[GUIDE] How to get started with the 3D pipeline

3D modelling and animations are super fun, you have the power to create anything you want or simply you can do wonders. 

But, the learning curve if getting started with 3D art is somewhat deep. That means learning 3D art could be on the sophisticated side rather than being simple. 

Here, I've compiled all the good stuff that's required to know to get started with the 3D pipeline.

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Introduction

If you're somewhat into the 3D pipeline, you should have known Blender. For the unversed, Blender is the free and open-source 3D creation suite.

It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline such as modelling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing, and 2D animation pipeline.

It is in par with most of the paid software for this purpose. You need not buy 3DS Max, Maya or any other paid software because blender can do it all for free! 

How cool! Blender has grown to a level where small scale studios adopt blender to save thousands of dollars doing the same. It is close to becoming industry standard.

Go ahead, download Blender at https://blender.org to get started. Mind you, it (Blender's User Interface) can look sophisticated and might intimidate you. Don't let that intimidate you or affect you in anyway. You can master the basics of Blender within a month or two. 

A quick Beginner tip: Even if you feel like you lack behind than the others, Do not let that fear get your best out of you.

Some random guy on the internet may be 3x faster than you, but that could be due to a variety of factors such as some to little beforehand experience in this field, Availability of time, How fast he or she can perceive things, understanding of concepts and various others.

Another thing. Many people on the internet start with the most famous of all time tutorial series, Donut. If you're a programmer, it is something like Hello World. Obviously, it ain't official, but it is perceived to be so.

But, I didn't want to start with that. It felt it was too slow for me to get started. I searched for random tutorials, random videos on various 3D concepts and gathered all of the bits of knowledge I had got from these. 

It felt like a waste of time, But in the end it turned out to be a little too invaluable. These concepts helped me easy get started with Game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engines and other 3D related stuff in general.

One last thing I would like to say and get started. Now, I have learnt this from all the way back from 2017. But that doesn't mean I am an expert. I learnt only a 5 months in total in a span of 4 years. 

Not that I lost interest in it, just the fact that I learnt so much different languages and skills in the rest of the time. 

What I meant to say is: If you have a plethora of time you can learn it in a similar way like I did, learn 3D stuff, learn programming languages after that and do many stuff. 

This didn't give me any particular expertise, just gave me a sense of understanding in everything in general. 

If you want to have a sense of particular expertise, You can master the 3D pipeline by dedicating a lot of time to it. It would take about 4 to 5 years for a sense of expertise in 3D pipeline, If you learnt it the whole time.

Enough of this stuff, let's get into the fun part.

Concepts in 3D Modelling.

Now, we'll cover some basics but a little knowledge of 3D art is preferred. There are generally 2 types of modelling: Poly modelling and Sculpting.

As the name suggest, It uses Polygons to create new models and is widely preferred throughout the industry. Game assets are made using Poly modelling, due to the fact that it is lighter to render. 

Now, you can check if an object or mesh is lightweight by checking its vertices. The higher the vertex count, more the detail. Some non detailed models can have higher vertices, this is due to improper technique or improper use of technique. 

"Try to keep it as simple and clean as possible."

Whereas Sculpting involves the use of a digital brush, sculpting the mesh and carving up and building up the mesh to make it look like the desired object. It is generally used in detailed character creation and landscape (especially mountain and hills) creation.

It is used in movies to create high definition models and objects as the production quality of movies is loads higher than games. Although games have come to a point where its realism is mind-blowing, it's still not there.

So you can try all of these techniques and choose what's right for you. I am good at Poly modelling as of now, I may develop skillsets that can make me good in sculpting later. Stop worrying about it if you're doing it already.

Apart from these, there are other ways to create 3D objects. One such way of creating 3D models is photogrammetry, more commonly referred to as Photo-scanning.

Photo-scanning is the way of creating various models by taking images of that object in various angles. 

This is an easy way to create photo-realistic 3D models for games and movies, considering the fact that it's just a matter of a few photos rather than modelling or carving it the whole time.

If you're planning to use Unreal Engine for game development, or If you intend to create games in the first place, you should definitely check out Quixel Bridge. It contains more than 11,000 assets for free for use in unreal engine only. 

