UV Mapping
UV Mapping is like peeling the skin off a modeling and placing it onto a 2d canvas also known as the UV canvas. The UV canvas is a 2d plane that uses X = U and Y = V to project textures onto a model, the reason for UV Mapping a model before texturing is so that the texture placed onto the model isn’t a planar texture which creates bad look textures unless the object is a 2d plane.
Texturing and Shaders
Texturing is used to turn the model's surface or faces you have created to resemble something in real life and to do that you use texture mapping. It like how you would wrap a present in decorative paper first cutting the paper to fit the object which is UV Mapping and then sticking it on. The same is for texturing a model first you need to get your UV map and from there you can paint onto it using photoshop or other software to create your own style or something resembling a real world object.
Shaders are something that is used along with textures to give your model extra detail or a particular look. Shaders are used for how the light might reflect off the model's surface, how it is absorbed, translucency or bump maps.
Using these shaders you are able to create more detail onto an object without adding the extra vertex, edges or faces, like the image above it is using a bump map to give the illusion of depth onto a flat surface. Other maps are used for different results like transparency maps, normal maps, specular maps and more.
Rigging
Before a model is handed over to a team of animators to animate the object or character, it first needs to be bound to a system of joints, bones and control handles so that the animators can move the 3d mesh into the position they need. A rig is basically a digital version of our own skeleton which is made up of joints and bones which move certain sections of the model.
In addition to just have the joints and bones you need to also paint the weight which is saying how much a certain joint or bone would move a part of the model, this is important so you don't have a leg bone moving the foot or hip, making it harder to position the model correct for animating.
Animation
Long before 3d software, movies or games animation has been used. In the days when Disney was starting up animation was done by drawing out each frame of an animation and then going through the editing process to make those frame play. Back then animating a 2-minute animation in 24 frames per seconds meant there was 2880 drawing that had to be done, with Disney having a large work staff it didn’t take as long.
Unlike a 12 minute animation called Gertie the Dinosaur created by Winsor McCay which took him nearly 2 years and over 25, 000 drawing all done by hand and himself.
However, these days animation has grown and become a lot easier thanks to the new software like Flash and 3ds Max. Animating in something like 3ds Max uses the same principle as old style animation with keyframes just done a lot easier and quicker with rigs that allow you to move the model into the key poses faster than drawing them. Plus with the new technology of motion capture allow us to capture our own body movements to make the rig follow along.
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