I opened the ear topology in 3ds max and started to draw it, using the line tool. After that I selected one of created squares and converting it to the editable poly I clicked attach and clicked on the other squares as well, so I got the solid ear.

I really wanted to do some more work with my face improvement, but unfortunately the last week we had to spend more time on finishing our renders of animation and the final video.

Ear topology

As I could not do the ear before due to the picture I had, now it was possible to make.

So, I opened the same file of my views in photoshop and made two new layers for the blue lines and the red lines.

After it was saved as a jpeg as well.

Head improvement

I made some improvements for the Head modelling task.

I took the pictures of the front and the side views of my head and opened them in Photoshop.

I changed the visibility of the side view and checked if it fits to the front view.

Following the tutorial given to us I repeated the steps.

So, here are the rulers, I put them to see if the eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips and chin are on the same lines.

Followed tutorial:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~emaslows/forums/training_videos/digital_painting/PS_OMS-01_ReferencePlates.mov

Evaluation

This module can be considered as a very interesting and cognitive one. I really enjoyed this project modelling the Guildhall and animating it. It was a pleasure to work with my group members as we never had conflicts, always separated our work equally and always found compromises sharing our ideas and discussing our plans.

Moreover, during this project I significantly improved both modelling and animation skills.

I learnt some new techniques and improved the known once.

Before I did not feel so confident during my learning process as there was a big 'field' to explore, but now I can state for sure that I like what I am doing and I know what I am doing. I feel braver than before and I started to enjoy the program a lot.

In conclusion, I am very thankful for all the knowledge given to us and I understand that these skills will give me many opportunities in design sphere from visualising new inventions and commercial presentations till any multimedia task.

Week 12

Today meeting with our group we showed each other all our rendered animations. It was decided that we do some more animations today and put them into the Premier Pro.

We divided the work between us during the lecture:

Steward was putting ready rendered files to the Premier Pro, but me and Helen created some more animations for the final video.

Celebration Hall animation:

First of all, one omni light left from previous animation, so I added one more omni light to have enough light in the room. Then, the target camera was created and the path was drawn by line. I selected Path Constrain and clicked on the Line, so the camera started to follow it, but the target was positioned within the table view. This animation was made to show the celebration hall around.

Later on, another animation was made.

School animation:

In different centuries the same room was used for the school and the celebration hall. So, to animate the school I removed the table and imported children desks with the blackboard. Also, created the chalk from geometry box.

I left the omni light and created another path with line tool which goes between the desks all the way through the class and stops near the blackboard where I made another animation of the numbers. This time I used a free camera .

To make an animation with the numbers, I drew (2-1=1). Number two was created by drawing the line, changing its parameters and putting the material of the white colour. The other symbols were created by rectangles.

The animated number 1 was extruded in modify panel.

Animating , it slowly appears wit the chalk movement. I was using the timeline keyframes to make the chalk follow the line and rectangular number to appear slowly at the same time, to make an impression of realistic writing.

The path constrain was made selecting Position, path constrain and Add Path.

This is how the blackboard looks from the camera view while the chalk is writing number 1.

Old Lady Animation

On the group meeting Helen gave me the picture of the old lady which was one of the pictures found in the Guildhall. So we decided to put it as a picture on the wall and animate it.

Going to the photoshop, the picture was put into the frame and saving it as jpeg file it was imported-> Merge to the 3ds max program.

I created the box and applied the picture as a material and positioned on the wall in the priest room.

I also made an omni light to lighten the room. Them, I created a target camera and positioned it within the path created with the line tool as I did before with another animation.

The camera shows the room around a little bit and stops on the picture of the old lady.

Candle Fire Effect (Particle System)

I also made another animation with the candle. I used the same Super Spray technique but in the different way.

First of all, I tried to make a fire with fire effect. I went to Helpers, selected Atmospheric Apparatus -> Sphere Gizmo. Then went to Rendering and selected environments-> Edd-> Fire Effect.

Clicked Pick Gizmo and chose Tendril. After that all, I changed Stretch to 6, Regularity to 0.1, Density to 10, Samples to 6 and Flame detail to 5.5.

I came up with figure which can be seen on the picture below.

I did not really like the effect of the fire which I received, however I learnt a new technique which I never used.

So, as I told before I made my final fire with Super Spray technique making particles, and I found it more effective as I could make it flickering effect.

From Geometry I selected Particle System-> Super Spray. Then, on modify panel I changed a lot of parameters. I actually discovered a lot about Super Spray technique during making fire than when I was doing water.