However, these are really high quality and it also has a lot of PBR textures.

Long story short, PBR, or Physically Based Rendering, materials and textures react to light in various ways to replicate realism.

Back to Photogrammetry, it obviously has a few, rather significant, caveats you should definitely consider.

Photogrammetry requires you to have a lot of CPU and GPU computing power, because it is a very power-intensive and exhaustive task.

You can't photo-scan all assets. Nature scenes are best suited while others are rather a hit or miss. You can't achieve great results every single time.

Finally, the results are so detailed that it is rather impractical to use in any games. You can't use in mobile games, which is obvious by now.

But, if you're aiming for high end machines or you want to your game to be yet an another project for portfolio, you can check them out.

I use selective assets from the Quixel Bridge such as PBR materials and some plants, leaves and etcetera. In case, I need to create a realistic scene, these come really handy.

A little bit of a search on internet can get you more knowledge on Photogrammetry. More on that later.

This is more than enough to get you started with the whole 3D pipeline.

The 3D Pipeline.

This is not the complete 3D pipeline. We'll limit ourselves to post-processing. The rest are either unrelated nor just too advanced to understand at first.

Lighting
It is the process of adding proper lights to your scene. It is often the most underrated element in a scene by beginners. A good lighting setup can make your boring scene more interesting to look at and breathe life into your art. There are 3 key elements that you need to remember to add great lighting to your scene:

1. Key Light: This is the main light source in your scene. It is usually the brightest and casts the most shadows. Position it in a way that it defines the shape and form of your subject.

2. Fill Light: The fill light is used to soften the shadows created by the key light. It’s usually positioned opposite the key light and is less intense. The fill light helps to ensure that your subject isn’t too contrasty and that details are visible even in the shadowed areas.

3. Back Light (Rim Light): This light is placed behind the subject, facing toward the camera. It helps to separate the subject from the background, giving it more depth and a three-dimensional appearance.

By experimenting with these three lights, you can create different moods and atmospheres in your 3D scenes.

Texturing and Shading
Texturing and shading are critical steps in the 3D pipeline. Texturing involves applying images (textures) to the surfaces of your 3D models to give them color, pattern, and detail. This step is crucial for making your models look realistic.

There are various types of textures you can use:

• Diffuse: The basic color of the surface.
• Normal/Bump: Gives the illusion of surface detail without adding extra polygons.
• Specular: Controls how shiny or reflective a surface is.
• Displacement: Actually moves the geometry of your model based on the texture, adding real detail.

Shading is the process of defining how your 3D model interacts with light. It involves assigning materials to your model that will determine how light affects it. For example, a metal material might reflect light differently than a matte material.

In Blender, the Shader Editor is where you can create complex material setups using nodes. Nodes allow you to combine different textures and properties to create unique materials. For beginners, starting with the Principled BSDF shader is recommended as it’s a versatile and physically-based shader that can replicate many real-world materials.

Rendering
Rendering is the process of converting your 3D scene into a 2D image or animation. This is where all your work comes together: the modeling, texturing, lighting, and shading are combined to produce the final output.

Blender offers multiple rendering engines, with Cycles and Eevee being the most popular:

• Cycles: A physically-based rendering engine that produces high-quality, realistic images. It calculates light interactions in a scene more accurately but is more computationally intensive, making it slower.
• Eevee: A real-time rendering engine that is much faster than Cycles. It uses a different approach to rendering, which is not as accurate as Cycles but still produces good results for many applications.

When rendering, you can choose the resolution, the number of samples (which controls the quality of the render), and other settings like ambient occlusion, bloom, and depth of field. Higher samples usually result in less noise but take longer to render.

For animations, you’ll need to render every frame of your animation and then compile them into a video. This can be a time-consuming process, so it’s important to optimize your scenes and rendering settings.

Post-Processing
Post-processing is the final step where you can add the finishing touches to your renders. This includes adjusting colors, adding effects like motion blur or depth of field, and compositing different render passes together.

Blender has a built-in compositor that allows you to perform post-processing directly within the software. The compositor uses nodes to apply effects to your rendered images or animations. For instance, you can:

• Adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation.
• Add glare or lens flares.
• Apply color grading to match a specific style or mood.
• Composite multiple render layers together, such as combining a background with your main scene.

Using render passes can also be helpful. Render passes break down your render into different components like diffuse, specular, shadow, and ambient occlusion. By compositing these passes together, you have more control over the final image and can make adjustments without re-rendering the entire scene.

Animation Basics
If you want to bring your 3D models to life, animation is the way to go. Animation involves moving your models over time to create motion. This can be as simple as moving an object from one side of the screen to the other or as complex as making a character walk, talk, and express emotions.

In Blender, animation is done using keyframes. A keyframe records the position, rotation, and scale of an object at a specific point in time. Blender will then interpolate the values between keyframes to create smooth motion.

Here’s a quick overview of the animation process:

1. Set Up Your Scene: Arrange your models, lights, and camera in the starting position.
2. Insert Keyframes: Select your object, move it to the desired position, and press I to insert a keyframe. Repeat this process at different points in the timeline to create motion.
3. Fine-Tune Animation: Use the Graph Editor to adjust the interpolation between keyframes, making the motion more natural.
4. Add Physics and Simulations: If your scene involves physics (like falling objects) or simulations (like smoke or water), set these up before rendering.
5. Render Animation: Once satisfied with your animation, render it as a series of images or a video.

Rigging and Character Animation
Rigging is the process of adding a skeleton (armature) to a 3D model so it can be animated. This is essential for character animation. The rig controls how the model moves and deforms, allowing you to create realistic animations like walking, running, or facial expressions.

In Blender, the basic steps for rigging are:

1. Create the Armature: Use the Armature object to create bones that correspond to different parts of your model.
2. Weight Painting: Assign weights to different parts of the mesh so that the bones control them correctly. This step ensures that the model deforms naturally when the bones move.
3. Pose Mode: Use Pose Mode to move the bones and create animations.

For complex animations, such as those in characters, you may need to use Inverse Kinematics (IK) to control the rig more easily. IK allows for more natural movement, especially in limbs.

Simulation and Effects
Simulation is where things get really interesting in the 3D pipeline. Blender offers a variety of simulations that can add realistic effects to your scenes, such as:

• Fluid Simulation: Create realistic liquids, such as water or lava.
• Smoke and Fire: Add smoke or fire effects, complete with lighting and shadows.
• Cloth Simulation: Make objects behave like cloth, with realistic folds and movement.
• Rigid Body Physics: Simulate solid objects that collide with each other, like falling bricks or bouncing balls.

Simulations can be complex and require a lot of computational power, but they add a level of realism that is hard to achieve otherwise. Blender allows you to bake simulations, which means pre-calculating the effects so they don’t need to be recalculated every time you play the animation.

Tips for Staying Motivated
Learning 3D art can be challenging, and it’s easy to get discouraged when progress seems slow. Here are some tips to keep you motivated:

• Set Small Goals: Instead of trying to create a masterpiece right away, set small, achievable goals. Celebrate each success.
• Join a Community: Engage with other 3D artists online. Platforms like Blender Artists, Reddit, or Discord have communities where you can share your work, get feedback, and learn from others.
• Follow Tutorials: Don’t be afraid to follow tutorials, especially when starting. They provide structure and help you learn new techniques.
• Experiment: Don’t hesitate to experiment with different tools and techniques. Some of the best learning experiences come from trying new things.
• Take Breaks: If you’re feeling frustrated, take a break. Sometimes stepping away for a bit can help you see the problem in a new light when you return.

Conclusion
Starting your journey in the 3D pipeline can be overwhelming, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. With tools like Blender, you have access to professional-grade software at no cost, making it easier than ever to dive into 3D modeling, animation, and rendering.

Remember, mastery takes time. Whether you’re learning through structured tutorials or exploring on your own, every step forward is progress. The most important thing is to enjoy the process. With dedication and passion, you’ll soon be creating amazing 3D art and animations that you can be proud of.

So, fire up Blender, start modeling, and let your creativity flow. The world of 3D art is vast and full of opportunities—go ahead and explore it!