Third Complete Model: The Tank

This is my third and final complete model: Leonardo Da Vinci's tank. Although I expected this model to be the most difficult (which was why it was the last one to be made), by the time that I had gotten to the stage of creating this, I understood the techniques that were needed. All of the techniques used in this model had already been used at least once over the past six weeks: learning them in lessons and on my previous two models. I am very happy with how this model came out - it definitely looks like Leonardo Da Vinci's tank, not just shape wise, but the textures as well are accurate.

Progression Of Model Three: The Tank

To start off with the tank, I have been using simple shapes such as the cylinder and the cone to create the basic shape of the invention, then converting each part into an editable poly and extruding by polygon. This makes the shape look more textured and 3D, even before I start adding textures. As I have already used this technique on the barrels, which are made of wood (just like the tank) and the technique looked very effective, I am using it again for the tank.

Next, as I want the tank to appear as though it has it's door open, I have selected the polygons necessary and cut them away from the main object, rotated as necessary and converted it to a single object and vertex in order to edit it as one whole object. I plan for this part to be animated later so thought it a better idea to leave it as though the door is open now, so that I can model the hinges etc. holding the door up (as is shown in my sketch of the tank) before it needs to be animated. I have, however, left the bottom polygon out of the door because there needs to be a way to identify which panel leads into the tank, so this will be the distinguishing feature.

For the cannons that are on the base part of the tank, I have used the torus object to make a doughnut like shape for the end and middle segment of the cannon.For the other two segments, I have once again made use of the cone shape tool. This object is then cloned and rotated around the bottom part of the tank. Alignment and symmetry is once again an important factor in the tank, so it has taken a fair amount of time to ensure that everything is aligned and that there are the right amount of everything on the tank. As I did my sketching and a substantial amount of research beforehand, I have been well prepared for this.

This is the tank finished apart from the textures, materials and rendering. I have made use more of the Orphographic top view as a wireframe for this model than any others, as it has helped to ensure the accuracy of the angles and alignment of features (alongside me using the align tool). Using F4 to turn on polygons has also been a tool that has been used consistantly throughout making this model.

The main texture that is being used for the majority of the tank is a dark, wooden texture. I have gone the normal way for applying this: used a bitmap image, add the same image as the bump and raising it to make it more textured. However, the wooden texture came out in the way as shown above. To combat this, I have used UVW mapping to change it from a Planar Map to a Spherical Map, which makes the lines of the wood fit in with the planks of wood that make up the shape of my tank.

Cameras

The next part of animating that I have learnt today is how to work some cameras. Firstly, we used a target camera and a path constraint for the camera to rotate around a set of objects. Then, we made a rollercoaster style line, and used a free camera to follow the line around, in a way that it looks like you are on a rollercoaster. The camera needed to be rotated so that it followed in the right direction and the timing needed to be adjusted, but it is a good technique to know when wanting a camera to follow a direct path.

Animating

Animating has been a lot easier (so far) than I thought it would be, although the only other program that I have animated in has been flash.

The first thing that I have animated is a teapot and a box. Each object has been animated seperately using the Auto Key (I have experimented also with using the set key, but due to there being a lack of complicated animation among many objects, there isn't really a need for this tool yet, however I am still aware of it's purpose. For this animation, I have animated the teapot to look like it pours (using the rotate tool) then moving it up and over using the select and move tool on the x and z axis. The box has also spun around the table and moved slightly.

Next, I have animated a ball to look like it is bouncing. To do this, I simply moved the ball to the appropriate places on the timeline, then used the curve editor to put the animation on a loop. Then, the balls were cloned (which meant that the animation sequence was cloned with them) and used the dope sheet to adjust the timing, so that they were not all bouncing at exactly the same time as each other. The amount of keyframes was then altered, so that the balls didn't look like they were glitching, and then the animation looked like it was on a constant loop.

Second Complete Model: Buildings

This is my second completed model: a small group of adjoined buildings, made in the style and using features of buildings found in Florence, Italy, in the 15th century.
I am very pleased with how this model turned out; it may have taken a bit longer than I expected, however I have been able to make use of the techniques that I have learnt in lesson, as well as expanding on these skills further. It also gave me a good oppurtunity to use realistic looking bitmap images as materials, which made me appreciate the amount of time that goes into adjusting and applying materials to objects. It has definitely been a learning curve making this model, but it turned out almost exactly as I wanted it to be and contains all the necessary detail to make it look like something out of a scene in Florence in the 15th century.

Texture Progression Of Model Two: Buildings

Now that the buildings have been more or less completed and all of the features have been modelled onto them, I have started on the textures. Using my reference images to help, I have been carefully selecting textures that fit in with buildings that may have been in 15th century Florence, with editing the textures in Photoshop if there is any need for any slight adjustments. The windows will be requiring a slightly different texture to the one that is being applied here (which is using UVW Mapping to add some more realism to the building) and each building in this selection will have slightly different brickwork, to once again ensure realism.

For all of the windows, I am giving them a flat box background so that each of them can have a bitmap of a window pasted on as a texture. In Photoshop, I am cutting out and adjusting images of windows, so that the frames that I have made for these buildings using cylinders and boxes can still be used (to prevent the image from appearing flat) but so that the inside of these windows looks realistic, like the rest of the textures on the buildings.

In Photoshop, I am cropping down this image and extracting the parts that I want to use for the bitmap texture. The view is slightly off in this image, so I am also using the free transform tool to make sure that it lines up properly, to ensure that there is no distortion when it is placed on the object in 3DS Max. The eraser tool is used to get rid of the parts that I do not need, as is the crop tool and the magic wand. This process will be repeated for all of the different window bitmaps and these will then be applied to a material. The object that the material is applied to will then be cloned, rotated and distorted (if necessary) and aligned to the window/door frame that it is needed to fit to.

