Rigging might be the main reason for why I don't want to become a 3D modeler for my job. It is a painful and frustrating process that requires patience and lots of trial and error to get correct. Making the bones is only the first part, which in itself can be frustrating, then you have to move on to hierarchy and envelopes, both not only are very complicated and difficult to get used to on their own, but they are both required to get a model that will be easy to animate. The one thing I can say about this process is when the rigging is finished it is immensely satisfying just to mess with. Then there comes the part that I immensely love about 3D modeling and that is animation. 3D Animation is possibly the best thing about 3D and if Disney has anything to say about it they would agree. You see animating in 3D is the opposite of rigging, It is way faster than stop motion 2D animation and much easier to create realistic perspective. Which is probably something I could turn into a career which is 3D animation. So its fitting that for the end of the year we are doing both.
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This previous quarter has been a whirlwind of events that has caused us to lose a lot of class time this quarter. During this time our class has worked on lighting and cameras. Lighting was much easier for me because I had some experience with that during an internship last summer. The most difficult thing this quarter has been rotating a camera around an object. After messing with pivot for two whole class periods, I found out that my 3Ds max was bugged so the pivot function wasn't working properly. I had to redo the whole thing. The reason it was so difficult was partially because it was a new tool that I had to figure out and mainly because pivot would stop working when I turned on auto key, making the whole process incredibly frustrating. Ultimately I just decided to scrap the pivot system and decided to animate it manually which did not turn out very well. The end product is below and I'm not proud of it. The camera itself is zooming in and out during the shots which created a dolly zoom. I feel like I could become more effective with pivot if I had more time, but I needed to complete the project.
Last week we did the entire lights unit. Which sounds like a lot of work but it was pretty manageable, especially considering I've worked a lot with lights before. That being said I'm still slow to get back into the swing of things since the end of spring break so I'm a bit behind. I did have a lot of fun learning the different types of light sources in 3Ds max and then looking for them in Destiny 2 on the earth patrol it was pretty fun.
This Is part two of modeling the largest sword in history the zweihander. This time around I've applied what I've learned making UVW maps to create texture for my sword. This was a super fast process know that I know how to implement it and the end result looks pretty good for a first attempt at 12:00 am. The UVW work itself I could have done more smoothly though instead of having the sword blade split up into different sections I should have just had completed on the UVW map.
Since my last personal update I have made a lot of 3D models from chess to neighborhoods, but there has been one thing that I really wanted to make and that was a zweihander. You know that big two handed German great-sword that is my favorite thing ever. Anyway I made a test model for one in 3Ds max which I'm proud to show off. It's actually a really simple model where I basically only used the edit poly modifier to make but I’m really proud of the end results.
This last week has been tough for me work wise. I have been catching up on a lot of 3D modeling, although I have been able to accomplish a lot now that I have 3Ds Max at home, it has still been a lot to do in a week. I have relearned all tools and techniques from last year as well as my complete hatred of the cloth modifier, which gave me plenty of trouble over the last week. For the next few months I think we are going to be moving in one of two directions. It will ether be rigging or animation, and there is only one thing I hate more than the cloth modifier and that is rigging so for my sake I hope it is animation. I just thought of a cool idea for animation using the daylight and cloth modifiers to make a time lapse animation which could be cool, but who knows. Most of these tools have given me ideas for personal projects like 3D modeling a zweihander with the taper and symmetry modifiers then using that 3D model in digital paintings, which is something I will have to do on my free time. Or using the daylight modifier to simulate shadows of a cliff or mountain that I could then paint. Maybe I'll do a blog post on some of the personal 3D stuff that I could do in the future.
This Monday ill start working on simulations for 3Ds max. What that means basically is that I'll be working on for the last bit of the quarter. If you aren't already aware simulations are simply put simulations of the real world, (super obvious I know) they include light sources, mass or weight, and cloth. These all seem interesting and all will definitely be needed for making good professional grade work. Especially cloth and lighting, For all those super hero capes, realistic clothing, flags, explosions, dramatic lighting, and good old fashion reflections, that is required in all good professional work. For games I think learning good lighting will actually be the most important when it comes to simulations not only for the reasons earlier but also for creating mood lighting and realistic day and night cycles. I linked a cool tutorial about making realistic lighting.
VanLoon3D.“RealisticInteriorLightingin3dsMax-Vray.”YouTube,YouTube,23May2016,www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWu1z081EKY. Spoiler alert I like surface modeling more. Honestly this is mainly because i'm more used to surface modeling more but I recognize the usefulness of parametric modeling and as I've used it more the faster I've been able to make things. I kinda wish I still had 3Ds max at home so I could keep messing with the software. Surface modeling is really useful for making cool shapes like that space ship we made last year, while parametric modeling is really good for getting details right in a model like smoothing out a plane or adding weird extensions or making the model more complex in general.
So this guy named Darik Smith is a 3D modeler and he has made some pretty neat stuff. The stuff that i'm most impressed with has to be his environment modeling work. I’ve always loved good set pieces for stories and this is no exception. Just looking at some of his concept work is awesome and I super love all the detail that goes into the buildings and architecture. I want to get really good at making environments in general and making them in a 3D space will greatly help my 2D art. So i'm going to get good at making places. So that means improving with modifiers like Boolean, loft and lathe while looking for more advanced techniques in the future.
“Darik Smith.” Environment Concept Art, dariksmith.carbonmade.com/projects/6042572. |
Miles RomanHi, I am a student at Durham School of the Arts, and this blog will be documenting my experiences with my Game Design class. Categories
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