UV Mapping is a 3D modeling process in which a 2D image is projected to a 3D model's surface. A good analogy to understand UV mapping is cutting up a cardboard box. The box is a three-dimensional object which is similar to the mesh cube in the 3D program. If you were to cut the seam or the fold of the box, you would be able to lay the pieces flat on a flat surface. In 3D the u is considered the horizontal part of the texture and the v is the vertical ("Doc:2.4/Manual/Textures/Mapping/UV - Blenderwiki"). Therefore the image is essentially converted into two dimensions.
The purpose of UV mapping is to make texturing easier, and to make the texture look good without stretching and pulling of the image. When a box is reassembled, a specific uv location is transferred to an (x, y, z) location on the three-dimensional box . This is what the 3D programs (Maya, Blender) does with a 2D image by wrapping it around a 3D object. When uv mapping your model it is good practice to assign a checkered board texture to your model to see if there is any warping, stretching or pinching. A good uv mapping should have squares that are relatively equal in size or kept at the same aspect ratio. This helps to preserve the quality of the texture you assign to the 3D model.
Rigging is also known as Skeletal animation. Often when an model is complete it is static 3D mesh, almost like a statue or just a skin without bones. Therefore after modelling a character it is very important to rig (give the mesh a skeleton) it before handing it over to the team of animators. It is important that the rigging is bound to a hierarchical set of joints and control handles so that the animators can animate the poses and key-frames of the mesh. If a mesh does not have a rig it is very difficult to animate, deform and transform it (Slick, J).
This animation technique of rigging is not limited to just humans and organic modelling, this same technique can be applied to any object as well, such as a computer, a door, a book or a planet. Rigging is basically to help deform the mesh or 3D model for the purpose of animating and posing.
This animation technique is basically used in all animation systems and these systems can range from simple to complex. Setting up the basic structural skeleton of a human model can take a few hours but to go into more complex rigging such as facial features, weight distributions of skin can take days or weeks before it is ready to be animated (Slick, J).
Placing the skeleton of a mesh is probably the easiest part of the rigging process. It is made up of joints which are sometimes called bones. When rigging a character it is good to keep in mind that each joint should be placed in the same way as a human body. Joints are the points in which you deform a mesh, for example - when rigging an arm, you would put a join by the shoulder, another in the elbow and another in the wrist, which allows the animator to rotate, bend or shift the model in a realistic manner (Slick, J).
IK (Inverse Kinematics) means that the child node within a rig's hierarchy can influence the movement of its parents ("Key 3D Rigging Terminology To Get You Moving"). For example when you move a character's wrist or hand the rest of the arm will be be calculated and positioned according to where the wrist or hand is placed.
FK (Forward Kinematics) means that the character will obey and follow the hierarchical chain. This gives more control over the character but it means that you would need to position each joint independently to one another. For example if you move a wrist of a character it will not influence the rest of the arm, but if you move an elbow it will affect the bottom half of the arm (the wrist, hand and fingers), and if you move or rotate the shoulder it will influence the whole arm (the elbow, wrist, hand and fingers). Therefore this gives the animator more control and allows joints to be placed exactly where it is desired.
Here is a video tutorial which will help to understand rigging in Maya2016:
For more information on rigging, check the references below.
References:
"Key 3D Rigging Terminology To Get You Moving". Digital-Tutors Blog. N.p., 2014. Web. 2 May 2016.
Slick, Justin. "How Are 3D Models Prepared For Animation?". About.com Tech. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 May 2016.
"Skeletal Animation". Wikipedia. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 May 2016.
Stop motion animation (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation technique that captures one frame at a time, by physically moving objects between frames. The illusion of movement is created when you play back the sequence of images quickly. Stop motion is very similar to 2D animation (early Disney) where each frame is drawn differently to create movement between each frame. Stop motion is similar except it uses physical objects instead of drawings ("Introduction To Stop Motion Animation | Dragonframe"). Here is a helpful video for how stop animation works:
Stop motion is very popular, it can be seen in numerous areas of the media, such as music videos, advertisements, shows, YouTube and feature films ("Introduction To Stop Motion Animation | Dragonframe"). It is common for people to think that there is only one style of stop motion but there is actually a wide range of techniques and styles to create stop motion animation.
Here are some well animated stop motion animations, some of them took very different approaches in creating their animation. "Stop Motion Animation. Magic Water": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSzCLf8tjP4
In film making, visual effects (abbreviated VFX) is a way of mixing false or animated images with real film shooting. There are many examples, for instance when a movie shows a hero jumping off the ground and flying through the air, or when a character performs things that are impossible to perform. The Avengers Movie is a very good example of vfx, a lot of the action scenes are created with visual effects. The visual effects are incredible in this movie and takes a lot, I mean a lot of time to create. Here are 2 videos which show some of the visual effects:
The majority of films today use a lot of visual effects as it helps create an environment which looks realistic, but would be too dangerous, expensive and impractical to capture on film. Visual effects have become very important in the filming industry as it often becomes integral to a movie's narrative and appeal. Visual effects is often applied after post-production but it is carefully planned in pre-production and production. The visual effects is led by a visual effects supervisor and is usually involved closely to the director and the production of a film, as this helps guide and lead the visual effects teams to produce what is desired for the film. Another really great movie that uses special effects is the film, Jurassic World:
Life without lighting would not make sense at all. It would be impossible to imagine life without lights. In animation, lights are what brings things to life to a character or a room or an object. Lighting is essential in animation because it really helps make a scene real, it helps create real characters and gives something life from something static. Lighting is one of the key aspects of animation, it plays a vital role in defining how a scene will look. It helps create depth and complexity and the overall mood of the scene.
