- [digital] Directing - Types of Shots
- Feb 28, 2003
- Directing in the digital environment involves significant camera work. Dan Ablan explains what types of shots to use in different situations.
|
- Animating Dialogue
- Oct 5, 2001
- During normal speech, dozens of different mouth shapes are made. Animators usually boil these down to a handful of standard shapes. George Maestri covers the eight basic mouth positions necessary for effective dialogue animation.
|
- Animating Four-Legged Mammals
- Aug 13, 2001
- Most animators will need to bring a four-legged creature to life at some point in their careers. Animation expert George Maestri shows you how to breathe life into your creations.
|
- Animating Martial Arts
- Aug 13, 2001
- High-action fight scenes for games or films can be difficult to animate. With some tips from animation expert George Maestri, though, you'll learn how to put martial arts and fight scenes into action.
|
- Animating Realistic Cloth
- Oct 5, 2001
- Cloth can be tough to simulate correctly because of its multiple properties. George Maestri offers some tips on making the process easier.
|
- Animating Reptiles and Snakes
- Aug 13, 2001
- Unlike mammals, which primarily use their legs, snakes and reptiles use their bodies and spines for movement. Animation expert George Maestri demonstrates how to animate this reptilian movement realistically.
|
- Animating Rhythm And Dance
- Aug 13, 2001
- Animating dancing might seem intimidating, but it can be fun once you know how to do it. Animation expert George Maestri takes you through the basics of getting down to the beat.
|
- Animation for Games
- Aug 13, 2001
- Animating for games requires both knowing your game platform and using certain techniques for making your animation realistic yet playable. In this article, George Maestri offers a behind-the-scenes look at animating characters for gaming.
|
- Choosing a 3D Authoring Tool
- Mar 29, 2002
- epic software group, inc. explains why you shouldn't be afraid to author 3D graphics, and they offer you advice from some of the leading experts in the industry.
|
- Creating Flash Animations with Swift 3D
- Apr 28, 2006
- Create 3D vector and raster animations for your Flash projects at an affordable price with Electric Rain's 3D animation application: Swift 3D. Swift 3D is the only 3D application that integrates directly with Flash and is also one of the easiest 3D packages around. James Gonzalez shows why its price, power, and easy integration with Flash give Swift 3D such a devoted following.
|
- Deformations and Movement in LightWave 7
- Jan 18, 2002
- Dan Ablan, author of Inside LightWave, discusses the ins and outs of creating a selection set that works for various applications, including techniques for lip syncing 3D characters.
|
- Digital Acting
- Oct 12, 2001
- Bringing your character to life means being able to think and breathe like your character – essentially, understanding the techniques of acting. In this article, George Maestri teaches a crash course in acting for the animator.
|
- Digital Storytelling
- Oct 12, 2001
- At its roots, character animation is about storytelling. A good story gives characters motivation, conflict, and a path of action. George Maestri explores the art of animated storytelling in this article.
|
- Flashy Flash On the Go: Creating Animations For Cell Phones
- Jul 20, 2007
- Adobe Ambassador Mike McHugh shows how to use Illustrator CS3—combined with Adobe’s Device Central CS3 and Flash CS3—to create animations that can be played on a cell phone. The best part? No ActionScript required.
|
- Fun with Maya 4's Paint Effects
- Apr 12, 2002
- Learn how to use Maya's Paint Effects feature to add visually impressive effects to your 3D art.
|
- Game Mechanics: How to Design an Internal Economy for Your Game
- Aug 15, 2012
- Internal economy is one kind of mechanic you might find in a game. Designing a game's economy is the core of the game designer’s trade: You craft mechanics to create a game system that is fun and challenging to interact with. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, authors of Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, explain how to do it.
|
- Hair for 3D Characters
- Oct 5, 2001
- The average head has tens of thousands of individual hairs - try animating that! The only way to efficiently animate hair is procedurally, using automated tricks to get the hair to behave. George Maestri shares some tips in this article.
|
- How to Create Realistic 3D Shadows
- Aug 18, 2006
- Setting up shadows takes just as much time and attention as setting up lights. You can think of all of your illumination as one half of your lighting design, and shadows as the other, equally important half. Shadows can add richness to the tones and shading of your image, tie elements together, and improve your composition. Besides their artistic importance, rendering shadows is a key technical area to master. This chapter will explore both the visual and the technical sides of shadows and occlusion in 3D graphics.
|
- How to Properly Rig Your Characters for Animation
- Aug 11, 2006
- Once your character is modeled, you’ll need to get it ready for animation. This process is called rigging. The goal of rigging is to add a skeleton and controls to your model so that an animator can manipulate and animate the character. This chapter will help you learn to properly rig your character so that animating it is easy and natural.
|
- Lighting Effects in 3D Max 6
- May 7, 2004
- The best lighting effects are achieved by artists who make themselves students of nature. Artists who study scene painting, drawing, photography, and cinematography develop sensitivity, awareness, and a practiced eye. This chapter outlines the light sources available in 3ds max and how to control them.
|