More Vocab

• Displacement Mapping

 A way to create a bumpy surface using a texture. Alternative to Bump Mapping.

• Bump Mapping 

 A way to create a bumpy surface without actually rendering a model of the bumps. Uses a smooth object.

• Rendering 

 Creating an image from a model.

• Alpha Channel 

 Controls the transparency of an image.

• NURBS vs Polygon 

 NURBS - a model used to represent curves and surfaces. More flexible than polygons.
Polygons - Figure with at least 3 sides and angle, commonly used for models. Usually models are composed of many polygons.

• Tiling 

 Dividing an image by a grid into many tiles that are then used to make larger images. Tiles themselves tend to be small.

• Skinning 

 Process of associating bones of an animation skeleton with a portion of the model.

• Aperture 

 Opening through which light travels. Commonly used in cameras in conjunction with the shutter to control the amount of light reaching the interior.

• Shutter Speed 

 The length of time a camera's shutter is open.

• Focal Length 

 Distance between a lens/mirror and it's focus.

• Dolly 

 Equipment designed to create smooth camera movements.

• Pan 

 Horizontal movement of a camera.

• Roll Aspect Ratio 

 Proportional relation between width and height of a camera view.

Phaser (completed)

Today I finally finished the Phaser. It came out looking really good, but Mr. Cornell wanted me to change the background. So I have three images:

1. Phaser, black background, Galileo's Tomb HDRI:

The Phaser with a generic black background showcasing the HDRI reflections and 3 point lighting.

2. Phaser, Galileo's Tomb Background/HDRI:

Now I turned the HDRI background on, to really show that the object is reflecting the environment. Also helps to see the outline better.

3. Phaser, Photoshopped onto a background:

I Photoshopped the Phaser onto a background I made in the Computer Graphics w/ Digital Media class that I took in my freshman year. I moved the Phaser a bit to line up the highlight of the model with the light source in the image. It lined up almost, if not perfectly.


EDIT: and since I was bored, here's a .gif of the Phaser firing (there was originally a pause between shots, but I accidentally deleted that frame and I didn't save.)

HDRI Lighting

Today I had to use an HDRI image in a render. I used ST. Peter's Basilica. Here's the result:

Lighting

Today I had to make an irregular shape and render it with one point lighting. Here's what resulted:

My favorite part about this is the way it reflects itself. The object also reminds me of an alien mothership of some sort because of the "Tail" in the back and the irregular prongs in the front.

Vocab Terms 1

Analogous Colors: Colors next to each other on the color wheel.

Complementary Colors: Two opposite colors on the color wheel. When mixed, they produce black, white, or grey.

Primary Colors: The three colors (Red, Blue, and Yellow) from which all other colors are derived from.

Secondary Colors: Colors created by mixing two or more of the primary colors.

 Tertiary Colors: A color produced by mixing either a primary with a secondary color or two secondary colors.

Asymmetry: Non-symmetrical both sides of a given axis do not look like each other.

Symmetry: Both sides of a given axis look the same.

Animation Screenshots

I finished the animation project. I followed Mr. Cornell's instructions and took a screenshot of each animation:

Keyframe:

 The ball bounces over a wall.

Driven Key:

 The ball goes under an automatic door. Curves are marked for clarity.

Path Animation:

 The Aircraft takes off and follows the path.

IK Animation:

The mechanical arm picks up a crate and places it on a platform. Animated via an IK handle attached to a skeleton.

back to the phaser

I finished all the animation projects (I don't know how Mr. Cornell wants to grade them) so I continued work on the phaser. Here's its progress so far:

IB Artshow

Today we were asked to pick two pieces of artwork from the IB Artshow and describe them.

Vice by John Dexter VI

This picture was made using Autodesk Maya and Adobe Photoshop. It has a generally dark value for the background and depicts a vial of pills being spilled onto a counter. One of the pills is broken open, releasing an ominous green vapor. The vapor rises and swirls into the shape of a skull, implying that a dose of the pills is either deadly, or can be deadly in copious amounts.

Title Unknown by Estela Lopez Jimenez

This picture was lacking a label, so the type of paint used to paint it and the title of the piece are unknown. The picture is a painting of a nebula, that strikingly resembles the Ant Nebula. The paining uses a vibrant spectrum of colors to make the nebula more photorealistic. There seems to be no story or communication in this painting (unlike Vice above), it may be that the purpose of the painting was merely to document the beauty in the otherwise vast and relatively empty space throughout the universe.

