3D Modelling & Animation: February 2012

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Texture Reference for Tower

This post is just simply going to give the reference for the material I have used on my Tower model.

Tower Brick Material - 9th May 2010. 6 Seamless Tileable Brick Textures, [electronic image] Available at: http://wdc3d.com/2d-textures/6-seamless-tileable-brick-textures/ [Accessed 29th February 2012].

Tower Final Design

This post is going to be commenting on the final model design which is my interpretation of a castle with watch towers. I feel that this model is not as good as my other's however I have not done this model from another image or another idea, it is my own idea.

I did look at other towers and felt that they were a tad too complicated for my liking so I decided to go for an easier approach. I took a simple bow outline and made the box with quite a few edged faces. I then decided to convert the box to an 'editable poly' and chose the top face vertices and put the face in on itself. From there I decided to delete some faces around the edge to make holes (for people to look through for example). However once I did this there were gaps in the model so I used the 'create' tool to create more faces and complete the tower.

From there I decided that one tower was not enough so I copy the first tower I created and shrunk the scale of the image and attached it to the side of the first tower. I then put the same small tower the other side so it complete the set.

I then decided to create watch towers because the model still seemed a bit plain. So I created simple cylinders and made edged faces again, and like the box tower I choose the top face verticies and put them in on themselves, also I deleted the side faces like the box tower. Furthermore I used the 'create' tool again and filled in the gaps as before. I placed the watch tower on one of the small tower boxes and copied another watch tower over to the other box tower.

Once I was happy with the way my tower looked I decided to add in some material. I decided to keep the material the same for the whole model, as the tower would have been made out of the same material in the 15th centuary. The material I decided to use was just a simple brick work texture with an added 'bump' effect with UVW Mapping modifier used also.

This screenshot is of the Tower model with Materials added, as you can see there are quite a few edged faces.

This screenshot is of the material I have used for the Tower model, you can see the bump effect I have used for the material also.

This screenshot is of the final render of my Tower model.

Texture References for Catapult

Catapult Final Design

This next post is going to be commenting on my next final design which is Leonardo Da Vinci's Catapult. For this model I went for the same approach I took for the giant crossbow, which was to create a basic outline for the model and then tweak it later on. Firstly I started with the base of the catapult, which where just simple boxes placed out in a square shape, however I was satisfied and wanted to go a step further and decided to make a sort of jigsaw shape for the 'connecting supports' to slip in like a jigsaw. That wasn't to difficult just had to change the verticies of the boxes and then copied the other three'connecting supports' as 'instances' to make it eaiser for later, and also had to rotate two of the 'connecting supports' so that they faced the right way. To add a finishing touch to the base I decided to add a 'connecting base' which was a box and changing the verticies at each end so that the ends matched the jigsaw shape created on the other objects. Next was to do the supports, which were fairly simple, just a box rotated at the right angle and aligned up with the other boxes so that it all fitted into place. Then I copied the other boxes as 'copies' as I needed to change each box individully for example rotate the boxes the other side 180 degress. Next was the support for the arch which was the simplest object to create just a simple box across. Then came the 'half moon arch' this I thought was going to be difficult however I took the same method I used for the giant crossbow and 'extruded' a box, then used the bend modifier (but made sure the pivot point was in the middle) and bent the object on the Z axis. The turning wheel was again a method I used for the giant crossbow, a cyclinder with some cap segments deleted, then using the 'create' tool filling in the gaps in the object. From there I 'beveled' out some of the objects sides to make them pointed, so that the object became more of a turning wheel than a standard wheel. Then handle was simply just a box 'extruded' then I used the 'turbo smooth' modifier so that the box was a rounded handle than a boxed handle. Next came the 'turning cylinder' which was just simply a cylinder made to fit inside the 'turning wheel', the supports for the 'turning cylinder' where the same cylinders just reducded in size. The arm for the catapult was also a cylinder, I had to change the verticies on the arm at the end where 'ball holder' would go which was quite simple. The ball holder was a simple sphere with soft selection used to turn the sphere in on itself to make a bowl shape. The ball was a very simple sphere. Lastly was the rope, which I believe was the most difficult object to manipulate. The rope coming from the arch was just a tube turned at an angle to attach to the 'turning cylinder'. The rope that goes around the 'turning cylinder' is the same tubes, but they have been bent using the 'bend' modifier and changing the rotation angle to make it look like the rope is tied around the object.

Once I was satisfied with the model that I had created, I needed to add materials to that model so it seemed more life like. I used different online resources to find images of textures and then used those images in the material editor built into 3D's Max. Once I added the textures that I wanted onto my model I felt like they needed extra detail. So I decided to add some bump texture to some of the materials, however some of the materials did not match up with some of the objects, so I had to use the UVW Mapping modifier and change for the example the catapult arm material to a cylinder mapping option.

This screenshot is of the Catapults final design with added materials.

This is a screenshot of some of the materials that I used for my model.

This is a screenshot of the final render of the Catapult that I have modeled.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Texture References for Giant Crossbow

This post is simply going to have references on the texture images I have used for my Giant Crossbow.

Plane Material - 9th May 2010. 6 Seamless Tileable Brick Textures, [electronic image] Available at: http://wdc3d.com/2d-textures/6-seamless-tileable-brick-textures/ [Accessed 17th February 2012].

Arrow Material - n.d. Metal, pained rusty metal, old wall (google images), [electronic image] Available at: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=old+metal+texture&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=GUcQm4k0pXYknM:&imgrefurl=http://www.texturepalace.com/metal-free-stock-texture/&docid=1-ASN_dWfGtP6M&imgurl=http://www.texturepalace.com/gallery/metal/0405/9metal_texture_big_100405.jpg&w=3456&h=2304&ei=tvRMT8vCOunO0QWQw4SeBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=174&vpy=313&dur=1393&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=146&ty=92&sig=101451376801698897487&page=2&tbnh=137&tbnw=183&start=19&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:19 [Accessed 17th February 2012].

Rope Material - n.d. Close-up of excellent thin rope, [electronic image] Available at: http://www.123rf.com/photo_6732353_close-up-of-excellent-thin-rope-texture-good-for-background.html [Accessed 17th February 2012].

Wheel Material - n.d. Walnut Dark (google images), [electronic image] Available at: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=dark+oak+texture&hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=bUk3YD2sZdEDVM:&imgrefurl=http://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-grain-textures/&docid=nE4JxFpBJYrrQM&imgurl=http://images.meredith.com/wood/images/woodgrains/walnut_dark.jpg&w=1090&h=1500&ei=pvVMT4nFGYeg8gOX36ThAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=749&vpy=146&dur=3714&hovh=263&hovw=191&tx=66&ty=130&sig=101451376801698897487&page=1&tbnh=124&tbnw=86&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0[Accessed 17th February 2012].

Wood Material - n.d. Old Wood Texture With Old Wood (google images), [electronic image] Available at: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=old+wood+texture&hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1120&bih=615&tbm=isch&tbnid=kqXM_aD3wzI8nM:&imgrefurl=http://wood-guides.blogspot.com/2011/06/old-wood-texture-with_19.html&docid=5ULzoCy20hnpTM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizK62GlpUBa7h2XsFuvGdCv8Q3vN0xwLldpVdpZBx1JBN7LSZkI0pmwpBj68bIn9tNs2PDezI26YfHbpubLRTv8l4XsX7lZ_XDnMGS05VRrZfnuVZJ7KTjIEP8l3QmKBYoay7DQ2icTqA/s400/tileable_old_wood_texture.jpg&w=400&h=400&ei=-vZMT9afHIOn0QXl5YWeBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=107&vpy=253&dur=1612&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=119&ty=95&sig=101451376801698897487&page=2&tbnh=137&tbnw=142&start=18&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:18 [Accessed 17th February 2012]. I couldn't find original image looked like it was deleted so I tried to find as close as match as I could.

Oak Base Material - n.d. Old Bark Wood Texture (google images), [electronic image] Available at: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=old+oak+texture&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&biw=667&bih=615&tbs=isz:l&tbm=isch&tbnid=nSDp34WH9vUGjM:&imgrefurl=http://texture-city.com/categories/wood/&docid=1sKp-oIAt1RLbM&imgurl=http://texture-city.com/images/wood/Old%252520Bark%252520Wooden%252520texture.jpg&w=1944&h=1296&ei=jPhMT57cI4nb0QXY-IQ4&zoom=1 [Accessed 17th February 2012].

Light Wood Material - n.d. Wooden Wall With Nice Texture (google images), [electronic image] Available at: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=old+light+wood+texture&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=643&tbs=isz:l&tbm=isch&tbnid=GhLpAiBJ6dE7iM:&imgrefurl=http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php%3Fpicture%3Dwood-texture%26image%3D1282%26large%3D1&docid=kddAvW-SKv-VBM&imgurl=http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/10000/velka/1-12232382946oAf.jpg&w=1280&h=853&ei=hflMT4vIEOml0QWG3JieBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=587&vpy=348&dur=2796&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=157&ty=130&sig=101451376801698897487&page=2&tbnh=140&tbnw=187&start=21&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:21 [Accessed 17th February 2012].

Giant Crossbow Final Design

For this post I am going to comment on my first final design which is Leonardo Da Vinci's Giant Crossbow. Now for this I firstly wanted to create the basic outline of the shape, which was achieved by using basic standard primative shapes (such as boxes, cylinders, planes and cones). So I started with the body which where all boxes, which needed to be thin then some needed to be rotated because the crossbow is at an angle, which didn't prove too difficult. Once the body was created (I had foundations to work on) I then decided to create the wheels that go around the edge, which I first thought was going to be simple, but I was so wrong. I created the first wheel using a cylinder and making sure that it had enough equal sides for me to delete the faces so it looked more like a wheel, however there where gaps inside the wheel so I needed to use the 'create' tool to create more faces. Once I done one wheel I copied the other wheel as 'instances' so that there were three on each side. Next I done the support for the wheels which was a simple box just 'extruded' outwards around the edge, the other side was just an instance of the first. Then came the arrow which wasn't too difficult, it was just a cylinder with the vertices at the back pulled inwards to make a sort of flight like on arrows, then it needed to be rotated to fit the body, then the cone was just simply put on the arrow. For the turning wheel I used a wheel I had already created to make a copy, I then 'beveled' out some of the sides to make sort of pointy bits to show a turning wheel. The rope was just a cylinder with a 'bend' modifier used, I had to make sure the pivot point was in the middle of the object and bent the object round to make rope for the arrow. Next was the crossbow tip which again was a box 'extruded' out and then bent with the 'bend' modifier which by this point the crossbow was coming together and looked very realistic, just one final touch was needed before materials where added. This was the hole that runs through the middle of the body, which was created using a very long but very thing box and changing the vertices slightly, from there I had to use the 'Pro Boolean' tool to cut the shape I created into the body, from there I made small mechanisms to fit in the hole to complete the crossbow.

Once I was happy with what I had created I needed to add materials to the object to make it complete. For this I used different textures that I found on online resources and used these as images in my material editor. From there I used some textures as I found them, other's I used the 'bump' tool to add more detail, and for other's I needed to use the UVW Mapping modifier, because some textures were a bit fuzzy but they all came out clear in the end with some fine tuning. Lastly to fit the mood I created a plane for the crossbow to sit on which was a simple brick work texture.

This is a screenshot of the crossbow's final design with materials added.

This is a screenshot example of some of the materials used on the Giant Crossbow.

And here is the final render of the Giant Crossbow I Have created. (Leonardo Eat Your Heart Out!)

Material and Lighting

This post is going to comment on material and lighting techniques. For this post I have decided to create a simple plane for a base, then use a already made teapot and a sphere. Then with this objects I added some simple materials (colours) for this exercise to show how it works. Once I done this I then added a light, which is a spotlight, a spotlight is good to use because you can angle the light in any direction you want.

This shows the objects created and the direction of the spotlight that has been created

From here you can see that there is some very basic colours to the objects and the light is pointing towards the objects, but you wont see any light until you render your objects.

Which this is what it will look like

However I must say that to make realistic objects that work well with light, would need more fine tuning, which this exercise has not had.

Leaf's A Falling

This next post is going to comment on the material effect again but using an image and editing in Photoshop and making the image looking very much realistic.

This is the original Leaf Image

With this original leaf image we were asked to edit the image in Photoshop so that the background was black and the leaf was white.

This is the leaf image converted

Then with this image you need to create a plane from the standard primatives shapes, then use the material editor and use the image you have converted to create a leaf. I done this and went a bit further and decided to add more leafs and use soft selection to make the leaves more realistic.

This is the final render of the created leaves

Materials

This post is going to be about materials. This topic I found interesting however it was a bit of trail and error, however after a few attempts I managed to have a piece of wood that looked sort of realistic. The first step was to create a box that would transform into a piece of wood. Then came the clever part, 3D's Max has a material editor built into the software and was tricky to use to begin with but became clear once I got my head around it.

This is the box with the wood material added

As you can see the material editor can look a bit confusing, but all that has happened is I have chosen the diffuse option to add a bitmaped image (which is the material), then I decided to add some bump which involved dragging the image to the bump option and adding as much bump as you desire. Furthermore I went a step further and in to modifier menu under UVW Mapping I changed some options for example the mapping to box as the object is a box.

Here is the finished render of the piece of wood with the bump effect

Friday, 10 February 2012

Final Assignment Idea

I have now decided what I am going to model for my assignment, which is going to be Leonardo Da Vinci's giant crossbow, a 15th centuary style tower and a catapult. Looking forward to modelling each object and can't wait to see it all come together later on.

Inventions Research

This blog post is going to be about Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions.

This is The Giant Crossbow

This is the Eight Barrelled Machine Gun

This is the Armoured Car / Tank Invention

This is the Parachute Invention

Storming Walls Invention

Flying Machine Invention

Catapult Invention

References:

n.d. Leonardo da Vinci Giant Crossbow, [electronic image] Available at: http://www.redstoneprojects.com/trebuchetstore/davincicrossbow.html [Accessed 2nd February 2012].

n.d. Machine Gun by Leonardo Da Vinci, [electronic image] Available at: http://www.davincibio.org/machinegun.jsp [Accessed 2nd February 2012].

Iddo, 5th February 2010. Leonardo Da Vinci's Resume, [electronic image] Available at: http://bytesizebio.net/index.php/page/13/ [Accessed 2nd February 2012].

n.d. Leonardo Da Vinci Parachute Drawing, [electronic image] Available at:
http://inventors.about.com/od/dstartinventors/ig/Inventions-of-Leonardo-DaVinci/Leornardo-Da-Vinci-Parachute.htm [Accessed 2nd February 2012].

n.d. Machine for Storming Walls, [electronic image] Available at:
http://inventors.about.com/od/dstartinventors/ig/Inventions-of-Leonardo-DaVinci/Machine-for-Storming-Walls.htm [Accessed 2nd February 2012].

n.d. History of Flight. A Look At The History of Flight, [electronic image] Available at:
http://www.learning-to-fly.com/history-of-flight.html [Accessed 2nd February 2012].

n.d. The Discovery Channel's "Doing Da Vinci", [electronic image] Available at:
http://www.sterlingmachinery.com/discovery-channel-doing-da-vinci.php [Accessed 7th February 2012].

I am thinking of either modelling the giant crossbow or the flying machine.

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Cheese Anybody?

With regards to my last post about the different tools within 3Ds Max, I am continuing on from the ProBoolean tool to create a chunk of Swiss Cheese. In order to create this I have used a standard box and made it an editable poly, and changed the boxes vectors to create a cheese shape. From there I created some spheres and put them into the cheese shape. Then I made sure the box was selected and choose the ProBoolean tool from the compound objects section and started picking the spheres, to create holes in the cheese.

Behold Swiss Cheese

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Many Different Tools in 3Ds Max

This week we got introduced to some more tools within 3Ds Max. These tools that we have been shown I have found interesting and am sure they will come in handy when creating my models for the assignment.

The first tool is called Spline - This tool allows you to draw a 2D shape and then if you want modify the shape by converting the shape to an editable poly and extruding the shape to make it 3D.

The next shape was the Loft tool - This tool I thought was very cool, because you can create basic shapes such as a circle or a box and then create a spline line going straight up. From there you make sure the line is selected and click the loft tool. Then you need to click 'get shape' in the menu and click on the basic shape you have drawn and the loft tool will make the line you have drawn 3D but make it the shape you have clicked on.

The next tool was the ProBoolean tool - This tool will be talked a bit more in the next post regarding cheese, but in short this tool allows you to create an object then put other objects onto/into that object and remove those objects and make indents in the first object. All will be made clearer in the next post.

Next was the lathe tool (the cheating tool) - This tool was a bit more complex than the others however it is extremely useful. First you need to create a shape using the spline tool but only half the shape! Next you need to select hierarchy and affect pivot point. The point needs to be set in the middle of the shape for this tool to work, next you select modifier menu then lathe. This will then create a 3D shape from a half drawn image.

The next tool is the Array tool - This can come in handy because if you wanted to copy a shape you have just created then you could use the shift option, which is the easy option. However you can use the array option. To do this you select the shape and click tools and then array in the drop down menu's. This will then give you the option to create more objects of the same and modify them, for example rotate duplicate etc.

The final tool we were shown was the Bridge tool - This tool is used to connect other shapes together. For example you create two boxes and delete the faces that are opposite each other. You then need to make the objects editable poly's and choose the boarder options and select the specific boarders of the shapes, then select the 'attach' tool to connect the two faces together creating the 'bridge'.

Friday, 3 February 2012

Making a Character

The next task was to create a basic character layout, which I started to worry about when I first heard about the task. However once I got my head round it and looked into the different tools available it didn't seem so bad. To start with I created a simple box and split the box into different segments to make the character easier to edit. I then had to make the object into an editable poly, which then gave me the opportunity to use the extrude tool, which allowed me to pull out certain parts of the box to make a body, then arms, then a head ( which was achieved using the bevel tool). These tools proved easy to use rather than having to draw out hundred's of different shapes. Once I had finished creating my character I was introduced to the turbo smooth effect which as you can see makes the character have a more realistic feel to it.

This is the basic character using the extrude and bevel tools

This is the basic character in turbo smooth format

Fruit / Fruit Bowl

The next task to be challenged with was to create a piece of fruit, which needed to be an apple. This did sound simple however proved to be slightly difficult to work with, but worked it out in the end. The apple was created using a standard primitive (sphere) and adjusting the shapes properties to make the apple buldge out more and look squashed as apple's are not perefectly round. The stalk for the apple was created using a cylinder and using the bend modifier to make the stalk more realistic. After achieving this I went a bit further and decided to create a fruit bowl with an orange also, which was a personal challenge. This didn't seem to be too difficult as I now had the knowledge to create simple shapes and edit their properties to what shapes I wanted to make. The bowl was created using a sphere and turning the top of the sphere in on itself to make a bowl, and the orange was also a sphere just squashed to look like an orange.

This is the fruit bowl with the edged faces

This is the finished fruit bowl in a perspective viewpoint

First Attempt at Creating in 3Ds Max

This post is commenting on my first creation in 3D Studio Max, which was a building. This was the first task I was given when starting this module, as you will see by the screen shot it is very basic. I started by using the standard primative tools to create the shape of the building (using boxes and cyclinders mostly). It started to prove a bit tricky as I had never you this software before, however with a bit of practise and getting used to the software it became easier. I found that the move selection tool very useful, as you can choose the shape you want to move and move it anywhere on the screen. Furthermore the align tool was very useful as you can align each shape with other shapes so that they are prefectly aligned with each other.

A basic building of a castle

Thursday, 2 February 2012

My Interpretation of the Brief

Before I was introduced to this module and brief, I was a bit nervous. As I wasn't sure if I would be able to do well in this module or be able to meet the brief. However once I was introduced to the module and the software I would be using I became more confident and am sure that this is going to be a module to remember. I have no experience with using 3D Studio Max, however once I started using the software and getting use to the program, it seemed quite easy to grasp. Finally the brief involves modelling one of Leonardo da Vinci's machines, I do not have very much knowledge of his machines, however I think it will be very interesting to know what machines he designed in his lifetime. Bring on the Modelling!!