Week 5

Machine Gun - Development Continued

Now that my model is complete I can add materials to the shapes, the next few screenshots explain how I got to my final rendered image.

Materials

I started by searching through images of wooden textures to use as a bitmap for my wooden frame, once I found the right texture I saved it and open it up on to the material editor. I then dragged the material to the frame which holds the cannons in place. Each shape is a different size, so the material may be stretched and look distorted, so I increased the amount of tiles onto the x axis.

I had to use several empty slots with the dark wood bitmap as each part of the frame needed adjusting by either adding more tiles or selecting uv.

Now that the wooden frame is complete, I looked for a rusty metal texture to use on the wheels and cannon balls; I then applied the same steps to add the material to the shapes.

 Once all the materials were assigned to each shape the model is now complete and ready for render

 Final Render of Machine Gun

Machine Gun - Development Continued

The last parts to model for my machine gun are two handles, hinges and a stack of cannon balls, once these are complete my model is then ready for materials and final render.

Handle 1

This handle is positioned behind the boxes for the cannons, and acts as the handle to open the hatch to reload. The handle was very simple to make, by using a cylinder and adding height segments then converting to editable poly mesh I selected three sections and moved them down, I the applied the same to the other side and applied a turbo smooth.

Handle 2

The second handle was slightly trickier to make as I had to use several cylinders and position them correctly to make the right shape, I then grouped them to make it easier to move into place.

Hinges

These hinges are very simple to model just by using a thin rectangle and a small cylinder in the middle and copying and then placing behind the handle. 

Cannon balls

The cannon balls are spheres which positioned on top of one another to form a pyramid. I also scattered a few around the machine gun to make the scene look more realistic. 

Machine Gun - Development Continued

 This week I aim to finish my machine gun so that I can start my other two models that will be in my animation. The parts on the machine gun that still need to completed are the wheels, extras i.e. handle, hinges and cannon balls. Once the model is complete I can move onto adding materials and lighting.

Wheels

I started by making a cylinder which I moved into position along the bottom beam, I then converted it editable poly mesh to align the sides with the rest of the frame. The shape was then mirrored to fit on the other side of the frame.

I then added the axle to hold the wheel in place, by making a small thin cylinder and adding height segments. Converting the cylinder to editable poly mesh meant I could highlight three segments of the cylinder, and then by using the non-uniform scale I reduced the size of one end and added a turbo smooth to make the axle. The shape was then mirrored to fit the cylinder on the other side of the frame.

Using the cylinder shape again I made the wheel, and then by adding a second thin cylinder slightly narrower but larger than the other, I made the outside of the wheel which I am going to apply a metal material to.

The next stage was to make the panels that attach the wheel to the axle. I made a thin rectangle and added a lot of segments so that I was able to bend the shape. I then converted the shape to editable poly mesh and selected one side of the shape, and then using the bend tool I pushed the shape in on itself to form a curve.    

Once the panels were made, I copied them eight times and positioned them inside the wheel

Completed wheel

Now that the wheel is complete I grouped all the shapes and copied the wheel to be moved across to the other side of the frame.

Now that I have completed my wheels, the model is almost complete; I will continue to finish the machine gun on my own free time.

Week 4

Lighting Techniques

This week in our tutorial we were taught a couple of easy lighting techniques. I have used these before but there were a couple of the modifiers that were new to me.

I firstt created a scene consisting of a teapot, stairs and two spheres which lay on a plane. I then selected the lighting symbol and changed the drop down menu to standard instead of photometric and selected target spotlight, and dragged onto the scene, making sure the scene was in a perspective view port so that I can see the changes in light.

One of the advantages of adding lighting is shadows which can be turned on by selecting on under the general parameters of the target spotlight.

Another useful lighting technique is changing the colour of the light which helps set a mood in a scene which is shown below using green light.

The light shape can also be changed from circular to rectangular by selecting the attenuation, which is under the general parameters.


Ray-tracing - Chrome and glass materials
I've never used ray-tracing before in 3D studio max to produce chrome and glass materials, but the technique is very simple and looks very professional.

Chrome material
 
To create my chrome teapot I firstcreated a simple scene in a box as I will later be adding light.

Once the scene was made, I opened the material editor and selected a slot, and in the maps roll out selected reflection and then clicked on the 'none box' and chose ray-trace, I then dragged the material to the object and rendered. 

Chrome teapot

Glass material

Using the same scene I can change the shapes to glass, by opening the material editor and selecting a empty slot and clicking on background so that my material shows up, and making sure that my diffuse colour is black. Then using the same maps rollout as in the chrome tutorial but selecting refraction this time so that the light can pass through the object, and then selecting raytrace. I then clicked and dragged the material to the selected shapes and rendered.

Glass shapes

Lastly to finish the scene I added a skylight and placed the light in front of the scene to produce a matt finish.

How to remove materials

If at any point you want to remove materials back to the default colours, highlight the shapes then type this code into the red box in the bottom left hand corner.

$.mat = nul

then press enter

Machine Gun - Development Continued

Now that I have the cannons and the frame in place I can start to build more detail around the cannon including the rest of the frame at the back, and the wheels.

I firstly added small spheres which act as the top of pins that hold the wooden rectangles in place, and then grouped them to make it easier later when it comes to adding materials.

The next step was to make the shape that will act as the reloading hatch, by making a thin box and adding segments so that i am able to bend the shape at one end. I then moved the shape into position and changed the vertex either side so that it fitted perfectly.

 Now that the hatch is made I can make the back of the cannon which is made of four boxes converted to editable poly mesh and edited using the line and non scale uniform tool to make the correct shapes. I then selected the end of cannon and pushed the shape down to create a pivot point.

Render of Machine Gun

I will continue with the development of my machine gun next tutorial and hopefully have the wheels complete and then ready to add materials.

Week 3 

Materials

This week in tutorial we learnt how to use the material editor which I am able to use but there was one technique that I was unfamiliar with which was the material ID which allows the user to change the material of  each polygon rather than the whole shape. We were also shown how to map images using Photoshop and then import the image into 3D Studio Max using the material editor onto a plane.

Material Editor
Material editor allows the user to change the surface state of a shape to any image they want to make a scene look more realistic in an animation, this is very simple to achieve.

Create a sphere and open the material editor and select the first grey circle, then select the grey box next to diffuse and select either bitmap to import an image you've made or select one of the default materials. I chose a bitmap image of wood boards which I then dragged onto the sphere, by clicking on show standard map in view port the material is shown on the sphere without being rendered.

Material ID - Kettle
This specific technique I was unfamiliar with but it was very easy to understand, I firstly created a tea pot from the standard primitives, and changed to editable poly. I then chose the polygon tool and selected part of the teapot and set the ID to 1 and the group to 1, then set the ID for the lid as 2 and the group to 2, and did the same for ID 3 and 4 to the main part of the teapot and handle.

Once the material ID's had been made I opened up the material editor and clicked standard to open up the browser and selected multi/sub object. This then brought me to the material ID menu and I was able to change each material standard to either a bitmap or a default material and drag across to the correct ID on the teapot.

Material Editor - Chrome
When adding a chrome material to a shape, there is an unusual method but it looks very realistic once rendered. I created the image below by making a torus knot from the extended primitives, then by using the material editor I chose the antistrophic shader as this is ideal for metal materials, and changed the diffuse button to dark blue, and making sure the high specular is set to approximately 60 and the high anastrophy to approximately 80. Once these settings are in place I selected reflection further down the panel, and then imported a bitmap image of a new York scene, which will now be added to the reflective map channel, I then dragged the material to the torus not and rendered.

Final render of chrome Torus knot

Shaders

There are other shaders which can be used in the material editor other than reflection to create realistic objects.

Anastropic

The anastropic shader is ideal for metal materials, because it changes the shape of the specular from round to elongated via the anastrophy spinner. You can also change the direction of the shine. It works very well for hair where the shaft of the hair catches the light.

Blinn

This is the standard Max default - A basic shader which can be used for most materials, it has a no anastrophy.

 Metal

This was in use until the Anastropic shader was introduced, it is more simple in the way it works, there is a dimple in the specular graph, which means that the shader is useful for dull metal materials such as brushed stainless steel.

Muli-layer

This is very good for metalic objects, particularly cars, as it has two layers of specularity. You can also change the colours of the specular layer to add subtle tones.

Machine Gun- Development continued

After completing week 2's tutorial I carried on developing my machine gun, and using one imparticular technique which I learnt in the tutorial which was the Array tool, as I can copy my cannon that I made last week 12 times but have them equally distanced.
 

After applying the Array tool to the cannon I used the bend tool which is available from the modifier list to arch the cannons equally, then allowing me to model the wooden frame around the cannons.

I made the wooden frame by making a long thin box and placing it alongside the end cannon and adjusting the size accordingly, and aligning it with the box at the end of the cannon. I then highlighted the box and using the mirror tool copied the box exactly on the other side of the cannons. The mirror tool is very useful to anyone making the glider as you only need to make won wing and then mirror the shape so they are both exactly the same. Once the box has been mirrored I made the boards for the top and bottom by creating a rectangle and bending the shape using the bend tool as seen above, I then copied the board and moved it to the bottom and made another copy for the middle section but changing the scale to fit in between the frame. Once the frame had been made I made a small box, which is copied several times and aligned to fit in-between the two boards to hold the cannons in place, which can be seen in the screenshot below.

Now that my basic frame and cannons are complete, I can start building the rest of the frame next week..

Render of cannons and frame

Week 2

Further Modelling Techniques

This week we learnt various modelling techniques that we could use to develop our animation, I’ve used a couple of these tools before but there were a couple that I was unfamiliar with including array and pro Boolean.

Array tool - Tombstone

The array tool is a very simple and effective tool to copy an object many times in any of the x,y,z axis. The diagrams below show how the array tool can be used.

I began by making a simple tombstone and highlighting the shape, I then clicked 'tools, 'array' and changed the 1D count to 10, this copies the tombstone 10 times. I then changed the distance between each tombstone by increasing either x,y,z axis depending on what direction you want the shape to follow.

The result of the array tool has copied the tombstone 10 times along the x axis, this tool will come in very effective when I come to copy my cannons twelve times, as they will then be equally distanced.

Final array Render

Loft Modifier - Hanger

The loft modifier is an unusual tool but I can be very effective depending on what you are modelling. Using the loft tool we made a coat hanger firstly by using the line tool from the splines selection to draw the outline of a hanger, I then made a small circle beside the hanger, this can be any shape depending on what shape u want the loft to follow on the line.

Highlight the circle and select loft from the modifier list and then click on the hanger

The loft tool then makes a circular shape which follows the line, and creates the hanger. I added a turbo smooth from the modifier list to make the shape more realistic.

Final Render of loft

Lathe modifier - Wine Glass

Although I have used this tool before I still found it tricky to grasp and I had to try several times before I made a wine glass. I did find a very useful YouTube video that explains the lathe modifier, click the link below if you are having trouble understanding it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyocsNA5InY

I firstly drew an outline of half a wine glass, using the same technique as I did when using the loft tool. I then adjusted the pivot point to the bottom of the glass.

The lathe tool from the modifier list the creates a 360 degree shape from the line forming a wine glass, the shape is sometimes deformed, this can be rectified by clicking on Max form the 'align' which is in the Lathe parameters.

Final Render of Lathe

Boolean and Pro Boolean Modifier - Cheese

I hadn't used this Boolean or Pro Boolean before, as it involves using compound objects which I am unfamiliar with but it is a very effective tool.

As a class we created a cheese bowl using the Boolean and pro Boolean tool, I firstly made a cheese shape by making a box and converting to editable poly mesh and selecting one edge and bringing it down to form a wedge.

Spheres are then added across the wedge which will form the holes after the pro Boolean tool is used.

Once at this stage I selected compound objects from the drop down menu and selected pro Boolean, I then pressed start picking, and clicked on the spheres to make them disappear leaving the edge of the spheres embedded in the wedge. The same technique can be used for Boolean but it only removes one shape at a time.

Once at this stage I changed the colour of the shape to yellow to look more like a piece of cheese. I then added a bowl using the lathe tool which I learnt in the previous tutorial.

I then aligned the wedge of cheese in the middle of the bowl and applied a Turbo smooth to the bowl to smooth out the edges.

Final render of Boolean and Pro Boolean 

I found this YouTube very useful to anyone who is finding this technique difficult, as I kept forgetting to click start picking to remove the shapes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBPn-hPXy4U