3ds max Tutorial 2- Helmet

In this tutorial I create a helmet using the Graphite Modeling Tools Ribbon.

(I am using the tutorial screenshots as I did not take any screenshots of my own while modeling.)

Starting with a cube I used the Spherify modifier, this is because a Sphere shape has triangular polygons at the top and bottom which may complicate modeling at a later stage.

I also moved the pivot point via the hierachy and selecting center to object so when I manipulate the object it will move it from the center. 

Selecting one half of the sphere via the vertices and deleting them to get a basic helmet shape.

In the Graphite Modeling Tools tab I selected vertex and soft selection so that when I pulled the very top vertices upwards it would affect almost all of the shape giving it a smooth cone shape.

Next I deleted half of the shape again and added a symmetry modifier so whatever I model next will be exactly the same on both sides.

Using the edge selection and connect edges tool I create a new edge around the top and bottom of the helmet so I can create a rim.

Using the Extrude I create a basic rim around the helmet giving it some detail.

Moving to the front wire frame pane I select vertex again and align the edges of the rim along both the bottom and the top, this is so when I use NURMS the edges are not smoothed too much.

(NURMS is a tool that creates more polygons to an object to smooth it out)

Now selecting the vertices again and moving them to a almost circular shape I can begin to extrude and bevel

the object for the horns.

To create the horns I used the extrude on spline tool which allows me to draw a spline line and then extrude from my object along the spline. Adjusting the taper I change the horns from being like thick branches to horns.

Here is my finished helmet. I added some quick textures to it however I could not apply UV Maps for some reason. 

To achieved the extra spikes on the top rim of the helmet I used the branches tool found in the free form tab.

3ds Max Tutorial 1- Battlefield

Over the course of the Christmas holiday I have decided to go through some online tutorials in 3ds Max. I have decided to start with the very first to ensure that I have a very good grasp over the software and that I do not miss anything that I may need to know in future tutorials.

This tutorial covered basic aspects of navigation in 3Ds Max, animation and materials.

All models were supplied with the tutorial as well as several of the animations such as the windmill and the wheels turning on the cannon.

The barrel of the cannon was animated by me as well as the actual movement of the cannon.

In this scene I created the rock by using the Noise modifier and adding a supplied rock texture.

 The oak tree can be found in the pre-made geometry shapes under foliage.

 By un-checking the leaves and lowering the detail I made the tree appear to be weathered like the rest of the battlefield.

Speed Painting

We were set with the task of speed painting one of Sam Nielson's paintings with nothing but a hard edged brush and no opacity.

This was a huge challenge for me since I paint extremely slowly and often with a soft edged brush.

I am actually fairly pleased with how this turned out and enjoyed the process. I will definately be using this technique more often to help me improve my speed at painting and to stop being a perfectionist with each brush stroke.



Bug Dude

This task was set to us with the purpose of learning the technique of using textures to create a base and simple values to a painting.

This is the sketch that was provided to us and reference for textures below.

I used the middle picture of the ants as a background for the entire sketch, then using the body of the fly I copied and pasted it several times with a low opacity around the body to give a rounded shape to that area, see below.

Once I had my textures in place I could begin painting. As you can see the image is slowly gaining value and standing out from the sketch. The usefulness of the textures is that It helped me to see shapes, for example in the background I used the ants bodies as a base for insect eggs.

I did not actually finish this painting, I found it very tricky to use the textures to start with and could not see how to paint over it. I re-painted this several times before I finally seemed to find my stride, unfortuantly I did not have time to finish but as you can see below the bug was starting to hold without the sketch lines.

I loved and hated this technique, once I got used to it I found ti extremely useful to quickly give a base to the painting, I could use them with the colour picker tool to quickly select my colours to paint with.



Wolf Monster Design

During class we have been drawing a lot of creatures and monsters so I decided I would try and make my own. I decided on a wolf like creature and just experimented around with different ideas to create it.

I originally planned on sketching a more interesting pose for my wolf but could not seem to recreate the same design at a different angle. I may revisit this later because I enjoyed it very much.

Alien design

I decided I would doodle some alien designs just to see what I could come up with without any references  I had an idea in mind of a goofy looking alien with thin limbs and a fat body.

I was not happy with any of these designs, I was trying to focus on the head too much while neglecting the body. I find it very difficult to draw without references but wanted to try.

A little later I was doodling some more human anatomy sketches that were not really working out. When looking for references I stumbled over an alien sketch which instantly gave me the inspiration I needed for my alien head.

I was very pleased with the head design and decided I would try and quickly do a silhouette to create the rest of the body. I have not finished this and am unsure if I will but I am fairly pleased with how it was shaping up.

Perspective 4

Following on from the Land Speeder perspective drawing I attempted to try another.

I am fairly pleased with how this turned out, however I made a huge mistake of making my vanishing point far too close to the Speeder. This means the perspective has not worked but it has taught me not to do this in future drawings.

Our class was set with the task of drawing the Enterprise in two point perspective. I had a huge amount of difficulty with this drawing and tried many different times to draw it. I feel like I was on the right track but I just could not make it work.

I will research more into perspective, especially when circular shapes are involved.

I decided I would try to design and draw my own vehicle in perspective. Clearly this did not work and this was because I got wrapped up in the design stage. I stuck with the first design I did and it appears to work from the side view, however when I tried to draw it from any other angle I could not figure out how to put it together. This is why my perspective did not work because my design was flawed to begin with.

Value's with pencil

During class we have been doing many paintings in Photoshop with a focus on using values. I decided I would try this with pencil.

I did not take much time with this sketch mostly because I was unwilling to push it much further. I did not shade as much as I was planning to do and therefore the values do not work. I however did enjoy this sketch and can see how I can improve on my next drawing, by being a bit braver and using heavier pencils I know I can flesh this out to work as planned.

Here is another attempt at using darker shades to create values, I was a bit braver with this drawing and pushed it further than the last. It still however would not hold together without the sketch lines.
It is far less detailed than the first but I prefer this drawing since it stands out much more.

Lip Study

Because I have difficulty drawing faces in my sketches I decided to do a quick lip study to improve my skills and also to see how different emotions can be conveyed with just the lips.

To do this I broke down different lips into simple lines, this way when I do a detailed drawing or painting I can quickly sketch the lips and flesh them out later.

Human body

One of the things I enjoy drawing is the human form, I have been practicing different ways to draw the human body with and without references.

The first three drawings were drawn with a reference, the almost full bodied drawings were then done by using spheres and ovals to get a general shape then connecting them together to make sense on a human body.

Using the same technique as the ovals I tried a perspective drawing of a woman holding a gun and pointing it at the viewer from behind with a slight angle. This is why her bum sticks out so much because it has to appear larger than it really is due to the perspective.

These last three drawings were created by using different references to build the body, I try not to go into too much detail since I find it difficult to draw faces on full bodied pictures. I also need to do a feet study since I seem to finish the legs and completely leave the feet out.

Gingerbread Man

One of the very first tasks we were given in 3Ds Max was to create a Gingerbread man. 

To create this was a simple case of finding a reference image to use and placing it on the background of 3Ds Max by opening Viewport Background and choosing custom file.

Then by creating a simple flat box shape and extruding it to fit the reference image we have a basic shape to work with.

Then by adding the symmetry modifier I was able to mirror the arms and legs so that they were exactly the same size and shape.

Adding a turbosmooth modifier then gives the curves to the gingerbread man making it appear more realistic.

Finally using a gingerbread texture I placed it over the gingerbread man shape using the material editor with a UVW Map to make the texture fit correctly. Then adding some small detail such as icing and buttons to finish it off.

3D Rotate Dummy

This was a class exercise given to us to create a dummy in 3Ds max with a 360 turn animation which we can apply to any model we make. This dummy can be used to showcase a model with a perfect 360 turn each time without the need to animate the model itself thus saving time.

This is a relatively simple task to do, by making a dummy and animating it I can then merge this with any other 3Ds Max file. Once it is in the same file I then simply have to adjust my pivot point on my model to the center so that it will rotate properly once parented to the dummy.

Personal Work 4

To create this drawing I started with a basic pencil sketch then moved on to pen to outline and shade. Using a red pen I inked in the colour of the scarf and glove. 

I decided I wanted to try something slightly different so using watercolours I painted the rest.

The focus was the character and not so much the background which is why I did not detail it. 

Life Drawing 3

We had another model pose for us in this life drawing session. 

These first sketches were two minute sketches to warm up with first.

I decided to switch to pencil for this sketch, I found it much easier to make the form but spent a lot of time with my outline leaving me with no time to completely finish.

Changing to pen I decided to experiment a little and believe it paid off. Using the pen to very quickly sketch the outline I went back over to create the right shapes and by tilting the pen I scratched some shading to bring the drawing out.

Forty minute sketch.

Palm Tree

To create the palm tree I used a simple cylinder for the trunk and applied a bark texture with a UVW Map set to cylindrical.

 The leaves were created on a single plane with a diffuse and a opacity map. To do this I had to take my original leaf image and create a second in Photoshop. This second image was to create a new channel that 3DS Max could recognize that I did not want the white background to show on the plane.

To create the beach around the tree I made another plane and added a Noise Modifier  Using this I was able to make the flat plane raise and lower in different places. By adding a beach texture this gives the appearance of dunes.

Car animation

This was a quick task given to the class to draw a line using splines and then parenting a car model to the line and animating it so it would follow the spline.

Lizard Man

I completely forgot to upload this.
This was a class task and one of the first painting with colour to create values over a line art sketch.

Original Sketch

By creating new multiply layers I created a base colour for the skin, armour and weapon. The arrows show where my lighting will be coming from for later.

I struggled with this particular drawing, I could not seem to get my values right. I did learn a lot from it though and that is clear from my other posts such as Steampunk Frog and HammerBug.

Its hammer time

This task was set to the class to draw over a line art using different colours to create the values without entirely losing the line art.

This is the original line art given to us.

Using the levels adjustment layer I was able to remove all non important lines and make it a clean base to work from.

Next using the colour palette given to us I painted a base layer for the colour using a multiple layer.

Now using different shades of the colours I started to give some shape to the drawing. To do this I created a new normal layer above everything and painted, reducing some of the line art but not removing it completely.

Finally using the levels adjustment layer again I increased my values and using the vibrance adjustment layer I made the colours brighter making it no longer look so washed out.

Randomiser

A basic shape randomization for Processing. The idea behind this was to get the basics of creating objects that will be different each time the script is run.

The potential use of this in a game could be randomizing the environment or NPC's. For example a meteor shooting game, the meteors could change size and shape each level.

Cursor follow

I created this using the Processing software. I researched ways to make an image follow the cursor on screen. The potential use of this in games could be the controlling of a character on screen or making an enemy object follow the player.

Steampunk Frog

Our task was to design a frog in a steam punk style. I decided to create a anthropomorphic character. I had the idea early on to create a cartoon character that had some kind of clockwork/steam powered apparel.

I have named him Krell and he is a scavenger that takes pieces of clockwork and metal to create his own gadgets. The most noticeable being his robotic arm that helps him shift through piles of heavy junk.  

I prefer to design my drawings on paper with pencil and then use a pen to outline it for an easy scan.

Using the multiple layer option I quickly paint a base colour to give myself an idea of how to the paint over.

Next I use the lasso tool to select parts and fill in black, then reducing the layer opacity I have some very quick shadows applied to the drawing.

I now paint over the original sketch to bring the shapes and textures out.

Using the levels adjustment layer and changing the image to black and white I can check that my values are working and adjust accordingly.

Finally I make several adjustments to the drawing such as reshaping the face with the transform warp tool to make it more rounded, adding a gradient layer for a background and then using a combination of different brush types I create steam finding its way out of the clockwork arm.

There are a few things that I am not happy about with the drawing such as the goggles, detail on the trousers and the mouth. I may try to fix them at a later date but I was starting to spend too long on this drawing and decided to finish up.