How to Create Animated 3D Models & Form 3D Movie Scenes

Artists begin creating 3-D movies by designing models and environments, which can entail extensive research into earlier related artwork.

Making 3-D movie scenes that include animated models is a project artists complete with 3-D design software such as Blender or Maya. These programs have functions for forming a 3-D scene's models and producing sequences of animated images involving those models. Artists begin creating a 3-D movie by designing its models and environment, which can entail extensive research into prior related artwork. The research lets artists produce authentic models, such as the Titanic ship model in the movie of the same name. Benefits of making animated 3-D scenes with models include the personal satisfaction of creating a world from your imagination.

Things You'll Need

• 3-D design and animation program

Instructions

1. Open a 3-D design and animation program and click the "Create" or "Draw" menu heading. This step begins a procedure that will yield a 3-D scene showing a ball bouncing into a basket. This sample project will introduce you to many concepts and procedures you can apply to making other animated 3-D scenes.

2. Click the "Box" item under the "Create" menu, then click and drag in the "perspective" viewport to grow the box's base. Release the mouse after the box fills the viewport's screen, then drag upward slightly to form the box's height. Click to finish the box. This model represents the ground on which the ball will bounce.

3. Click the "Sphere" item under the "Create" menu to begin drawing the ball. Click and drag anywhere atop the ground you just made to create the ball. Release the mouse when the ball has reached any size significantly smaller than the ground.

4. Click the "Create" menu's "Cylinder" item, then click and drag on the ground model, at a location opposite that of the ball. This action defines the cylinder's base. Release the mouse and drag upward to grow the cylinder's height. Click the mouse again to complete the cylinder.

5. Click the "Animation" menu heading, then click the "Make keyframe" function under that heading. This action produces a frame, called a keyframe, of the 3-D movie. The program will calculate the movie frames between your keyframes to complete the movie.

6. Drag the animation time slider near the bottom of your screen until the frame counter reads "50." This action advances the movie's current frame so you can make a new keyframe.

7. Click the ball, then click your "Modify" menu's "Move" command, which allows you to move 3-D models. Drag the ball upward, and slightly toward the cylinder (i.e., basket). Make another keyframe, using the instructions from step 5.

8. Drag the animation time slider to frame 100, then move the ball back down to the ground, and slightly closer to the basket. Make another keyframe.

9. Repeat this cycle of increasing the animation time slider by 50 frames, moving the ball toward the basket's top, then making a keyframe. Once the ball has reached the basket, continue to the next step.

10. Click the "Animation" menu's "Preview" command to view the ball bouncing into the basket.

11. Click the "Render" menu's "Render animation" command to produce a more realistically shaded version of the completed animated scene.

References

• "The Art of 3-D Computer Animation and Effects"; Isaac Kerlow; 2003

Resources

• Blender
• 3ds Max
• Art of Illusion