All images from Inspired 3D Character Setup by Michael Ford and Alan Lehman, series edited by Kyle Clark and Michael Ford. Reprinted with permission.

This is the latest in a number of adaptations from the new Inspired series published by Premier Press. Comprised of four titles and edited by Kyle Clark and Michael Ford, these books are designed to provide animators and curious moviegoers with tips and tricks from Hollywood veterans. The following is excerpted from Inspired 3D Character Setup.

The Basic Building Blocks of Effective Character
This chapter will begin our foray into the 3D environment. We’ll be making a few assumptions about your skill level with respect to using the software of your choice. You should be comfortable enough to know how to use the fundamental aspects of your software. If this is your first time using your 3D software, put this book down and pick up a starting manual or a third-party book that will make you more comfortable working in the 3D environment. Also, please refer to the Computer Graphics Primer in the Introduction of this book to familiarize yourself with some of the topics we’ll be discussing in this chapter and the chapters that follow.

In our discussion concerning character creation, and in the exercises provided, we’ll be using Maya as our software package. This choice is based on our own comfort level with this software, and we want to make it clear that no matter what software you use, the basics of 3D are virtually the same. Once you learn the fundamentals of the 3D environment and how it functions, you’ll have a much easier time understanding what’s happening when you’re using your own software. Learning the basics should also make for a smoother transition if you’re thinking about using, or are obliged to use, another software package.

Let’s begin by taking another look at our friend Leonardo, and determining what we can learn from his passion for understanding how things are put together.

The 3D Machine — The Basics
As a boy, Leonardo da Vinci made fascinating sketches of the machines that surrounded him in 15th-century Florence. By sketching machines, he developed the ability to analyze and decipher the functions of the separate working pieces in the machines he studied. With his knowledge of mechanics, he could combine these pieces to improve on existing machines and create amazing new inventions.

Leonardo’s approach to understanding how machines were put together directly correlates to the tasks of the character TD. If you begin to understand the mechanics of your “3D software machine,” you can learn how to implement the appropriate tools and techniques when you build your 3D characters. One of the fundamental pieces of the 3D environment is the transformation.

Transformations
The dictionary definition of transform is “to change the nature, function or condition of; convert.” In 3D computer graphics, a transformation on an object is a change in the object’s translation, rotation, or scale values. In 3D software, a transformation is one of the most common ways in which you interact with objects in your scenes. In Maya, this can be accomplished in many ways, but the most interactive method is to grab the iconic manipulators, as shown in Figure 1. We’ll begin our discussion of transformations with the concept of space, and the different coordinate systems in which our objects are transformed.

[Figure 1] The three types of transformation manipulators in Maya: Translate, Rotate and Scale.

Space and Coordinate Systems
Space defines where an object is in relationship to the world, its parent, and itself. We describe these types of space in terms of different coordinate systems: world (or global), parent (or local), and object. As you learned in the CG primer, the three-dimensional (3D) world in computer graphic applications is visualized using the Cartesian Coordinate System. The three components of this system are: X (width), Y (height) and Z (depth). The center of the 3D world (0, 0, 0) is referred to as the origin.