Evaluation

In this unit I was tasked to create a 3D virtual environment, more specifically an urban street environment. The outcome to this unit was to have an understanding of the software used, it's tools and be able to navigate a computer model environment. To be able to create 3D objects and show my understanding of how to do so, showing experimentation and creativity. To have an understanding of how to use lighting effects to present light on a 3D environment and render the environment. This unit works primarily on learning how to use 3D modelling software and develop the skills to show this, by experimenting with the tools to create objects.

To do this I had various introductions to 3Ds Max software and it's interface, becoming familiar with the tools and menus and experimenting with basic object making such as creating a 3D model of crate, I began this by creating a box, one of the basic objects Max allows you to create. I then went on to alter the form of the box object to make it look more like a crate. Finally then I was shown how to texture two different parts of the crate, the inside part and the outer border part of the crate, I textured the inside of the crate with a wood texture and lastly the outer part with a metallic object. Finally I was shown how to quickly duplicate the object so I was able to form a pile of crates.
This demo helped understand how to create simple objects and alter their form to be modelled into different things. From this demo I was able to experiment with what I learned to create different objects such as a large chest, or a wardrobe. Through experimentation I also learned how to curve objects, so I could effectively turn a straight edged box into a rounded object. This helped me with creating certain buildings and round corner pavements in my urban street.

The next task involved research into street scenes that I was going to base my urban street environment on. This involved researching existing cities and other places that I felt would help inspire me and imagine how I wanted my urban street to look like, I was going for futuristic street so I was slightly limited to what I could find, however there is a lot of cities and buildings from around the world that I knew that was on par with the futuristic image. I then went on to collect primary source images of street scenes in my local town. The purpose of this is to look at things in the environment that I would want to base my work on or something I would want to put into my work. Even though my work was based on futuristic art, there were some places of interest I managed to find with things that inspired me for my work. It made me look at them and imagine how it could fit into my work or be altered in a way that it will fit into my work. However a lot of inspiration would have come from other peoples illustrations of futuristic city environments and these helped the most for my work.

Presentation

Intial idea

Modern or Future?

Future!

More Imagination, More freedom

Chance to make more unique creations.

Inspiration and Research

How this helped my work!

Added effect for futurism

From this to this










Tools used
Boolean
Render Effects(lens effects, glow)
Stair presets
opacity(for glass, windows)

Street lights


Unique Shape
Blend into the futuristic environment

Presentation Outcome

Overall I feel happy and confident with the result of my presentation and how I presented my work to my peers. I feel I conveyed my idea, it's development and the result so far in an understandable way that kept things interesting but straight to the point about how my work started out and how it progressed to what it is now in good verbal and visual way.

Urban Street Development

Since I started with my idea to create a futuristic urban street, I feel my progress has gone to plan and expanded behind what I originally planned. I feel I managed to follow a sort of unique creation but that still follows a traditional futuristic visual.


After a while of creating the buildings for my street, I started to feel there wasn't enough to distinguish my idea as a futuristic environment, I felt it needed something else to boost it's futuristic visual. So I looked for some inspiration to achieve this and I achieved this from the movie Tron with it's neon lit up streets, lights running through roads and buildings. I felt this was a great and necessary addition to my work to help create the futuristic feel and look it needed.

3D texturing and lighting

We learnt how to to create a realistic glossy floor tiling by using two of the same images of the till but one in colour and the other non coloured.

Concept drawing

This is a quick concept drawing I made to help inspire and image what I plan to make my city look like. This is a futuristic city from my imagination and this is along the lines of how I would like my urban area to look like.

Line Lathe Experimentation

The line lathe tool was an interesting and useful tool to use for experimentation and create random objects. By using this tool, it would create objects from a line drawn, the object can be random every time, creating some very different and unique objects. I was often surprised how I managed to create a objects that are quite a common sight in reality. Here are a few of my experimentations.

Here I created a cocktail glass just from experimentation with random lines 

Here I was surprised how I created a realistic looking parasol.

Here a two more objects that look like drinking glasses, however the on right object could also pass as a lamp. This shows how creating some random objects through line lathe could have more use in your work through easy creation.

3D textured building

Here I was taught how to use a texture of a building to be placed onto a flat object in Max. The aim of this demo was to be able to place this texture onto the flat object and then be able to alter the shape of the object to fit with the texture more. Between these two screen grabs you can see how the top half of the object has been pushed back, and the lower roof part has been turned at an angle, and the door has been pushed back to give the impression of a doorway. The method of this was done converting the object to editable poly, this in turn allowed me to edit certain areas of the object with affecting the entire object.

This demo was a great tutorial of how we can simply use a picture of building as a texture for a flat object to create our own variations of buildings for our work if needed.