Middle school students around the world have been learning maths via Zoom. ZOOM needs computers & WIFI. There are so many resources online but I cannot over-emphasise the amazing 3D skills developed just by playing with objects in TINKERCAD. (See logo above. More info below) Anyone who wants to work developing video games or animated films has to understand the logic and maths of 3D. Read on. And it is more challenging than you might think.
1. Storyboard Sketches
The Pixar film, Finding Dory, began as storyboard sketches. There were 103,000 drawn for the film. The sketches are placed side-by-side in sequence in order to convey scenes and deliver a rough sense of how the story unfolds.
How many 64-page Exercise books would the storyboard take?
Only one side of the page of the 64-page exercise book would be used for storyboarding.
No. exercise books = 102,000/32 = 3,187.5
If put into flip Book form the storyboard sketches would produce a ‘rough’ version of the film.
Superman Vs Goku
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2. Ratio
If you are making a film about, say, Godzilla, you want him to be big. VERY BIG. But he has to share a screen with human characters.
If Godzilla is too big all the humans look like ants.
If he is too small … he looks like a toy TRex.
The Monster Maths:
Height: 108.2m Godzilla’s towering height in the 2014 film—the tallest onscreen incarnation ever
Tail: 167.74m Total length of Godzilla’s spiked tail
Volume: 89,724 m3 Godzilla’s total volume in the 2014 film.
Volume: 90,000 tons Godzilla’s volume if filled with water
Teeth: 1.07m Length from the root to the tips of Godzilla’s canine teeth
Teeth: 60 Teeth in Godzilla’s mouth
Roar: 4.83km Approximate distance Godzilla’s roar reverberates. (100,000W Power of the 3.7m-high, 5.5m-wide speaker array from which the sound designers blasted Godzilla’s roar to record the sound in a “real world” context)
Feet: 17.66m Total width of Godzilla’s feet across the widest point
Feet: 18.18m Length of Godzilla’s footprint from toe to heel
You vs Godzilla
The average height for 14-year-old boys in the U.S. is 164 cm.
For 14-year-old girls in the U.S. the average height is 158.75 cm.
Godzilla = 108.2 m
We’ll assume an average height of, say, 1.6m for a 14 yo.
14 yo = 1.6 m
Height:
108.2/1.6 = 67.6 = 68
Footprint
You vs Godzilla’s Footprint
18.18/160 = 11.4
Teeth
You vs Godzilla’s Tooth
1.07/1.60 = 0.7
Here is Superman vs Godzilla
A very funny Aussie commentary.
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3. 3D Modeling: Polygon Count
3D modeling can be approached in several ways. There is a good explanation here.
One method is to use a 3D scanner to produce a 3D mesh.
Godzilla model under construction
Digital Godzilla as 3D mesh
The mesh consists of polygons. You’ll find everything you want to know about polygons here.
The greater the no. of polygons the better the resolution in a 3D mesh, the better the resolution of the character or object as more shading and texture variation can be added.
So the POLYGON COUNT or POLY COUNT is a measure of the quality of an image.
Here are some POLY COUNTS:
Godzilla
500,000 polygons.
It took the 4 CGI artists 6 months to fully nail the texture of Godzilla’s scales. (See above)
Elysium
Just the space station ran close to 3 trillion polygons.
Transformers 2
Devastator had 13 million polygons
Clash of the Titans
The Kraken had 7 million Polygons.
Avatar
Apart from some bluescreen shots of live-action actors in cockpits, it’s all CG: gunships, missiles, smoke trails, water, fire, an army of photorealistic virtual characters and a giant tree made of 20 million polygons with 1.2 million leaves.
More here.
Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers (2002)
(See below)
The Gollum head model consisted of just over 2,600 polygons, which were mostly quads.
More here.
Film Animation vs Game Animation
The POLY COUNT is always greater in animated movies than in video games mainly because a higher poly count takes longer and costs more. A higher resolution is needed in a movie as it is shown on a much bigger screen.
Gollum: Game vs Film 3D model
Here are some POLY COUNTS for some popular games:
The Amazing Spiderman
Spiderman – 11,652
Assassin’s Creed 3
Benjamin Franklin – 17,744
Charles Lee – 25,994
Connor Kenway – 28,501
Desmond – 14,934
Haytham Kenya – 19,985
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Film Version
Batman: Game Model
Batman Beyond suit – 13,050
Harley Quinn – 17,731
Harley Quinn (DLC) – 19,110
Poison Ivy – 15,977
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Frank Woods (full gear) – 19,777
Crysis 2 (console)
Nano suit – 19,073
Multiplayer suit – 27,414
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FREE 3D MODELING FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
TINKERCAD is the free online resource that allows students to create their own 3D graphs – like Godzilla vs You (above) or 3D images that can be used for 3D printing. Play with the program. Mathspig had a little play and produced the genetically challenged chicken (below).
Tinkercad Dashboard
Find here.
Drag and drop shapes.
More here.
Play with shape dimensions.
More here.
Create figures for 3D printer.
MATHSPIG REPORT CARD: More playing with program needed!!!
If we flip a coin an infinite number of times Heads:Tails ratio will be 50:50. But if you think of infinity as a long, long ribbon with a HTTHTHHTTT pattern then random flips means any pattern is possible. 10 H in a row is possible… or 20 H. It’s just that we suddenly see meaning in this pattern. This is the Gambler’s Fallacy. We see 10 H in a row and we say ‘Aha! The next flip has to be Tails.’ But it doesn’t have to be Tails. The next flip – as with all flips – has an equal 50:50 chance of being Heads or Tails. That’s all. But we are surprised when we see an extended streak of, say, Heads. What has happened in the past does not effect THE NEXT FLIP!!!!!
Mathspig Blog 