Subject:
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2 Methods of Making CG Animations (was Re: LEGO animation software)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.ray
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Date:
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Fri, 23 Jan 2004 23:39:38 GMT
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Viewed:
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6610 times
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--snip--
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Does ld4d modeler create an mlcad file for every frame then render it?
Steve
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Nope. =(
It will render the animation in a movie file format (..mpg, .avi, etc..) when
you are done. LD4DModler does not go the route of frame-by-frame animation as
POV-Ray does, it uses 3D modeling.
(The following text comes from a chapter from Virtual LEGO that did not make it
into the printed book: http://news.lugnet.com/cad/?n=10725)
Frame-by-Frame is the easier of the two methods, since it is a straightforward
technique to learn. 3D modeling requires some understanding of how things move
and some experience with 3D modeling software.
Frame-by-Frame
Frame-by-Frame as the name implies is the creation of an animation by creating a
series of static images that when shown in a certain sequence provide the
illusion of movement. Two basic methods exist to create the illusion of
movement. In the first method one moves the object in question a few increments
over a series of several frames to cerate the illusions of movement. In the 2nd
method the position of the camera moves over a series of several frames to also
create the illusion of movement. The first method was how the first cartoons
were created. A cartoonist would draw say a car with a blue sky and sun on a
sheet of paper that we will call a frame. This would become the 1st frame of
the cartoon. The next frame would again show the blue sky and sun. The car,
however, would be drawn a bit offset from the first. After a series of say
hundreds of frames if one looked at them consecutively and fast the illusions of
a car moving could be seen. As one can see this method took forever and was
time consuming having to create hundreds of thousands of frames for a
full-motion cartoon. As time progressed the industry created tricks to decrease
the time it took to create cartoons. The separation of static and animated
objects was done. Static object were drawn once while animated objects were
still drawn in a series of frames. In the final production static images were
overlaid with the animated frames to provide the illusion that the object was
moving in the environment provided by the static image. To further reduce the
amount of drawing, simple movements were drawn and reused throughout the
animation. A character walking may have required ten frames. These ten frames
were reused whether the character was at the park or inside the mall. The
invention of computers further reduced a cartoonist workload. In the span of
hours a computer could render hundreds of thousands of frames, while it would
take a dozen cartoonist years to complete the same workload. The computer also
introduced a new method to animate: camera movement.
The concept is simple. Movement is relative to the viewer’s vision. By moving
a camera that starts off at a distance closer to an object the final result on
film is the viewer getting closer to the object. If one adds a background to
the object and makes the background move as well the illusion that the main
object is moving closer to one is created. Think of fast moving space ships.
The small model ships were not really moving. The camera was and the illusion
of speedy spacecrafts was achieved.
3D Modeling
3D modeling is done with the use of a computer and special 3D Animation
software. The idea is to create two structures of any object that will move: 1)
a static 3D model of the object and 2) a skeleton structure of the object that
defines how the object can move. The software then uses the 3D model and
renders it based on the movement of the skeleton. The process is very computer
intense and a firm understanding of object movement is needed. Until recently
this method was not possible without professional commercial software. The
creation of the program called LD4DModeler has changed this for the LDraw
animation community. This program while not as sophisticated as its
professional cousins provides the user the ability to create LDraw animations
using the 3D modeling method. Unfortunately, just like its cousins (the
professional 3D Modelers), LD4DModeler is not for the faint of heart. We will
not be covering LD4DModeler in this book since it is designed for an
intermediate to advance use of LDraw. If you are interested in learned how it
works, we advise you to check out the official website for LD4DModeler at
http://members.rott.chello.nl/rmelkert/LD4DModeler/.. The creator of
LD4Dmodelers has creating some introductory tutorials that we recommend you read
prior to attempting to use the software on your own.
-AHui
LDraw Help Desk
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: LEGO animation software
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| (...) Hello I dont have much experience with writing programs. But I am working on writing a tutorial on how to make animations with povray using the clock, transform, and rotate commands. Maybe a couple of weeks. For now this is the best site I (...) (21 years ago, 23-Jan-04, to lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.ray)
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