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.



My Bar Scene

I made my bar scene by placing walls in a part square shape. I used plane sto add a floor and some shelves which I later added material too. To create the stack of glasses I made an outline in Illustrator in the same way as I did with my martini glass. I then imported this into 3ds max and lathed it. After resizing the glass to fit into my bar scene I copied it several times and stacked them on the shelves. I also did this with my glass bottles:

I added a glass effect to the bar top and shelves, this has a slightly green colour to it to give it a 'classy' feel. I later changed the bar top to wood as the glassy effect was taking to long to render with the reflections. I kept the shelves the same.



Further Reactor Animation

Bowling Scene - Reactor

This bowling scene was created using a rigid reactor. The runway for the ball to go down had a mass of 0 so that it would not move, however friction was applied so that the bowling ball went at a steady pace whilst rolling down it. Without applying the keyframe to the ball it would just fall straight down. This was added and moved the ball in the direction of the pins. The pins were given a lower mass than the bowling ball so that when the ball hit the pins it would fall over.

This was quite tricky to get right for the ultimate strike! As you can see I couldn't quite perfect it!

Torso and Bones

Once I had uploaded the torso to 3DS Max I added bones to the right arm using the bone hierarchy. Once the bones were in the right place (slightly bent) I modified them by adding side, front and back fins. By manipulating the fins I was able to fill out the bones on the mesh. Once this had been repeated on the left side of the torso I gave the mesh movement by adding an IK Limb Solver to the arms. This enabled me to move them around freely.

To apply the bones to the torso object I selected the torso and under the modifier list I selected skins. By clicking add it brought up a list of all of the bones that I had created previously. I then added a single bone to the centre of the torso and manipulated the fins in the same way as I had done with the arms. To avoid the arms forming a strange bend when being moved I was able to edit the envelopes.

Dice and Martini Glass

I created my Martini glass in the same way as my chess piece. I drew the side of the glass in Illustrator and then imported it into 3ds Max. In 3ds Max I used the pivot point to set a centre to the glassand lathed. I then applied a glass effect material to the glass.

I created the dice by using a chamfre box. This gave a little shape to the dice. I then set the squares on the dice so the they were inset and extruded, giving them some depth. I selceted the the squares and used the material editer and sub editor to add two different colours.

I then set a scene using two planes with a glass effect on them and imported my martini glass.I like the glossy effect on my planes as it gave a nice reflection.

Head Model

 I started off modelling my head by setting up two planes opposite eachother and applying my head references to each plane. I then used the spline tool to outline the left side of the head and chin, excluding the mouth and neck. As the second spline was inside out I had to select that spline and flip it. Once flipped I was able to extrude the spline and start shaping my head. I started at the top of the head and extruded each section out. The first extrusion was to for the side up to the ear.

I used the end edge to form a bridge between the chin and the side of the head.

I then went on to create another bridge to connect the nose to the side of the face. Using this I carried on this method to form the shape of the lower head. I formed ridges around the eye and the selected the border of the eye to extrude and give more shape. Once extruded I capped the eye to make it solid.

I then went on to create the rest of the face in the same fasion. Bridging and extruding, manipulating the vertex to shape the face.

The nose was possibly the hardest part to do as it had so much shape to it. I used the welding option to fix each edge together. Once I had completed half of my head I mirrored it and attached it to the other half.

After repeating each step my finished product came out like this...

Roll Camera

 

Using the roll camera option I was able to tilt the camera view, this would become quite handy in my animation for another camera angle. 

Stock Lenses

 

I was able to zoom into one sole object by choosing one of the stock lenses. In this image I have used the 200mm lens. Another way of achieving this effect would be to use the field of view option, the advantage of using field of view instead would be that you are able to easily change the the zoom to how you feel fits best.

Depth of Field

The blur on this image was achieved by setting up a camera in the scene and modifying this camera to enable depth of field. This tool gives a blurred effect as if the image was in the distance. Both of my objects were of equal distance but the box does show as slightly more blurred than the cone.

