00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page i DIGITAL ANIMATION BIBLE This page intentionally left blank. 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page iii Digital Animation Bible Creating Professional Animation with 3ds max, LightWave, and Maya George Avgerakis McGraw-Hill New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distrib- uted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-143354-6 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-141494-0 All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in cor- porate training programs. For more information, please contact George Hoare, Special Sales, at george_hoare@mcgraw- hill.com or (212) 904-4069. TERMS OF USE This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (“McGraw-Hill”) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill’s prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms. THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS”. McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WAR- RANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PAR- TICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any dam- ages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, con- sequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. DOI: 10.1036/0071433546 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page v To Mario Pastorelli C. The artist’s artist and teacher’s teacher. “Pim Pon Pappas” This page intentionally left blank. 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page vii For more information about this title, click here. CONTENTS Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Glossary from 3ds max Point of View xix Chapter 1 Your First Day on the Job1 The Passion 2 The Pay 3 Your Own Animation Studio 6 Selling Your Talent 12 Categories of Animation Business 13 Your First Job: What’s It Like? 17 Small Corporate Shop 17 A Midsize Disney Subcontractor 19 A Major-League Hollywood Studio 20 How This Book Works 22 Boldface Type 23 Fictitious Names 23 The Most Popular Software 23 The Workflow Process 24 Pitching the Project 25 Contracting and Billing 27 Storyboard 28 Objects, Scenes, and Characters 28 Motions 33 Testing 34 Rendering 35 Getting Paid 35 Getting Your First Job in Animation 37 The Issue of Schooling 37 No Catch-22—Yet 40 The Intern 41 Six Steps to Getting Your Foot in the Door 41 Step 3: Attend a Job Interview 50 Step 4: Once You Start Work as an Intern, Work Your Tail Off 51 Step 5: Be Alert to Opportunities 53 Step 6: Once You’ve Established Your Value to the Workplace, Ask for a Letter of Recommendation 53 Copyright 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page viii viii Contents Chapter 2 From Concept to Screen: The Workflow Process 57 Conceptualizing the Animation 58 The Storyboard 59 The Client Presentation 64 Timing the Board 66 Break Down the Board 68 Allow Time to Render 69 The Rendering Farm 70 The Animators’ Tasks 70 Dividing up the Work 71 Writing and Approving the Script 71 The Element Breakdown 73 Milestones 75 Design the Exterior Scene 76 Design the Interior Hall 77 Acquire the Client Art 79 Design the Characters 80 Acquiring Music, Sound Effects, and Voice Talent 84 Choreographing the Egyptian and the Professor 90 Building a Render Farm 95 Lip-Synching Characters 98 Rendering a Test Pass in SD Resolution 100 Recording and Mixing the Track 102 HD Conformation to D-5 103 Recording Your Results 104 Internet Distribution 105 Chapter 3 Investing in the Necessary Equipment 107 Equipment and Software Obsolescence 108 The Cost of Cash 110 Burn Rate 112 Just Enough Equipment 113 The Basic Animation Computer 113 A Note on Brands That Appear in This Book 114 Research Methods You Can Use 116 Building a Mission-Critical Workstation 117 Power Supply 118 Hard Drive Protection 119 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page ix Contents ix Software Risks 127 Peripheral Devices 128 Choosing a Computer 128 Operating Systems (OSs) 128 Choosing the Hardware 134 Building Your Own Computer 135 Good Brands 137 Computer Workstations 138 Let’s Consider Laptops 142 Cutting Corners 143 The Fastest Iron on Earth? 144 Video Display Cards 145 Scanners and Printers 147 Audio Capabilities 148 Sound-Editing Software 151 Amplifier and Speakers 152 Electronic Pen Devices 153 Optional Tools 154 Audio Creation 155 Stock Music 157 The Recording Booth 158 The Audio Mixer 159 Microphone 160 Headphones 161 Looping Tools 161 Sound Booth Monitor 162 ADR Software 163 Cabling 165 The Role of Video in an Animation Studio 165 Video Acquisition 166 Video Capture Cards 166 The VCR 169 Video Monitor 171 Summary 171 Chapter 4 The Mechanics of Three Leading Animation Programs 173 Three Leading Animation Programs 174 Which is Best? 174 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page x x Contents Common Elements 175 Views 176 Program Navigation 176 View Navigation 177 Object Navigation 177 Layers and Histories 178 Timeline 179 LightWave 180 General Description 180 Program Navigation 182 View Navigation 184 Object Manipulation 186 Object Creation 188 Exercise 188 Object Editing 190 Layers 190 Exercise 191 Timeline 192 3ds max 194 General Description 194 Program Navigation 195 View Navigation 198 Object Navigation 199 Object Creation 201 Object Editing 203 Layers 206 Trackbar 208 Exercise 210 Maya 211 General Description 212 Program Navigation 213 Layers 214 Exercise 218 View Navigation 220 Object Navigation 221 Object Creation 221 Object Editing 223 Exercise 223 Layers 223 Exercise 224 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page xi Contents xi Time Slider 225 Exercise 226 Summary 227 Chapter 5 Objects and Surfaces 229 Object Shapes 230 Why Model Objects at All? 231 Internet Objects 232 Modeling Methods 232 Polygon Modeling 233 Splines 239 Nonuniform Rational B-spline (NURBS) Modeling 245 Level of Detail (LOD, AKA parametric modeling) 247 Object Terminology 248 The Relationship of Light and Objects 250 Chapter 6 Let There Be (Rendered) Light 267 Good, Fast, or Cheap—Pick Any Two 269 Radiosity 270 Monte Carlo Accounting 271 Photon Mapping 271 Pure Ray Tracing 272 Render Engines 273 NewTek’s Screamer Net 274 Discreet and Alias|Wavefront 275 Traditional Lighting Tools 277 Ambient Lights 278 Volume-Defined Lights 279 Instrument Lights 280 Light Properties 281 Shadows 282 Lighting Effects 282 Traditional Light Positioning 284 Compositing 285 Chapter 7 Rigging and Animating Characters 287 Character Creation 288 Attribute Lists and Sketching 289 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page xii xii Contents Inputting 293 Setting up Project Directories 293 The Massing Model 297 Polygon Characters 298 Spline Characters 299 Subdivision Surfaces Characters 299 Level of Detail (LOD or Parametric) Characters 300 Modeling the Character 300 Polygon Modeling 300 Spline Modeling 301 Patch Modeling 302 LOD and Parametric Modeling 303 Rigging 304 Give Me Some Skin 306 Budgeting Details 307 Bones of Contention 308 Constraints and Joint Types 310 Kinematics: Forward and Inverse 311 Facial Considerations 312 Animating a Character 313 Sliders 313 Replicate and Exaggerate 314 Function Curves 316 Index 319 00_200505_Avg_FM 9/5/03 11:24 AM Page xiii PREFACE Introduction This book is intended for anyone interested in entering the 3-D animation business and pursuing a professional career in computer-generated imagery (CGI).