Within 3D lighting there are 2 main purposes. First is lights produce shadows which help ground the 3D models and make them appear clear; the second is it helps add depth and complexity to the models through use of several techniques such as shading and texturing.
In 3D animation a scene cannot work without any lights. When a scene is rendered, the whole appearance of the scene can only be visible through lighting. The textures and models need lights or they will appear dark in the scene. Therefore lighting can make or break a scene. Lighting can be a difficult aspect to deal with as it can cause unwanted scenes - a scene being too bright or too dull. Thus it is up to the animator to work and experiment and research with the lighting. The same scene can look very different with different or even the same lighting, therefore lots of experimenting helps to understand what works and what does not work.
Effective lighting can help a scene tremendously. It can create the mood and atmosphere of a scene. The use of colour plays a critical part for setting the tone of the scene. Colours evoke different moods. Colours like red can create warm or happy scenes while green or blue can create some calm scenes. Shadows also help to enhance the mood of the scene. Crisp shadows can be created by hard, distant lights - it helps set the mood of really hot environments or dark, mysterious scenes. Therefore lighting has multiple approaches to it and requires experimenting. Here is an interesting page that may help with lighting: http://www.3dartistonline.com/news/2015/04/24-things-you-need-to-know-about-lighting/
Animation and Music are both different fields of entertainment but they both have a very close relationship with one another. Music is very important for animation and animation works extremely well with music. Both create emotional associations through our most influential senses. A certain tune or melody can remind us of a place or an event. And for people who grew up watching animation can sometime instantly associate the animation with the music. Animation is very similar to music in terms of timing/texture and rhythm.
A film like Walt Disney's Fantasia is a very good example of how the music in the film injects character and personality to its characters. The sounds and music of Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice, which created a feeling of a mischievous mouse and an army of broomsticks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHEMkbyXFxs.
More examples that have shown a lot of integration with animation and music are Tarzan, The Jungle Book and Nightmare Before Christmas. If you mute some parts of the animation there is a massive difference in how you read the animation, and thus it shows how important musicality is.
Carlos Baena (Pixar / Paramount Pictures / Animation Mentor Co-founder) said "As I learned more about musical terms I found their equivalent in animation terms. Things like tempo, beats, accents, phrase, rhythm, legato, staccato, adagio, presto, finale, monotone to name a few all have things that you can apply to animation in some way or another."
Most people often believe that animation from gaming and film are the same because they use the same principles of animation, and the same set of tools. Even though the same tools and principles of animation apply to both mediums, the processes and techniques actually differ greatly between the two. There are many differences and techniques that are required to make a game. In games you need to create animations that respond to the game-play, storytelling, combining them both together and making them work to allow the game to flow, and be successful. In movies, animation is more of looking at what the animator has presented and animated; it is less interactive and less freedom for the view as they are stuck with what the camera displays.
Games Animation
Gaming is made to be interactive with the player. When a player plays a game, he/she has complete control of the character and the camera. The player has the power and in the one who is directing the story forward and making the character move. Therefore the animation needs to look good from all possible angles in relation to the story.
For example, if a game can be set to a new camera angle - in third person, and the player has the option to rotate the camera around during a walk or run cycle; then the new angle should reveal the necessary movements or actions. Examples such as arm movements or knee pops; these actions may not have been visible the normal camera view, therefore it is necessary for the game animators to take into account that their animations function at at any given times of the game to whatever the player may throw at it.
Animations within movies is not as strict as animating in gaming, not to say the one is easier that the other but there is a difference. In movies the animator does not necessarily need to worry about all the angles of a character when it is performing an action, because the animator chooses the angle of the camera, and chooses what will be displayed. But for games most of the angles need to look good as the player has control of the camera view. For instance the arcs of an animation within a game need to be nice smooth arcing motions from any camera angle.
Movie Animation
In movie animations, the animator is responsible for animating what is in the view of the camera shot. In other words, mainly need to worry about one camera angle at time.
For instance, if you are watching a movie, you are not in control of the camera angle and therefore cannot rotate around to look at the whole set. You are basically stuck viewing at whatever the camera is aimed at.
This allows animators to cheat in a way while animating their characters and objects, because they know that the shot will only been seen at a specific angle. So if it looks great from that angle then ultimately that is all that matters.
This does not mean that one is more difficult that the other when it comes to animating, both have a fair share of difficulties and obstacles that are different from one another. In movies the animators need to consider the angle of the camera very delicately as they do not give freedom to the viewer to rotate the camera like in games. Specific camera angles can tell the mood or the atmosphere of the scene and therefore needs to be positioned well to get the message across to the viewer.
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