the details - all pod racers

Each of the pod racers I have created have undergone further development with details on each pod racer. 

these were created using standard primitives and sizing shaping. One of the best techniques used here was snapping to grid, and also using the snap tool, but snapping to a face as opposed to snapping to a vertex or edge. This allowed me to create simple details on the side of engines very fast, the only trouble being with curved faces, the best way i dealt with this was too use the shape line and manually add a vertex along the curved face, whilst snapping too it, allowing it to connect to the face at a number of points kept it close to the original curve. 

the finished pod racers are good, but I personally would not add so much detail to each model. In reality I would texture some of the details on as opposed to modelling them. this would save on the number of polygons, BUT I also understand that within the game if someone needed to use a button, or if the detail required warranted it to be modeled on, then I would model it on, for example if one of the pod racers was seen very close up by a character, or is used often, it would warrant the details to be modeled, but if it was only seem from a specific distance, where the level of detail could be covered in a texture, I would assume the texture would be the preferred method. 

the details added would be of use within the final product, and is not stupid amounts of detail.
it is more items which could be used and seen close up in detail. changing the look of the model.

the third pod racer

My last pod racer has become much better then expected, This is due to my increasing knowledge in 3DS Max, looking back over my models I believe I can see the pod racers improve as I have improved with 3DS Max.

For this pod Racer I wanted to create a 3D studio within 3DS max using three different images of a pod racer, showing each profile, front, side and top. This was so I could ensure the pod racer was too scale and correctly proportioned.

This was created using planes, alligning, and then adding the pictures, The pictures orignally came from one picture showing all three profiles, which I found on the internet. I then cut out each profile in GIMP. There was a slight issue as one of the profiles was not the same size. I had too physically stretch the front image in GIMP to ensure each file had the correct proportions so it would line up in 3DS Max. failing to do this leads to all sorts of problems, which I found out from experiance when I tried to model a Plane.

Using Alt + X to turn the selection see through made it possible to really create the shapes seen from the drawings, BUT it is also important to remember its 3D, theres no point creating a square from the side view, if its round in the front view, You must have a good understanding of the drawings and the object you wish to create.

I found this section to be very tricky to get right, it was a lot of vertex movement manually, and also cloning, shrinking, cutting, and then cutting into the shape to create the desired area shown in green. the engine itself was quite simple other then that, I specifically chose less segments to each curve to get a better balance between polygon count and look.



The engine used a lot of standard primitives, the 'rings' being made with tubes, the exhaust made from a cone, and a chamfer cylinder, the front a sphere, stretched and shaped. the issue was I created the outer 'shell' which is red from the drawings, but missed the inside bit, shown within the circle, I created another curve using a tube, and then had too attach this onto the larger section and manually move the vertex to where I wanted them, I did this using the Boolean tool and union, but found a lot of vertex were left, I deleted these and then manually added faces to fill in the gaps which I had created. This was a lot of work, and In future I would have continued the curve round and manually moved the vertex and deleted where I wanted. The rings seen and the 'fins' at the bottom and back are clones, saving on the work load where possible. 

The ship itself seemed simple, but a few errors here and there made it harder then I thought. during construction I believed it to be symetrical, using tools and selecting edges which ensured to me it would remain symetrical, such as the scale to along one axes rather then manually moving edges. At some point I must have seslected vertex unknown to me and moved them slightly, as towards the end I realised it was not symmetrical.

As I had done more work I couldnt find a suitable way to go back, so I decided to carry on for now, knowing I could cut and mirror the ship later.

Things that went well -

• Boolean cutting
• Standard primitives and editing
• cloning / mirroring objects
• following drawings from perspectives
• Using Slice tool on the ship and then mirroring to create symetrical object

Things to work on -

• Vertex... at some corners it appears to have two vertex as opposed to the one, target welding helped elimanate this, but should not be an issue in future
• Saving, I must save work more often, having corrupted files and creating errors without noticing is time consuming
• Cutting down on polygons, I think there is clear ways of improving this within all three pod racers, from selecting number of segments, but also unwanted and hidden areas do not need as many, also the models are detailed, where it could possibly be textured

The final Ship -



 

The Second Pod Racer

My Second pod racer has been an enjoyable project, using my mood board I decided to go for a less round design to see if I could lower the polygon count further by not using so many curves, which to me means more polygons!

The basis was a rectangular engine with large intakes which go through to the back where there is large rotary piece.
Again I started with the engine.

Step 1 was to create the basic shape, using two standard primitives, creating the curved sides using a large sphere and the boolean technique to cut into a basic box.

Had I redone this i would have used a Chamfer box, which would have created slightly softer edges, which would have been useful for the overall look, a lesson learnt for next time! but this would increase the poly count too.

 

this picture shows the beginning of my first engine, the 'intake' areas were created by insetting and then extruding the faces inwards. it was a balance between look and polygon count for the base of the engine.

The hard point was cutting the smaller intake in the blue section as it still had the main base section sticking through, to get round this I manually added vertex and cut out the piece I did not want

The next stage was adding the grills to the intakes, I created one and then cloned it for the smaller, reshaping as I went to fit snug.

The next stage was addign the 'exhaust' where the rotary blades will sit, This was a simple Tube. The Main error for the polygon count I made was here, it has a large number of faces, and also has used a smooth modifier to make the end more smooth, as it has a slight angle, The finished exhaust looks good, but at a hefty price! In the future i would not use so many segments, and try and manually make the end smoother then I have currently, rather then applying a smooth modifier which has smoothed the entire object and made even more polygons. I may even change this before the end.


The next stage was the exhaust rotary blade, Made from a cylinder, inset a number of times, stretched and then manipulated, to creat the smooth curved circle around the base, I made a sphere again and used the boolean technique.

To create the spiral, I used two shapes, a circle, and a helix, Using the Bevel Profile modifier to make the circle follow the helix shape, thus creating the spiral. this is wrapped around a standard primitive and alligned with the allign tool.

I have then added smaller details to the side of the ship, using standard primitives and the scale and general manipulative tools.

 

 The Ropes were hard to get right, I used the bevel profile technique with a pre drawn curve to create the organic rope shape, But to make two different ropes I moved some sections, but this had a slight impact on the smooth curve look.





 
I Felt the ship itself should not have too much detail, as I intend to use textures to provide the detail, and also feel the ship itself isnt the focal point of the model, it also will not be seen as much, and also will be closer to the camera from behind, I think a good texture on the back will be all the ship itself requires, leaving the detail to the engines of the racer itself.

The final Pod Racer -

 

 

The first Pod Racer

My first pod racer model is complete. It started as a simple cone and has been cut out using the Boolean tool, it has been clear to me that components are key to future designs, rather then trying to design it all from one element. The polygon count for my model is relatively high, but was a lot higher before hand, shown in some of the earlier pictures.

I cut down the polygon count by manually deleting unneeded vertex and edges to create larger polygons, I also used the pro - optimizer modify tool, which cut down the number further, it was hard to get it right by cutting down the polygons without loosing the shape of my pod racer.

also in future I will try and cut down the number of segments within round objects, as this was a slight error on my part, I will also try and cut down the number of polygons within areas you cant see, as the detail is unneeded in those areas. for example under the engine section could have less polygons. 

I chose to create this racer from standard primitives as I felt it gave me a good base to work from, and created the shape required well, the other way of doing this would be either from the lathe and drawing a circle or extruding a circle and editing further. 

the finished results before and after the pro optimizer - 

Pod Racer progress

I chose to do a Pod racer for my first model, My aim is to animate a race using a number of pod racers. The idea of the pod racer is it is quite symmetrical, and also most pod racers have two identical engines which can easily be achieved in 3DS Max. 

My first pod racer is coming along very well, it has taken a while and started as a basic cylinder shape. the first problem i encountered was extruding a 'ring' of the cylinder to get the basic shape I wanted. I ended up deleting the ring rather then extruding it, the basic extrusion extruded each 'rectangle' individually, rather then a fluid ring, I attempted to get round this by deleting the edge segments but ended up deleting the entire ring. 

I resolved this by re-creating the polygons and edges and extruding again using the edges not the polygon faces. I also felt there was a large number of polygons at this moment in time, but felt I would cut this down at the end by deleting vertex and edges I don't really need. 

 the second problem I made myself was after I created the 'engine' part, which I created from the basic cylinder, using the inset and extrude tools, the problem being to animate, or change this became a nightmare as it was part of the basic shape, as I didn't think of this as a component to it. 

 I decided to leave this, and look into detaching parts of models to try and detach the parts I wanted, and then repair the rest. In the meantime I also created the wing for the outside of my first engine, a simple rectangle was created, then a cylinder to cookie cut the curves. 




I could not find a simple way to detach the engine component from the main model, which would have been less time consuming to repair afterwards, I chose to delete the part all together, leaving a whole, and then create the engine part again using the same method. The aim is to have this animated and spinning on its center pivot like a plane engine. it started from a circle, extruded, and then inset a number of times, and then deleting unwanted polygons, also a slight rotation was made to create the slight angle on each 'blade' 

I have also extruded and started adding details on the side, as separate components, there is also an instance of the engine at the back, to be animated in the same way, to create the effect is spins all the way through the model. I am happy with the outcome so far, but feel there is more tools to 3DS Max I can utilize in the next models. 

Week 3 Chess piece and plane exercise

The chess piece was created by adding a background image to the front view, and then tracing half the chess piece, I converted it to an editable spline to 'fillet' the curves.
it was then as simple as choosing the lathe on the spline to create a round chess piece. 

The only slight difficulty has was selecting the correct 'align' to create the correct lathe shape. 

The start of my plane has been more challenging, Creating a virtual studio is a great way of being able to model objects very accurately, provided the designs are correct, and clearly visible to make out. I have chosen quite a hard plane, which I found on the net. It was simply to test Cutting them out in GIMP and importing, but I have chosen to carry on creating the plane after this.

The issue I had was the original images were not the same size, and the drawing itself does not appear to be quite symmetrical in every way, also the quality of picture is not great and I am finding it hard to move vertex as i cant see through the object too well even with 'X ray' turned on. 

The plane itself is also very curved, which you cant see well in the three views, which has made me realized it can be used accurately, but also as just a guide...

The first picture shows my first attempt, I have since started again... 

the finished product - 

Week 2 Village

The second exercise i tried was the village exercise, using the extrude tool to create some buildings which also had basic walls inside, this was done via rectangles and extrude, i also aligned some flat roofs and extruded these further to create roof tops. 

I then wanted to create wholes in the buildings as if they had been fired at or were in decay, this was done using the 'cookie cutter' tool, which had mixed results. The first result I simply used a sphere to cut into a corner of one of the buildings, this gave a very neat looking whole in the corner of a building, which was a perfect sphere. Not happy with this i wanted to create a more unique shape. I did this by simply clicking a random shape from lines and then extruding, creating a unique shape as my cookie cutter.

The big problem was once i cut a piece out of a wall, i would also loose the cookie cutter!

The cheap way round this for me was too simply clone the object before cutting, leaving me a replacement for after. But having looked into it you can create an instance of the shape with the tool and then use that further. This appeared to be another way round the problem. Below is my finished village with added tree's...

Week 1 Castle - Second Attempt

Following on from my first castle attempt I wanted to create a larger better, castle working on the points from my first attempt and creating something I was happy with.

The idea of my castle was too create an outer wall, and a few buildings inside, with a separate tower etc... I wanted to create the wall, and then have separate towers to the wall, unlike the previous castle which was all one wall.

This involved shaping and beveling the walls and towers, and then creating an instance of the towers and moving them to the appropriate corners, keeping these separate would help when applying textures etc...  this worked well, but i was confused as to creating a copy, or an instance, I wished to be able to edit one, which one then change the rest. I have since learnt that the instance was the right choice, being able to edit them all and saving on repetitive work. 

The major problem I had was around the windows on the church, these were a nightmare to get right and at first I created this from the box primitive, I then found it completely impossible to clone the window without cloning the whole object, I didn't find a way round this and ended up deleting most of the primitive, and then cloning the window a number of times lining it up on the view ports and then mirroring.  I'm sure there is an easier way of doing this!

I really wanted to create a smooth curve, having looked at various tutorials on 'nurbs' curves i tried to create a door, but this proved to be quite tricky, and I have since used a great tool to create a curve based around using vertex on the face of an object. The tool i used to create the curved door was the 'soft selection tool' in the modify section which allowed me to create the door in the image below. 

The door itself has a good curve, which could be increased by the number of vertex used, This to me was a good answer to my problem with the curves and effectively made the archway for me. 

Positives from the Castle exercise -

• Now confident in the basic tools of 3DS Max
• Understand that most models should be created from different components as opposed to one large model
• Use of the soft selection tool really helped create desired shape
• Inserting and adding extra vertex to help move and change shapes (create windows)
• Use of Inset tool was useful
• Being able to reset pivot point to the middle of an object useful
• Confident with the layout of 3DS Max and scale, having each square = to one meter for the castle project gave me a better understanding of the overall scale, and how it could help in a group project etc...
• Beginning to learn short keys such as ALT + W for full screen and S for snappi

 Points to work on for the future -

• Creating indents for windows
• Creating round and curved shapes using NURB curves
• adding finer parts to models, and using a plane to create a sense of ground.
• Turning off snap when not required and wish to manually align items. 
• Cloning items and creating specific components to buildings e.g. windows
• Snapping angles as well as snapping to vertex, and grid etc..

My final castle - 

Week 1 House and Castle Excercises

My first creation in 3DS Max was a small castle. This used some simple techniques and started with shapes as opposed to a simple primitive box, and cylinders. Then used the bevel profile, within the modify section to extrude it along a path i created using a Line. 

Positives from this exercise - 

• Working on half the model then mirroring
• Using shapes and then beveling too create unique 3D faces (not just straight extrusion)
• Changing from editable splines to editable poly's
• Using the Inset and extrusion to finish the tower.

Points to work on for the future -

• Polygon count is through the roof
• Loss of work, did not save on an occasion and lost my work. I should save often in future in case of errors and or problems or wanting to take the model in a different direction
• Could not do curves. In the future I need to look into curves and how to create them in 3DS Max
• When welding I have welded unwanted vertex together ruining part of the model as highlighted in the picture below, 1 showing the area affected and 2 showing what the wall should appear like.