Phaser Again

Continued work on the phaser today. This is how it looks so far:

Molecular Maya Again

We are doing this assignment because molecules are complex 3d structures and this is a 3d class.

CPK Model:

This is a CPK model of a Prion (Proteinaceous Infectious Particle). The Importance of a CPK model is that it allows for accurate visual representation of the space the molecule occupies and the overall shape and dimensions of the molecule.

This is a Ball-Stick model of the same Prion. The Importance of a Ball-Stick model is that it allows you to visualize the bonds between atoms and see the positions of atoms through the model, unlike a CPK.

This is a Ribbon model of the same prion. Ribbon models show the overall path and organization of the backbone of the protein, but they don't show the positions of atoms within the protein.

This is a Contact Surface model of a fragment of an Adenovirus Capsid. This shows what the 3d structure of the protein looks like and shows the surface of the molecule.

This is the entire virus Capsid. This is a biological unit. The importance of biological units is that it shows how the small components (such as the fragment from the previous image) interlock to form massive structures such as this.

QUESTIONS!
With the CPK and Ball-and-Stick model, what do the colors represent – specifically? 
The colors represent elements on the Periodic Table. For instance, grey represents Carbon, which forms the base of most organic molecules.

What is a Biological Unit?
A biological unit is the macromolecular assembly believed to be the functional form of the molecule.

What is a Capsid? 
A Capsid is the outer protein coat of a virus. The capsid protects the viral RNA/DNA and enzymes and allows the virus to survive outside of a cellular host.

Ambient Occlusion, what is the relevance to molecular visualization?
 Ambient Occlusion is a way of mimicking the way light radiates in real life. If viewing a molecule as a mesh, AO allows us to see it as if light was reflecting off of it. it also allows us to see greater shading and detail of the molecular mesh.

What do you think are the advantages of molecular graphics done with Maya versus other visualization tools?
I wouldn't know at this point because I have not used any other visualization tools.


Client Model for Prion

Molecule: HUMAN PRION PROTEIN FRAGMENT 121-230
PDB ID Number: 1qm2
Authors:    Zahn, R.,  Liu, A.,  Luhrs, T.,  Wuthrich, K.
Type: protein
Number of Chains: 1
Function: Unknown
Location: Outer surface of human neurons
Diseases: Inflicts Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (or in some regions of the world, Kuru) when misfolded. When misfolded it induces other prions to become misfolded in the same manner. Understanding the structure of the misfolded form of the prion (still undiscovered) may provide some insight on how we can prevent prion based diseases.

 Other animals have their own equivalents of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Sheep have Scrapie and cows have Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (or Mad Cow Disease)

Erythrocruorin Molecule

This is part of a molecule of Erythrocruorin, or earthworm hemoglobin.

Top view, as a mesh.

Top view, as Atoms.

Side view, as atoms.

Side view, as mesh. Reminds me of a mushroom cloud...

Side view, both mesh and atoms.

mMaya: Maya on a Molecular Scale

Here's proof I installed mMaya:

On the right of the image is the new panel that comes with mMaya.

Dat Phaser

Continued work on the phaser today. It was really annoying because 3DBuzz kept lagging for half the period.
Anyways, here's what I have so far:

Shapeways.com

Today we were told to document a site called shapeways.com, a site where people upload their designs and 3d print them for profit. Anything can be encountered on this site. I've seen mugs to rings to dice to sculptures to rubiks cube variants to even Strandbeests and Recreations from video games.

In other words, here's more progress on the Phaser:

Re: Phaser

Today I continued work on the phaser. The Magazine is just about finished. Here's a pic:

Phaser Progress 2

I continued work on the phaser today. It's looking pretty good so far. Aside from a mishap with a cube, which was corrected, there are no errors so far. Here's how it looks:

Daily Blog

I started work on the Star Trek Phaser today. I am making what I assume is a magazine for the weapon. Here's what I've done so far:

Bevel Minilesson

I learned to bevel today. Beveling, I have come to understand, is crucial in controlling the geometry of smoothed models. The following images show eight beveled cubes, the top four show the amount of segments, and their effect on the bevel. The bottom four show how offset affects the bevel.

 The next two images show how beveling certain sides can have an effect on the geometry of the shape.