Tutorial 3 - Leaf Modelling/Texturing

Using a combination of photoshop and 3D studio max's texture options we were able to create a very realistic looking leaf texture from a default high quality image.

Adjusting the specular level in the texture gave a more living feel with a moisture wet look while adding a bump map helped bump up the texture and give it more depth while shaping the leaf with some soft selection vertex movement and rotation made it look 3D.

Leaf Rendered

Leaf Texture

Leaf Wireframe

Practising With 3D Studio Max

Since starting the module I have managed to get hold of a free copy of 3D Studio Max from the official website under an education student license. This has allowed me to practise using the software at home and I have made a number of small models.

This desk chair has been my best model so far taking a total of six hours (it did not go perfectly) to create. I followed a tutorial guide online to make it and learned a lot of new techniques and found some useful features. The 'Loft' tool inparticular is very useful as it converts, with a shape reference, any line drawing into a full 3D object. Other tools like FFD 4x4x4 was great at shaping the chair seat.

I also explored the use of lighting to give the model a more natural feel and am looking forward to moving onto more complicated modelling techniques as well as animation.

Tutorial 2

In tutorial 2 we learned some new modelling techniques such as importing drawings from adobe illustrator and then using the lathe modifier to convert it into a 3D shape.

Another technique when modelling is to use reference planes to more accurately design whatever it is you are modelling. This was a great help in recreating a Panther Tank in 3D studio max. The "almost" finished model was create using a variety of shapes such as boxes, cylindars and tubes where needed and often converting them to editable poly's to shape them further.

Due to experience with CAD software I was also able to easily add inset and extrude effects to add some finer details such as on the wheels. The reason that i do not consider the tank finished is that I was not able to create the treads for the tank wheels to a satisfactory level.

Perspective View with Reference Planes

Rendered version of tank with camoflauge texture

Wireframe view

Research Board

Having not watched very many James Bond films I found choosing one to base my project on to be quite difficult. Therefore I went through a number of original trailers and teasers to find a film that had common objects seen throughout the trailer (and film itself) that could be recreated in 3D. This meant anything that was shown more than once and seemed important to the plot of the film.

The reason I did this was that I understood that there would be a limit on how many objects I would be able to create and animate in the amount of time set for the project and choosing clear iconic objects would best help explain the narrative plot of the film in my finished trailer.

I eventually decided on Octopussy as my film of choice. Its an old and not quite as popular film of the series but seems to have some great action scenes and a number of iconic objects would be possible to model and animated on my currently developing modelling skills.

Here is a quick research board highlighting some of these objects as well as the overall theme of the film: