Creating Life

The third and final task of the day was to use a single box to create the shape of a human. This was by far the most complex exercise and involved many new tools and was a great learning experience. From the shape of the box we had to pull out each individual block after converting it to editable poly and using the extrude or bevel tool. The vertex selection tool was then used to edit the shape so that it looks more like a person with some basic features. Overall I'm very pleased with the result of my person - it may just be a basic human shape but it took a lot of fiddling and time to achieve the result.

Apples Aren't Round

The second exercise of the day was to use a sphere shape to create an apple. After placing the shape, we had to convert it to editible poly so that we could edit it using the vertex selection tool and warp the shape of the sphere so that it looks more like a real apple. To make this alot easier, soft selection was enabled so that when one point was selected, a radius around that point is also selected and warped in the same way. Once the shape had enough lumps and bumps, we needed to make a hole in the top for the stalk. This required us to select the top pixel and drag it downwards inside the sphere. The stalk is an upside down cone which has been bent slightly into shape and placed inside the apple. I am pleased with the result as it came out far better than I had hoped. I have learned alot with the creation of this apple and hope my future projects come out as well as this.

3d Modelling and a Castle

Prior to today I’ve had no experience with any 3d design software whatsoever. The program we are using to create our 3d projects is Autodesk 3ds Max 2011. Although I had never used this program before, learning the basics and the layout wasn’t too difficult thanks to my knowledge with other design software such as Adobe Photoshop and the likes. After receiving the brief and some tips on how to start out, our first objective was to create a castle. I created the foundation for my castle using 4 box shapes and aligning them so they are connected. For the top of the wall I used the box tool again and cloned the shape and moved it around as many times as necessary. The design itself is very basic but the shape itself somewhat resembles that of a castle. I wasn’t sure how to add a door or remove a section of the wall to allow for some form of entry, so I instead used a couple more boxes and some cylinders to create a drawbridge-type thing. At this point I didn’t know how to rotate shapes so the cylinders stand straight upwards instead of angled towards the castle. I added a light to play around with the way the lighting affects the image. Overall I’m pleased with the result of my first ever attempt at using 3d software and enjoyed the learning experience that went along with it.