Make Shift Roman Target

The target is something that the tank can target to practise it's attack skills. I decided to do something that can be easily moved around. So I made something that can be set up quickly should the target be destroyed. I decided that the target should represent a person as it is something that the tank is likely to encounter.

The head of the target is a large grapefruit, this took me back to organic modelling and fruit bowl I created. I stated off with a sphere and modified the shape using soft selection in the modify tab. On top of the 'head' is a Roman helmet, this was done in a similar way to the organic modelling, I started off with a sphere and used so selection to mould it my desired shape. For the body I used a cylinder to which I used the multi/sub object material and changed the set ID on the top and bottom of the cylinder to create a tree stump. I used the lathe tool and illustrator to create the spike on the helmet, along with mental ray materials to make it shine. The platform on which the target is standing was created using a series of boxes, as was the targets arm. The Roman spear was created using a cylinder for the shaft and the cone for the metal spike.

Rendered Target

Close up of Roamn helmet

Da Vinci's Tank

I chose the tank as I felt there were a lot of possibilities when it came to the animation side of the module. This is the easier of the 3 models to make as it has a very basic design. I started the tank off with the main body (the biggest part on the tank), with the cone shape in the geometry set of the create tab. I made sure that I left the top of the tank flat, this enabled me to add another structure to the top. I then made a short cylindrical shape (on which the cannons will be perched), placed under the main cone shape. A second, smalled cone was placed under the cylinder, as the base of the tank to which the wheels would be attached. The top of the tank is a smaller cylinder with yest another cone on the top.

Shape of the tank

I used my past experience of making a chess piece and wine glass to create the cannons and spike (sitting on top of the cannon). I first drew the items in illustrator, by drawing a line down the middle and creating a cross section of the items. I then saved the objects and imported them into 3Ds. Once they had been successfully imported, I used the lathe tool in the modify tab to turn the basic spline into a 3D model.

Cannon Cross Section

Lathed Cannon

Top of the Tank - The Spike

 The wheels on the tank were another challenge, as I was advised not to use Boolean all the time due to problems I would face when rendering the final product (I was told it would make the rendering process a lot longer). So taking this advice in mind, I decided to create my wheel from cylinder and just delete faces where I wanted gaps. I then encountered a problem in the fact that all 3D shapes created in 3Ds are hollow, thus I had many gaps and holes in my wheel where there shouldn't be. I over came this problem by creating faces in these unwanted gaps. The faces were created in the modify tab. I also wanted to make the wheel look more like one from the time (wood in the middle and forged metal for reinforcement on the outside). To do this I selected part of the wheel that I wanted to be metal and changed their set ID to 2 in the modify tab (the rest of the wheel will have the ID set to 1). I then created a multi/sub object material and made sure there were 2 materials to add.

The Wheel

Finished Tank

To Fly or Not To Fly?

This is the first complete da Vinci invention I have fully completed, as predicted it did challenge my knowledge and techniques but also helped me gain different skills.


This first thing I did to start the model off was to create the base of the machine, to do this I created a flat cylinder with about 30 sides to make it as round as possible. I then created a smaller cylinder and used the align tool to position is in the middle of the first cylinder. Once I had done with I used the ProBoolean tool to create the indent similar to the ones I had seen in the many sketched and models on the Internet. I then moved on to create the mast in the centre of the base which holds up the canvas. To get the point at the end, I used the bevel tool in the modify tab. I then added two supports to the bottom of the pole and a further two more just under the canvas. These were again made out of cylinders. To the top supports, I added a further 3 that anchored them in place.


Bottom of the helicopter


Creating the canvas was the biggest challenge of the task. I knew roughly how to create the helix shape that would eventually form the canvas. I started of by going to the shapes menu in the create tab, I created a helix and a rectangle. I then went back to the geometry menu and selected compound objects. This is where the canvas began to take shape with the help from the loft tool, I was able to turn the basic flat helix and rectangle into something that resembled the canvas in da Vinci's sketches. However, the canvas still wasn't right, it didn't have the right dimensions as the one in the sketches. To adjust the curve of the 3D helix I had now created, I turned to the modify tab and with the help of trial and error, I played with the settings until I found it matched the sketch. The tool that helped the most with this was the deformations tool bar.


3D helix - the canvas of the machine



Deformation tool set - Twist

The Completed Helicopter

Which Invention?

I have decided to model two of Leonard Da Vinci's, the tank and his fly machine, inventions and a target. I chose to model the tank because I found the design intriguing and something that could be used as to attack the target. I also decided upon the flying machine as it would be something to challenge the various techniques I have learnt over the past few weeks. The target I am going to model will be based on a person, something that could be used to train/demonstrate the power of the tank and helicopter.

Mood Board

Leonardo diCaprio da Vinci has created so many different inventions, the following mood board depicts some of the inventions he sketched, as well as some that people have created themselves. Upon researching his inventions, I found most of them to be based around military ideas, for example the armoured tank which would give the user protection from projectiles and the abilities to attack enemies by using one of the many cannons that surround the tank.

Da Vinci Invention Mood Board

Time to Get Animated

Learning the animation side of things in 3DS is a lot easier then I though it would be (previous animations were create in Flash), everything can be done within minutes compared to the frame by frame animations I had been used to creating. I found the Auto Key and Set Key very useful in creating a quick animation, simply select the frame desired on the time line and click on the button with a key on it (Set Keys), go to the desired end frame, move, rotate or scale the object and click on the key again. As if by magic the animation is created.

To test out this animation technique I created a bouncing ball. To give it a more realistic gravitational effect I opened up the Curve Editor and adjusted the speed at which the ball will rise and fall when it bounces off the floor. I copied the ball twice, and to make them bounce more than once selected the Parameter Curve Out Of Range tool and chose the loop option.

Curve Editor

To make the balls bounce at different times, I turned to the Dope Sheet Editor which allowed me to slide the frame rates for different balls, so I could shrink the amount of frames the ball used to bounce, or extend them.

Dope Sheet Editor

The big UPdate

So I have been applying what I have learnt in my tutorial to my Up house. I think with all these improvements it is coming along nicely, whether I have the chance to complete finish it or not is a completely different story. The one problem I have with the house is the strings on the balloons, despite having drawn all of them on, only on seems to show up. Anyway there are 2 images in the update, one from when I learnt to apply materials, and the other (my biggest achievement) when I learnt to apply mental ray and lighting. These things have greatly improved the look of the house from that of a few weeks ago. It has gone from a simple mash-up of shapes to something that looks more house like (kinda). The thing on this house that I am most proud of are the balloons, I am happy that I have managed to get the light to shine through the balloons and create a coloured shadow (similar to the ones in the film). Although there is one thing that I should learn from this experience and that is use multi/sub-object when using a lot of different materials!!!!



Basic lighting shining down on the house



Materials added to the balloons and house

Using mental ray and daylight lighting to make the balloons look more realistic and improving the lighting that shines on them. A plane was added to show the shadows of the balloon and house



Render of the house





Close up of the balloons

Mental Ray Ahead!

With the help of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RnM-S_waF0M I put my skills to the test and produced something with surprising results. As well as using the video for help I played around with the different materials I found on the architect and design tool set. It enabled me to create and a bubble like object which I made blue. I found the video did help me learn more about materials available (mental ray) to me through 3DS as well as a fantastic lighting effect known as daylight lighting. This enabled me to position my light where I wanted it (like all lighting fixtures), chose the time of day I wanted the light to represent, which day and month I wanted the light to represent (useful for creating winter scenes where the light is darker than that of a summer sun), and the best part which country and city I wanted the light to come from (again useful for representing the true light of a tropical place). This is something I achieved in my render.


Items I applied mental ray material and daylight lighting to



Materials used on objects

Rendered Objects

My You're Glowing!

Lighting is something that brings the scene to life. You can have the greatest model and the most realist materials but that amounts to nothing if the lighting is in the wrong place.

