3D art refers to creating artwork using all three dimensions of width, height, and depth. It is the form of art used to create blockbuster feature animations such as Shrek, Toy Story, Big Hero 6, and Coco. 3D art is a fascinating world that never fails to amuse and amaze the audience. It is a magical tool that makes it possible for us to see imaginary 3D worlds and visualize awe-inspiring phenomena that can never be seen with the naked eye. Creating 3D art is not an easy feat though. In this post, we will see how we can get three-dimensional!
Diving into the Three Dimensions
What does three-dimensional really mean, you might ask. Well, think of the space around yourself right now. you can move forward and backward, meaning you are moving in depth. You can go up and down, meaning you can change your elevation, and you can also move left and right, that is moving along the width in the space. The human eye understands these three spatial dimensions. Our brain perceives the world around us in this way. It sees and understands these three dimensions.
What Software is Used to Create 3D Art?
3D art can be created using special software that provides a 3D scene in a computer. 3D artists can move around this 3D workspace to create 3D objects using all three dimensions explained earlier. They can rotate around objects and manipulate them. Think of a real-world sculptor who can move around its sculpture and deform the sh ape, that is what 3D software makes possible. Autodesk Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, and Cinema 4D are examples of such software.
Read More: Maya vs. Blender
What is the Process of Creating 3D Art?
Creating 3D art involves several complicated steps, some of which have technical names that might sound confusing at first. We will go over these steps one by one with detailed explanations.
3D Modeling
3D modeling is usually the first step in creating 3D art. Understanding 3D modeling is easier with an analogy. Think of a triangle. It has three edges; three connecting points, and one surface enclosed by these edges. If you manipulate the location of points or extend the edges, you get a new triangle with a different shape. 3D modeling is exactly like that. 3D software provides users with some primitive shapes like cubes, pyramids and spheres that have some edges, points, which are called vertices, and surfaces that are called faces. By manipulating and adding edges and vertices, 3D models can be transformed into any shape. In 3D graphics, the term “model” is adopted because computers render shapes on screen according to mathematical models. The coordinates of vertices passed into these models are the parameters that help 3D software define the rendered shape.
3D Sculpting
3D modeling is not the only way to create 3D objects. Another technique, which is used widely to create 3D art is sculpting. It involves using brushes to mold, deform, and manipulate objects to create new shapes. 3D sculpting is the preferred way to create characters or objects that require higher levels of organic and fluid details, while 3D modeling is better suited for modeling objects that fall under the category of polygonal or hard-surface models such as cars, weapons, walls, and houses. ZBrush is a software used by many studios for 3D sculpting.
3D Texturing
The next step in creating 3D art is texturing. Textures are images applied to a surface. When you are done modeling a 3D object, a texture map is needed to apply color and texture to a 3D model. A texture map is a flat image that defines which images are applied to specific parts of a 3D model. But how can we apply a texture flat image to a 3D object? To do that, we need to UV unwrap the 3D model. Do you remember unwrapping a cube in school to see that it is made of 6 squares? That is essentially what UV unwrapping does. The software creates a 2D map of all faces that come together to create a 3D model. Finally, texture maps are adjusted manually by 3D artists to match the UV map, so the models are now textured and colored properly.
3D Rigging
The next step in creating 3D art is to give your models bones! A 3D model on its own does not have any form of skeletons. In 3D, the term rigging refers to attaching bones to a model, so certain parts of it can be moved independently or together. That makes it possible for animators to animate models. The term rig, in 3D, is sometimes used to refer to a model that is rigged as well. Rigging is not limited to humanoid or creature 3D models; everything can be rigged in 3D. Think of a kettle you want to animate. You can attach a bone to its handle or lid to animate them. Creating complex rigs for human, animal, or creature characters can sometimes be very complicated.
Animation
After rigging models, animation usually comes next. 3D animation is a laborious task that involves adjusting characters and objects into various poses over time. All animation software has a timeline dedicated to animation. Animators use timelines to set keyframes. Keyframes are used to set the starting and ending points of an action. Suppose you want a character to throw a ball. To animate that, you need to break down animation into several key poses and adjust your characters in time accordingly. The animation software is responsible for interpolating objects and characters between these keyframes to create movement. It is worth noting that 3D art does not have to be necessarily animated. There are many forms of 3D art that are intended to be static. Stationary game assets, 3D concept art and architectural designs are some types of 3D art that don’t need to be necessarily animated.
Lighting
Usually when animation is finished in a 3D project, it’s time to shed light on the scene, pun actually intended! 3D software comes with various types of lights, lamps, and lighting settings. It is possible to achieve various types of lighting styles using 3D software. To get good at lighting in 3D, it is crucial to become familiar with lighting and shading theories. However, for simpler projects, you can achieve mediocre results just with trial and error.
Rendering
Rendering is the final stage in creating 3D art. It refers to the act of creating a final 2D image from a 3D scene. Cameras in 3D software specify the angle from which 3D objects in a scene are viewed. This information is transmitted to the rendering engine for each frame in the entire animation timeline and usually, 24 or 30 frames are rendered for each second. Stringing these rendered frames together creates the final animation. Rendering is a compute-intensive process. It can take days to render high-resolution animation even using power graphics cards.
What Industries Use 3D Art?
The 3D Animation industry is the most obvious industry where 3D art is featured extensively. Commercial animation is a popular form of animation where the importance of 3D art is highlighted. Scientific and technical demonstrations using 3D art in the form of animation are awe-inspiring. Feature animations attract millions of viewers each year and generate billions in revenue for their creators. Animated short films help aspiring filmmakers and directors get recognized. There are many more examples, but the beauty of this industry is that everything is entirely made of 3D art.
3D Art in Games
3D games rely heavily on 3D game art services. From environments, to characters and props, 3D art is prevalent in game development. Creating characters and props for games follows a similar process to the one used for 3D animated movies. However, there are some optimizations specific to game assets. The number of polygon (faces) used in a game model should not be high. Game rigs have some differences from animation rigs as well. Detailed facial rigs and animations are not usually required for game characters in the game art pipeline.
3D Art in Architecture Visualizations
3D art is also used extensively for architectural purposes. Architects and designers use 3D design software to create visualizations for real estate projects, interior or exterior design previews and architectural walkthroughs.
3D Art in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
Virtual reality and augmented reality experiences are relatively recent areas where 3D art is used extensively. If you have had the chance to wear a VR glass and experience virtual reality, you know how magical it is to teleport to an imaginary 3D world without leaving your room. 3D art is also used in augmented reality applications. Augmented reality (AR) combines the real world with 3D art. AR apps overlay 3D objects onto the actual footage received from phone or glass cameras. Pokémon Go, the massively successful game of 2016 was an AR app made using Unity engine filled the world around us with millions of 3D Pokémons. Creating art for VR and AR is fundamentally the same as video games. These experiences are usually created with 3D game engines as well.
Conclusion
To wrap up, 3D art is a complicated and fascinating form of art that requires technical expertise as well as artistic taste. Creating 3D art is a complicated process involving multiple technical steps using various software, but it is absolutely worth it. Because It makes it possible to take the audience to the edges of imagination and let them experience something that would never be possible without 3D art.
