#'Cartoony' 3D Studio
4 messages in this thread
I'm working with a 3D studio artist on a project. Perhaps I need a bit of help
putting my wishes in the right terms.
We are working with some model of railroad hardware. The final project is
going to run in 16 colors (on a standard VGA display). (I've provided the 16
color palette in a GIF file and Animator Pro format.)
I want a "cartoony" look (apart from getting the benefit of accurately
dimensioned objects and correct perspective). That is, a part should be of
uniform color – top, bottom, sides. And parts should be outlined in black and
have a black line along any sharp edges.
What's the right way to express this concisely in 3D Studio speak? Are there
production problems that will be tricky to resolve?
Thanks in advance.
Chuck Jameson
Silver Tongue Software
Charles,
>> cartooney look <<
I think you could get the look you are looking, but not in one pass. If you
were to get a program like Pennello .. by using 2 seperate "passes" with
different "pen" parameters .. you could create two images which when composited
could give you what I think you are looking for. Actually, once you start
playing with Pennello, I think you may find other "looks" with are not
realistic but are much more unique that a simple cartoon look. The best news
is that Pennello is now just $395 (down from $995).
There is a no-save version on the forum to play with.
Ang, President, Dynamic Technologies, Inc.
An Autodesk Systems Center for Multimedia in MD
We've worked with a lot of 16 color animations/stills. it is pretty tricky to
get it looking right. You have two options either render with the custom 16
color palette or render out to higher color depth and reduce it.
Your best bet for the solid uniform color look is to make sure there are no hot
spots. Use a lot of ambient light versuses spot and omni lights if you can.
This will keep down on the banding effect. Make sure to turn off dithering
when rendering. Use materials with some self luminations (preferable colors
that match your palette).
For the outline effect you probably have to render the whole scene using wire
frame material and overlay that over the top, or you can bring in your image it
image editor and and hand trace.
Hope this helps.
Peter W.
Might I suggest using no lights at all and making all surfaces self
illuminating. I have used that technique many times for getting solid flat
colors. For a really cartoony look you may try putting thick black lines onto
the corners of your objects with texture maps. It plays on the conventions of
animation very well. Hope that helps.