CHAPTER

The 3D
Workflow

Copyright Mike Clayton 2000

3D ANIMATION

Some General
Terms

Before we go any further, lets take a moment to make sure that we are speaking the same language. 3D, like any other field, is full of jargon and terms
that need to be defined before we can move on to the concepts behind 3D.
Most of us have built some sort of real-time modelyou know, those
plastic airplanes or cars, or models of ecosystems for that junior-high science
class. Either way, the point of models is not to really recreate the target object, but rather to create a representation of it. A computer model is the
same; it is a collection of digital instructions interpreted by the computer to
form the geometrical appearance of an object. The geometry of models only
exists in the computers digital space. They are a file, like a Word or Photoshop file. Models can be sent over the Internet, stored on a disk, and backed
up on a CD. In reality, a model is just another collection of 1s and 0s. However, this collection of 1s and 0s is the basis for most all effective 3D. It is the
building block of the rest of the 3D concepts to follow. But remember, since
a model is a representation of an object, do not try to make it into the actual
object. Be frugal with your modeling, and the time you spend modeling.
Good projects incorporate good models, but also exploit the other aspects
of 3D. Too often, people get so caught up in the modeling that they dont
get around to the other important parts of the project. Remember that
while models are an essential part of 3D projects, good models do not necessarily equal good 3D projects unless the other aspects of 3D are addressed
as well. Plan your time carefully to include all the areas of 3D. Employers are
much more impressed by a good model that is textured, lit, rendered, and
animated well, than by just a good model (see Chapter 3, Carving Out
Modeling Basics).
Once models are created, textures are applied. Textures are like a colored
shrink-wrap or veneer applied to the surface of the model. Some textures
allow the model to be clear like a sort of invisibility cape, while others make
a model appear bumpy, sheeny, or coarse. Some textures (displacement
maps) even change the geometry of the model. Textures can be projected
like a slide through a slide projector, laid over like a blanket, or shrinkwrapped around the models geometry. Textures take the same ball of geometry and change it from one object to another. For instance, you can change
a golf ball to a tennis ball then to a baseball or a basketball and finally to an
earth ball or even to the actual earth. See Chapter 6, Advanced Texturing
Techniques, and Chapter 7, 3D Illumination Systems, for more on the
tremendous power of texturing.
No matter how exquisite your models or textures are however, without

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THE 3D WORKFLOW

light the 3D project is as visually appealing as radio. And even with light, if
its not done effectively, the viewer is left with a flat and uninteresting vision.
Virtual 3D light, like everything else in digital space, is virtual. It is a set of
algorithms that attempt to imitate light as it occurs in the real world. And
even though there have been tremendous strides in the way 3D applications
handle lighting instruments (the objects that actually produce the light),
and the way those light particles (or waves) behave within digital space,
there is still a tremendous amount of artistry and interpretation needed to
produce effectively lit scenes. Lighting is one of the most powerful, yet most
often overlooked areas of 3D. See Chapter 8, Seeing the Power of Rendering, to read more about the theory behind lighting design and the practical applications of these theories.
Some 3D is illustrative in nature. Some 3Ds purpose is to create beautiful still figures. Other 3D is narrative in purpose like animation. While the
same 3D application is used to create both stills and animations, ultimately,
the goal and media of the two are different. Animation is bringing the
geometry of models to life; giving them life, a motion personality. Animation is a complex process, and even the simplest ideas of a bouncing ball require careful study of the world around us and the physics of weight. To top
it all off, the most believable animation is the one that transcends the heavy
technical requirements of animation to a level of organic movement. You
will usually find that about one-fourth of your time is spent creating the
models, textures, and lighting setups, and the rest is spent animating. It is a
challenging but tremendously rewarding aspect of 3D, and is covered in
Chapters 1014.
Once a scene is modeled, textured, lit, and sometimes animated, the
computer must paint the geometry, color, and light we have given it. This
rendering is produced by the computer and is usually our final still or animation. There are many different ways to render, including everything
from photorealistic to cartoon shading (Figure 1.1).
Keep in mind as you work that complex scenes take large amounts of
time to render, and even when your work is done, the computer has to interpret all of your instructions, and often even the fastest computers will
take a long time to do this. Finishing up your lighting and clicking the render button as your client walks in the door is a very bad idea. (It is my experience that clients are usually unimpressed by a black screen.) There is a
lot to discuss about rendering, so a whole chapter is dedicated to it (Chapter 9, Moving on to Animation)be sure to read it.

3D ANIMATION

F IGURE Photorealistic vs. Toon-Shader.

1.1

Building a 3D
Project

Now with all those definitions laid out in a linear fashion, I am going to tell
you how the 3D creation process is anything but linear. Figure 1.2 shows a
chart of the quasi-linear nature of the 3D process.
The first step to a 3D project is to plan, plan, plan. I know, everyone
wants to jump in and get started right away, which is an important thing to
do when just beginning in 3D, but sooner or later, you will want to actually
create an entire project. In my experience, every hour spent developing effective plans for a project saves 10 hours in actual production time. A large
part of the planning process involves numerous drawings.
Michelangelo had volumes and volumes of sketches. To us today, these

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THE 3D WORKFLOW

F IGURE The 3D process.

1.2

sketches are masterpieces; to him, they were a means toward an end. Some
were studies of the form and shape of anatomy, objects, or people. Others
were layout plans, draftings of different compositions, balances, and designs. While some artists today are able to create fantastic pieces of artwork
based on reactions to what they just laid on canvas, all of the great artists of
the past took time to plan how their final project would appear.
3D should be no different. If the final project is a still image of a set
of gears and cogs, sketches on how the cogs look, how they will be laid
together to form a cohesive image, and notes on color and lighting are
important. If the final project is a character, sketches of the character, its personality, and form provide a valuable visual resource during those tedious

3D ANIMATION

modeling hours (Figure 1.3). If the final project is an animation, many

minutes of final footage can be saved if an effective storyboard is laid out
with careful attention paid to camera angles, timing, and shot composition
(Figure 1.4).
Ah, a few extra minutes of footage, or a few extra renderings? Thats not
the end of the world! It may not seem so now, but when a few extra renderings take 1012 hours, and a few extra minutes in a complex scene take
days to render, those 45 minutes it takes to make a sketch ahead of time will
be well worth the time.
Once the form of the model and composition of the shot has been
worked and reworked on paper, it is time for strategizing the modeling
process. There are lots of different ways to model that will be covered later,
but remember, it is easy to get caught up in the intricacies of the folds of
skin under the eyes, or the pock marks on the surface of the gear. Do not be
seduced by the dark side! Modeling is fun, but it is only a part of the final
project. I have seen many friends spend so much time creating perfect models that they never get around to texturing or animating the model, and end
up with a portfolio full of models but no finished projects. Will the backside

F IGURE Robert Schuchmans sketch and realized model.

1.3

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F IGURE Storyboard.

1.4

of the model ever be seen? Will the model or camera be moving when it is
in the shot? How well lit is it? What kind of modeling can I do with textures
(Chapter 6)? Ask yourself all of these questions before you start modeling.
There is really no reason to create model parts if they are not going to be
seen. And, there is no use spending hours on details if they flash through the
shot with high-motion blur in less than one second.
Once all the planning and strategizing is done, it is time to actually touch
the computer. The first step in the computer phase of 3D is to model. If
planned effectively, modeling can be a fun process of sculpting, lathing,
and creating that really cannot be done the same way in any other media.
Sometimes, you may find that your software or your modeling skills are not
quite up to the task of realizing the original design. Thus, the return to step
X cycle begins. Redesign a bit, and then remodel.

3D ANIMATION

Once the models geometry is created, the texturing process begins.

Sometimes texturing involves using stock textures (although keep canned
textures to a minimum), while other times texturing involves creating your
own through photographs or other images you may have. And still other
times, creating textures is done by drawing your own textures in another
image creation program (e.g., Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.). Once the textures are created, the focus shifts to mapping those textures to the geometry
of the model. Sometimes during this process, you will find that the texture
needs altering, or that the texture does not cover up flaws in the modeling
that you thought it would, so some backtracking is needed.
When applying textures, do many interim renderings to see how the texture is falling across the surface of the model. Then model, texture, render,
retexture, rerender, sometimes remodel, rerender, retexture, rerenderyou
get the idea. When you render at this stage, be sure to use faster rendering
algorithms; this is only a preview, after all.
After applying the textures to the model, dive into the lighting of the
project. Spend quality time on lighting, as good lighting can bring the most
boring of models and textures to life, or it can kill the most vibrant of designs. Again, render often here. During the lighting phase, you may find
that the mood lighting you use is dulling the colors of the textures, so be
sure to adjust the textures.
Now, if the project calls for a still, a final render is in order. If the project
is an animation, make sure that the storyboard is well worked and understood. If the animation calls for sound-sync (matching motion to sound),
then building a dope sheet is an important step. Create your dope sheets to
match your needs. Dope sheets (Figure1.5) are basically a way to map out
the motion planned to the sound planned over the frames needed, and will
be covered in detail later.
Once you have mapped out how the timing works, you need to start
putting time into your project. Animation is sometimes called 4D, with
time as the forth dimension. How you time your animations and how you
design the movement is what gives animations personalities, what makes
them interesting, and what makes them art. Since the last half of this book
is devoted to animation, Ill leave this discussion until then. The key is to remember that animation is also a means to a finished project, and will obviously undergo revision after it is rendered.
When all of the rough footage from animations is finally done, you will
probably have a variety of QuickTime, AVI, or other formatted clips (depending on how many shots are planned in your storyboard). The time has
come to figure out which parts of the animation are truly needed to drive

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F IGURE Dope sheets.

1.5

the story, and which need to be left on the virtual cutting floor. We all fall in
love with our projects, especially when we are pleased with a new technique
we learned or when it is going well over all. However, audiences do not always share our love of new found techniques, and are usually bored if the elements we include do not facilitate in pushing the story forward. Plan some
good time for editing. Good editing does not come quickly or easily, and
usually several different editing sessions are needed to trim away unnecessary clips that made it past the storyboard cutting stages. It is during the
editing process that you can begin to see if all the elements we just discussed
have come together. If not, back up, rework, and try again.
Often, during the editing process, sound is added as an afterthought.
However, sound is so important that it really deserves its own mention and
category step. Animations work best when there is a clear concept of sound
from the beginning of the project. Sound can help dictate motions, timing,
and feeling. Take some time to create a sound design. Be careful not to just
use stock sounds over the top of a creation. Putting stock sound over the top
of a meticulously created 3D animation that took you weeks or months to
painstakingly and lovingly create is like buying the whitest flour from Nebraska, the finest cocoa-beans from South America, the purest sugar from
Hawaii, and then getting water from the gutter to make a cake.
The biggest issue for many computer artists is the lack of outside feedback and influence. It is easy to get buried in the project at hand, and finish
the project without ever getting any advice. After you have finished a good
edit and a good sound design, realize that the work is still in process and get
feedbacklots of it. Youll be surprised how much your friends, family, and
colleagues can help. Do not assume that when they say, I dont understand
whats happening there, they are telling you they do not understand the
medium of 3D; it means that you are not as clear as you should be in communicating your story. Besides getting friends or colleagues to look at
projects, get those who know about 3D to look at it. There are a variety of
newsgroups, postforums, and other listservs that will allow you to post

3D ANIMATION

10

work for criticism. Usually, the criticism that comes from these sources is
constructive and comes from very knowledgeable people. Sometimes, a few
well-placed constructive criticisms can take you in far more interesting and
successful directions on a project. When the critique comes, and it always
does, disregard that which is of no use and adhere to the valid. After criticism, you might find that you need to rework all the way back at the storyboard stage, or you might find that it is just a small matter of a tighter edit.
Either way, the 3D cycle continues.
Now that we have looked at all the times to return to another step, it
needs to be said that there is also a time to stop. The last step of the process
is to know when to stop and let the project stand. There is always something
that could be done a little better, but there are other stories to tell, more motion to study, and ideas to explore.

Tutorial
Introduction
and Explanation

Throughout the course of this book, as we look at the different modeling,

texturing, and animation techniques, you will notice screen shots from several different programs and projects. The programs that will be covered
specifically are Maxons Cinema4D XL v6 (C4D), Stratas 3D (SSP), and
Newteks Lightwave v6 (LW). These programs were selected because they
are powerful industry packages that are also cross platform (can be used on
both Mac and PC). A demo for Cinema4D is included on the CD and the
full version of Strata 3D can be found there as well.
However, one thing that is clearly emerging as the 3D market evolves, is
that the most important aspect is the content of your work, not the tool you
used. Some other influential and powerful tools include AutoDesSys
FormZ, Hashs Animation:Master, Discreets 3D Studio Max, AliasWavefronts Maya, and Avid Technologys SoftImage. Most of the techniques
used to create any one of the projects can be used in any of these other applications. So if you are a Lightwave fanatic and see screen shots to describe
a procedure in StudioPro, still take note. Strategies are cross application and
cross platform.
One more note: the CD-ROM includes all the images that you see on
these pages. Many of the images included here are by very talented artists
and should be enjoyed in full color. In addition, in many places (especially
during texture tutorials) there may be some files you may want to use to follow along. Use the CD-ROM as you follow the tutorials for maximum efficiency, or you may wish to ignore the files included and create your own.
Just have fun!