Progression Of Model Two: Buildings

So far, for my second model of three adjoined buildings, that I am basing off of certain features from the images that I have researched (see previous blog posts) I am currently in the process of editing the polygons using the bevel tool, which is creating indents in buildings - a feature that seems to be very popular in the architecture of buildings in Florence from the 15th century. I am trying to make these buildings as detailed as possible, as can be seen in the image above, but it is taking time with these types of buildings - the clone tool has been very useful. As well as paying particular attention to detail, I am also ensuring that the alignment on all features and sections of buildings is perfect, as I want these buildings to look historically accurate and look like buildings that could be found in Florence during this time period.

For the windows on  another building, I have used the line tool and the lofting technique to create a kind of panel around the window, in the style that they had some of the building's architecture in 15th century Florence. Although it is hard to see from this image, I have already bevelled the windows in slightly in a square shape, and will then apply certain textures to particular parts of the windows.

The shape of this end building has been changed using the editable poly modifier, then by selecting polygons and bevelling them, so that the building has a shape that is more interesting than simply a load of different sized boxes arranged together. The basic frame of the window has been copied, but the top frame has needed to be rotated by 40degrees to ensure that the angle matches up with that of the building.

First Complete Model: Barrels

This is my first completed final model: a pile of barrels containing gunpowder, with some powder falling out of one of them.

To make these, I started simply with a sphere and adjusted the radius of the object so that it looked more barrel shaped. I then chopped off the top and bottom part of the sphere to make it have a flat base and top, then added two circles for the lid and base. These were then edited as polys, then aligned so that they fitted in with the dimensions of the barrel. The barrel was then extruded by polygons, with a height of 4.5, to give it more depth and make it look more realistic. The material for the barrel is an old wooden texture that has had a lot of bump applied. It uses the Anisotropic shader. I then decided that the barrel looked slightly too squashed, so I scaled it to make it look a bit more realistic.

I have also added onto the bottom of the barrel, to make it seem more realistic, the words 'La polvere da sparo, 100lbs, Firenze'. This, in Italian, means 'Gunpowder, 100lbs, Florence.' I included this because when researching gunpowder barrels on the internet, they all had some form of writing on the base showing where they were made, how much powder was contained and the contents of the barrel. I translated from English to Italian to ensure authenticity.

For the metal parts of the barrel, I simply made a cylinder for the middle part, added a lot of segments and aligned it to the middle of the barrel. This was then copied for the top part of the barrel, and edited using vertexes, so that it wrapped around with the shape of the barrel. This was then mirrored and applied to the bottom part. The material for this used the Arch & Design template to give it a metallic yet slightly dirty finish.

For the cork in the top of the barrel, I simple made a cylinder with five segments and aligned it with the top of the barrel. I looked up a cork texture and applied it in the material editor.

The barrels were then cloned, rotated slightly so that they didn't all look like they were in exactly the same position, and stacked up in a way that might be seen in things such as films. One barrel was arranged so that it looked like it had fallen over, with the cork on the floor and a bitmap of some gunpowder flowing out of the place that the cork should have been.

Three Models

For my three models, I am going to make:

1. Leonardo Da Vinci's Tank

2. A small group of buildings, in the style of 15th Century buildings, that would be found in Florence, Italy. I am going to use features of buildings that I have researched and combine certain historical features so that it is historically accurate, yet still more inventive than simply copying a building.

Here is a rough sketch of what I expect my scene to look like, and I will use this drawing as something to work off of so that the scene should hopefully look better:

3. Some barrels containing gunpowder, with Italian writing on them to show the content. There will be some that are piled up, but one will have fallen over and will be spilling some of it's content, which will also be shown. During the animation, the tank will probably knock the barrel over.

Here is a rough sketch of what I expect the final model to look like:

Metal Ray Rendering

From using a youtube video, a technique has now been learnt to make my objects look more realistic in terms of materials and using sunlight. By modifying each object using the 'Architecture' material editor, some materials are metal, some are chrome and some are a translucent glass. By then using the Daylight System, the light has been modified to make it like what the light would be in London at about 7am in June. For rendering, the renderer production was then assigned to be the metal ray renderer, instead of the default scan renderer, which gave the effect that can be seen above.
The render of these objects makes the whole scene look a lot more professional and realistic, so this technique is definitely a useful one that I will use when creating models in the future.

Pumpkin

This is my first attempt at constructing the lighting for a model in 3DS Max, in this case, onto a pumpkin. I have used an Omni light inside the pumpkin, so that it looks like there is a glow coming from within the pumpkin. However, the light from within the pumpkin doesn't look totally realistic and effective, so this part will need to be practised. I have also used a spot light with a small hot spot to create the effect of having a soft light, with the colours orange and yellow to fit around the theme of Halloween. The volume light effect has also been used to make the light seem less dense.

My Chosen Invention

For my invention for this project, after researching, I have decided to create Leonardo Da Vinci's Armoured Tank using 3DS Max. Out of the three inventions that I focussed the majority of my research on, this was the one that interested me the most and gave me the most ideas.

The exterior of the machine seems to be fairly simple with a lot of symmetry involved throughout the machine, but the interior seems slightly more complex: it is made up of wheels and gears (which can be seen in the picture to the left) and there are thirty two cannons going around the edge of the machine.

The machine has a wooden texture on the interior and the extrerior, with the cannons and some parts of the gears being made of a steel-looking like metal.

 

I have started by doing a couple of rough sketches, just for something for me to reference upon when modelling and so that I have had some practise drawing the tank. My next task will be to actually make the model and the two additional models to go with it.