Overall Evaluation

I am pleased with the images I created and feel much more confident using 3D Studio Max than I did before starting the module so I am well prepared to create more complex images and animations next semester. Throughout the creation of these images, I asked family members and colleagues for feedback on my images and their advice was behind most of the changes I made to my images to create the final product. I believe asking for advice and opinions throughout made my images much better as a result.

April in Detail

The Easter image was quite simple yet still included advanced 3D Max functions.

Grass: The grass was created using a flat plane with a grass texture which I then applied soft selection to. I used a Hair and Fur modifier and changed the density and colours to look like grass.

Egg: The egg was a simple sphere with a colourful texture applied.

Background: The background was a plane with a cloud texture and the sun was created in 3D Studio Max using the Effects tool. I applied the Lens Flare effect to my Omni light in Max.

Lighting: I had one Omni light as the sun which cast ray traced shadows over the egg and the grass which gave a nice gradation of colour.

Potential Improvements: Although this scene is relatively simple, I am pleased with how it looks and it gave me a vital opportunity to get used to the hair and fur modifier as well as the effects built into 3D Studio. I would move the camera and objects so I could use depth of field if I was to create this again as I tried using it in this image but wasn't satisfied with the result.

Final Image- April

This is my final image for the month of April. It shows an easter egg in a field to represent a classic easter egg hunt.

A detailed writeup about the image can be found above.

August in Detail

The summer image was quite difficult to get the scale and "look" right as I didn't have very much reference material.

Pier and Road: The pier and road was created from cubes and initially textured with default textures. Over time, I adjusted the height of the pier and the width of the road as well as adding textures created from found photographs.

Pier Decoration: At first, the pier building (a cylinder) had a very basic texture on and was out of perspective compared to its surroundings. I resized the amusement arcade and added a texture taken from a photo of the Gherkin building. This looked okay but didn't say "amusement arcade" and didn't look like glass. The final texture I created was a mix of the Gherkin texture and a concrete image to make it look like a real building. The text on the side of the building was created in Photoshop and applied to a plane which stands next to the building with an opacity map. The ferris wheel was created as a "tube" with "capsule" shapes applied around the edge to make the pods. Originally, the centre of the ferris wheel was made of four planes stuck together as struts. However, looking at images of ferris wheels, the centre appeared to be made of thin metal spindles. To replicate this in my image, I removed the struts I had made and inserted a plane in the centre of the wheel then applied a customised photo texture with an opacity map. Like the amusement arcade, the scale of the ferris wheel changed to create the correct perspective.

Background: The background of the cliff and sunlight was created in Photoshop from a photo I had taken. I added lens flare and clouds then applied the image to a plane at the back of the scene. I also added a flat plane with a sand texture along the bottom of the cliff to add consistency to the visual style.

Beach and Sea: The beach is a flat plane with a texture on- it took a few attempts to find a good photo texture, early attempts looked like the beach was made of wood. The sea started off as a flat plane with a blue diffuse map and default noise bump map then evolved into a soft-selection modified plane with a diffuse and bump map created from a found photograph of the sea.

Lighting: Originally, the light source was at the other side of the pier but this cast a shadow onto the the background plane, so I moved the light source to where the sun should be. This created a much more realistic ray traced shadow.

Potential Improvements: Throughout the creation of this image, I was never happy with what I had done- the sand could always look better, the buildings could always look more realistic, the sea could be more bump-mapped etc. However, I feel that I have reached a point with this image where I am as happy with it as I can be without doing it from scratch. If I was to create this image again, I would create an entirely different scene as the lack of reference material and the difficulties of creating a realistic looking scene were more challenging than I had expected.

December in Detail

The winter image is made of many different components to create a photorealistic feel.

Snowmen: The snowmen are made of two spheres which were scaled to create their basic shapes. I used soft selection to add the small dents and imperfections on the surface and MeshSmooth to smooth them. The snowmen are textured with a small "snow" image cropped from a found image. This same image is also used as the bump map to add texture to the surface. Their noses are made of cones with an orange texture. Their eyes were added in Photoshop with a basic brush as I could not get 3D eyes to look "right". I removed the 3D mouth and eyes seen in the first few WIP images as they didn't look good or realistic.

Ground: The ground is a plane with soft selection to add a bumpy look. At first, I used default textures to create snow-covered grass and had pavements on top (again, with default textures) going through the garden. I decided to find a more realistic image for the grass and found the image seen in the final product of grass covered in melting snow. I removed the paths as they did not "agree" with the soft selection when it was added- the pavement disappeared under bumps and protruded out the other side, so I felt the image would look better if they were removed.

Fences and road: The road surface and fences between the gardens did not change between the first and last images- they always seemed to look okay and fit with the rest of the image. The road is a default concrete texture and the fence texture is taken from a found photograph.

Trees: At first, as can be seen in the video, I used default trees so I could see how the image looked with foliage in. When I created my own trees, I drew the basic shape as a spline then used the Lathe tool to make it 3D. I then applied a photograph "tree trunk" texture. The branches at the top of the tree are a plane with a texture of branches applied. I created an opacity map so the spaces in between the branches were transparent.

Background: The houses in the background are a custom texture on a plane created from many images. There is an opacity map on this plane so the gaps inbetween roofs are transparent. The trees in the background are a background image found online and set in 3DS Max.

Lighting: Initially, I went for a dramatic look with long raytraced shadows extending from the snowmen towards the camera. However, this meant I had to add another light which didn't cast shadows behind the snowmen otherwise the rear of the snowmen and the houses would be black. This combination of two light sources looked wrong, as there was now an unexplained light source behind the snowmen. I removed the second light and moved the shadow-casting light to behind the snowmen which illuminated everything and cast realistic shadows.

Potential Improvements: If I was to create this image again, I would create eyes and a mouth for the snowmen in 3D Studio as well as make the house and background trees truly 3D instead of relying on flat planes. However, this would require a lot of time and skill and may not look much better from the selected angle. A scene with all true 3D objects would look a lot better in an animation as using flat planes falls apart if you move the camera.

Final Image- August

This is my image for August, showing a typical British seaside scene with an amusement arcade and ferris wheel in the early morning sun before the tourists arrive.



Above is a video showing the summer scene from the first out-of-perspective attempt to the finished scene.

Like the winter scene, I'll make a post above explaining how each part was created and changed from start to finish.

Final Image- December

This is my final image for the month of December, showing four (worried) snowmen looking across the road as the snow begins to melt on a frosty morning.



Above is a video showing the December image in various stages of completion, starting with the initial render and ending with the finished image.

I'll make a post above detailing how each part of the image was created and how they changed from start to finish.