UNIT 1 Introduction to technical skills

What does industry standard software mean?

Industry standard software is a common format of a document, file or programme commonly used by one or more software developers working on various projects.

Software standards allow developers to switch between different projects or files created by different developers using the same software. Various games use content created within 3DSMax.

Here are some images showing what the content was used in.

Alternative products also made by Autodesk

AutoCAD - Is a computer-aided design program used for both 2-D and 3-D design or drafting. It can support custom objects through a C++ application interface. The default file format used in AutoCAD is DWG which stands for “drawing”.

FBX Review - A 3D model viewer that lets you view 3D models and animations across many platforms without using a 3D authoring tool.

The differences between Solid and Surface Modelling

Solid models can allow you to intersect, join and subtract objects from one another by manipulating them.

Surface modeling focuses on the external aspects of an object. I.e creating a flashlight to the correct dimensions.

3DSMax

By learning the following I have created and rendered these images using the techniques I have learned.

As you can see in these images I created the tower and the hill separate to avoid selecting the wrong object and to focus more on them individually.

I was also able to use directional lighting to light my render in various ways creating ambience.

See below for development snapshots

Fan Art and Concepts

I choose to draw Brick, a character from Borderlands.

When I was tasked to create some fan art I doubted myself as I haven't been very creative in the past.

But my choice of what to draw really made me understand and get a feel of what my untapped potential may be.

With the low detail and cell shading of Borderlands, I felt like it would be a good start to train my skills.

In the lower right image, I created a box as a focal point to draw my objects towards to create a perspective.

I started by drawing the basic shape of the objects and by adding more detail I was able to create a kitchen layout.

My second task was to create a single perspective kitchen environment.

During the first week, I learned about having a fixed perspective when designing an isometric environment.

So I began by drawing shapes and connecting their edges to a fixed point on my horizon line then adding depth to the shape by adding in lines further back from the original shape.

As shown in the top right image.

Chair Concept

During week 2 of development, I was tasked with replicating a design of chair using the skills I had learned in week 1. By using 3DSMax at home and experimenting with the different tools and materials I was almost able to recreate the chair. I would have been able to get the proportions right if given enough time to do some final edits to the finished project. I was able to create a reflection on the chair by adding a reflection map to the chair and mapping it to raytracing.

"Ray tracing is a rendering technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light as pixels in an image plane and simulating the effects of its encounters with virtual objects"

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_(graphics)

Editable Polygons

First I created 3 basic shapes a Cube, Pyramid, and Sphere.

I first practised by editing the polygons on the cube as mirroring on multiple sides would be easier to accomplish on this shape. Once I was done with the newly altered cube I moved onto the pyramid. By using the selection tools in the edit poly menu I was able to add more polygons to the shape by cutting the existing polys in half.

To extend and manipulate the shape I used the extrude and bevel tools to move the shape in different ways creating an almost drone/robot looking object. I used the same practices on the sphere with more mirroring and more interesting styling.

Furniture

Here is a selection of furniture pieces I have created to go into an isometric interior. By using different shapes and using the tools mentioned above I was able to create a chair, bed; desk and blind.

I added textures to the objects to give them a clearer image so that they would represent they are and so that I could see what needed doing to improve on them If I chose to do so. Once I was done creating the objects I selected the chosen items then grouped them together for easier placement within my scene, there is always room for improvement.

You can see the progression of my scene in the images below.

Replicating from an Image

By learning how to extrude and bevel when editing the polygon I was able to replicate the chosen object within 3DSMax, with more time and experience I will be able to closely and accurately replicate many objects to create the scenes that I have conceptualized. In the images below I have created a coke bottle and a desk lamp using the spline tool. With this tool, I am able to create the portfolio of the object then by using the lathe modifier and selecting the correct axis on the newly lathed object I was able to duplicate the reference I was going from. In order to create the stem of the lamp, I placed a line spline then used the sweep modifier to create a cylinder which then I merged with the base of the lamp.