Monday, 28 February 2011

Lighting

In our next tutorial we covered lighting which helped us learn the basics for lighting our models. The two main light techniques we learnt where target light, omni lights. The target light is used to light a particular target from a set area, causeing shadows and beams of light. The omni light is seen to have more of a lightbulb effect which will light a set area all around of it. The lightsource effects the objects on the viewport to an exstent but then really shows its powerful effects once rendered.

The pumpkin in multiple viewports.

The pumpkin in one viewport, before rendering.

The pumpkin in the same viewport as above, after rendering.

G36 Model

The first model i tried to design was made around a month ago and based on the G36 automatic machine gun from the intro clip to the film. I started designing this by creating individual sections inside of Adobe Illistrator including the barrel, ammunition clip and stock.

These shapes are a few of the shapes i used to create the gun. I traced each one seperatly and then imported them into Maz Studios. To ensured this worked i drew a small, quick demo gun inside of Illistrator to see how the technique worked.

The bullet was also created inside of Illistrator by using a small outline drawing of half a bullet, from tip to butt. This gave me the easy option of using lathe modification inside of Max Studios.

After importing all of the splines the next step was to extrude them and put them into place. This took some effort as some splines would have trouble recognising where to have gaps and where to place faces.

After extruding most of the splines I found that I could create better looking objects inside of Max Studio for splines like the handel and nozzel. This was done by creating cylinders and tubes and then resizing, beveling and extruding different faces, vertex and sides. At this stage the bullet was also created using the lathe tool to use one side of an image and rotate it around a point to crate a 3D shape.

The gun's ammunition clip was then created and a front see through cover was added for a most custom cosmetic look. This was done by reducing the poly's alpha by half. The bullet was then copied and a line of bullets was fitted inside of the ammunition poly, with one remaining outside of the gun.

The next step was to go around the gun and edit the splines to make the gun look more relistic, mostly involving the trigger. This proved to be difficult at the time however as being my first model I was less comftable with the tools in Max Studios and had more trouble editing poly's. This took a lot of time and proved to be difficult with the tools i had learn't at the time. The model was however easier then my next and a lot of the shapes and sides where straight edges which ment that the model still looked moderatly how it was suppose to. Hopefully with more time I can improve or redesign the gun before animating, using the tools I now know.

After the gun was put together i began to add textures to the gun and bullet. The bullewt had a golden/brown texture which made it look more rustic and releastic, while the gun had both a black carbon texture and silver metal look to the nozzel and other parts. I did this by diffusing the texture materials and using seperate materials for the different splines.

The gun was completed and the bullet model imported into the same Max Studios file. The bullets are a key part to the model as i hope to be able to use them in more detail in the animation. The gun looks ok but could still use work however the second model has set me back quiet a bit in time and any improvement to the gun will have to be made later, before the animation stage.


Images used to create model.

Mock up design to help understand technical process.

Bullet design inside Illistrator

Some of the splines lined up.

Bullet with wire frame.

Ammunition clip with bullets inside.

Edits made to the gun including the gun barrels air holes.

The finished Gun.

Finished model and rendition of the bullet.

Finished rendition of the Gun.

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Cameras

This week we worked on using free and target cameras which will be highly used while animating. These give the user a speific viewport which is more resistante to being altered then a perspective viewport. We learnt how to place and modify the cameras as well as how to change there zoom magnification and render effects, such as motion blur and depth of field. These both add to the realism of the models and could prove to look great while using lights.


My first camera angle used the depth of field tool and used a 50mm zoom.


My second camera angle was lower, used a 200mm camera lense and again used the depth of field tool. In this image you can see the curve of the sphere begins to blur when it overlaps with the tea pot, which in this shot the the key target.


For the last shot i used metal materials and a reflective plane to see what effect it had on the camera shot. You can see that the closer object is a little out of focus and shadowed. This is because the depth of field tool finds its target, in this case the cylinder at the back and focuses on that object, leaving all others around it to lose focus the further they are from the target object.

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Leaf Design

Today we looked at working on Mapping and texturing a leaf in high detail. The leaf took quiet a short time to prepare in photoshop and then create a black and white outline of it took a while to understand. Once this was complete we imported it into maxStudios as a material and then used it's vertex to create a 3D model. This took less time then i had expected as a few days before I have been exsperimenting with the same tools as well as caging objects for my Aston Martin design.

This has helped me improve my skills although it has also made me think more about our time restrictions and how practicle creating an Aston Martin is.


The first leaf image.


The leaf outline.


The final leaf design in the workshop.


The final rendered leaf.

Thursday, 3 February 2011

Tutorial 2 - Tank

For tutorial 2 we were asked to use a 2D schematics to help design a tank inside of 3D Max Studios. This started off slow and then developed into a much larger design. I enjoyed creating the tank and then adding parts to it such as the drums on the back and the sandbags either side of the turret.




One thing I would like to learn is how to extrude a shape through another one, as to in this case create a second turret and sitting area on the top of the tank.




After finishing the tank I decided to texture it and add colour to the design, as well as detail. I feel now I have learnt some of the skills that I can create more complicated designs in greater detail.




Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Modelling a James Bond Trailer/Quantum of Solace

Modelling a James Bond Trailer/Quantum of Solace


Possible image to model: Aston martin DBS

I feel that modelling the Aston Martin is an important step and must be included in the trailer. James Bond has always been about gun fights, girls and cars. The car would look good model and would be a challenge as it includes many curves and awkward shapes.

Aston Martin DBS Front Shot


Aston Martin Front Shot 2


Aston Martin DBS Rear Shot


Aston Martin Rear Shot 2/Side Shot


Possible image to model: HK G36

The HK G36 is a weapon featured in the first scene of quantum of solace. Guns are important in James Bond as it is an action movie and includes many different gun fight scenes. This gun is a good model to design as it is quite a large and simple design.

HK G36 Side Shot


HK G36 Shot in Film Clip


Possible image to model: Mountains

Mountains and other such terrain might be a good thing to model to give the animation depth and a more realistic feel. Roads would be more or less 2D and mountains would prove move of a challenge and overall benefit the animations look.

Mountain Shot in Film Clip


Possible image to model: HK G36 Round

The bullet design is simplistic and should take only a little time to design but is essential to the animation. The idea is that the bullet will have a close up, after being fired and be shown flying through the air towards a yet to be decided target.

HK G36 Round.


Research Board.