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Creating a 3D Animated CGI Short: The Making of the Autiton Archives Fault Effect - Pilot Webisode
The Making of the Autiton Archives Fault Effect - Pilot Webisode

Author(s): Michael Scaramozzino
Details:
  • ISBN-13: 9780763782641
  • Paperback    536 pages      © 2011
Price: International Sales $55.95 US List
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Overview

Creating a 3D Animated CGI Short presents an insightful behind-the-scenes tour of the entire production process for 3D artists, animators, and independent filmmakers who are interested in creating their own CGI shorts as well as for those who are simply fans and enthusiasts of CGI films in general. This book presents detailed examples of every step of the production process; from initial concept through character design, set design, modeling, texturing, lighting, camera animation, character animation, lip sync, rendering, post-production, compositing, and all the way to film festival submissions and online web distribution. It truly has something for everyone interested in CGI films.

Using readily available off-the-shelf hardware and software such as modo, LightWave 3D, FPrime, HD Instance, Peak, Shake, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and more, Creating a 3D Animated CGI Short shows how to produce a complete 3D animated CGI Short, including how to fund the production by taking on paid freelance projects along the way. Where other filmmaking books typically describe industry standard methodologies that are most effective for larger productions, this book shows how to drastically simplify and condense those processes and focus only on the essential elements that will enable a single artist or filmmaker to complete a CGI short on their own.
 

ShowKey Features

  • Hundreds of images and screen captures help illustrate the written examples and clarify difficult concepts
  • The companion CD-ROM includes full-color versions of all the images used throughout the book, numerous animation tests created during the production process, Fault Effect, a full version of the completed pilot for The Autiton Archives, and a full version of Michael Scaramozzino's previous award-winning 3D animated CGI short film BlastOff.
  • In-depth practical examples from an actual production show how to accomplish all aspects of creating a 3D animated short

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ShowTable of Contents

Part 1  The Many Milestones Leading to The Autiton Archives
  Chapter 1  Early Tests
  Chapter 2  Creating a Dry Run Test Short — BlastOff!
  Chapter 3  BlastOff! Results
  Chapter 4  Lessons Learned
  Chapter 5  Funding the Pilot
  Chapter 6  Tools of the Trade
Part 2  Creating the CGI Pilot — Fault Effect
  Chapter 7  Time to Chart a Course
  Chapter 8  Making a 3D CGI Film Star — 0090
  Chapter 9  Lip Sync Animation Study — Tuna Fish
  Chapter 10  0090 Takes a Walk, with IK Booster
  Chapter 11  Designing the Instance Generator Lattice Exterior
  Chapter 12  Designing and Modeling the Interior Set
  Chapter 13  Lighting and Texturing the Interior Set
  Chapter 14  Designing and Animating the Autiton Drone Instances
  Chapter 15  Special Effects
  Chapter 16  Creating a 3D Digital Storyboard and Shot List
  Chapter 17  Animating the Main Character
  Chapter 18  Network Rendering
  Chapter 19  Compositing, Editing, and Output
  Chapter 20  Adding a New Dimension with a Sound Track
Part 3  The Journey Beyond Production
  Chapter 21  Show and Tell — Short Film Distribution
  Chapter 22  Looking to the Horizon and Beyond
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ShowAbout the Author(s)

Michael Scaramozzino

Michael Scaramozzino was one of the early computer graphics pioneers, with a dual background in both the art and science of digital media. He studied computer science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and animation/illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he earned a BFA a year early through a special portfolio review and then ran RISD's computer center for a year, teaching students computer graphics on the early Macintosh 128K computer.

Since founding the award-winning DreamLight® Interactive™ studio over 20 years ago, he has been pushing the limits of digital media in a wide range of computer graphics fields. With awards for digital design, 2D PostScript illustration, interactive multimedia, 3D illustration, and 3D animation, his work has been published in magazines from HOW to Art Direction, books from FreeHand Bible to The Best of 3D Graphics, and exhibits from Siggraph to Imagine - Tokyo. He was a contributing author to FreeHand Bible 7 and 8 as well as the LightWave 3D 9 manual. His first 3D animated short film BlastOff!™, has screened at over a dozen international animation film festivals and won a number of awards including a Merit Award from its initial festival screening at the inaugural 2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival with keynote speaker Roy E. Disney, a Best Animation Nomination from the Danville International Children's Film Festival, a Silver W3 Award for internet video, an Official Honoree Award from the Webby Awards and was hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet," by the New York Times. Michael continues to run DreamLight Interactive where he is currently producing The Autiton Archives, a 3D animated CGI series of shorts for the web of which this book details the production of the series pilot episode.

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