This week I wanted to concentrate on my April scene.
For this scene I wanted to create a park surrounding with a half-pipe in the middle as April reminds me of the start of summer when I can ride my BMX. April is also Easter time therefore I wanted to incorporate bunny rabbits into the scene to represent the Easter bunny. I also wanted to add Easter eggs and though I could hide some around the park to make it look like and Easter egg hunt.
I started by creating my half pipe, I had drawn a few by hand to try and split up the elements and to see what should be created first and what can be added. I thought of creating this half-pipe using an arch and spline with the lathe modifier, but this didn’t look very good at all so the other option I decided on was to create a large box and a cylinder. I then place the cylinder laying down horizontally and place it half sunk into the top of the box, so that it looked like this,
I then selected the box and then within the geometry tab of the create options I then selected ‘compound objects’ from the drop down box. I then selected ‘Boolean’ from the object type, I then selected the ‘pick operand B’ button then selected the cylinder as this was the object I wanted to delete, here is the edited box.
I then wanted to add a wood effect to the ramp to make it look like a real half-pipe. To do this I opened the ‘material editor’ window, I then selected a sphere and selected the diffuse colour map and the glossiness map then selected ‘wood’ form the ‘material/map browser’ for both of the maps. I wanted to add the glossiness map to give the wood a tiny bit of shine so that it looked like it had been varnished for weather resistance like in real life.
I then wanted to change the colour of the wood, to do this I selected the ‘wood parameters’ tab and change both of the colours to 2 shades of lighter wood. I also changed the grain thickness until I thought it looked life-like. I then applied this map to the half-pipe.
I then wanted to add a ribbon to the present, to do this I created a couple of planes in rectangular shapes and placed them where I wanted them on the present.
I then wanted to make a bow to go on top of the present as this is always a good traditional way to finish wrapping a present, so I then created a torus knot and used the scale tool to flatten and widen the torus knot to make it look like a proper bow.
I then wanted to add a map to these to make the ribbon and the bow look shiny and glossy just like a real ribbon. To do this I created a ‘raytrace’ map on the refraction section of my maps, I then selected the colours I wanted to use, selected a ‘blinn’ shader and played around with the different options in the ‘blinn basic parameters’ section such as the specular level and the glossiness until I achieved the glossy shiny look I wanted for the ribbon.
I also created another present but a different shape and used a map, this time I used a checker map as the diffuse colour, I then changed the checker parameters so that I could use the 2 colours I wanted for the wrapping of the present.
Here are the finished presents,
Christmas isn’t really Christmas with out a tree to be honest, this is why the next object I created was a Christmas tree.
Firstly I looked around the internet for Christmas trees that had been created in 3ds max to see what was possible, the most basic approach I could of gone for was to place a few cones on top of each other, but this didn’t really appeal as enough of a challenge to me, so another option I looked at was to create and use a helix so this would be a spiral line in a cone shape that I could add hair and fur to so that it would look like a tree. I decided on the helix based Christmas tree as I thought it would be using a tool I haven’t used before and looks like it could be bit more of a challenge for me, therefore making me more determined to create it and to make it look good. I looked at a few online tutorials to see how to create a tree using a helix as the base design.
To create the tree I firstly created a helix, then changed the parameters to; Radius 1=50, Radius 2=1, Height=90 and finally Turns=5. These were adjusted within the parameter settings. Here is what it looked like,
I then created a circle, the within the modify tab I changed the amount of steps within the interpolation tab to 20 steps to make the circle smoother, then I change the radius of the circle to 2.0 to get it to the correct size.
I then wanted the thickness of the circle to follow the spiral shape of the helix, so to do this I selected the circle and then in the create tab I selected ‘compound objects’ from the drop down menu, then I selected ‘Loft’ from the available options.
Then once the loft options appeared I selected ‘get path’ form the creation method tab, and the tree was created, I could then delete the original helix and circle as these are no longer needed, I then changed the base colour of the tree to green within the modify tab.
Here is a finished shot of the finished base for the tree.
I then wanted to add little green needles to my tree to make it look just like a real one, so to do this I had to add a hair and fur modifier.
To do this I selected the base of the tree then went to the modify tab and added the ‘Hair and Fur (World-Space Modifier)’
Unfortunately this appeared with an error, this is because most/nearly all of the computers within the computer labs in the sawyers building don’t support the hair and fur modifier properly, so this meant the hair ended up upside down or the other side of the scene and not attached to the tree.
To solve this I downloaded and installed a trial version of the 2009 3ds max on my desktop computer.
I then tried to apply the hair and fur modifier to the tree base and this worked fine on my computer, I then changed the options within the ‘general parameters’ and the ‘material parameters’ to get the tree looking nice and bushy and full of needles. I also changed the root colour to a darker green and the tip colour to a lighter green to make it look life like.
Here is a shot of the rendered tree with the ‘hair and fur’ modifier applied.
I then wanted to add a trunk and a big soil pot for the tree to stand in.
To create the trunk I created a cylinder and added a map to it, the map I wanted to add was a bitmap image of tree bark that I found on the internet. So I opened up the ‘material editor’ and added the bitmap as the diffuse colour then applied this to the trunk, I think this looked pretty good and realistic, here is a shot of the material I used within the material editor and the tree trunk,
I wasn’t super fussy on the presentation of the tree trunk because I knew that from my plans for the scene the trunk would be hardly visible, as half would be sunk into the soil pot and the other half into the bottom of the tree leaving a small bit visible so that the tree looks genuine.
I then went on to create a soil base pot for the tree to stand in. I browsed the internet for pot ideas and textures. Here is the pot I thought would look good, so I saved it and opened it in paint to crop it so I was left with the bits I want,
I then created a cone shape and scaled it to the size I though was suitable in comparison to the size of the tree, I then wanted to add my clay pot material map to it, so I opened the ‘material editor’ and added the clay pot bitmap to the ‘bump map’ and raised the amount until I thought it looked textured enough like a real pot, I then also added the same bitmap as my ‘diffuse colour map’ then I added these maps to my pot, here is the finished pot
I then put all the elements together to create the finished tree with a trunk in a pot then rendered it,
I then wanted to create some accessories and decorations for my tree. Firstly I wanted a star to go right on the top of the tree like a traditional Christmas tree. Secondly I wanted to create ball balls to place around my tree to make it look authentic and nicely decorated.
Firstly I created the star by going to the create menu and dragging the star out to the size and shape I wanted it, I then clicked on it and converted it to an editable poly,
Then I used the ‘polygon’ selection and used the ‘extrude’ tool and highlighted the whole star and dragged it out to make it 3d and to give it some depth. I then selected the ‘vertex’ tab and selected the 2 edit points either side of each of the points of the star then dragged the points in together so the points were now pointed from both sides.
Now the star shape is how I wanted it, I wanted to add a map to it to make it sparkly and shiny just like a real Christmas tree star.
To do this I looked on the internet for suitable images to use as a map, here is the image I chose to use, it was gold and sparkly, both of which would be ideal for the map I want.
For the second ball ball I opened the ‘material editor’ and selected the ‘anisotropic’ shader, selected my diffuse colour as red and changed the ‘specular level’ and the ‘anisotropy’ setting in the ‘specular highlight’ section.
Here are the rendered ball balls and the star,
For this scene I wanted to create a park surrounding with a half-pipe in the middle as April reminds me of the start of summer when I can ride my BMX. April is also Easter time therefore I wanted to incorporate bunny rabbits into the scene to represent the Easter bunny. I also wanted to add Easter eggs and though I could hide some around the park to make it look like and Easter egg hunt.
I started by creating my half pipe, I had drawn a few by hand to try and split up the elements and to see what should be created first and what can be added. I thought of creating this half-pipe using an arch and spline with the lathe modifier, but this didn’t look very good at all so the other option I decided on was to create a large box and a cylinder. I then place the cylinder laying down horizontally and place it half sunk into the top of the box, so that it looked like this,
I then selected the box and then within the geometry tab of the create options I then selected ‘compound objects’ from the drop down box. I then selected ‘Boolean’ from the object type, I then selected the ‘pick operand B’ button then selected the cylinder as this was the object I wanted to delete, here is the edited box.
I then wanted to add a wood effect to the ramp to make it look like a real half-pipe. To do this I opened the ‘material editor’ window, I then selected a sphere and selected the diffuse colour map and the glossiness map then selected ‘wood’ form the ‘material/map browser’ for both of the maps. I wanted to add the glossiness map to give the wood a tiny bit of shine so that it looked like it had been varnished for weather resistance like in real life.
I then wanted to change the colour of the wood, to do this I selected the ‘wood parameters’ tab and change both of the colours to 2 shades of lighter wood. I also changed the grain thickness until I thought it looked life-like. I then applied this map to the half-pipe.
I then made the hand-rails around the top of the ramp, there were created by using small cylinders as the legs and a thin rectangles as the bar place on top of the legs. I then added a wood map to the hand rails and a slight marble effect to the cylinders to make them look like a bland plain grey metal.
I then created the coping, this is the rail that runs along the top of the transition (curve) of the ramp, this is always metal on all ramps, usually an aluminium or plated metal, so I wanted to use a marble effect and a grey colour to make this look like the real thing.
Here is the coping and how I added the marble map to it,
I then wanted to move onto December and create some presents and a Christmas tree.
To create the presents I made 2 boxes, both the same width and length, but one with more height than the other. The taller one will be used at the box and the thinner one as the lid. I then positioned the lid on top of the box with a tiny gap so that the viewer can see a ridge as if the box was real.I then looked at ideas of wrapping paper on the internet, I found one that I thought would work well, so I saved this image. I then wanted to add it as a map to the box so I opened the ‘material editor’ then added the wrapping paper bitmap as the diffuse colour. Here is what it looked like on the box,
I then created the coping, this is the rail that runs along the top of the transition (curve) of the ramp, this is always metal on all ramps, usually an aluminium or plated metal, so I wanted to use a marble effect and a grey colour to make this look like the real thing.
Here is the coping and how I added the marble map to it,
I then wanted to move onto December and create some presents and a Christmas tree.
To create the presents I made 2 boxes, both the same width and length, but one with more height than the other. The taller one will be used at the box and the thinner one as the lid. I then positioned the lid on top of the box with a tiny gap so that the viewer can see a ridge as if the box was real.I then looked at ideas of wrapping paper on the internet, I found one that I thought would work well, so I saved this image. I then wanted to add it as a map to the box so I opened the ‘material editor’ then added the wrapping paper bitmap as the diffuse colour. Here is what it looked like on the box,
I then wanted to add a ribbon to the present, to do this I created a couple of planes in rectangular shapes and placed them where I wanted them on the present.
I then wanted to make a bow to go on top of the present as this is always a good traditional way to finish wrapping a present, so I then created a torus knot and used the scale tool to flatten and widen the torus knot to make it look like a proper bow.
I then wanted to add a map to these to make the ribbon and the bow look shiny and glossy just like a real ribbon. To do this I created a ‘raytrace’ map on the refraction section of my maps, I then selected the colours I wanted to use, selected a ‘blinn’ shader and played around with the different options in the ‘blinn basic parameters’ section such as the specular level and the glossiness until I achieved the glossy shiny look I wanted for the ribbon.
I also created another present but a different shape and used a map, this time I used a checker map as the diffuse colour, I then changed the checker parameters so that I could use the 2 colours I wanted for the wrapping of the present.
Here are the finished presents,
Christmas isn’t really Christmas with out a tree to be honest, this is why the next object I created was a Christmas tree.
Firstly I looked around the internet for Christmas trees that had been created in 3ds max to see what was possible, the most basic approach I could of gone for was to place a few cones on top of each other, but this didn’t really appeal as enough of a challenge to me, so another option I looked at was to create and use a helix so this would be a spiral line in a cone shape that I could add hair and fur to so that it would look like a tree. I decided on the helix based Christmas tree as I thought it would be using a tool I haven’t used before and looks like it could be bit more of a challenge for me, therefore making me more determined to create it and to make it look good. I looked at a few online tutorials to see how to create a tree using a helix as the base design.
To create the tree I firstly created a helix, then changed the parameters to; Radius 1=50, Radius 2=1, Height=90 and finally Turns=5. These were adjusted within the parameter settings. Here is what it looked like,
I then created a circle, the within the modify tab I changed the amount of steps within the interpolation tab to 20 steps to make the circle smoother, then I change the radius of the circle to 2.0 to get it to the correct size.
I then wanted the thickness of the circle to follow the spiral shape of the helix, so to do this I selected the circle and then in the create tab I selected ‘compound objects’ from the drop down menu, then I selected ‘Loft’ from the available options.
Then once the loft options appeared I selected ‘get path’ form the creation method tab, and the tree was created, I could then delete the original helix and circle as these are no longer needed, I then changed the base colour of the tree to green within the modify tab.
Here is a finished shot of the finished base for the tree.
I then wanted to add little green needles to my tree to make it look just like a real one, so to do this I had to add a hair and fur modifier.
To do this I selected the base of the tree then went to the modify tab and added the ‘Hair and Fur (World-Space Modifier)’
Unfortunately this appeared with an error, this is because most/nearly all of the computers within the computer labs in the sawyers building don’t support the hair and fur modifier properly, so this meant the hair ended up upside down or the other side of the scene and not attached to the tree.
To solve this I downloaded and installed a trial version of the 2009 3ds max on my desktop computer.
I then tried to apply the hair and fur modifier to the tree base and this worked fine on my computer, I then changed the options within the ‘general parameters’ and the ‘material parameters’ to get the tree looking nice and bushy and full of needles. I also changed the root colour to a darker green and the tip colour to a lighter green to make it look life like.
Here is a shot of the rendered tree with the ‘hair and fur’ modifier applied.
I then wanted to add a trunk and a big soil pot for the tree to stand in.
To create the trunk I created a cylinder and added a map to it, the map I wanted to add was a bitmap image of tree bark that I found on the internet. So I opened up the ‘material editor’ and added the bitmap as the diffuse colour then applied this to the trunk, I think this looked pretty good and realistic, here is a shot of the material I used within the material editor and the tree trunk,
I wasn’t super fussy on the presentation of the tree trunk because I knew that from my plans for the scene the trunk would be hardly visible, as half would be sunk into the soil pot and the other half into the bottom of the tree leaving a small bit visible so that the tree looks genuine.
I then went on to create a soil base pot for the tree to stand in. I browsed the internet for pot ideas and textures. Here is the pot I thought would look good, so I saved it and opened it in paint to crop it so I was left with the bits I want,
I then created a cone shape and scaled it to the size I though was suitable in comparison to the size of the tree, I then wanted to add my clay pot material map to it, so I opened the ‘material editor’ and added the clay pot bitmap to the ‘bump map’ and raised the amount until I thought it looked textured enough like a real pot, I then also added the same bitmap as my ‘diffuse colour map’ then I added these maps to my pot, here is the finished pot
I then put all the elements together to create the finished tree with a trunk in a pot then rendered it,
I then wanted to create some accessories and decorations for my tree. Firstly I wanted a star to go right on the top of the tree like a traditional Christmas tree. Secondly I wanted to create ball balls to place around my tree to make it look authentic and nicely decorated.
Firstly I created the star by going to the create menu and dragging the star out to the size and shape I wanted it, I then clicked on it and converted it to an editable poly,
Then I used the ‘polygon’ selection and used the ‘extrude’ tool and highlighted the whole star and dragged it out to make it 3d and to give it some depth. I then selected the ‘vertex’ tab and selected the 2 edit points either side of each of the points of the star then dragged the points in together so the points were now pointed from both sides.
Now the star shape is how I wanted it, I wanted to add a map to it to make it sparkly and shiny just like a real Christmas tree star.
To do this I looked on the internet for suitable images to use as a map, here is the image I chose to use, it was gold and sparkly, both of which would be ideal for the map I want.
I then opened the ‘material editor’ and selected bitmap image as my diffuse colour and played around with the specular levels and glossiness, I then applied this to the star,
I then went on to create the ball balls, to start with I created a sphere for the actual ball ball, I then created a cylinder and placed this on top of the sphere but half submerged, I finally created a ‘donut’ from the splines menu, I converted this to an editable poly, then extruded it to make it 3d.
I then half submerged this into the top of the cylinder, this is to be the hanging loop for the ball ball.
I then half submerged this into the top of the cylinder, this is to be the hanging loop for the ball ball.
I then wanted to add a map to these objects to make them look plastic and shiny. To do this I used 2 different maps for 2 different ball balls. For the first ball ball I added colour to I opened the ‘material editor’ and used a ‘phong’ shading and edited the raytrace basic parameters. I changed the ambient colour to a bright red, raised the specular level and the glossiness until I got a shine off the map that I was happy with,
For the second ball ball I opened the ‘material editor’ and selected the ‘anisotropic’ shader, selected my diffuse colour as red and changed the ‘specular level’ and the ‘anisotropy’ setting in the ‘specular highlight’ section.
Here are the rendered ball balls and the star,
I then selected ‘Units setup...’ then the ‘Units Setup’ window appeared and I selected the display unit scale as ‘Metric’ and the units as centimetres from the drop down menu
I then made sure that I kept this the same throughout all of the other objects I had created and will create, this will save a lot of scaling and fiddling about once I merge the files together as one scene. Scaling some of the objects can distort the appearance and change effects on the object and this also takes up a lot of unnecessary time.
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