Work catch-up

Because I have been ill the past 2 weeks - today I am going to catch up on everything that I have missed and continue with my James Bond themed trailer. Although not posted on my blog, some of my models have been created already and research boards have also been created. However, due to the lack of internet at home (Thanks TalkTalk..) I haven't been able to upload them. :) More posts will be made later today with my 3 design ideas, my storyboards and perhaps the odd tutorial or 2 when the Autodesk website lets me download the software to this pc...

Tutorial 3 Adding materials to objects - Leaf

The next part of this tutorial was to create a more complicated shape and apply a material to that too.

After downloading the image of the leaf:

I used photoshop to make adjustments to the image.

With the magic wand tool, I set the tolerance to 60 and then clicked on the white background. I then created a new layer and filled the selection with black. For best results, I made sure that the black overlapped the leaf slightly so that there are not any white pixels between the black layer and the leaf using the stroke tool.

I then made a new layer below the current layer and filled it with white.





I saved this image at the same location as the original leaf image.



After creating a new project in 3D Studio Max, I created a plane with 30 lengths and widths in the Perspective Viewport and opened the Material Editor. Similarly to the plank of wood, I imported the image as a bitmap and created a new texture. (see below)

In order to remvoe the white surrounding the leaf, I opened Material Editor again and under the opacity tab, I imported the black and white image which I created in photoshop. Now, the white background is not visible because the black and white image is acting similarly to a Photoshop layer mask.

Like when I created the plank of wood, I used the bump technique to make the leaf look more realistic when it is rendered. After applyin this to the plane, it started to take shape more as a leaf. All I had left to do was modify the polygon's vertices with soft touch on to make it look more rounded.

Then I rendered the image and this is the final result:

This is my image after I rendered it.

This is a close up of my rendered leaf.

Tutorial 3 Adding materials to objects - Plank of Wood

Today was my first lesson in learning how to add textures to an object. I found this really interesting because it makes the 3D objects I create more life-like.

The first object which I tried to recreate is a simple plank of wood.
The first step was to google an ideal image to use for the wood texture. I had to make sure that the image was big enough so that it would fit on the object.

This is the image I chose to use.








Then, I opened 3D Studio max and drew a box shape. I opened the Material Editor and created a new material and imported the image as a bitmap. Then I changed the shader basic parameters to anisotropic because I felt that this shader would create the most realistic effect. Modifying the specular highlights makes the gloss on the object look more shiny however care had to be taken to ensure that the gloss was not too shiny, otherwise it would look too fake. Finally, to make the object look even more realistic, I used the bump modifier to make the texture appear more detailed.

After applying this to the object, this is my final result:

Perspective View

A close up of my rendered plank of wood

Moodboard for Casino Royale

This is my mood board above which I have used to create ideas for what I could animate in the 30 second trailer of Casino Royale. Whilst I could choose the obvious (007 logo or the title) I have decided that I want to animate an object which the other members in my class may not have thought of. For example, it could be interesting to animate the martini glass (which can be created by making a template in Illustrator and then using the lathe tool) I could also choose to animate the Aston Martin because I have created a tank in the tutorials and the concepts would be similar. However I could use my own research to discover how to make the Martini glass and the glass in the car look realistic.

Which James Bond film am I going to choose for this assignment?

I found this particularly difficult because there are so many different James Bond films to choose from. So I created a mind map to help me decide by selecting a few of the possible films that I could use to create a 30 second trailer for and then created a list of words which relate to the films.

The film which I eventually decided to use was Casino Royale. This is because it's the only film out of the Bond series that I have actually watched so that should make it easier to create a mood board and decide on which three elements I would like to animate.

Home Study - Weeks 1 and 2

I have to create a brainstorm and mood board which will allow me to choose which James Bond film I will want to make the trailer for and why. I will also need to create a brainstorm which will help me decide which 3 objects I want to model and animate. This will then allow me to conduct research into these objects and can be used to make 3 templates, making it easier and quicker to create the designs for the components I am modelling.

To be completed by next week - Tuesday 08/02/2011

Week 2 continued: Creating a tank

In the second part of this tutorial, I learnt how to create an object which contains more detail than the examples that I have looked at and used so far. Using a template provided, I created my version of a tank which could be useful within my final project (depending on which James Bond film I decide to create the trailer for).

This is the template:

First of all, I created a plane in 3D Studio Max. Then, I added the bitmap template to the plane by using the Material Editor tool. I ensured that for this exercise, I made the object self-illumination to 100% so that no matter what effects may be added to the rest of the scene, the tank will still be displayed the same. I noticed that the plane looked distorted and pixellated. This is because the machine was set up so that only the minimum amount of RAM would be used to show an approximation on what the final drawing would look like. For my purposes, I changed the view port settings so that the drawing would be more detailed. After adjusting the plane to the right size, I cloned the pane and rotated it 90 degrees in order to put a side view of the tank template on display. After creating objects, I ensured that I made them seethrough by right clickign on them and changign their properties because this makes it easier to follow the template underneath.

Here is my design half way through the creation stage:

This is my creation once I had finished and rendered my design:

Tutorial 2 - Modelling from Shapes

In today's tutorial, we learnt how to create a shape using both 3D Studio Max and Adobe Illustrator and then model it from a 2D path to a 3D model. The example used was a chess piece To begin with, I had to create a path using the line tool. I found that using Adobe Illustrator was more accurate than using the line tool in 3D Studio Max though I have never used Illustrator before so it took a while to get used to it.

The image to th left shows the path of the chess piece. This was then imported into 3D Studio Max. The pivot point was then modified so that the object will look more realistic.











Then, I selected the lathe tool and this is the final result: