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.
So I'm not sure if you have realized this by now but the creators of Hypixel a large minecraft server are creating a game called fittingly enough Hytale. Now to a lot of people when first seeing Hytale just categorized it as another minecraft clone, which it may well end up being but there is one thing that separates Hytale from all the other minecraft clones and even minecraft itself, the thing is Hytale has not only an in game 3D editing software but also in game C# coding. This is all for making the game super accessible for creators who want to make their own block like creations from code, possibly including for those who want to teach C# and 3D modeling to others like, I dunno at a specific game course. Who knows the point is that I think Hytale is going to be super interesting and that you should give it a look.
https://hytale.com/ This last week in game design our class has gone from adding materials to surfaces (painting) to UVW mapping or (wrapping). The switch has been admittedly slow I ran into a weird issue with the multi sub object modifier where instead of putting standard materials in the sub object material it instead ether replaced the material or put it within another sub object, at one point I had five sub object materials within one another. It was such a mess that I had to restart a few times. Long story short is don't use the compact material editor even when a tutorial uses it. Otherwise UVW has been fairly straightforward, I am still a bit behind unfortunately.
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.
'Let me preface this by saying I never like to admit when i'm struggling with anything, especially when it is about school but I feel like after the three day break of thanksgiving I've had a much harder time focusing in school. Its because of a few reasons such as my A.D.D. and just senior-itous. When I get super distracted during school it is basically a downward spiral of random thought followed by random thought that can be for some days impossible to get out of. On top of that I often get distracted with friends or conversations during class which is also pretty taxing on my efficiency to get things done. Lastly the main nail in the coffin is technology distractions (this is especially prevalent in our game design class) at home if I am given a difficult project to do I will generally just goof off on the internet for hours I'm sure everyone has done this at some point but It is all to easy to just start watching Youtube and never stop. Honestly nowadays school might need to start teaching students how they can stay on task during a school day.
For those who don't know what the difference between ADD and ADHD. https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/difference-between-add-and-adhd This movie sucks, maybe that is partially because I have a bias against Assassins Creed, but it cannot be understated how much this movie sucks. Ill get the good stuff out of the way first. The movie does have lots of connections to the games though and seems to be faithful to the source material, the movie makes nods to a lot of the games plot, items and terminology such as the apple of Eden, the assassins spring knife gauntlets, the leap of faith, and how the assassins ring finger gets chomped off. That's all the positives I can think of. On to why this movie is garbage! For starters the visuals look dull throughout the movie, everything is plastered in this yellow overlay that honestly makes everything look like piss. The CGI sucks and is sometimes blatantly obvious. None of the characters are likable especially the main character who while we do get reasons to sympathize with him his performance is mediocre which makes his whole character seem bland. The movies pacing is so bad that on multiple occasions throughout the movie i got my phone out and began reading a more interesting web-comic, and I forgot that I was watching a movie. Assassins Creed got a 18% on rotten tomatoes, and a 5% from me. This is not worth the hour and 45 minutes it took to watch it.
staff!, Chosen by RT, et al. “Assassin's Creed.” Safe Haven (2013) - Rotten Tomatoes, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/assassins_creed/. |
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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