Friday 13 November 2015

Due in date!

Due date is finally upon us and I have....about a third of a model to do and then we are all done and dusted!

the last pod racer which has been a pain to put together! I had a bit of help in doing this but hopefully it will look good at the end of it all!

one more! then burning onto cd, printing the paperwork out and then all done!

.....hopefully

Monday 9 November 2015

Pod racer 2 in the making

Pod racer 2 in the making, currently trying to re-create Anakin Skywalker's Pod racer which i can sense is going to be trouble, but so far so good, created one of the engines, adding more detail to make it look better before duplicating it.

Stadium piece

Stadium is finished!


It may look overlapping and not too great but this is good for two reasons, that I can think of.

1. the overlapping makes it look more rough and ground like, desert/rocky environment, and second, when rendered and also rendered into a default colour ,for example, grey, it looks a perfect rocking desert scenery perfect for a pod racing stadium.

Deadline Week!!!

Original post 11:07am

Deadline week, 1 model completed, 1 model near finished, I just need to add the height maps to the model and a few tweaks here and there, and then one final pod racer and then all should be done!

The second model is almost complete, The height maps have been created in a different file so will need to just convert the file and import it into the model itself for the pod racing stadium and it should all be finished!

I was thinking of doing the environment by creating a few boulders of regular spheres but just edit and 'scrunch' them up to form boulders and duplicate and resize to make an effective environment, but I have been shown how to use and create height maps so will be using this as it looks a more realistic environment.


Update 12:39pm

Stadium is coming along, i have added a few more height maps to give the scenery more of a desert feel to it.


Height map used from website:

http://www.reallusion.com/iclone/Help/EarthSculptor/Image/Utilizing_Height_Map_05.jpg

I jsut need to sort the boarders out around the edge of the stadium maybe make it a bit bigger and all should be finished!

Monday 2 November 2015

Issue #2

More issues!! and probably not the last either! going through to add the blueprints onto max to try and make a pod racer to the normal and precise size, and the blueprints do not match and are different measurements and different views (not as in the top side and front) more of the engines are open where in some views are not.


As you can see form the images above the pod racer pod itself does not match to the top down view, also the engines themselves do not match up either which means i would have to stretch them and it would not be a precise size.



Another example is the side view to the top down view, the images themselves do not line up at all, so I will have to take a blueprint to one side and try to free model this pod racer as it will be more accurate to do it this way than to copy from blueprints that do not match up, and will also give some artistic work to it aswell.

Terrain time!

Today I got some help from Mario (again) for setting up and preparing terrains using height maps.
Height maps are basically black and white images showing the intensity of a surface in a black and white image Black being the lowest point and slowly increasing in brightness to finally come to white at the highest intensity.


This is an example of a height map.

http://away3d.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/broomstick/Examples/Away3D/as/embeds/Heightmap.jpg


In the example above, as mentioned before, you can see the black sections and the brighter sections of the image, what will happen is the lighter surfaces will extrude higher and more intense than the darker surfaces creating a terrain.

I plan to use some of these height maps and to edit them and allign them together to create a pod racing terrain, the textures will come at a later date but it should still look amazing.

Stadium problem

So...a problem today, Bridging objects together...

Trying to bridge the yellow stairs together and is easier said than done, because they are no longer a simple polygon to attach the two together. It has become quite the problem.

A simpler alternative, and solution,to this problem is to simply create a staircase, it may not be as detailed, but is a much simpler solution! and also I can bridge and use a board in between each!

Stadium progression

The stadium is coming along very nicely as you can see! 



I have managed to put together the key components for the stadium, the stands, main stand, columns, spires etc all together to make the semi ring around, the other side I will be making rocks and a more natural desert look for the rest of the stadium.

Stadium in the making!

Another day, another part of the stadium!
The stadium is coming along nicely, Last week we was able to create a ring loop and the follow along the line tool to help with the seating around the stadium so the seats actually follow the curve around so it's easier to mold together and shape in.



So as above we can see the main seating part of the stadium which isn't looking too bad! and also the top left (top view) the ring in which the stadium seating selection will be placed, I have also decided on putting rocks around the bottom half of the stadium so it will be more of an outside environment than a whole stadium.

Monday 26 October 2015

modelling in 2016

It's a bit of a pain to switch from 2015 to 2016 as I have no idea what functions would work, what wouldn't and what would cause me to lose my files and models, which isn't a fun situation to be in, so In 2016 I will be making my 2nd pod racer, or attempting too, the blue print side of things is...just the greatest to work with, I will have to check up some tutorials to help me in how to make the different views the same size so it isn't stretched etc.

may take a little while, but on the plus side the pod racing stadium isn't looking too bad, is a little bit different to what i was thinking to do but....as long as it looks good and gets finished!

Pod racer stadium report 2

So we have had a few new ideas to add to the pod racer stadium, we have decided to put a ring in the stadium and follow the stairs round in an arc so that it records a stadium affect, its a good idea and will save alot of time....I'm hoping, but we shall see!

I'm hoping to get it finished today as we only have 2 weeks to do this, and i want to add little addition tweeks to the stadium and pod racers to give a bit more of a 3D professional look.

Pod racer stadium

Today I am aiming for the pod racer stadium to be finished it shouldn't take too long to finish a few tweeks here and there, few new models inside and should be all good to go!

Also found out that the models do not have to be textured aswell which is actually alot off the shoulders although it may not sound like it but my god texturing looks stupidly difficult!

Will need to be done at some point I guess, so off to modelling a few re-sizing here and there and stadium done!!!

Monday 19 October 2015

Pod racer 1 Edit

So i went back to my first pod racer to change a few things and something was not quite right, the connecter wire from the pod to the engines was directly in the middle of the engines where the boosters come out, it's still there however the boosters have been divided into four smaller booster around the wire so problem solved! one pod racer fully completed! need to start on the second one.

The stadium has had a few adjustments, the small buildings in the valley are nearly finished just need to mirror and put another part in the center and all done!

3ds max not working!!!

So...great times! had the whole of Wednesday off, decided to take the opportunity to download a student version of 3ds max at home so i could get a good 4-5 hours worth of modelling completed.
Turns out that my desktop at home does not support 64-bit 3ds max which 2016 is only compatible with, and my laptop displays white boxes where the different views should be (which I have found out is a graphic performance issue).
So looks like no modelling for me on the Wednesday, but today is another day!! currently in the labs modelling (after this blog) the stadium. After a short issue with opening the files in an older version of max...let's hope my luck changes as the day goes on....

Monday 12 October 2015

Stadium is coming along nicely

Stadium is coming along nicely! done the outside of the stadium, the seats and boarders etc, will have to make another part of the stadium too, I don't think there is a way even with different angles that I could use and repeat this model for the entirety of the animation. So more models too come! yay!



First model complete!

First model is completed!! After much editing and fiddling with different tools my first pod racer is now complete! 1 out of 3 models completed, now on to the stadium, I will leave the 2nd pod racer for a later date as it should not take as long to make as the stadium will do.
now to figure out how big to make this stadium!
Maybe model one part of the stadium and use different camera angles in the animation to give the idea that it is a massive stadium but just a loop of the same stadium, I may do two different parts including a tunnel too, shouldn't be too hard to make...we shall see down the line!

Monday 5 October 2015

Blueprints

So I've decided to add more work to do then recommended....not the smartest of ideas but will help with the creation of my 3D models, at least that is the plan anyway!
Blueprints include the front side and top view.
drawings aren't exactly the most artistic, but they will do for showing what I want to create and how I wish them to roughly look.
Now to put them into 3Ds max....fun times

Tuesday 29 September 2015

House building Tutorial

In week 2 we have been given a task to create a house following a tutorial found on the VLE

It's just a simple house but should help give the techniques we need to help create the models we are making for the assignments



House is coming along nicely, found out how to use the connect tool to create different sections, so there can be more detail added for example see below.



Following the tutorial I have managed to put in some windows using a mixture of the tools given to us, including the extrude, connect, pinching tools

Extrude lets you pull out or push in a polygon.
Pinch lets you pinch the two, or however many you have, edges together.
Connect lets you (using this method) create more edges inbetween the former edges, opening up for more detail.

Monday 28 September 2015

Creation ideas!

Second lesson in, practical time!
I started free drawing ideas for the type of pod racers I wanted to use, as a kind of template to help me along the way.
With the help of Google images for star wars pod racers ( https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pod+racers&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI5taCg4WayAIVBj8aCh234wd0&biw=900&bih=1384 )  I was able to use my own ideas plus a few bits here and there from different images to create my own unique pod racers.
The free hand drawings will help with the efficiency of the work creation, I hope!

First ideas

First blog ever, First day back at Uni, first part of the assignment already assigned. Good times!
We have been given the task to creating a short animation piece comprising of 3 separate 3D models & a 30 second animation from the star wars universe.
I had a few ideas for which animation I was going to be carrying out but I have decided to go with a similar scene from the star wars movie, a pod-racing scene.
The modelling will be fun to carry out and the animation, a challenge, but hopefully simple enough to carry out.
Now it is time to search for models and ideas!
Slinky, Out!