How I felt about the module...

I found this module very difficult. There is so much to learn with 3ds Max and I felt as though what I wanted to achieve could have been met if only I knew how to use the programme properly. Watching tutorials was fine and found that providing they were simple I was able to follow their instructions with a decent outcome.

I found using the bone tools very hard, this is why, in the end I did not include any in my animation. Although I used a head model as one of my assets in the first assignment, I also had to discard this as I could not get the mouth to not shrivel up once it had been TurboSmoothes. This was really disappointing - I had spent a lot of time on the head.

Overall I haven't really enjoyed this module. I found it frustrating and hard to deal with. I will continue to practise my skills in 3D Max over the summer holidays and hope that this helps improve my experience.

Scene Two and Three Casino/Bar

Below is a snippet of my second scene. In the scene I use my hand and my stack of cards. I have set the scene by adding a simple poker table by using a plane. I also added wooden flooring and planes for walls. I did not want too much detail as most of the camera angles are close up so detail would have only slowed the rendering process.

Last Scene

For my last scene I wanted my martini glass to fill up with water. After scouring the internet I was sure I wouldn't be able to do it until I found a tutorial which allowed me to use partical flow.

To begin with I chose particle systems in the command panel drop down, I then chose the PFsource button and changed the settings for the length and width. Once this was done I dragged this out in the top viewport so that I could position it directly above my martini glass. I then opened the particle view and edited the Birth01 under Event01 so that the particles would show until the end of the animation. I then edited the speed operator so that the water would flow varied and fast.

I then added the spin operator into the event this would make the water look more random as it flows. I played around with all of these controls until it looked how I wanted it to.

I then need to create a space warp. I did this by going onto the command panel and selecting create and space warp buttons. To bounce the particles around the martini glass I needed to use a UDeflector. I applied this in the top viewport as I had with the PFsource button. I then modified the deflector and added the martini object to it. This then allows the martini glass to act as a deflector. I then opened the particle view again and this time added a collision operator to the event. I then added the UDeflector to this. By setting the speed to 0 this meant that when the particles collided with the martini glass they would stop.

I then added forces under the space warp selection. I used a vortex force to create a swirl to the water as it fills the glass. To connect it all together I went into the particle view, added the force operator to the Event02 and then connect the collison in Event 01.

http://www.escalight.com/tutorials/3dsmax-tutorials/pouring-water-using-particle-flow-part-1.html

Here is the finished video:

Attempt at making hair

My attempt at making realistic hair was succesful however I did not know how to apply it to my model and make it flexible. I made the hair in a similar way to the leaf tutorial. I saved a picture of strands of hair from the internet. I imported it into Photoshop and made the white background black. I then opened this in Paint and saved an inverted version.

After applying the hair material to a plain I edited the unrwapUVW to try and give it a wave. After completing this I merged my hair with my head mesh, this is when I realised it would not work. I think I may have tried to do something to complex for my skill level and therefore just didn't understand how it worked.



SWOT Analysis

Strengths - Able to pick things up if shown how to do something.

Weaknesses - Like to try different things which can sometimes lead to work taking longer, Not very good at keeping work constant - sometimes makes me fall behind (time management).

Opportunities - Being able to learn a new technology, growing my skill set.

Threats - Not knowing 3DS Max, sometimes challenging.

Hand

I created a hand by starting with a box. I widened one ene of the box and close the other end. By adding sections to the box I was able to extrude the widened end for my fingers. For the thumb I had to make sure I extruded this at an angle as your thumb sits to the side of your hand. I did this by selecting it and rotating. I made sure that the NURMS Toggle was switched on which allowed me to see the hand with a curved surface. To add fingernails to the hand I selected the top elemend of the finger, I then extruded them so that the appeared raised and then beveled the top. For the thumb I had  two parts to the nail so I had to ensure that the were attached for this to work as one.

Below is my hand with NURMS toggle turned on (before I put material on).

I found the tutorial for this hand fairly easy to follow. I used the skills I had learnt from the class based tutorials which I think helped my understanding.

Clothing Attempt

I attempted to cloth my body by using the local damp cloth. This turned out to be very difficult so in the end I decided against using it as it was taking up a lot of time.

This is what I did:

First of all I created the cloth pieces using the spline tool. I only made one half and then mirrored the other sections. I then copied the pieces for the back of my top. With all of the splines selected I centred the pivot point and attached them. Once I had done this I could then add the Garment Maker modifier. I used this modifier to 'sew' the pieces together. I aligned the pieces to the body, where I had expected them to go. I ich I selected the edges which I wanted to be sewn together and then selected create seam. This brough up lines to show which edges would be 'sewn' together, as pictured above.

I then went on to select my cloth by choosing cloth under the modifier list, I chose cotton as per the tutorial. The tutorial suggested this was the best cloth to deal with. I then went ahead to create a local damp simulation. This is where I got stuck, either the cloth would go inside the mesh or it would be too big. With the cloth inside I did try to manipulate the cloth to bring back outside of the mesh but this only seemed to make things worse. The best outcome I achieved is below, I did not feel this was good enough and as this had already taken up a lot of my time I decided to go down another root.