1. After Burn
2. Cinema 4D
3. Maya
4. 3DS Max
5. Auto CAD
6. Unreal ED
7. Light wave
8. Rhino
9. Havok
10. Serif Plus
11. 3D Plus
12. MojoWorld                 
13. Poser
14. VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language)
15. Wings 3D
16. MoI
17. Maxon- Cinebench release 10
18. Potion Studios
19. Apollo 3D
20. Bryce
21. Director 3D
22. Strata
23. Truespace
24. Vue D’Esprit
25. ZBrush

 This is a sort list of some of the 3D Application used in the industry

Bryce is a 3D modelling, rendering and animation Application specializing in landscapes. The name is taken from “Bryce Canyon” a rugged region with many of the same landscapes that were first simulated with the software.

this is an image of an inside view of “Bryce” software, The original “Bryce” software came from work with geometry to create a realistic computer image of mountain ranges and different landscapes. This was developed by “Ken Musgrave” who later created “MojoWorld”, and continued by “Eric Wenger”.

this is a 3D image made in “Bryce” by “Martin H. Andersen” and its called “RED”

this is a 3D image made by “Jason Bohanon”

Link

1. Idea, brief, treatment, script, production planning.
2. Concept Design
3. Storyboarding
4. Production Design and Visual Development
5. Recording the Dialogue
6. Building the Models, Rigging
7. Layouts and Animatics
8. Animation
9. Final Backgrounds and Colouring
10. Lighting and Compositing
11. Post Production

Idea and Planning

1.      Generally the first step in the production pipeline of an animation, is to first present the idea to the company which the writes wish the peoduction to be made by, for example, Diseny and/or Pixar, Dreamworks or Sqaure enix, this is the writen treatment, to sell the ieda, after which a script is written and an outline budget estabilshed when the idea and concertp have been pitched and a go-ahead gotten and the final budget estabilshed, the crew is the put together.

 Concept Design

2.      Next is the concept design will often start during the pre-production phase. This is the first stage of design, doing preliminary work to illustrate both the narrative and possible visual treatment of the project, a time to experiment with characterisation and style.

Storyboarding

3.      The next time is for the director to work closely with the atrist to viualise the script. “The Storyboard illustrates the narrative, composes the shots, demonstrates action, indicates camera moves and maintains continuity”, (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding) the storyboard is ofter revised to suit the needs and comment of the director, the Producers and/or the client. “The more defined the final storyboard, the smoother the rest of the production process should be. Storyboard panels may be shot and edited to a preliminary guide track which can be called a story reel or animatic” (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).  

 Production Design and Visual Development

4.      The Producers Designers and/or the Art Director will then work to create/develop a sytle of production and produce a final design to the character and the enviorments. “For 2D, model sheets and turnarounds of characters together with key backgrounds will be produced; for Stop Frame, characters and sets will be designed; for CG, designs for characters, environments and special effects will be produced” (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).

At this satge most of the design will be drawn whether-or-not there are any final design techinuques, but that all depends on the woprking style of the Producer Designer/Art Director depending on the size of the production and aritist team.

 Recording the Dialogue

5.      The Producer and Director will cast the voices and the Director will supervise the recording which is usually attended by the Editor as well, with the recording of the dialogue often all the actors are required to attended and the dialogue is often recorded in one or two sessions “However, producers work in various ways and there can be many good reasons for recording all the actors individually and assembling the dialogue track afterwards”’ (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding)

The dialogue track is then edited before animation starts and, if it involves character lip synchs, those voices will be pre-recorded to ‘final production standard’, for the performers it helps to see the design for there characters and the storyboard, before the recording is finalised the editor will assemble the dialogue and produce a soundtrack to the length of approval of the Producer.

 Building the Models, Rigging

6.      From the approved designs, the modellers will make Computer Gengerated models of the charcters and enviroment but before it can be animated the “Riggers” have to create a moving skeleton or structure, working parts, joints that could the allow the animators to move the model.In stop-frame, the “model making department” will use the aprroved design to makes models, puppets and set, they will work with the director and the storyboard to decied how much movement each charactors needs.   

Layouts and Animatics

7.      “The first pass at timing is done with the story reel or animatic; in Stop Frame this is likely to become the working reel and there will be no layouts” (http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).                  

The layout in 2D or CG is a difficult process but the perpose of these techinques is to stage every scene and camera setup Layouts are made based on the storyboard and approved designs to provide scene planning, camera movements, visual information about character action and backgrounds.

“Layout is a very key process, which can involve and affect the later work of many departments. The completed layouts will be shot and either assembled into a layout reel or dropped into a storyboard reel. On larger CG, projects there will often be two phases of layout, Rough and Final”. (Http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).  

 Animation

8.      The animation is started when the animators have the approved layouts, designs, timings, models and voices tracks, the director or animation director then assigns different scenes to different animators which, when reocrded in sequence, create the illusion of movement.

“Depending on the project and technique, there can be a single Animator working alone or a large team in which there may be a range of talents and skills from lead animator down to junior assistant”. ”The Director approves the animation or, on a larger project, this may be done by the Animation Director or Supervisor. As scenes are approved, they are cut into the working reel/layout reel so they can be viewed in context before moving on to the next stage. In most cases, Effects Animation will be done after the main animation is complete”. (Http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).  

 Final Backgrounds and Colouring

9.      In 2D the final colouring and background can be added from the aprroved layout onwards, they should reflect the design and will be supervised by the art director, in cg the basic enviorments to made by modellers before the animation and the dressing and colouring is added at a later date.

 Lighting and Compositing

10.  The lighting is a very important stage in the creation process of CG, showing the final colour and atmosphere of each shot. “Compositing” can apply to all techniques of animation and is the point where the visuals are added including animation, backgrounds and effects, which are combined into the final image.

 Post Production

11.  During the postproduction, music will be recorded, sound effects added and the soundtrack finished, the digital picture is then combined with the completed soundtrack as the master copy or “Edit Master” and “can then be output either at broadcast standard or onto film, depending on the delivery requirements” (Http://www.skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_2.asp#Storyboarding).   

I have looked throw both production pipelines for both Dreamworks and Pixar, and have found that the Pixar pipeline starts with the pitch of the idea to the company and dreamworks Has the same first step, after which dreamworks go’s on to the storyboarding stage and Pixar go’s on to the text treatment, after which the storyboard are done.The next stage in Pixar is to do the vioce recording and casting of actor for the characters, whereas dreamworks go’s on to making the visuals and then the casting and then voice recording, but the next stage for Pixar is the editing of the visuals (and making of the reels) afterwhich the ture visuall for the characters are made, whereas dreamworks go’s on to making the models and then the layout. Next for Pixar is the modeling and the next step for dreamworks is the animation of the models but the next stage for Pixar is the creation of the enivorment, the shots are then laid out along with the animation shot, dreamworks continues with, the effects and after the texture of the effects and then the fishing touches, but with Pixar the enivorment and characters are next, then the lighting and texturs are edited, after that, the scene are rendered, and the finishing touches added.So i have found that the production pipelines of both pixar and dreamworks are different in some ways but they are altogether similar in many ways.  

Link to Dreamworks Production Pipeline 

Link to Pixar Production Pipeline

John Lasseter was born on January 12^th 1957 he is an Academy Award-winning American animator and the “chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lasseter) and widely considered an innovative genius, he has been called the “current Walt Disney.”

Early Days

John Lasseter father was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership, and his mother an art teacher at “Bell Gardens Senior High School”, John Lasseter was a graduate of the “California Institute of the Arts” where is met his future colleague Mr. Brad Bird, the creation of “Pixar” was brought on by a lamp he saw in a shop, his idea was to bring that lamp to life.

Working at Disney

After he graduated, he obtained a job as an animator at Walt Disney’s feature animations. Whilst work on “Mickey’s Christmas Carol is was asked to see the first lightcycles sequences for the film “TRON” use the days state-of-the-art CGI, he saw the potential of the new technology and saw the he could use the “tech” to enhance animation into the 3 dimensional era which he had not considered before that time, this “tech” inspired him to create a feature length film and he choose the story “The Brave Little Toaster”, unknowingly he had “stepped on the toes” of he superiors how had already been aware of the 3D potential to create a great feature length film, because he went around he superiors one of them decided that when John Lasseter pitched the idea of the “Brave Little Toaster” he would turn it down, which happened, and to make things worse after the meeting had ended, he had a phone call and was told that he’s job had been terminated and that the film would be little made as a 2D feature length film.

After being fired, John Lasseter went to a computer graphics conference at the “Queen Mary in Long Beach”, where he met and talked to “Catmull”, Lasseter had made a deal to work as an “interface designer” with “Catmull” with his colleagues on their first CGI short film: “The Adventures of André and Wally B”, the film was more revolutionary than John Lasseter had first visualized before he joined “Lucasfilm”, since his idea had been to create only the backgrounds of computers. But in the final short film everything was computer animated, including the characters. After this CGI film, things would continue to grow until there first feature length film, ‘Toy Story’.

Pixar 

John Alan Lasseter is a founding member of Pixar, where he over sees all of Pixar’s films and other associated project, he also personally directed Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, and Cars. He won two academy awards one for his short animation film ‘Tin Toy’ and the other the ‘Special Achievement’ for ‘Toy Story’, John Lasseter was nominated on 4 other occasions in the animated feature category for ‘Car’ and ‘Monsters INC’, “In April 2006, Disney purchased Pixar and Lasseter was named Chief Creative Officer of both Pixar and Disney animation studios. He was also named Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he will help design attractions for Disney’s theme parks”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lasseter)

What system do 3D software packages use to create the illusion of working in three-dimensional space?

The system used to create illusion in three dimemsional space is the Cartesian coordinate system which is the same system use to teach algebra, the cartesian coordinate system is used to determine each point uniquely in a plane through two numbers, usually called the x-coordinate or abscissa and the y-coordinate or ordinate of the point..

Who developed the system used to create the illusion of working in three dimensional space?

 A French Mathematician “Rene Descartes”.

What are the two axes that commonly define the 2-dimensional Cartesian system?

The horizontal axis X. The Vertical axis Y.

The Point where the XY axes meet is known as the?

Origin. Point 0.

What is the importance of the Z axis?

The Z axis is called the depth axis and it allows us to locate any point in 3D space.

Write the following point using the Format (XYZ)

·         59 units along the negative X-axis·         100 units along the positive Y-axis·         50 units along the negative Z-axis 

-59,100,-50

What is the purpose of the viewports?

The viewports present a more 3-dimensional view because it displays all three axis at the same time (X, Y and Z)

What is an Orthographic View?

The orthographic (or schematic) is the Top, Front and left views 

 As founder of Pixar he is classed as a follower as he is within the era of the Followers, Pixar is one of the companies that used the ideas and technology developed by the Pioneers of the industry Chuck Csuri and John Whitney.