Mood boards

Below are three mood boards that I have created. I have split my mood boards into three sections, the casino, the action and the lady. I hope to use parts from these mood boards to create my final storyboard:

The Casino

The Action

The Lady

Daylight System

By following the daylight system tutorial on Youtube I was able to create a more natural light. A plane was created with three different shapes added with different materials allocated to each item. By going to create and adding the daylight system to the scene I was able to control the light. We were able to choose our location and also amend the time of day for different shadows. i felt this would be really helpful as it gave a more realistic impression the the omni and spot lights we had been using on our pumpkin.

Pumpkin Tutorial

I uploaded the pumpkin from a file that was already created. By adding the omni light and placing it within the pumkin I was able to light the inside and give it a glow just how a pumpkin with a candle on the inside would have at Halloween. I then added a target spot light to highlight from the back of the pumpkin. With the target spot light I was able to change the spotlight parameters and adjust the beam and fall off field.

I also added the foggy effect by modifying the atmosphere and adding a volume light. This gave an eery feeling to the image.

Leaf Tutorial

To create this leaf I used several material mapping techniques. Firstly I edited the leaf in Photoshop by selecting the white background and making it black. By having to separate versions of the leaf (one with a white background and one with a black background) I was able to convert the image easily in 3ds Max.

In 3ds Max I used the material editor to add the original leaf as a bitmap under diffuse. The original leaf has a white background which is where the Photoshop editing came in handy. By adding the bitmap of the leaf with the black background to the opacity selection under maps this cancels out the original white background by acting like another layer. To add texture to the leaf I also added a bump map to the bitmap. The material was then applied to the plane in the view port. I then went onto adding the 'edit poly' modifier where I was able to manipulate the leaf using soft selection, giving it a more natural curve.

Rendered image of leaf

Assignment Brief and Research Board

Our brief was to use 3ds Max to create a 30 second trailer for a James Bond film, I soon realised that I had never seen a James Bond film in my life and knew that choosing one could possibly be the hardest part!

I had never realised previously that there had been so many Bond films made which made my decision even harder. Initially I felt I may be more inclined to go for one of the very first films produced as I would be able to incorporate a feel of the 60's to my animation. However, having read the synopsis for each film the ridiculous plots had me even more confused and I felt completely out of my depth.

As I was finding it hard to decide I called upon the knowledge of those who knew, asking James Bond enthusiasts what their favourite bond film was. A lot of them were torn between the films and the actual actors who played 007 but they all seemed to agree that Casino Royale was possibly the best as it had a lot of action scenes and iconic Bond moments. I decided to see for myself and after watching the film I came to the conclusion that this was the one, I felt as though there were many scenes within the film that could work well with my animation. Below is my research board for Casino Royale...

Tank

Fruit Bowl

I found my fruit bowl a slight challenge, especially when trying to make the bananas. I ended up using the capsule in the extended primitives selection as the base shape and converting it to a poly so that I could manipulate the shape by extruding it. The other part of my fruit bowl that I had difficulty with was actually making my bowl. I tried to create the bowl by converting a sphere to poly and inverting the top half, this did not work as well as I hoped it would. In the end I used Adobe Illustrator to create a 2d version of half of my bowl shape. Once uploaded to 3ds Max I used the lathe modifier to create my 3d bowl. I was much happier with the outcome. 

Castle





Making the castle was my first challenge in using 3ds Max. As we had already played around with the different shapes available I had an idea as to what shape my castle would be. I started off with a basic box and then went on to add the turrets onto each corner. This proved more difficult than I first thought as I was so used to viewing my creation in one view and now I had four to consider. I found myself thinking that parts were in place and then once I'd changed the view I realised they were no where near! I think this may take some time to get used to.



Snowman

The snowman was my second attempt at 3ds Max. I found the snowman much easier to create, once I had got used to thinking about the subject in shapes it seemed to flow. The snowman was made out of two spheres, the torus shape was used for the scarf and for the base of the hat and the cone shape was used for the main part of the hat. Some animation was added to this in the form of snow. I was able to control the flow and size of the snowflakes and also change what direction it would fall from.  I felt a little more confident using this programme once I had made my snowman.