Tutorial 5 - Cameras

The latest tutorial involved the camera features within 3ds max. These allow you to view on a specific part of the scene, and of course will be very useful later on for the animation tutorials.




Go to create, cameras. The two types are target and free. Target will remain fixed on a specific point no matter where you move it, and free will move the focus along with the camera. It is possible to set the view ports in 3ds max to show the cameras view, as can be seen in the picture above.

Tutorial 4 - Lighting

For tutorial four, we looked at different lighting techniques within 3ds. To place a light in the scene, select lights from the create panel and then standard (instead of photometric). There are then a number of lights that can be used to set up a scene differently. Each of the lights do different things, for example the target spot lights a specific target that is set. The skylight emits general light around the area it is placed. The first picture shows the target spot.



(The light is being emitted from one side, casting shadows. Because the render background is black, the shadows disappear into the background only showing the part of the scene that is lit.)


The second model here shows an experimentation of lighting and materials. First of all some shapes were created along with a box made of 4 individual walls and a roof. The front panel was set to be glass (material editor, maps, refraction, raytrace). The sphere model in the box is also set to be glass. The back wall is set to be chrome (material, maps, reflection, raytrace), along with the teapots. The light reflects the materials onto the back wall and the floor, you can also see reflections in the teapots. There is also a skylight in the middle of the box. All in all an interesting result!

Model Two - Walther P99

My Second model is James Bond's gun, the Walther p99. It is lucky that I actually have a toy model of this gun from years ago so i have a physical reference for it!





First up I had a go at extruding a box to be a rough gun shape. First attempt was a disaster so I gave it another go. Luckily second time was more successful, and i was able to morph the poly into the same shape as the replica gun I had taken a photograph of.





Next I applied the meshsmooth modifier to round off some edges. This worked nicely. The trigger was another simple box that was edited using the extrude tool. The vertexes were changed





One problem I had was that the shaft of the pistol is not actually square. This meant the vertexes had to be dragged to push the top of the pistol in. This messed up the wire framing of the model completely so it had to be repaired using the swift loop tool and lots of dragging into place!





Once the pistol was correctly shaped I added the trigger and some detail on the model. This took the form of small spheres and small boxes to create the grip and finer details. All that is left now is to find a suitable material and build a scene for the gun!





The final issue regards using proboolean to hollow out a hole in the shaft for a potential bullet firing shot. However, proboolean cranks up the file size and also seems to mess up the mesh structure of the model.





I have now completed the bullets for the gun. This was done by creating a cylinder to an appropriate size and then converting to poly. The use of the beval tool to draw out the end and then push it inwards like a cone. The other option was to do this by dragging the vertexes but i found the bevel tool was more effective. Once one bullet was complete, I selected clone and copied the bullets to place them around the gun.





The other thing done was the use of proboolean to create the barrel of the gun. Again I firstly created a cylinder and placed it inside the barel where I wished the hole to be. I tried using the boolean tool but this cut out a single wall of the gun and left the inside of the shape free to see. Proboolean "filled in" this gap so only the cylinder can be seen inside the gun, perfect!





One final thing I note with this model is that I struggle to get the text feature working in 3ds max! I have put the text 'Walther P99' on the gun, but it doesn't show up in the render... ahhh!

Tutorial 3 - Materials!

In the last tutorial we looked at how to make different materials, very very useful!

Obviously it is important to reference where the original images came from if they are taken from the internet.

To create an original material, the picture must be saved and imported onto a 3x3cm plot in photohop. Save this as a bitmap and open up material editor in 3ds. After this it is the same steps as creating a reference plane, once done simply drag the material onto the desired surface.



Here I have put the material onto my tank. There are loads of different effects you can create, hopefully I can explore lots of these when making my models!



Jez Colborne
2010
My top 5 camouflage
http://www.mind-the-gap.org.uk/irresistible/?p=233
[Internet]
[14/2/2011]

Model One - Mobile Phone

I am modelling the mobile phone from Tomorrow Never Dies. All of my models will be made using a reference picture.

Starting with a simple box shape, it was possible to make the shape more "phone like" using the turbo smooth modifier, which made the box more rounded.

Also the extrude tool was used at the top to create the antenna, and at the bottom to create the two prongs that are used for electric shocking.

Colouring was done using the ID tools we looked at last week, putting the antenna as ID2 set as black.

I had a problem with the interface of the phone. The first being I didn't know the best way to do it. I decided to make a plane and mould it to be the shape of the black part around the screen, then use another plane for the screen itself. This led to the next problem, the keypad. After having a fiddle around, I decided to design the keypad in Photoshop and import it into 3DS Max. For some reason, the white space is kept in when the image is imported into 3DS, but this is not a huge problem as it doesn't look to out of place. Am searching for a solution for this, as well as how best to do the phone screen! This is all that is left to do, along with two buttons under the keypad.




I have now completed the mobile phone model. To solve the white space problem I saved the background of the JPEG as grey. I also made the remaining buttons and text, along with adding a few design marks onto the face of the phone (top). The material of the phone screen has been turned into chrome, just to give it a slightly more "real" feel.



I created a table top for the phone to sit on, using a created wood material for the table top.

When the phone is used in the animation, it will be an electric shocking device, so electricity will fire out of the two prongs at the bottom. One model down... two to go!




