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Some of my 3D Stills - Always Works in Progress!

3D in the Real World

With respect to 3D the Headlines are hogged by the likes of Pixar, Dreamworks, Electronic Arts and the entertainment industry. With films like SHREK, LORD OF THE RINGS and TOY STORY - to mention but a few - its easy to see why this is so, the wow factor is in abundance here. BUT, in the world of 3D there are other areas which may not be as glamourous, but they employ a sizeable portion of the 3D workforce. Such areas include - Corporate Graphics [ good old Spinning Logos, ad graphics, Pre Visualization ], Packaging & Promotions [ 3D Product Walkarounds ], Medical Animation, Product Design, 3D for Multimedia, Military 3D.

My involvement in 3D started a few years back with the casual use of various small to medium 3D applications for Web Logo's and the like. Around May 2004, I came across a program called REALSOFT 3D, an excellent application. I was smitten. With the help of the RS3D community I have learned alot about REALSOFT and 3D in general. RS3D is an underdog in the World of 3D, dominated FOR NOW by the likes of Lightwave, Maya, 3d Studio Max, Softimage XSI, BUT slowly this old order is being challenged - Realsoft ver 5 is imminent, the big boys are also in a software price war currently.

Below the TUTORIAL SECTION you will find some stills of various projects & 3D doodles I am doing with REALSOFT. I consider these to be WIP's [ Works in Progress ], but they should give you some idea of 3D and its possibilities. I still consider myself a novice and probably always will as you never stop learning in this fascinating field. It encompasses a huge amount of disciplines - Modelling, Animation, Lighting, Texturing. 3D spills out into all areas of life, for to be a convincing 3D'er, you need to pay huge attention to the World around you.

To see 3D translated into Flash, go to the CLIENT LIST page and then the EQTEL SITE or GLOBAL SITE - look at the ... yes I know ... spinning logo's.




RS3D Tutorial - SKELETONS, BONES & JOINTS

The page links below contain a tutorial on the topic of building a Skeleton from scratch in REALSOFT 3D ver 4.5 SP1 [ Not sure, but it might also apply to ver 4.2 - if so email me at: realsoft@tidalsound.com ] . Now by Skeleton I dont mean something for Halloween, instead I mean the basic element which allows for later animation of a Character in RS. A Skeleton is built and then attached to a Character that you wish to animate. Once attached you can move the Skeletons Bones and Joints which in turn move the attached Characters limbs and body. From here you can create walk cycles,make your character jump - basically make him / her move.

The reason for this tutorial - Well like lots of you I am and consider myself a student and not a master of the art of 3D and REALSOFT. One of the main reasons I wanted to get into 3D in the first place was ANIMATION. So, I decided, eventually, to plough through the RS manual and RS Reference manual to try and figure this whole area out. For me the manual / reference was quite slim on information, so I also consulted the MR SOCK TAKES A WALK Tutorial by Thomas Dow [ circa 5/12/01 ]. I found this excellent, but in some places a bit complex for a novice. Armed with all this I beat my way through the process and have now decided to brave a tutorial based on my own experiences.

Click on the links below to access the tutorial. I have divided the process into 4 logical parts [ my logic anyway ]. The page widths have been kept within parameters that will allow you to print to A4.



 
Skeletons, Bones & Joints Tutorial - PART 1
Skeletons, Bones & Joints Tutorial - PART 2
Skeletons, Bones & Joints Tutorial - PART 3
Skeletons, Bones & Joints Tutorial - PART 4
 




SOME ANIMATIONS USING THIS TUTORIAL
Here are two Simple AVI animations done with the FAST MAN Character mesh [ download this mesh / model from Page 1 of the Tutorial ].

 
Cliff Animation [ DivX - 145kb ]. This was done by Frank Dodd, Cheers Frank. Poor Fast Man, diving into the deep dark abyss - Well Frank does he survive?
Jump Animation [ DivX - 390kb ]. This was done by myself after wrestling with the skinning aspect of things using CARLO's Skeldia Plugin. Put this animation on REPEAT in your player. I tried to get it so it looped seamlessly - ish!. A TUTORIAL on Skinning and finally Animating this guy is forth coming - once I figure everything out!

Jump Animation Ver. 2 [ DivX - 411kb ]. This is a variation on the theme. A doorway added ...
Chair Animation [ DivX - 78kb ]. Here's another from Frank Dodd [ thanks once again! ]. After diving into the abyss, Fast Man needs a rest. So pull up a chair Fast Man, you deserve it!
Exercising Animation [ DivX - 541kb ]. Fastman decides to tackle his waist-line. Some exercise on the bars for him. I am testing camera animation using curve paths as guides.

 
If you have any simple animation that you have done with this tutorial please send it on to me, I will post it here. IT HAS TO BE DONE WITH THE FAST MAN MODEL PROVIDED!

 




==> All the images below were created by Aidan O Driscoll using the excellent REALSOFT 3D Software unless otherwise stated here. Vegitation is exported from Vue Infinite as .obj file types. Space Scene and Street Scene models created in Realsoft and composited / textured in Vue. Garden House Scene done using Lightwave 3D and LWCad 2.

For the bigger picture click on the thumbnails provided