3D ANIMATION PIPELINE- II

In the previous article, we studied about the Pre-Production stage of a 3D animation project. In continuation of that, we will read about the next two stages viz. PRODUCTION and POST PRODUCTION.

PRODUCTION:

Once the pre-production part is over, the project lands in the making of the 3D animation phase, where all the work from modelling to lighting is done.

The steps are as follows:

MODELLING:

Designing the structure of anything is modeling.

This step is the first step of the production process. It includes designing everything that is to be used in the animation. Modelling could be done with any 3-D animation software, but Autodesk Maya is widely used. Modelling artists closely observe the 2-D image or illustrations and convert it to 3-D models with high details.

Modelling is of two types:

Organic Modelling- The organic modelers model all the free-form surfaces. In simple words, organic modeling is modeling a character or any living thing.
Inorganic- It is the opposite of organic modeling. It is hard surfaced modeling. The buildings, vehicles, weapons and all the kinds of props, come under this category.

Organic Modelling.

After modeling is done, the next step is skinning. As an organic model is a skeleton of the character, skinning is a must for further texturing and rigging to bring up reality.

SHADING & TEXTURING:

Shading= Mono color

Texturing= more than one color

Shading and texturing deals with the physical appearance of the models. It is providing colors and textures and giving roughness, smoothness, bump, marks etc., whatever is required. The textures are either made from scratch or an existing image is called, the texturing artist is responsible for texturing and writing shaders as per the requirement.

UV Mapping

The textures are painted as maps that are assigned to the model.

RIGGING:

Rigging is a setup of controllers of a model to make it work. It is defining the working and the movement of the character and making the setup of bones for organic models so that they can be further animated.

Face Rig with all the controllers.

Body Rig

In some studios, the rigging department is also responsible for cloth simulation.

ANIMATION:

Animation could be defined as, ‘giving life to a character’ or ‘moving a dead object’.

This is a stage where the fully and accurately modeled, textured and rigged model arrives for animation. In 3D animation, the performance of the character is planned frame by frame using the same basic principle used for stop-motion and 2-D animation.

Run Animation

DYNAMICS & SIMULATION:

A physical phenomenon that can’t be affected by environment force or it can be defined as the movements of the universe that can’t be controlled like Gravity, wind, smoke, dust, water etc.

Particles collision

LIGHTING:

Lighting is the medium to see anything. It shows the important areas of the scene, creates feelings and expressions that the scene wants to convey. The lighting artist has to consider not only the lighting of every scene but the elements by all the departments too.

Lighting artist possesses a lot of responsibilities, including the interaction of lights with the scene, the character and different types of materials, light properties, textures, mood and the color theory. It also plays an important role in the placement of shadows.

It is one of the most important steps.

POST PRODUCTION:

After finishing pre-production and production, the project enters the Post- Production stage. Here, the project is given the final touch and is prepared for completion. The project goes through many steps depending upon the requirement of the project.

These are stated below:

RENDERING: Here, the scene is exported to an image form. It is the last step in the pipeline but is not the last in the production process. Beginners usually overlook this step, but it is an extremely important one. On the basis of renders, further post-production process takes place.

COMPOSITING: Here, the final rendered images are made ready for the film. It can be considered as a part of rendering as it is basically rendering the different passes (ambient occlusion, specular, shadow etc.) and handles the general color grading.

COLOUR CORRECTION: After rendering, the images are taken to Photoshop or any photo editing software and made it suitable for the scene.

EDITING: It includes

Sound editing: This department handles final soundtracks and lip sync of the characters.

Video editing: Here, the unwanted scenes and footage are removed. It works on the smooth functioning of the film to deliver seamless final product. This department makes sure that the video is meeting the ultimate requirements of the flow of the film.

ROTOSCOPING, CHROMA, TITLES & CREDITS and many more steps could be followed as per the project requirements.

VFX:

VFX is the special effects given to the scenes to make it look more flashy or real. It is the combination of both production and post-production stages.

CONCLUSION:

The 3-D project pipeline discussed above is common in most of the 3D animation studios, but it may vary at many. Many studios possess their own pipeline that is different from others. It is an individual choice. Many studios also adopt THE REFERENCING FORMULA, in which mainly modeling and Animation is done side by side working with other departments connected with a referencing software which connects them all, irrespective of their physical location.