Geometric Theory

Star Wars 1977 (film)

• An animated 3D wireframe graphic is used for the first time in the first Star Wars film. This new technology was used for the trench run briefing sequence in the first Star Wars film. Larry Cuba, who worked out of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois.

• In the Link below Larry explains how the wire-frame graphics were constructed using his computer:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMeSw00n3Ac&feature=player_embedded#!

Toy Story 1995

• Disney Pixar’s Toy Story is the first feature film made entirely out of CGI (computer generated imagery), the film began with animated story boards to guide animators, 27 animators worked on the film using 400 computer models. Each character was either created out of clay or was first modelled off of a computer-drawn diagram before reaching the computer animated design To sync the actors' voices with the characters, animators spent a week per 8-second frame detailing the characters' mouths and expressions. After this the animators would compile the scenes, and develop a new storyboard with the computer animated characters. Animators then added shading, lighting, visual effects, and finally used 300 computer processors to render the film to its final design.

How 3-D models are constructed • 3-D models can be constructed in different shapes and sizes, for example

you can build Geo-sphere’s, boxes, cones, cylinders and pyramids. These objects can be combined to make one object.

The example on the left shows a work in progress of a snow man, in 3-Ds max I have made one huge sphere for the base of the snowman and another sphere scaled down to size for the head, also you can notice the two eyes I have placed on its face which are also made from two primitive sphere objects.

Regular box• In 3ds max I took a

screen shot of a primitive box I made, added segments and converted it to an Editable mesh, converting it to an editable mesh means that you can distort the shape of this box anyway you desire, from vertices to the faces.

Messing with the Vertices• Furthermore, as

you can see I have shaped the vertices using the selection tool. Also on the right there is a panel where you can select different areas to distort, for example, the vertices option is highlighted in yellow, the others are edges and faces.

Using the edges option• This is the shape

after I have used the edges option, you can see slightly it looks like a house, with these options you can produce a million shapes and objects using this handy tool.

Faces option• Finally the last use

of the editable mesh option, the house has its roof distorted with the faces tool, as you can see the top area has been selected (in red) together to make the object more symmetrical, the other parts of the object including underneath can also be shaped .

Extrusion of 2-D Splines• 2-D splines can be created with

3ds Max, using the line tool you can create a 2-D object. Using the modifier list, you can select the ‘Extrude’ option and add 3-D depth to the object. 2-D splines can also be made in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool, once saved the Illustrator file can be imported into 3ds max.

Bend modifier

In 3ds Max there are many modifiers you can use to distort your primitive object, for example I have used the ‘bend’ modifier which enables you to bend the object in the desired direction, you can change how you want it in the parameters section. As you can see my cylinder object has been bent at a 53.5 degree angle.

Twist modifier

Other modifiers you can use such as the twist modifier, this modifier enables you to twist the primitive object. The object I have twisted is a scaled sphere using the angle 500 and with the twist axis at Z. You can change the modifying options in the parameters section.

Taper modifier

The Taper modifier produces a tapered contour by scaling both ends of an object's geometry; one end is scaled up, and the other is scaled down. You can control the amount and curve of the taper on two sets of axes. You can also limit the taper to a section of the geometry