Shaun Green

Case Study Link:
Melet Plastics

Please tell us a little about yourself and your background.
Shaun: I own a web site design studio called Bio Design Works and have been creating a wide variety of new media applications in a wide range of industries. We are always looking for opportunities to incorporate 3D animations into our projects to assist in captivating viewers and utilizing Swift 3D as a medium to help educate and engage people.

- In 2007 our company received two(2) International Summit Creative Awards for best website in the Travel/Tourism/Nature website category for:
Natural Exposures - http://www.naturalexposures.com
Frontiers North Adventures - http://www.frontiersnorth.com

- My very first experiments with 3D animation were with a program called Inifini-D where I developed my fundamentals of working in a 3D environment.

How did you get your start with Swift 3D, How long have you been a Swifter?
Shaun: While looking for a vector plugin for Infini-D to convert my rastor animations to vector I stumbled upon Swift 3D v.1.0. 
I have been a Swifter since 2001 and have been loving it ever since!!

What Electric Rain product did you use for this case study?
Shaun: To create the 3D objects for the Melet Plastics web site I utilized Swift 3D v.4.5 because of its Advanced Modeling feature.

What “real world use” led you to consider 3D as a solution?
Shaun: Quick Proof of Concept Creation: 
Swift 3D allows me to quickly create preliminary 3D scenes, and animate them over time. This is really advantageous because I can quickly present a concept idea to a client without having to spend allot of time setting up a complex scene with lighting, textures etc. I can just utilize all of Swift 3D's presets, drag and drop them into the scene editor and click render. 

Here are a couple of examples of some proof of concepts that I presented initially to a client for approval to begin production on the more detailed 3D animations:

Proof of concept idea  #1 - http://www.biodesignworks.com/ezcuts/demo1.html
Proof of concept idea #2 - http://www.biodesignworks.com/ezcuts/demo2.html

Product Packaging or Prototype Creation: 
Although Photoshop CS3 Professional allows you to rap materials around 3D objects and export them as image files, it does not allow you to animate those objects or export them as video. I find Swift 3D allot more flexible in this area allowing me to create 3D concept art in Photoshop and import into Swift 3D to create product packaging, trade booths, prototypes quickly and easily as both vector and rastor images. It is also great for creating visual walk-through or animating the disassembly of a clients prototype to help illustrate the inner workings of complex components.

How did Swift 3D help you to meet your project goals?
Shaun: I had two goals that I wanted to achieve for the Melet Plastics web site project:
1) The protoype objects seen in the Melet Plastics 3D banner had to be as visually accurate to the real life version as possible.
2) The surface material and the lighting on the objects had to appear as realistic as possible. 

Swift 3D did a great job of creating both the illusion of brushed brass and a semi reflective smooth plastic surface appearance.

What feature of Swift 3D did you find to be the most beneficial?
Shaun: I found the Advanced Modeler feature to be the most beneficial feature addition to Swift 3D v.4.5 because it gave me the flexibility to edit and manipulate an object with more precision then its predecessors. Without the Advanced Modeler feature I would have had a very difficult time creating these more complex models.

What other software did you use to complete your project? 
Shaun: To further enhance the 3D animation videos appearance I imported the rendered objects into Adobe Aftereffects CS3 as a .png sequence and added a few effects filters. Combining the 3D objects together with the 2D objects to create the final composite which was then rendered and exported as .flv video for Flash.

Can you give us a little insight to modeling, texturing and lighting techniques you used for this project. 
Shaun: 3D Reference Drawings
Because I didn't have 3D reference drawings for the ratchet objects I had to create my own by disassembling the real life ratchets into their individual components, create pencil drawings, scan the drawings into the computer and then create vector 2D objects that could then be imported into Swift 3D and extruded. 

Surface Groups
I really liked the surface groups feature and used it allot to create the spinning cube. Allocating each side with a surface group name make it easier to reference and select a specific side in which to apply an image.

Smoothing Groups
What a nice addition to Swift 3D to be able to control the smoothness of an object. It came in handy when manipulating the smoothness of the plastic ratchets individual elements.

Lighting
I used 5 spot lights to get the lighting on the objects just the way I wanted it. Positioning of lights was really experimental but I based my initial positioning on Electic Rain's Three Point Lighting System tutorial.

Most of the techniques used in the modeling of the objects were found in the tutorials on Electric Rain's website. They were really helpful in teaching me specific techniques that aided in the development of my 3D project.

What was the most challenging aspect of this project?
Shaun: Vision vs Abilities
My vision for the project way surpassed my initial knowledge or skills with Swift 3D v.4.5 so it was a constant learning challenge. I would create a model, make a mistake and then have to start from scratch until I finally became familiar enough and efficient enough with the program that I was able to create the final 3D animations you see in the Melet Plastics web site. 

Rendering Time
The other challenge I had was animating the objects. The more complex the model became the longer it took to render a single animation sequence out as a .png sequence. I wouldn't get a total feel for the real time speed or duration of an animation until a final render was complete. 

Any further advice of past work you would like to share with our readers.
Shaun: Here is an example of one the first projects I animated in Swift 3D:

Orange County Choppers Concept Proposal:  http://www.biodesignworks.com/occ/occ_concept.html

Tron Recognizer Animation:
http://www.biodesignworks.com/tron/tron.html

Natural Exposures:
 http://www.naturalexposures.com
(The tag that flips down in the top right corner of the web site was build using Swift 3D. Subtle but effective!)