Combining Procedural and Hand Modeling Techniques for Creating Animated Digital 3D Natural Environments

This thesis focuses on a systematic solution for rendering 3D photorealistic natural environments using Maya\u27s procedural methods and ZBrush. The methods used in this thesis started with comparing two industry specific procedural applications, Vue and Maya\u27s Paint Effects, to determine which is better suited for applying animated procedural effects with the highest level of fidelity and expandability. Generated objects from Paint Effects contained the highest potential through object attributes, texturing and lighting. To optimize results further, compatibility with sculpting programs such as ZBrush are required to sculpt higher levels of detail. The final combination workflow produces results used in the short film Fall. The need for producing these effects is attributed to the growth of the visual effect industry\u27s ability to deliver realistic simulated complexities of nature and as such, the public\u27s insatiable need to see them on screen. Usually, however, the requirements for delivering a photorealistic digital environment fall under tight deadlines due to various phases of the visual effects project being interconnected across multiple production houses, thereby requiring the need for effective methods to deliver a high-end visual presentation. The use of a procedural system, such as an L-system, is often an initial step within a workflow leading toward creating photorealistic vegetation for visual effects environments. Procedure-based systems, such as Maya\u27s Paint Effects, feature robust controls that can generate many natural objects. A balance is thus created between being able to model objects quickly, but with limited detail, and control. Other methods outside this system must be used to achieve higher levels of fidelity through the use of attributes, expressions, lighting and texturing. Utilizing the procedural engine within Maya\u27s Paint Effects allows the beginning stages of modeling a 3D natural environment. ZBrush\u27s manual system approach can further bring the aesthetics to a much finer degree of fidelity. The benefit in leveraging both types of systems results in photorealistic objects that preserve all of the procedural and dynamic forces specified within the Paint Effects procedural engine

What's the use of basic science?

With public expenditure under pressure, the criteria for the allocation of funding to scientific research have come under increasing scrutiny. It is sometimes asserted that funds should be focused on applied (ÒusefulÓ) science and technology, rather than pure (ÒuselessÓ) science. I shall argue that this misunderstands the contribution of science to society and the role of public funding. To equate the useful with the applied is to display the same level of understanding as the child who thinks that the hands are the most important part of a watch because they are the ones that tell the time. Governments should support basic science because it is economically useful, as well as being part of our culture. This leads to the much more difficult questions of the level at which Government should fund basic science, and criteria for the allocation of funding between different fields.A talk on the uses of science and its relationship with government