- Training 3D Animation & FX
- Promotion 2022
Through a number of workshops held throughout their course, 3D Animation and Special Effects students are introduced to textures and lighting in their first year. This is the first step towards mastering the digital image.
As with everything, becoming an expert requires a long and meticulous apprenticeship. Our 3D Animation and Special Effects students are no exception to this rule – quite the contrary! Step by step, they assimilate all the concepts and techniques that will make them professionals of the moving image.
This begins with practical exercises on still images, with simple subjects that become increasingly complex as the course progresses, teaching students to master modelling, texturing and lighting.
EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
- Wooden spoons exercise: make 2 spoons, choose a type of wood to texture,
- Fruit basket exercise: create a still life of fruit and vegetables showing different degrees of ripeness,
- Breakfast exercise: present a realistic breakfast scene involving several objects and play with depth of field as well as light and its reflections.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
These different exercises provide a gradation in learning and awareness of textures and light. The first exercise, wooden spoons, asked students to reproduce a wooden shader corresponding to a reference (colour, reaction to light, etc.) while adding imperfections linked to wear and tear.
The second exercise, involving fruit, took up the basics of the previous work but made it more complex. Added to this was the need to understand and adapt the given models to UV light, as well as setting up and lighting a packshot.
And finally, the third and most complex exercise in the series, breakfast. The students had to create a complete scene involving modelling and UVs, then use procedural techniques to create hyper-realistic shaders and integrate bitmap techniques (images of given textures) to create imperfections (traces of grease, scratches, dirt, traces of limestone) to give life to the elements. The scene also involved working with outdoor lighting and reproducing sunlight. The students worked on the basics of framing established in art history and drawing classes to place the camera and the elements in the frame. They also had to think about the natural ergonomics of the placement of the elements to make the scene credible.
TECHNIQUE(S)
Maya, Renderman, Photoshop.