The final thing I have done to complete this model is to create the setting it will be used in for the trailer. This takes the form of a table containing a safe. The safe is meant to be opened with a swiped card, but it will be opened by the electric shock phone in the trailer. The surface material is glass, which is prebuilt into 3ds max. (materials, standard, solid glass)




AcesHigh
Help with wood material... need name in english...
2010
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=183&t=32406&start=0
[Internet]
[12/2/2011]

Unknown
2009
Sony Ericsson Mobile Phone
http://movies.ndtv.com/images/PhotoGallery/bondgadgets/5.jpg
[Internet]
[6/2/2011]

Gadget Board

I have produced a board of possible gadgets that I could use as models. I am aiming to cover four films in my trailer (these being the four Pierce Brosnan films). I will have one model from each film (but two from goldeneye as the tank already made can be used there).



The five models I would like to produce are:

Tank - Goldeneye
Armoured train front end - Goldeneye
Stunner phone - Tomorrow Never Dies
Walther PP9 - The World is Not Enough
Laser Watch/Aston Martin Vanquish - Die Another Day

I reckon this will be a tough challenge to produce these models. I am going to produce a storyboard as well today, and then start on my models!


Unknown
N/A
TND Phone - Close
http://www.james-miller.biz/media/11-T_N_D-Phone-Close-Up.jpg
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

IGN
2006
Top Ten 007 Gadgets
http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/745/745526p1.html
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Tanks for Hire
2009
Army Tanks and Military Vehicles for Hire
http://www.tanks4hire.co.uk/indextanks.html
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Doug Teggin
2006
Model Rail Forum - Bachmann Class 20
http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=Bachmann-Class-20
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Unknown
N/A
Aston Martin V-12 Vanquish in Die Another Day
http://www.automotoportal.com/photos/shaken-and-stirred-the-cars-of-james-bond/6
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

TIME
N/A
Top 10 Bond Gadgets
http://205.188.238.181/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1858796_1858797_1859050,00.html
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Unknown
N/A
James Bond Omega Seamaster
http://www.goldeneyebooks.com/omegawatch-jamesbond.htm
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Lewis Wallace
2010
Photos: 007 Replicas Include Golden Gun, Jaws’ Steel Teeth
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/007-collectibles/
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Gary Paul Johnston
1997
New Walther P99 9mm
http://www.remtek.com/arms/walther/model/p99/index.htm
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Enemy Forces
N/A
Self-loading Pistol
http://www.enemyforces.net/firearms/p99.htm
[Internet]
[8/2/2011]

Reference Panels and Tank

The final thing we looked at in tutorial 2 was reference panels. This enables a picture to be placed into 3ds max as a reference to draw with. To do this firstly a plane needs to be created. This needs to be sized to the image that will be used. In this case it was 40 x 34.7. Next you go to material editor and click the grey square next to diffuse. Choose bitmap and select the image.



In this case, the image was a tank. This is convenient, as I was planning on using Goldeneye as part of my trailer anyway! Using the reference plane really helps, as you can mould the shape using the techniques learnt last week (convert to poly, selection tools). It is important as few shapes are used as possible, otherwise the file size will become huge.


I am quite pleased with my tank, the tracks need some work though. This will be one of my models used in the final production.




I am enjoying this module, still getting to grips with using it. One of the areas I am struggling with is the basic drawing tool. I have never been very good at drawing, so I need to practice! This is why it is very important that I use reference panels! I am beginning the storyboarding process now, I already know which films I am going to cover. I have watched four James Bond films last week, and will recreate a part of all of them for the final trailer.

Tutorial 2

In the next tutorial we continued to learn some techniques. One of the techniques was lofting; firstly a shape is drawn using the line tool, in this case a coat hanger shape. Then a small circle is places next to it (this will dictate the size of the lofted object). Lofting is chosen from compound objects and the circle is selected. This makes the model 3-d to the size of the circle.




Another technique was ProBoolean. This can be used to create an object by cutting certain shapes out of another object. In this case, I made a piece of cheese! Firstly I chose a box and placed it down. Then spheres were placed in the cheese where the holes would be. Next proboolean was selected from the compound object menu. Once start picking has been chosen, the spheres are selected and the shapes are removed. Simples.




Another thing we did was use arrays. This is useful for building things such as a flight of stairs, or a fence. You firstly make a shape, then select tools and arrays from the menu. This brings up a fairly scary looking table, but its not as scary as it looks! Set up the 2d or 3d counts and then increase the X, Y or Z to repeat the shape.

Fruit Bowl

The next task was to make a bowl of fruit. The first step was to create an apple. To do this, the sphere shape was selected and sized appropriately. This shape was then converted to a poly using the polygon modeling tab on the left hand side. This then enables each component of the object to be very specifically edited. Firstly, the top of the shape was pushed in slightly. Using the different selection tools on the right hand panel, you can alter the shape. This needed to be done as apples are not completely sphere shaped. Colour changed to green and a stalk placed on top. The stalk requires the use of the bend option which is in the modifiers list.



Next, a banana was made using a cylinder and the bend tool. This again was converted to a poly and edited using the different selection tools.



Finally, to create the orange and the cherries, I coped the apple and adjusted the size and colour, as well as the shape. The orange has a Blinn effect through the use of the material editor.



The bowl was created using a cylinder and the exitrude tool. This enables a shape to be "hollowed out". The top of the cylinder was pushed through, leaving a bowl. Finally I placed a table, with a wood effect (found through material editor) under the bowl.