

Full Sail 352

California Institute of the Arts 352

Vancouver Film School 352

Sheridan College 352

Savannah College of Art and Design 352

DigiPen Institute of Technology 353

Parsons School of Design 353

Digital Media Arts College 353

Ex’pression College for Digital Arts 353

Vancouver Institute of Media Arts 353

Academy of Art University 354

Gnomon, School of Visual Effects for Film, Television and Games 354

Oregon3D 354

Index 355