3D Animation for Games

Flashcards about 3D animation in the game industry.

3D Animator Responsibilities

Creating the environment, character, creature, and object movements.

3D animator job titles

Character Animation, Tech Animator, Cinematic Animator

2D and 3D Animation Principles

Principles like timing and weight for believable motion for realistic digital character animation.

Motion Capture Techniques

Records actors' movements.

Bitmap images limitation

Bitmap images lose quality when scaled up

Bump map, normal and displacement images

Add surface details to models without more polygons

Importance of layers

Enable non-destructive editing & organization

File Formats

FBI, PNG, TGA, & DDS

Animation Timelines

Visually organize model animation

Keyframing

Sets specific poses at points in time for interpolated motion

Controllers

Interface elements for manipulating rigs to animate

Rigging

Creates a digital skeleton and controls

Facial land marking

Identifies points on or tracking a face for rigging

Show emotions through the eyes

Manipulate eyelid shape, brow position, & pupil to show motion

Motion capture data for facial animation

Apply captured facial performance data to character's facial rig

Good menu flow

Provides intuitive & efficient user navigation

Ideal HUD

Clearly presents essential game info non-obtrusively

Particles for fire/smoke

Simulate fire/smoke by controlling emitted sprite mesh behavior

Water spray using 2D particles

Emit many fast, short-lived, semi-transparent 2D sprites in physics

Anatomy of an explosion effect

Involves flashes, fire/smoke, shockwave, debris, & lingering smoke

Create a 3D feel in a 2D world

Apply directional lighting & cast shadows from 2D elements

Particle system effects

Define emitter properties & particle attributes to create visual effects

Water spray using 3D particles

Emit 3D particles with physics & water-like materials

Computer tools for game development

Tools like Maya, Substance, Unity & Git

Integrate sound and music

Use sound effects for feedback & music to set mood & tension