Datasheet

The CG Production Workflow  9
Modeling
Modeling, the topic of Chapters 4 through 6, is usually the first step in creating CG. It’s
the topic that garners a lot of coverage in publications and captures the interest of most
budding CG artists. Downloading or purchasing models from the Internet can often cut
down the amount of time you spend on your project. This, of course, assumes you’re not
a fan of modeling and prefer to spend your time animating or working on texturing and
lighting.
There are many modeling techniques, and each could be the subject of its own series of
books. The choice of which technique to use usually depends on the modeler’s taste and
preferred workflow. The choices are among polygonal modeling (Chapter 4, “Beginning
Polygonal Modeling”), NURBS modeling, and subdivision surface (SubD) modeling
(Chapter 5, “Modeling with NURBS, Subdivisions, and Deformers”). Knowing how an
object is used in a scene gives you its criteria for modeling. You never want to spend more
time on a model than is needed. Creating a highly detailed model for a faraway shot will
waste your time and expand rendering times needlessly. You can create any required
details that are seen from afar by just adding textures to the model. However, if that
model is featured prominently in a close-up, it needs as much detail as possible because
viewers will see more of it. You’ll learn more about this aspect of modeling in Chapter 4.
When you’re starting out, it’s a good idea to lavish as much attention on detail as you
can; this can teach you perhaps 70 percent of what you can learn about modeling, which
in turn will benefit your overall speed and technique. As you gain more experience, you’ll
be able to discern exactly how much detail to add to a scene and not go overboard.
Because your computer stores everything in the scene as vector math, the term geometry
refers to all the surfaces and models in a scene.
Texturing
When the models are complete, it’s a good idea to begin texturing and shading, the pro-
cess of applying colors and textures to an object to make it renderable. When you create
an object in Maya, for example, a simple gray default shader is automatically assigned to
it that will let you see the object when you light and render the scene. In Figure 1.2, an
elephant model is shown, with textures applied to its lower body.
Because the textures may look different after animating and lighting the scene, it’s
wise to leave the final adjustments for later. Just as a painter will pencil in a sketch before
adding details, you don’t need to make all the shading adjustments right away; you can
return to any part of your scene in Maya and adjust it to fine-tune the picture.
You’ll learn more about texturing and shading in Chapter 7, “Maya Shading and
Texturing.”
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