Hello and welcome back to the animation course on Swayam platform. In this session,
we will learn about the Production Pipeline of 3D animation using Autodesk Maya application.
Animation is a field of art or science that has the capability to impart life to
non-living characters. Basically, it is based on the phenomenon on persistence of vision
that allows the visual illusion to the objects.
So in single line, we can say animation is the illusion of motion. 3D animation has become a
vital part in film, television and the video games. And it is becoming an integral part of
other industry that may not have found it all that useful at first, field such as medicine,
architectural and even forensic are now using the 3D animation.
In addition to use for entertainment purpose, it is considered as a form of art.
It is an art that is often display and celebrated in the film festival all over the world.
It is also used commonly for educational purpose as it has a big place in the learning and
instructional application. To really understand the size of 3D animation, you must understand the
mathematics behind it. 3D animation consists of varying properties of a three dimensional scene
defined in a numeric quantities. A 3D model can change properties such as position,
rotation, scaling and the surface <?>*</?>. An animated 3D scene is a defined by the change
of this scientific properties through time. We can do the animation with several methodology.
Some are traditional animation. In traditional animation, illustrators draw picture on a
straightforward bit on a paper, fit it on to the light box, utilizing by the color pencils.
Animators usually test animations with rough drawings to see how many frames they would
need for the animation. The animation process of traditional animation is time
taken and expensive also. Once the drawings and clean ups and in between frames are completed,
the production would move on to the capturing each individual sketches. But, nowadays
traditional animation can be done on a computer pen tablet and it doesn’t require the photography
of each and individual frames. There are several application
available into the industry which you can use for the traditional animation purpose. For example,
TV Paint. It is a free animation software. Second you can use the Toon Boom Harmony.
Toon Boom Harmony offer a user friendly set of animation program that has capability for advanced
rigging system, the frames and also camera tools. You can use the Adobe Photoshop also.
Usually photoshop is often overlooked when considering as an animation software,
but it is really powerful drawing capability which makes it a great choice for frame by frame
Disney style animation. Second methodology, you can go with a 2D vector based animation.
The 2D vector based animation is used when referring to the traditional hands on animation
with integration of computer vector animation that adopts the technique of traditional animation.
2D vector based animation means the computer generated 2D animation. It uses the same work
flow as traditional animation. But it gives you the benefit from the lack of physical
item needed to make the traditional 2D animation with availability to the computer interpolation
to the same time. You can use the Adobe animate. Earlier the Flash software or Toon Boom Harmony
were 2D vector based animation. Then third option of animation could be
motion graphics. Motion graphics is a quite different from the other type of animation.
It is not character or a story driven animation. It is the art and the science of creatively moving
and animating the graphics element or text. It is usually for visual presentation or a <?>*</?> video
or the commercial advertisement, or it could be used for the promotional purpose also.
Adobe after effect is the most common software for 2D motion graphics.
But for 3D motion graphics, generally you can use the cinema 4D or the Autodesk Mass application.
Next animation option could be the stop motion. Stop motion animation is also referred as the cut
out animation or clay animation. Stop animation is turned by taking the photo of the object and
the moving just a little bit with a new pose or position and taking another photographs,
then process repeated simultaneously and when the photos playback into the sequence it gives
an illusion of motion called animation. And next and most advanced technology is 3D
computer animation. 3D computer animation is also refer as a CGI or computer graphics imagery.
There is a famous quote by John Lasitar, computers doesn’t create the computer animation and
any more than pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.
The animation is completely different than traditional animation.
The 3D animation require an understanding of the same principle of movement and composition. But,
they also require the technical skill while traditional animation require you being an
amazing draftsman but the 3D computer animation doesn’t. 3D animation is more similar to playing
with a puppet rather than a drawing. There are a number of other distinct process
that require to produce a computer animation. Often, this must be accomplished in a specific
order and this is called the pipeline. There are three stages of animation production pipeline.
First is the pre-production, second is the production and third one is the post production.
In pre production stage, we do planning about the story, concept, character, the pre-production
team will take its time to make sure to tell an engaging story with interesting characters.
So in pre-production stage, our entire planning stage should be executed. After completion
of pre-production stage, now it is time to the production stage. So in production
stage, we do create the 3D elements for movies, games or video. There are seven main stages of
animation production pipeline. First is the modeling. In modeling, we do the
model as per reference which we had created into the pre-production stage. So by default,
when we do any model in any 3D application, usually its generate into the grey color.
After modeling stage, it requires to put some colors onto that model and that is called
the texturing. In texturing, with the help of UV, what we do, we do wrap a texture into the
model. And after completion of texturing, now it is a time to do some light onto the model.
So in lighting a stage, there are several lights available
into the 3D application usually it is a omni, spot light, fresnel light, point light and all.
So with the help of these lights, we create a scene aesthetics look and feel development of
our model. So, after completion of modeling and texturing and lighting, now it is a time to do the
bone setup into the model. So bone setup is the process, or we can say the rigging is the process
where we do add the bones into the model for the movement of the character. When our character bone
setup or the rigging pipeline has been completed, now it is a time to move our character as per the
requirement of movie or the scene. So, it is a call the animation.
Or in a simple term, we can say animation is the illusion of motion any kind of movement,
what we are seeing into the real world or we can say into the television or the computer screen,
it could be part of animation. After completion of animation, now it is a time to add some secondary
motion or we can say secondary animation. For example, hair and fur, clothes, water
stimulation, fire stimulation and all. This are a category of dynamics or affects pipeline.
After completion of dynamics, now it is a time to convert entire 3D data into image sequence or
into the video form. So, with the help of camera available into the 3D application,
we convert entire data into the image sequence or into the movie. After completion of rendering,
now it is a time to post production stage. So in post-production stage,
we do merge the 3D elements for the movies, games, videos to the live action footages.
There are two main stages of animation post production pipeline,
first is the compositing and last one is the editing. So in editing stage, finally we do cut
the movie, the footage as per the requirement of the story timeline of the movie. Now it is time to
get know about the Maya history, future and their application using into the industry.
So in next session, we will learn about the same.