2. 3D Animation Research

3D animation is a whole different kettle of fish to the 2D animation we've looked at in the past, it requires a lot more depth and forethought than just coming up with a concept and putting it down on your preferred medium of media. When you take into consideration the sheer amount of work that goes into creating each individual model then rigging and animating the mind starts to boggle at people actually get it all done. Following will be 3 examples of 3D animation that have inspired me in the past, enjoy.jpeg

Animated Short Film - The Paperman

The Paperman is an animated story about a man who works a monotonous, dull job and has a chance encounter with a woman at the train station one morning. As so often happens in these stories the woman suddenly appears for a job interview in a building across from his and in an attempt to make contact the man throws paper airplanes in her direction but all fail to find their target. Frustrated and done with the boredom his life has become he flees his workplace in an attempt to find her. Whilst he's walking down the street there's a sudden influx of Fantasia-esque Disney magic as the paper airplanes forcibly lead the man and coerce the woman into travelling back to the train station at which they met where they finally see each other and the short ends.

The animation and storyline is naturally brilliant throughout this film, but you wouldn't expect anything less from Disney. My favourite aspects are the fact that it's shot entirely in greyscale par the red of the woman's lipstick which as a result seems so much more vibrant, and also that there's no dialogue so the story has to be explained through the animation and the soundtrack. All in all it's a masterpiece of an animated short, and has been recognised as such with a coveted best animated short Oscar.


3D Animation in Games 

Games take a huge amount from 3D animation, be it from creating an environment to later navigate to creating and animating all the in-game models that the player will control or converse with. Luckily we've come to a place in 3D animation where we needn't toil over a hot computer in the hopes of creating the perfect arm or leg movement, we can simply don a motion capture suit and get true to life human movements. 

A way that games are currently unique to other forms of animation is the fact that when you're controlling a third person game you have the ability to move the camera and see things happening from more than just one fixed angle. This means that the game will require a good 3D engine to anticipate and show all realtime changes that may be happening around the player at any time.

3D Animation in Films

3D animation has been in use in the movie scene for a while now though it hasn't always been the computer generated work that we see and are used to nowadays. Clay animation has been used in movies as early as the 1920s and was one of the earlier techniques devised to move out of 2D and into the 3D. These methods of stop motion animation are still very much in use today, think The Lego Movie, though through advances in technology we can employ a computer to do most of the leg work nowadays.

With these brilliant programs we're able to use 3D modelling not just as part of a fully animated movie but also to integrate into a live action feature, think Smeegle from LoTR. With every year the software used advances and the models become more and more difficult to spot alongside the un-enhanced actors.