1423722124

9781423722120

1138403342

9781138403345

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9781136143977

9786611008710

6611008713

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9780080476278

1281008710

9781281008718

Jean-Marc Gauthier offers a tutorial-based, step-by-step text containing sophisticated, professional-level tips and tricks to help designers, programmers and 3D artists create interactive environments and virtual sets relevant to film and computer games direction, and animation and web development.

In Building Interactive Worlds in 3D readers will find turnkey tutorials that detail all the steps required to build simulations and interactions, utilize virtual cameras, virtual actors (with self-determined behaviors), and real-time physics including gravity, collision, and topography. With the free software demos included, 3D artists and developers can learn to build a fully functioning prototype. The book is dynamic enough to give both those with a programming background as well as those who are just getting their feet wet challenging and engaging tutorials in virtual set design, using Virtools. Other software discussed is: Lightwave, and Maya. The book is constructed so that, depending on your project and design needs, you can read the text or interviews independently and/or use the book as reference for individual tutorials on a project-by-project basis. Each tutorial is followed by a short interview with a 3D graphics professional in order to provide insight and additional advice on particular interactive 3D techniques-from user, designer, artist, and producer perspectives. In Building Interactive Worlds in 3D readers will find turnkey tutorials that detail all the steps required to build simulations and interactions, utilize virtual cameras, virtual actors (with self-determined behaviors), and real-time physics including gravity, collision, and topography. With the free software demos included, 3D artists and developers can learn to build a fully functioning prototype. The book is dynamic enough to give both those with a programming background as well as those who are just getting their feet wet challenging and engaging tutorials in virtual set design, using Virtools. Other software discussed is: Lightwave, and Maya. The book is constructed so that, depending on your project and design needs, you can read the text or interviews independently and/or use the book as reference for individual tutorials on a project-by-project basis. Each tutorial is followed by a short interview with a 3D graphics professional in order to provide insight and additional advice on particular interactive 3D techniques-from user, designer, artist, and producer perspectives.

Chapter 1

A short history of computer simulations History of interactive 3D, from early flight simulaters during World War 2 to state of the art low cost virtual sets.

Inverview: Ken Perlin, Director of CAT/NYU, special effects supervisor for Tron, Disney. Cahpter 2 3D basic kit

Solutions to practical and conceptual problems

Modeling and texturing for interactive 3D

Alpha channels and transparencies

Photorealistic real-time 3D rendering on a PC or on a Mac

Project:designing a skybox

Interview: Benjy Bernhard about creating virtual sets for the AMNH's Planetarium Chapter 3 Adding interactivity

Director

Virtools

Reusable behaviors

Scripting interactions

Simulating natural laws or physics in a virtual set

Controlling interactions with input devices: dragging 3D objects

Project: 3D artist, Tamiko Thiel, about museum installations Chapter 4 Animation basics

Keyframed animation: simple animation in Maya and Lightwave

Morphing

Animated textures

Exporting animated 3D models

Character animation: bones and biped

Exporting animate dcharacters

Scripted animation in Lingo

Advanced interactive animation

Capturing real-time motion

Project: Interactive showcase for virtual actors

Interview: dancer-animator, Liza Herlinger-Thompson, Troika Ranch, about character animation Chapter 5 Interactive Lighting

Natural lighting

Indoor lighting

Distant light

Spot light

Point light

Building a virtual light studio: a virtual set for TV

Adding interactivity

Testing the virtual light studio on a movie set

Advanced interactive lighting: particle animation, special effects and volumetrics

Project: Interactive lighting of a character isnide a virtual set

Interview: interactive 3D artist, Florent Aziosmanoff about lighting for virtual sets Chapter 6 Virtual Cameras

Virtual cameras adapted from Hitchkok and Stanley Kubrick's movies

Steadycams

Movie previsualization

Parent-child scripting and targets

Controlling virtual cameras

Advanced interactivity for virtual cameras: artificial intelligence, portals

Tutorial: 3D interactive adaptation from a scene from "Night Hawks" from E. Hopper

Interview: director of photography, Kaminski, AI, Minority Report, discusses using virtual sets for movies Chapter 7 3D sound

Introduction to immersive experiences

Synchronization of display and sound

Spatialized sound

Controlling several sound streams

Real-time 3D sound

Sound envelopes

Tutorial: sound mixer

Interview: 3D Sound inventor and engineer, Bo Gehring, discusses spatialized sound for virtual sets Chapter 8 User interface and input devices

Linear and non-linear story telling

User testing

Testing playback performance

Building input devices: serial inputs

Midi inputs

Interactive phones

PDAs

Project: Designing a new interactive camera: the "cocktail camera"

Interview: Interactive designer, Bill Tomlinson, Synthetic Character Group, MIT MediaLab about input devices for virtual sets Chapter 9 Following a terrain with a remote controlled car

Modeling and texturing a terain

Modeling the car and obstacles

Collision against the terrain

Collision between a character and walls and other collisions

Adding physics: springs

Other methods: ray calculations

Project: an online 3D game

Interview: game designer, Sokal, creator of Syberiade, about virtual sets for game design Chapter 10 Communication environments

Communication from and to the virtual set

Introduction to multiplayer 3D games

Serial communication

Web communication

Interactive phone communication

Example of online multiplayer 3D game

Project: a robot talks to a virtual set

Interview: bio-robotic specialist Robert Full, Director of the Polypedal Lab, Bugs Life, Disney and Pixar, about using virtual sets to stimulate robots inspired by insects. Chapter 11 Advanced interactive 3D characters

Advanced character animation: blending motions

Cloning motions

Crowd control

Path finding and terrain analysis

Project: characters from a movie set are controlled by cellular phones

Interview: virtual sets designer, Colin Green, from Pixel Liberation Front, The Matrix, Panic Room, discusses movie previsualization for virtual sets Chapter 12 Artificial intelligence and gameplay for virtual sets

Introduction to AI

Decision making and self-determination

Managing crowd in an open space

Integrating AI in a game with AI

Project: virtual agora in the antique city of Aphrodisias

Interview: 3D interavtive designer, Zach Rosen, about using AI inside virtual sets Chapter 13 Multi-user server and database

Database administration

Connection to database

Saving and loading

Managing characters in multi-player environment

Chat in 3D world

Project: Multi player virtual movie set

Interview: CEO of SIA-TV, Adrian Simonovitch, about database driven virtual sets for interactive TV games

Video games > Programming.

Video games > Programming