MDU 115 Week 3 Blog Post

In this post I will talk about Lighting, Rendering and Compositing.

• Lighting

In photography, it has been said that ‘lighting is everything.’ A similar rule applies to 3D models and animations. Lighting your scene is important because without lights, everything would be black. You need to be very careful about where you place lights in a 3D scene, and you also need to think about the purpose of the light. An outdoor scene will need different lighting to an indoor scene, and some shots might need to be brighter or darker than others for dramatic effect.

Figure 1, the lighting in this shot from ‘The Incredibles’ (2004) lets the audience know it’s set indoors. Retrieved from http://blog.nola.com/michaelkleinschrodt/2007/11/short_film_collection_is_a_vis.html

 

Figure 2, the lighting in this shot from ‘The Incredibles’ (2004) lets the audience know its set outdoors. Retrieved from http://sundaymovies.net/2015/03/08/the-incredibles-2004/

 

• Rendering

Rendering when it comes to 3D animation is creating an output of a scene that can be viewed as a video or as game play. Rendering puts all the elements together, such as particles, lighting and textures, which are usually seen in basic form in the 3D window.

When it comes to high definition animated films or special effects in live action films, rendering can take hours for each frame. Depending on the project, a ‘render farm’ may be used. Render farms are a network of computers devoted to producing the final product, and are usually set up to be left running over time.

In video games, however, rendering needs to be done in real time. This means that the graphics need to be rendered while the game is being played, which calls for very fast hardware. Video game graphics are becoming increasingly better, but they still lack the detail of an animated film because the hardware of a game console doesn’t have the luxury of taking time to render.

Figure 3, this image of Bill Nighy playing Davy Jones in the 2006 movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,’ shows the stages from the live action, to the modelling stage and then the final rendered frame. Retrieved from http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Bill_Nighy

 

• Compositing

When it comes to art in general, a composition is a layout of combined visual elements, and at times sound can also be included as part of the composition. Once the individual aspects of an animation are finished, the act of compositing is putting them altogether into one space, so that they can be seen as a finished project.

Figure 4, this image shows a 3D composition from an old project of mine in Adobe After Effects.

 

References

Birn, J. (2002). 3D Rendering. Retrieved from http://www.3drender.com/glossary/3drendering.htm

Marius. (2014). What is a render farm? Retrieved from http://blog.render.st/what-is-a-render-farm/

Post Production Glossary. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.digitalrebellion.com/glossary.htm#C

Sanders, A. L. (2015). In Computer Animation, What is Rendering? Retrieved from http://animation.about.com/od/faqs/f/In-Computer-Animation-What-Is-Rendering.htm

Slick, J. (2015). Standard 3D Lighting Techniques. Retrieved from http://3d.about.com/od/Creating-3D-The-CG-Pipeline/a/3d-Lighting-Techniques-Standard-3d-Lighting_2.htm

Slick, J. (2015). What is Rendering? Retrieved from http://3d.about.com/od/3d-101-The-Basics/a/Rendering-Finalizing-The-3d-Image.htm

Wiesen, G. (2015). What Is 3D Compositing? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-3d-compositing.htm