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: