Essential Skills for 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Animation

215

Chapter 6

Conclusion

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   is is the nal part of the book, where we wrap up

everything we have learned and give some sage advice to young,

aspiring 3D artists. I assume now you must be an accomplished modeler,

rendering guru, and animation master, right?

If only it were that easy. My point here, at the end of the book, is that

you will have become none of those things by reading through this book

and doing the contained exercises. You should, however, have a very solid

foundational and conceptual knowledge of how basic 3D graphics work,

and how to approach certain tasks with certain tools in any 3D soware

package. Modeling, rendering, and animation are the three key disciplines

in 3D graphics, and now you know the important aspects of each and how

to go about reasonably creating content. Many aspiring 3D artists ask me

questions about what they should do and how they should go about get-

ting a job or furthering their knowledge in 3D art, and I always have the

same advice. Find out what you are good at, and specialize in that. Not

many people out there are good at modeling, lighting, material editing,

UV texturing, and animation. People have specic skills in specic areas

(or at least a pressing interest), and when they pursue that aspect over oth-

ers they oen excel more in it. You do need to learn how everything works,

though, which is the purpose of this book. If you do not know anything

about geometry you can never be a good texture artist, and if you do not

know animation you will not be able to model properly because you will

not see the object or character in motion—you will always see it as a static

model. When you know how everything works, you become much better

at your special area of expertise. So pick an area in which you would like

216 ◾ Essential Skills for 3D Modeling, Rendering, and Animation

to specialize and focus on taking your learning in that direction. ere

is so much room to learn, grow, and even innovate in the broader eld of

computer graphics that you can pursue one aspect of it for a decade and

not really scratch the surface. I have been working with 3D graphics in one

capacity or another since 1996, and there are aspects of it I have never used

at all. It is a big eld, and narrowing down what you really want to do early

is a great way to get good at it without clogging up your brain with aspects

that are not that important, like cloth simulation, facial animation, uid

eects, or subsurface scattering. e three cornerstones of 3D, however,

are modeling, rendering, and animation, as described in this book, and if

you have these under your belt as foundational knowledge, then I am sure

you can learn the rest when and if the time comes. Good luck on your path

to becoming a great 3D artist!

FIGURE 2.5 Minnow Pete, modeled by the author.

FIGURE 2.6 A lower polygon, triangulated version of Minnow Pete.

FIGURE 2.58 Original, low- poly models by author.

FIGURE 2.59 Same models aer smoothing. e angular edges are gone, but the

polygon count has almost tripled! Always strive to use the least polygons possible

when modeling.

FIGURE 4.3 Real- time rendering of a game in development by the author.

FIGURE 4.4 Soware rendering. Notice the high quality of this render. It could

never be achieved at 60 frames per second (fps) with today’s hardware.

FIGURE 4.24 e eects of using colored lights are very noticeable. Use it sparingly.

FIGURE 4.37 e sphere on the le has a specular or “shiny” shader, while the

sphere on the right has a non- specular shader.