Datasheet

For now, go ahead and use as much geometry and lighting as you think is necessary.
With more experience, you’ll start pruning your scenes and getting more efficient renders.
Right now, knowing how a scene is put together is more important than knowing how
efficient it needs to be.
CG Specialties
As in most professions, CG professionals specialize in specific areas. Those areas coincide
with the stages of CG production outlined earlier in this chapter.
Modelers create models for shows or projects. They need to have a keen eye for detail,
as well as a sense of how objects come together. Environment modelers create settings,
and character modelers specialize in creating organic surfaces for characters such as peo-
ple. In all cases, professional modelers need to understand form and function and be expe-
rienced in lighting, rendering, and texturing to effectively model professionally.
Animators are artists who work directly with the animation of a project. Character ani-
mators specialize in character movement, ranging from mimicking human movement to
outlandish cartoon animation. There are also animators who specialize in mechanical
objects. Frequently, good animators can span the divide between character animation and
other types of animation because they inherently understand motion and timing.
In some cases, great animators are also great riggers. Studios hire character TDs (tech-
nical directors) who specialize in rigging characters for motion. This usually includes cre-
ating skeleton structures, such as Bipeds or Bones, for the character as well as skinning the
model to such a system before handing it off to the animator(s). Character TDs can also
work with motion-capture systems to transfer motion to a character. They use recorded
data from a live-action stage where actors are outfitted in special equipment that records
their movements.
Effects TDs are specialists who generally animate special effects such as tornadoes,
clouds, or explosions. These specialists generally rely on particles and dynamics, as well
as textures, lights, and rendering tricks to perform their effects. This specialty requires a
strong eye in all stages of CG production and a strong ability to troubleshoot and come up
with solutions that are frequently not standard techniques in a program such as 3ds Max.
Lighters light and render a scene once it is completed. Lighters specialize in being able
to final a shot; in other words, to complete a shot for final approval and output. A good
lighter needs to understand how models and textures behave in a scene and sometimes
must remodel or retexture an object to make it work. Good lighters also need to be good
The general rule in production is: You’re always out of time. Therefore, the most efficient
pipeline will be your savior, because eventually your producer or boss will tire of hearing,
“But I’m still rendering….”
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