Advanced Image Design-3D Modeling Techniques
3 Units
May be taken two times for credit.
Prerequisite: GRAP 16 – Corequisite: GRAP 1 (may have been taken previously)
Advanced digital image drawing emphasizing the creation of photorealistic 3D models and environments. Using 3D modeling, students explore the principles of perspective, coordinate space, photographic lighting, object animation, photo and video texture mapping, and common techniques for rendering still or animated QuickTime image movies for uses such as digital compositing and multimedia post-production.
Typical skills learned:
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How We See: Realism and Stereopsis -
Strata CX v5 Software Tools
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Coordinate Systems, Object Properties and Transforms
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Modeling with Polygons and Splines, Surface Textures and Maps
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Photographic illumination and Model Shading
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Adjusting the environment; Setting Cameras, Views, and Properties
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Elements of Animation and Image Compositing
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Rendering Choices and Calculations
The Cornell Box
In 1984, Cornell University students worked on a project that focused on the “modeling of interaction between diffused light surfaces”. They were studying how light distributed itself throughout an environment so that they could eventually understand how to simulate realistic “full scene” lighting using a single light source in a computer program. This eventually became known as “global illumination”.
The scene consists of one light source mounted in the center of the ceiling of an enclosed, equal sided box. All of the interior surfaces are matte finish, with the top, floor, front and back walls white; he left wall pure red, and the right wall pure blue. Objects are placed into the box and the lighting is studied as a basis for comparison to computer generated scenes to evaluate realistic lighting.
Here is a link to Cornell’s specification for the box:
