FLASH: 3-D in Flash (was "How about this then")

[J. Lutes (pixelTwiddler)]

At 01:39 PM 6/7/00 +0300, you wrote:

>Great looking site I have just seen, would this have been created in 3D

Max then exported to swift3d or something please advise.....or is this

built another way??????

>

>http://www.mtv2.co.uk


It can be built mostly another way -- by hand.  For what they've done, they

should have used Dimensions or Rhinoceros for the nested curvilinear "pipe"

elements, or even the cubes whose aspect/orientation changes.  They

definitely used one of the conversion tools available (Swift3D,

Illustrate!, or Vecta3d) for the nested tube animations, but they didn't

necessarily use 3D Studio Max.  How do I know they used a conversion

tool/plug-in?  I magnified the view of a tube element to reveal the nasty

"traced polygon" signature/evidence -- certainly not optimized.


Folks, don't use a conversion plug-in for 3D Studio Max, or stand-alone

polygon tracer/converter for any other polygonal output modeler, unless you

require one of two things -- complex animation, or complex (continuous

tone) shading.  mtv2 has neither requirement.  They are using flat shading,

and mostly simple linear tween animation (either translating or scaling

objects along vanishing lines).  Note:  I did see the navigation elements

that used a very short, curved animation path.  This still falls under what

I am calling "linear animation."  The tumbling/exploding cubes is the

trickiest animation present here.  This _does_ fall barely under what i am

calling "complex animation" needs, but would bypass the inefficiency

drawback, when output from a polygon tracer tool/plug-in, because of the

simple oject nature -- no rounded edge requirements at the outline, just

corner points and straight connecting segments.


The lack of optimization possible with the converters/tracers (coupled with

inaccuracy in some cases) isn't worth it to me (and I've seen them all).

The whole site could have been quickly (relatively) drawn by hand in a

number of popular vector illustration programs, including Flash itself, and

been more efficient graphics-wise (though in the mtv2 case, the difference

may be negligible).  Ideally, you should use either Dimensions or

Rhinoceros, which can produce more complete curves (as opposed to curve

representations composed of many little straight segments).  Rhino can

project, or "flatten," its 3-D NURBS (non-uniform rational b-splines --

curves) models onto a 2-D plane, and Dimensions can output its PostScript

in a similar fashion -- beautiful vector curves is the result.


Getting something like this site manually requires two things precursor to

building any objects for the scene -- determining your target

perspective/vanishing point(s), and knowing where you want your light

source(s).  In a nutshell, you build the objects to fit the perspective,

then shade them to reveal how they are affected by your pre-determined

lighting scheme.  Animate them as necessary (sticking to your vanishing

lines), changing the object colors to remain consistent with light source

positions.


mtv2 did the first thing really well.  It is not difficult to do the things

they did (comparatively) when using objects whose sides are rectilinear and

parallel to one another, but the impact is pretty cool, as you saw.  I

really liked what they did.


The second thing, the lighting, fell only slightly short of the complete

illusion.  It is possible they had a moving light source in mind, but I

doubt it.  Some elements weren't consistent with a fixed light source (see

the colored cube "buttons" that rotate, and watch the shadowed side travel

around the cube as it turns).  When you make yours, just remember where

your light source is, and don't betray it's position with the colors you've

used as object fill.


Well, I certainly explained more than I originally intended to here.  This

always seems to raise more questions.  Ask them if you need some

clarification on something I said.


Good luck.



-

J A S O N   L U T E S

ICQ: pixelTwiddler (#18046724)

E-mail:

jasongrafikimagism [dot] com

flasher is generously supported by...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     flashforward2000 and the Flash� Film Festival

 July 24-26, 2000, NEW YORK CITY, Hammerstein Ballroom


   Produced by United Digital Artists and lynda.com

 Sponsored by Macromedia, Adobe Systems, Fusion, Inc, AtomFilms,

           shockwave.com and Electric Rain.

        www.flashforward2000.com + 1.877.4.FLASH.4

 Register before June 15 and save $200!!-- www.flashforward2000.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/flasher or email

helpchinwag [dot] com