One ready made pumpkin-turned-jacko lantern later, I was ready to try out the different lighting skill that would be avaliable to me. The first thing I used was the omni light, which I placed with in the pumpkin to act as the candle. This omni light was edited using the modify menu. Within this menu I gave the light a red/orange glow to mimick that of a candle. The next set of lighting I used was the spotlight, to put a spotlight on the lantern and make it look more 'scary'. I again edited the light using the modify tab, this time turning the light green and attempting to add a fog like glow it (this didn't turn out as plan but it does look slightly foggy). All in all one 'scary' pumpkin made 'scary' with the help of lighting (on a day meant for love, Feb 14). At least I know how to make use of lighting effects (kinda).

That Floating Leaf

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Original Leaf

This leaf was created in a similar way to the materials on the teapot. The leaf had been scanned in and need to be edit using Photoshop (something I found difficult having not used Photoshop for a while). Whislt editing it I created a negative by creating another later editing the leaf on a black background, then deleting the leaf.

Leaf  negative

Once this was created I opened up 3DS and created a plane. The opened up the material editor and added the original leaf as the material. I then added the negative which made the background to the leaf disappear. I then added the material to the plane and modified the shape of the plane, which gave me this:

Materials Are More Fun

Material Editor with bump tool showing Multi/Sub-Object

Teapot with material

Materials add some reality to the otherwise very plain and flat objects. We learnt to use materials to create a boring teapot into something a little more real. The first thing I did to add the materials was scoure the internet for something the resembled a wood like texture. This was followed up by a bit of fiddling in the material editor, which involved added lumps and bumps to the wood and turning it from a flat wood image to something that resembled a plank. This was created by using the bump tool and adjusting it to the desired setting (this tool should be used with caution as it can look over done). The second technique learnt was how to store several materials in one block, known as Multi/Sub-Object and can be found by clicking on standard (this is next to the name of the material). The several different materials can be used together by simply dividing the object into sections (through the modify menu). This was done to the famous 3DS teapot.

An Array of Fun

The Array Menu

I used to array tool to add a few more balloons to my up house, as I felt that they needed a few more to make it look more like the one in the film (it won't float away but all the same it makes it look a lot better.) The first thing to be done was to select all the balloons and open up the array menu. This was found by going into the tools menu and clicking on array. I adjusted the position of the where I want the new balloons to appear and how many copies I would like to make, I then clicked ok and this was the end result (string were also added using a technique similar to the ProBoolean):

Using that Boolean

I started off with a basic box. To this I added the letter C taken from the spline menu. I morphed the C into a 3D object by modifying it's properties using the modify tool. I converted the spline into an editable poly, clicked on edit spline and extruded the object. I then made sure the C was slightly thicker then the box I created. Once this was done I went back to the create tool and selected the compound objects menu. I then clicked on ProBoolean and selected my to object. This then enabled the C to cut a shape into the box, the same way a cookie cutter cuts into dough.

Wine Sir?

Half of the glass, drawn in Illustrator

I have used the same method and the lathe tool to create this wine glass. It was a bit more challenging than the humble chess piece but enjoyable none the less.

The wine glass post lathe

Check Mate

Half of the bishop

In my previous post, I was talking about the lathe tool. I used this tool to help me create a chess piece, a bishop to be exact. The first thing I did was open up Adobe Illustrator and draw a line down the middle of the page. The trick to the lathe tool is to only draw half of the object because the tool itself will fill out the rest for you.

Once you have created half of your desired object, it is important to save it as Illustrator 3 (this makes it easier when it comes to importing the shape into 3DS) Once this has been done simply import the object into 3DS, move the pivot point to be in the middle of your object (where the centre line would have been), go to the modify menu and click on the lathe tool.



After lathing

The Lathe Tool

So today we learned learned about this amazing tool in 3DS, simply known as the lathe tool. It is easy to use and provides a quick way for turning a 2D image into a 3D object (some people call this cheating, I say they provided us with the tool to do it).