September 25th 2009
Lecture and Tutorial
First thought - I am too stupid to complete what is required.
Second thought - Your being negative just work hard and get on with it.
Third and Final thought
It is good to be pushed and on reflection tutors would not ask for such a task if they thought any of the students were incapable.
We receive plenty of support and encouragement and we should be mature and responsible to complete the task therefore I am now in a more positive frame of mind but I do not under estimate the challenge.
Both the lecture and tutorial were very informative and easy to understand with a special emphasis on the importance of preparation prior to modelling in 3DS Max.
September 27th 2009 - Matching up the front and side profile of our faces.
The first of the face creation was extremely difficult because the initial images were totally out of sync with an accompanying shadow. (I had obtained two noses!). I tried all day Saturday and could not get them to match.
My neck on the initial images was partially covered with my mop and the ears were unclear in many places. It gave the impression that one of my ears was plugged with cotton wool - most strange.
On Sunday I purchased some batteries and decided to take new photographs using the self timer on the camera which I had never used before.
Trying to find a plain background which was not too dark proved to be a problem so I used an old white door which I planned to place behind my chair. Next phase was to setup the tripod whose legs did not want to conform, but I got there in the end.
The initial results were hilarious as the camera kept shooting images before I was ready eventually I succeeded.
Stage Two
Straightened up the front image using Lens Correction in Photoshop and then proceeded to use the remove distortion slider I think this section worked out alright, but I don't think I fully grasped when it is successful.
Next - the vertical distortion slider which only required a slight adjustment.
The front image I feel is now ready to be mapped in preparation for 3DS Max.
Lecture and Tutorial
First thought - I am too stupid to complete what is required.
Second thought - Your being negative just work hard and get on with it.
Third and Final thought
It is good to be pushed and on reflection tutors would not ask for such a task if they thought any of the students were incapable.
We receive plenty of support and encouragement and we should be mature and responsible to complete the task therefore I am now in a more positive frame of mind but I do not under estimate the challenge.
Both the lecture and tutorial were very informative and easy to understand with a special emphasis on the importance of preparation prior to modelling in 3DS Max.
September 27th 2009 - Matching up the front and side profile of our faces.
The first of the face creation was extremely difficult because the initial images were totally out of sync with an accompanying shadow. (I had obtained two noses!). I tried all day Saturday and could not get them to match.
My neck on the initial images was partially covered with my mop and the ears were unclear in many places. It gave the impression that one of my ears was plugged with cotton wool - most strange.
On Sunday I purchased some batteries and decided to take new photographs using the self timer on the camera which I had never used before.
Trying to find a plain background which was not too dark proved to be a problem so I used an old white door which I planned to place behind my chair. Next phase was to setup the tripod whose legs did not want to conform, but I got there in the end.
The initial results were hilarious as the camera kept shooting images before I was ready eventually I succeeded.
Stage Two
Straightened up the front image using Lens Correction in Photoshop and then proceeded to use the remove distortion slider I think this section worked out alright, but I don't think I fully grasped when it is successful.
Next - the vertical distortion slider which only required a slight adjustment.
The front image I feel is now ready to be mapped in preparation for 3DS Max.
Stage 3
I managed to straighten the side image using the same tools as the front image. I did not feel as confident and found this section rather tricky as it required a fair amount of tweaking using the distortion and vertical slider.
Stage 4
Matching the images was an absolute nightmare initially I could match my eyes and nose in the front and side images but not my eyes. My eyes in the front view were always higher than the eyes in the side view.
I used lens correction on the the side image and eventually everything lined up except for the ears!
This section was great for keeping ones patience and a fantastic way to ensure that the user would not be defeated and maintaining focus is of paramount importance.
I feel that this section has now been mastered and I can progress onto the next phase.
I managed to straighten the side image using the same tools as the front image. I did not feel as confident and found this section rather tricky as it required a fair amount of tweaking using the distortion and vertical slider.
Stage 4
Matching the images was an absolute nightmare initially I could match my eyes and nose in the front and side images but not my eyes. My eyes in the front view were always higher than the eyes in the side view.
I used lens correction on the the side image and eventually everything lined up except for the ears!
This section was great for keeping ones patience and a fantastic way to ensure that the user would not be defeated and maintaining focus is of paramount importance.
I feel that this section has now been mastered and I can progress onto the next phase.
Face Lineup with Rulers
Note that I am unable to match up the ears!
Note that I am unable to match up the ears!
Topology
Breaking the face into key areas which was done on a new layer in Photoshop with a brush of 3px using the colour blue.
With this brush I defined the areas where there was a large crease, wrinkle or protrusion. These lines are based on the muscles of the face. The completed result is shown below:
Defining the quads
This phase initiated on a new layer using a finer brush of 2px and choosing a bright new colour of red. The image below shows the first two steps of creating the quads. Particular emphasis and focus was placed on avoiding triangles.
Phases 1 _2 and 3_4
Phases5,6,7 and 8
Phase 9_10
Very time consuming but enjoyable. There are areas which I need to discuss before I can proceed onto the next phase. I am not sure that I have the outer eye ring and part of the nose correct.
The lines were amended in stages 8, 9 and 10 due to problems with the outer eye ring and nose.
There are certain areas were the lines may pinch therefore I need to ensure theses areas are confirmed prior to the 3DS modelling.
Edge Lines for the Side Profile
This area has been completed, but at the moment feel that the image needs to be revisited!
Session 3 Setting up the References in 3DS Max
The first step was to create a plane to use as a display reference board in the front viewport with the height and width segments set to one. The plane also needed to be positioned so that it would lie behind the intended model creation.
I then clicked the diffuse map button and selected the psd file which held the topology lines for the front and side views of my face. This initially caused a problem as the topology lines were displaying as dots this was caused because 3DS Max uses a predefined size for mapping therefore I needed to go into the following options:
- Customise
- Preferences
- Viewports
- Configure Driver
Within "Configure Driver' I selected "Match Bitmap" and then reloaded the previous psd file and saved the 3DS Max file.
The map once loaded was dropped onto the plane, but again the image was not correct as it appeared quite squashed. To get over this problem the texture coordinates needed to be altered by choosing UVW mapping and within the sub menu selecting "Bitmap Fit". The front image was then selected and moved using the UVW Gizmo in order to be centralised.
The side profile was also required therefore to make this process manageable I pressed the 'A' key to tell Max to count the rotations by 5 degrees for each turn so that I would not miss 90 degree positioning of the copied plane.
The only problem encountered was in the selection of the blue circle. I found that initially the copy was coming around crooked eventually I mastered the user problem. The side image once created needed to be flipped so it faced in the correct direction and then centralised.
To ensure that the reference plates stayed in same position while creating the model they were frozen but not in grey.
The resulting setup is shown below:
Session 4 - Lines to Surface Splines for the Head (Part 1)
Changed the layout of the viewports to a two viewport display resulting in the left viewport being placed shown on the right side and the front vieport being shown on the left side.
Chose to display "Smooth and Highlights" and turned the grid off and lastly used "Zoom Extents All" for both the reference plates. The next stage was to draw splines around the individual quads already defined on the reference plates. Using the create option I chose the line spline and setup the options as follows:
The map once loaded was dropped onto the plane, but again the image was not correct as it appeared quite squashed. To get over this problem the texture coordinates needed to be altered by choosing UVW mapping and within the sub menu selecting "Bitmap Fit". The front image was then selected and moved using the UVW Gizmo in order to be centralised.
The side profile was also required therefore to make this process manageable I pressed the 'A' key to tell Max to count the rotations by 5 degrees for each turn so that I would not miss 90 degree positioning of the copied plane.
The only problem encountered was in the selection of the blue circle. I found that initially the copy was coming around crooked eventually I mastered the user problem. The side image once created needed to be flipped so it faced in the correct direction and then centralised.
To ensure that the reference plates stayed in same position while creating the model they were frozen but not in grey.
The resulting setup is shown below:
Session 4 - Lines to Surface Splines for the Head (Part 1)
Changed the layout of the viewports to a two viewport display resulting in the left viewport being placed shown on the right side and the front vieport being shown on the left side.
Chose to display "Smooth and Highlights" and turned the grid off and lastly used "Zoom Extents All" for both the reference plates. The next stage was to draw splines around the individual quads already defined on the reference plates. Using the create option I chose the line spline and setup the options as follows:
- Set the Initial and Drag Type to corners.
- Turned on "Snap" options and set the properties to vertex.
This did cause me a certain amount of grief:
- Could not see the lines I was drawing - fixed changed the colour but it took the whole forehead before the penny dropped.
- The smaller areas would not snap to a quad - fixed changed the pixel size to 5 but only for the small areas.
Preparing the Surface
On completion of all the quads I selected a quad and converted it to an "Editable Poly" and then from the sub-menu selected "Attach" chose all the quads and confirmed the selection. I then proceeded to turn on "Edged Faces" so I could check the lines and quads.
Some problems did occur around the cheek and nose resulting in some small dotted lines therefore I retraced my steps and fixed the offending quads.
Session 4 - Lines to Surface Splines for Head (part 2)
Some of the quads seemed to have lost their shape so I selected "Vertex" from the "Editable Poly" sub-menu and did some reshaping. During the reshape I was suprisedto find that the quads were still single entities and this only came to my attention when a quad jumped up at me!
"Weld" from the sub-menu was the answer for this I went into the weld threshold options and reduced the threshold to 0 and then clicked the up button once and continued to repeat the process. The videos stated that this confirmed that the vertices were going to be successful when the weld was activated. I then proceeded to check all vertices to ensure that they were welded. It took forever! Anyway it resulted in me returning to the inital quads and going through the Poly process all over again.
Once successful made sure that the snap options were turned off, and rechecked the positioning of the reference plates.
Before the modelling could start the centre line running down the forehead had to be straight therefore all vertices running down the central edge were selected. The "Planar" option was selected by clicking on its "X-axis" this ensured that there woud be a straight line from the top of the forehead all the way down to the chin.
I did not experience any difficulties with this stage.
The next section proved to be quite problematic even though the tutorial appeared to be straight forward.
Closely following the tutorial I proceeded to select all the edge vertices on the straight central edge in the front viewport. Then I activated the left viewport and using the move tool proceed to take the vertices across the side of the face. These vertices were then aligned to the right hand side to the edge of the face. At this point I could not see the much other than bright yellow. Then the tutorial stated to put the poly object into see through mode to obtain a better view. Why did he not say this at the beginning?
I then continued to follow the exact steps of the tutorial but became quite confused around the chin and later the eye area.
The eye area was the most difficult because I got the impression that you could overlap the quads around the inner eye. It was very difficult and I found I lost track with some of the quads. The eye sequence took hours and hours and it still did not look like the end result of the tutorial.
During this phase I became aware that some of the quads had come apart and left me with some holes. Once again I returned to the original mapping and corrected some of the quads. After about the 10th restart I came to the conclusion that it was not going to get any better unless someone could point out where I had misinterpreted the tutorial.
The resultant pictures are as follows:
Profile (first stage)
Chin Creation
Nose and Chin
Nose, Chin and Lips
Part of the eye
Session 5 - Symmetry Sub D
I selected the object and used the modifier to select the "Symmetry" option then by using the parameters I chose the "Flip" button along the X-axis to correct the orientation. I used the "Mirror" option which lay under "Symmetry" and moved the right side until it joined with the left.
"Show End Result" allowed me to check that any changes made to the left side were mirrorred onto the right side.
The brow lines looked slightly wonky in the middle so these and any subsequent lines in the model were straightened to achieve some flow.
The tutorial required the user to activate the "Nurms Sub-Division" to check the smoothness of the model. On using this option it highlighted weak areas within the model so these were subsequently altered.
Nurms needed to be turned off in order to get the best manipulation of the bumpy areas and finally added a "Turbo Smooth" modifier. This modifier was turned off for any of the manipulating procedures as it did make manipulation difficult when it was turned on.
Nurms option onlySession 6 - Refine Techniques - Adding Detail
This session was completed after I had completed the back of the head because I had included the nasal joins in my initial quads so the information needed more time to be absorbed before I ventured totally into the tutorials content.
Eventually I created extra faces to the nostrils by returning to the "Editable Poly" selection and choosing "Edge mode" from the sub-menu. All the edges around the inside of the nasal cavities were selected and with the use of SHIFT + move tool created additional faces. Later I returned to vertex mode and moved some of the vertices and welded them together.
The "Connect" option was selected to add additional divisions and these divisions included the inside edges of the nostril and the lowest centre vertex of the nose. The "Connect tool was a new asset for me so I played around with the options to understand the roles of each. The connect tool settings were cofirmed and the new values were applied to the object.
I created two polygons for the nostrils so that the inside of the nostril edges would look more natural once the whole of Session 6 was complete.
Finally the extrude tool was implemented and used but this tool extrudes the polygons without asking the user for a selection. The program has a default to extrude selected polygons and the user will apply a negative value for the system to push these areas back into place. Once pushed back into the nasal cavities the polygons were brought forward slightly inside the nostrils with the move tool. The end result shows the eye as being too small but nice folds were created at the centre of the very small nostrils.
After the nostrils I tried the same technique for the eyes and lips and I did try to create a pupil with a sphere but without success. I need more time to listen and digest the content of the tutorial.
This will definitely be re-reviewed if I have time. My nose is not brilliant but if I was Dr Spock it would suffice.
Session 7 - Primitive Extension - Development of the Back of the Head and Neck (part 1)
Jumped back into Photoshop to add topology lines forthe back of the head and neck using the left profile and the technique applied was the same as the front image in Session 2.
The blue brush was used for the edge markers including areas such as:
- Shoulders
- Base of ear to throat
- Base of head and neck
- Ear line
- Side of neck
Once again the red brush was applied to go over the edges and to create the quads.
I created a sphere in the front viewport and this was to be used for part of the head to cut down on processing time. For the session the four views were visible at any one time.
The views displayed were:
I created a sphere in the front viewport and this was to be used for part of the head to cut down on processing time. For the session the four views were visible at any one time.
The views displayed were:
- Top
- Front
- Left
- Perspective
On creation the poles of the sphere faced to the front and they needed to be rotated so they were level with the ears (90 degrees). This worked successfully on the first attempt so I was quite pleased to feel that I might be coming to grips with the handling of the tools. I then squashed the top of the sphere so that it roughly matched the shape of my head and then squashed in the sides so that they were closer to the ears.
The segments of the sphere were too narrow to match my quads on the forehead so I decreased the number of segments to achieve a better match. In hindsight I should have broken the forehead into smaller quads both for this procedure and to achieve a smoother finish.
Only part of the sphere was required to get the line at the top of the head therefore I needed to delete the other polygons. This was achieved by selecting polygons in the sub-menu and activating the "Paint Marque Tool" If more than one polygon was to be selected then I needed to use the tool with the CTRL key. What a fabulous tool and I found it to be great for co-ordination. This did take several attempts as I initially did not go into the left viewport so too many polygons were getting removed.
Symmetry was then switched off and the polygons on the right side were also removed.
The next area caused me hours and hours of frustration - I selected vertex mode from the sub-menu and activated the "Snaps" and proceeded to move the vertices from the front of the sphere to the forehead. I then snapped the closest vertices and then used the soft selection for those vertices which were out of alignment. This caused the sphere at one end of my head to disappear and did not replicate what I had seen when watching the tutorial. This caused me to repeat the whole process many times eventually I managed to create a slight resemblance to what I had seen. It was not perfect but they did connect and the problems may have been due to the width of my quads on the forehead as well as the postioning of the sphere. Once I had connected the two objects I turned off "Soft Selection".
The next stage was to simplify the edges so that they did not get crushed on the side of the head by the ear. This was done by choosing "Edge mode" and selecting every other edge along the long side. On completion the "Ring" option was used to automatically select all the other edges which ran parrallel to the selected edges. Once this was complete I selected the "Collapse" option which provided me with less polygons to work.
For once nothing went wrong.
Now the sphere was prepared I carried on creating the back of the head and the neck by using vertex mode and selecting a full row of an outer edge of vertices together with the SHIFT key +Move tool copied complete rows to build the polygons needed for the neck and the back of head.
Once the areas has been built I attached the polygons and used "Weld" for the vertices. Below are some images created from this section. The neck appears to be too thick at the start but improved after manipulation:
Top part of the back of the head. (remnants of the sphere)
Start of the build
Back of head and neck befor manipulation
Back of head and neck once manipulated
Session 8 - Ear Creation (Part 1)
Once a again Photoshop was required so I could draw the topology lines for the ear following the same principles used earlier. The difficulty with the ear was trying to keep quads for such an awkward shape.
Before I could sculpt the ear I needed to move the front reference plate further back so that it did not interfere with its creation. I moved the front reference plate using the same procedure when I was lining up the initial images.
Sculpting started the same way as the front face finishing off with a weld using the same check methods. Once welded the polygons appeared very small and at some points appeared to merge therefore this took several attempts.
On completion I then had to decide which edges to depress and decided to use the "Inset" option so I did not have to worry about fixing the corners on such a small piece.
The inset looked messy and it was difficult to see if it had been successful. Some of the diagrams from this session are below:
Prior to atachment
Session 8 - Attaching the ear (part2)
To begin this session I selected and then isolated the ear using ALT+Q then proceeded to enter "Edit Poly mode" . Once in this mode I chose edges and selected an edge at the top of the ear. The "Ring" option was activated and by using the move tool and SHIFT key copied edges and moved them to the side to give the ear some thickness. I repeated this copy twice so that I would have sufficient body to create polygons for an attachment base to the head.
To create the back attachment area I selected polygons and then the "Create" option. Once complete most of the ear had a back ready to attach.
To attach polygons were removed from the side of the head so that I could insert the ear and stitch it in using vertices. I found this to be really difficult and although the ears are attached they stick out.
The end result is shown below:
Back of ear created
Finished result
The segments of the sphere were too narrow to match my quads on the forehead so I decreased the number of segments to achieve a better match. In hindsight I should have broken the forehead into smaller quads both for this procedure and to achieve a smoother finish.
Only part of the sphere was required to get the line at the top of the head therefore I needed to delete the other polygons. This was achieved by selecting polygons in the sub-menu and activating the "Paint Marque Tool" If more than one polygon was to be selected then I needed to use the tool with the CTRL key. What a fabulous tool and I found it to be great for co-ordination. This did take several attempts as I initially did not go into the left viewport so too many polygons were getting removed.
Symmetry was then switched off and the polygons on the right side were also removed.
The next area caused me hours and hours of frustration - I selected vertex mode from the sub-menu and activated the "Snaps" and proceeded to move the vertices from the front of the sphere to the forehead. I then snapped the closest vertices and then used the soft selection for those vertices which were out of alignment. This caused the sphere at one end of my head to disappear and did not replicate what I had seen when watching the tutorial. This caused me to repeat the whole process many times eventually I managed to create a slight resemblance to what I had seen. It was not perfect but they did connect and the problems may have been due to the width of my quads on the forehead as well as the postioning of the sphere. Once I had connected the two objects I turned off "Soft Selection".
The next stage was to simplify the edges so that they did not get crushed on the side of the head by the ear. This was done by choosing "Edge mode" and selecting every other edge along the long side. On completion the "Ring" option was used to automatically select all the other edges which ran parrallel to the selected edges. Once this was complete I selected the "Collapse" option which provided me with less polygons to work.
For once nothing went wrong.
Now the sphere was prepared I carried on creating the back of the head and the neck by using vertex mode and selecting a full row of an outer edge of vertices together with the SHIFT key +Move tool copied complete rows to build the polygons needed for the neck and the back of head.
Once the areas has been built I attached the polygons and used "Weld" for the vertices. Below are some images created from this section. The neck appears to be too thick at the start but improved after manipulation:
Top part of the back of the head. (remnants of the sphere)
Start of the build
Back of head and neck befor manipulation
Back of head and neck once manipulated
Session 8 - Ear Creation (Part 1)
Once a again Photoshop was required so I could draw the topology lines for the ear following the same principles used earlier. The difficulty with the ear was trying to keep quads for such an awkward shape.
Before I could sculpt the ear I needed to move the front reference plate further back so that it did not interfere with its creation. I moved the front reference plate using the same procedure when I was lining up the initial images.
Sculpting started the same way as the front face finishing off with a weld using the same check methods. Once welded the polygons appeared very small and at some points appeared to merge therefore this took several attempts.
On completion I then had to decide which edges to depress and decided to use the "Inset" option so I did not have to worry about fixing the corners on such a small piece.
The inset looked messy and it was difficult to see if it had been successful. Some of the diagrams from this session are below:
Prior to atachment
Session 8 - Attaching the ear (part2)
To begin this session I selected and then isolated the ear using ALT+Q then proceeded to enter "Edit Poly mode" . Once in this mode I chose edges and selected an edge at the top of the ear. The "Ring" option was activated and by using the move tool and SHIFT key copied edges and moved them to the side to give the ear some thickness. I repeated this copy twice so that I would have sufficient body to create polygons for an attachment base to the head.
To create the back attachment area I selected polygons and then the "Create" option. Once complete most of the ear had a back ready to attach.
To attach polygons were removed from the side of the head so that I could insert the ear and stitch it in using vertices. I found this to be really difficult and although the ears are attached they stick out.
The end result is shown below:
Back of ear created
Finished result
Session 9 UV Mapping Coordinates (part 1)
Started this session by adding an "Unwrap UVW map" modifier above the "Editable Poly". In the left viewport I turned off backfacing and chose the "Paint Marquee" tool. Together with the CTRL key I painted the whole of the head but left out the ears. The tutorial recomended "Cylindrical Projection" because it gives the texture an even flow for such a shape as a head and the orientation was set to "Y".
The Gizmo was centred to the middle of the head and I exited out of cylindrical mode. Applied the checker material to the model and changed the colour to blue and white. There were various parts of the map such as under the chin were the pattern became squiggly including a section at the top of the head.
Due to the non-uniform pattern it was necessary to enter the 'EDIT" mode in the UVW parameter section where I proceeded to filter out the ear , turn off tile bitmap and set show immediate changes to on.
The next stage was to select inverted faces and use the mirror tool I then worked through the map selecting a number of vertices and used "Relax By Edge Angles" but for the eyes and mouth I used "Relax by Centres" .
This caused some vertices to become detached one of which was at the top of the head and I started to feel that this procedure might make my model worse but I continued and worked progressivley through the mirrored head.
The check for overlapping faces was very difficult to understand because the tutorial did not state that you had to be in "element mode" to access the option. Once I found how to access the option I was on green again.
Overlapping faces display inset and extruded faces as well as incorrect overlapping faces which I found to be irksome because I went on in gay abandon removing faces here and there to find I had annihilated the mouth (not good!).
Session 9 - Finishing Map Co-ordinates - The Ear
Revisited Edit Uvws and then proceeded to prepare the ear which was identical to the head but this time only the ear was painted. I used “Planar” and “Fit Pelt” to ensure that the paint over the ear only covered the ear!. For pelt mapping the objects reference point pulls and stretches the vertices away from the vcentre so I needed to define the breakpoints so that the ear would be flattened but not split. The UV coordinate UV coordinates cannot be changed therefore I needed to define breakpoints so that the ear could be flattened without breaking up too much. The UV coordinates for Pelt mapping cannot be changed therefore I needed to use the scale tool to rotate the wheel over to the left.
Once again my rotation appeared to work and I went into “Simulate Pelt Mapping” were I completed the exercise twice together with the relax option.
It did look as if the ear had died but it is so small it is very hard to see and manipulate but once that was completed I placed the ear into the corner of the map and went through the same process of “overlapping points” and “inverted edges”.
I then applied another unwrap UVW map modifier above “Symmetry” and again went into “Edit UVW” . I found this section very difficult because I could not get the right side eventually the right side was selected and I was able to mirror it. To line it up with its partner I needed to return and flatten out the front of the face otherwise I would not be able to join the two together. Finally I did manage to get both in a position that the central seam could be welded.
The ear was then welded and placed in the right hand corner,
Rendered out the UVW templates changed their size and resolution but the Film mode did not save even though the system stated that it had been saved! I tried a few times but to no avail.
Now my blog has gone down sorry will continue with this report!
Session 10 - Photoshop - Texture Painting - Part 1
I used the black and white texture map as a mask and my original images for the textures. I hated this section because every section of my skin was a different colour and even though I used hue and saturation amongst others I could not get the skin to match so the resulting model is horrendous. I am quite upset about the way this section turned out because I put in a lot of time and effort in to receive such a poor result. The textures have killed it. It would be great if it was going to be used for a horror movie.
I had two attempts at this section and I must say I feel the first attempt was probably better.
The most annoying part of this session was the “Patch tool” I just could not get it to work I suppose it is possible that CS4 treats it differently.
The second phase of session I could not complete because the normals map although it stated that it had saved as a jpeg I could not find it.
First Attempt
I used the black and white texture map as a mask and my original images for the textures. I hated this section because every section of my skin was a different colour and even though I used hue and saturation amongst others I could not get the skin to match so the resulting model is horrendous. I am quite upset about the way this section turned out because I put in a lot of time and effort in to receive such a poor result. The textures have killed it. It would be great if it was going to be used for a horror movie.
I had two attempts at this section and I must say I feel the first attempt was probably better.
The most annoying part of this session was the “Patch tool” I just could not get it to work I suppose it is possible that CS4 treats it differently.
The second phase of session I could not complete because the normals map although it stated that it had saved as a jpeg I could not find it.
First Attempt
Second Attempt
Session 11 - Bump Painting
I found this session to be most interesting but my image was really too poor to get a good result somewhere I made a mistake. I still went through the whole exercise and have used the bump map but I feel the results could have been a lot better.
In the tutorial the map did show improved results with the man’s head around the stubble but I do not have any stubble and I really could not see much of a difference.
Once the mix was put into place my skin did show the little noise marks but I had to really magnify the area so maybe the bump map did work but it was too subtle for me to see.
In the tutorial the map did show improved results with the man’s head around the stubble but I do not have any stubble and I really could not see much of a difference.
Once the mix was put into place my skin did show the little noise marks but I had to really magnify the area so maybe the bump map did work but it was too subtle for me to see.
Session 12 - Specular Painting (Part2)
I think I over did it on the specular side of things my forehand and nose are a bit too shiny. Once again if I had more time I would have brushed some of the white with black too tone the specular levels down. My map was not all that wonderful and I really needed to do another one both for the bump map and the specular map but I was becoming concerned about the time issue.
Thoughts on the Whole Exercise
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and found it to be addictive it was like a good book. This exercise will be repeated at a later date and I will keep the tutorials for the occasion.
I am disappointed with the result but the whole exercise has taught me a great deal not only by the things he told us to do but also by the things he did not tell us to do.
It is the first time that I have started to grasp the wonders of 3DS Max.
I am disappointed with the result but the whole exercise has taught me a great deal not only by the things he told us to do but also by the things he did not tell us to do.
It is the first time that I have started to grasp the wonders of 3DS Max.
Museum of Power Visit
Absolutely fabulous place oozing both character and charm with grounds to die for with a multitude of power driven artefacts and bepoke creations.
I was very fortunate because I grabbed hold of Bernard (the man in charge) and asked if there was any particular engine or model that he would like to have modelled.
He was great he explained the workings of the engines I was interested in and allowed me to enter the cages so I could get the images front, sides and back view. Not only that he showed me where all the switches were located so that I could turn the machines on or off as required.
I was in my element and enjoyed the whole informative visit.
Machine Chosen for my Part of the Project
I am interested in the “Governor” it is a device which was common on some steam engines
Controls the speed of the engine as the engine speeds up the balls are thrown out by the centrifugal force and as it slows they drop back in. This movement is used to automatically adjust the throttle, so that the engine is kept running at a constant speed.
Controls the speed of the engine as the engine speeds up the balls are thrown out by the centrifugal force and as it slows they drop back in. This movement is used to automatically adjust the throttle, so that the engine is kept running at a constant speed.
The piece below will be part of the model of a steam engine which will be designed by the rest of the group.
Comments on other peoples work
I have seen some stunning models created by the multi-media group and Tom and Daniel have also showed some promising pieces as for the others nothing really has been in the blog.
