Quick Update

So I have finally done the Introduction for the report! I've been putting it off for ages but it is finally done and it's starting to come together now. I just hope I can find enough images online so I don't have to go and scan everything in!

I'll give you another update soon.

Wire Mesh 3D

With anything that is to be rendered in 3D space, it needs to be comprised of a wire mesh made up of shapes called Polygons. The more polygons in the mesh, the more detailed the result.
The polygons are traditionally triangles, quadrilaterals and sometimes convex polygons as this helps with rendering.
Nearly every computer animated thing you see will be built up of polygons like this below:

As this image shows, a lot of polygons go into making a 3D render, however this is a very time consuming and expensive job which is why Poseidon's budget was around $160,000,000 as I mentioned in my previous post, it has some of the best CGI I have seen in a film. And that's by 2006 standards.

Polygons can be made into any mesh structure which can then be textured (in other words, put a skin on or paint etc) and then animated appropriately. Remeber, the more polygons, the more detail you will achieve. Check out this example below.

As you can see, the shoe with over 8000 polygons is smoother and more detailed why the shoe with 170 polygons is rather blocky and doesn't look very realistic. Another example is seen here. Below is the final render of the Poseidon wish was used in the film:

As you can see it is extremely detailed and very realistic. I couldn't estimate how many polygons went into this but I can say it was a hell of a lot! You can see why the film's budget was very high! These Polygon models then need to be lit appropriately and realistically too otherwise film goers will reject the reality of the film that is before them.

I won't be supplying any of my own Wire Mesh models as I am terrible at creating 3D models.

As technology has move at a rapid pace, and realism is being achieved more and more with CGI, it seems that miniatures are being phased out, as CGI is cheaper and more efficient. The only downside I can see is if a hard drive crashes and you lose all of the work, you gotta start over.