Up and Away!

So today, I gate-crashed another tutorial and decided to work on Carl and Ellie's house, I have the basic shape and have even included some balloons, I used the same modelling techniques as the fruit bowl I created on Wednesday. The house does need to worked on more, but I thought I would post a picture to show you how I am getting on. In the process of making the house from Up, I am learning new techniques that I can implement in other projects that will be coming up. I am looking forward to learning new process that will let me add to the house.

The Fruit Bowl

Task two - create fruit and put them into a bowl, simple when thinking about, however implenting the task proved rather more challenging. The bowl proved the easiest thing to create, by simply creating a sphere, changing it's properties to an editable polygon and then using the modify menu (particularly the soft selection tools) to turn the sphere into something that is more bowl-like and able to hold something. I used a similar method to create the cherries, apple and orange. I again used the sphere and changed the properties, again I also used modify menu to adjust the shapes of the fruit (as we all know apples are not perfectly round!) to give the fruit a more organic and natural look. The apple and cherry stalk were another challenge, I again used the modify menu, but this time on cylinders, I then created a point using the soft selection tools, and selected another option from the modify menu simply entitled Bend, this allowed me to angle the modified cylinder into something that looked more like that of a real apples stalk.

These are the fruits of my labour.

Creating a Building

The first task for completion involved the creation of a building using the basic shapes in 3D Studio Max. I started off modelling Carl and Ellie's house from Up, but proved a bit too complicated for my first attempt with the software. I moved on to create a more angular building, Buckingham Palace. The creation of the building involved many boxes and cylinders taken from the standard primitives collection. Having never used 3Ds Max, this started out a a trying challenge, however as I got used to program, I found the items it surprisingly easy to use. With a little help from the align tool, I was able to make sure everything was aligned and level, something very useful when creating and modelling buildings! I was able to create an triangle with the use of the parameter menu, and changing the sides of the cylinder to 3. I also used the select and move tool to help copy objects, by selecting the object, pressing shift (something I found very useful when creating the palace). I didn't change the colours to match that of the palace as it made it harder to differentiate between the different boxes and cylinders I used.

I am determine to create the house from Up now I have a basic idea of what I can do with the software!

Buckingham Palace created in 3Ds Max.

Reaction to the Brief

After reading the brief given to me for the project, I am starting to feel more confident. Although I don't know much about the machines that Leonardo da Vinici invented, I have played a few games in which some of his inverntions appear. I have had no experience with 3D Studio Max and look forward to working with it!