Shall We Learn

In Lesson 1 of Creating 3D Games with Blender 3D, I will introduce Blender3D and go over basic concept of 3D Visualization. Since this series is for students without 3D experience or 3D math background, I will not discuss the math behind 3D visualization. I am, however, working on a 3D Programming with OpenGL series which I will cover more advance topics such as C++ programming and 3D math.

This is a 3D animation made using Blender3D. Simply amazing.

 

Step 1: Blender3D

This blender does not blend frozen fruit, but it blends something better. It blends your creativity and artistic ability to create beautiful 3D models, 3D animations, and 3D games.

Big Buck Bunny from Blender Foundation on Vimeo.

Step 2: Understand the Basic of 3D Projections

We live in a 3D world but the computer monitor is a 2D plane. To map a 3D object to a 2D plane, we use 3D projections. 3D projection is any method of mapping 3D points to a 2D plane. Two main projection methods are orthographic projections, isometric projection, and perspective projection.

Orthographic projection describes the shape of a 3D object from two to three angles. As shown below, a stair is shown from three angles: front, left, and top.

Here is another example of three different views of an object.

Isometric Projections describe 3D objects from just one view.

Perspective projection treats the 2D projection as being viewed through a camera. The position, orientation, and field of view control of this imaginary camera dictates the result of the 3D visualization.

1-Point Perspective: One vanishing point	2-Point Perspective: Two vanishing points	3-Point Perspective: Three vanishing points

Coordinate System in General:

You may not know it, but your right hand is a model for 3D coordinate system. Point your thumb to the side, index finger forward, and middle finger downward; now you have thumb as your X-axis, index finger as Y-axis, and middle finger as Z-axis.

Step 3: Understanding Surface Normal

The normal is often used in to determine a surface's orientation toward a light source or the orientation of each of the corners.

A normal (or surface normal) to a flat surface is a vector which is perpendicular to that surface.

A normal to a non-flat surface at a point P on the surface is a vector perpendicular to the tangent plane to that surface at P.

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