Super Spray Parameters.

Going to materials instead of bitmapping I selected Architectural from the list and chose smoke. Changed the colour and made particles look solid.

My first video. The fire looks more realistic, but it is not flickering what makes it boring.

For the second one I changed the shape and it was flickering, but looks unreal, the fire made of small squares and it was obvious.

The third one is with solid particles. It is flickering and looks more nice.

But, I also put 2 omni lights, one over the candle and another one in the room to lighten it.

I selected the omni light from Modify Panel and positioned each.

I positioned the Target Camera and made the path with the line tool. After I clicked on path constrain and Add the path, clicked on the line and camera started to follow it. I had a difficulty at first because the light appeared from the beginning on the timeline, but I wanted it to appear a little bit later and to be growing in brightness. So for that I had to 'play'

with Multiplier (making the numbers up and down) so, when the animation is working it makes an effect not only of flickering, but also making it lighter and darker.

Path constrain

So, there is another final video, but as it was uncompressed it takes too long to applaud it, so it will be shown on our presentation.

Followed Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXnUwQGzOC0&feature=related

Continuing animation

Working during this week and meeting with our group members, we decided to put omni lights in our animations, so they look more 'warm' and also as there were no electricity, the environment should be a little bit subdued.

This is the position of the camera towards the object.

And here the position of the omni light can be seen.

So, everything was set and the camera instead of prospective view was switched on.

This is the view from the camera setting.

The final video looks much better than the previous one without omni light, now even water looks more real.

Week 11

I added the material to the candle handle and the candle, going to materials, and choosing Architectural from the list, I selected the colour and chose one of materials, to make an object shiny.

I also added the material to the doors on all second floor.

The link: cgtextures.com

Then we started animation. My first animation is to make water pouring from the jar to the glass. For this I used Particle system (Super Spray) technique which is completely new for me.

So, to make that I selected Forces from the list in Space Warps and clicked Gravity.

Positioned it near my object (jar).

Then, from the same Space Warps I selected Deflectors from the list and clicked UDeflector, and also positioned near the object (jar).

Finally, from Geometry I selected Particle System from the list and clicked Super Spray and positioned near the jar . It is all shown on the picture below.

I clicked on Super Spray and going to modify panel I clicked there on Super Spray again.

So, I could see the list with Basic Parameters, Particle Generation, Particle Type, Standard Particle (where I chose sphere). I made several changes in all of them, changing the numbers until I received the result I needed (the shape which looks like jet).

Moving the timeline I could see how the jet moves.

I clicked on M to go to materials and clicked Background. From Map Browser I selected Architectural- Water.

It is shown on the picture on the left. I changed Defuse Colour, Defuse Map, Shininess and set Luminance to 300, so the material looks like the real water.

After all that was done, I just used Auto Key to make my animation with the jar. I was moving the jar up and after jet was in the glass, down, so on the time line on certain minutes some windows appeared, it means on each of them the new movement happens. Then I rendered it giving correct parameters and saving as AVI file.

Followed the tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXbuiIXu8gY&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL1AE787D6F1DF31A4

Pouring water animation

Later I made a table for the priest room to add more furniture.

So, I created it from the box and four cylinders , converted to editable poly and attached all to make them as one object.

To make it interesting I applied wooden material to the sides and the material from jar to the top. So it looks like a wood with cut pattern.

I made a research about electricity :

So, Mr Thomas Edison in 1879 focused on inventing practical light bulbs, and in 1882 first Power Station started up its generator in New York, so it was enough to provide all houses with electricity and light up the bulbs. So the conclusion is that in our situation there was no light in the Guildhall yet, so I am modelling a candlestick.

The link: http://www.need.org/needpdf/infobook_activities/IntInfo/Elec3I.pdf

To make a candlestick I made a cylinder first, and then converted it to editable poly. I used Bevel to change the shape of it so I selected the area with Polygon and beveled as I needed.

I followed this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb_QMLOrAJ8

Then I also used Extrude tool to extrude some shape and bevel again. So I received something like that:

And again used some bevel and extrude:

Finally I had to make a handle, so I selected some polygons from sides and extruded with extrude tool.

I selected the endings from both extruded tubes and clicked Bridge, so the connection between them appeared and the handle is ready.

Later on, I clicked Mesh smooth in modify panel and my candlestick became smoothed.

So, the next step was to create a candle, which was made from cylinder.

Then, converting it to editable poly I selected some lines on the candle and choose Bend from modify panel, so at the end I received a finished candle which is curvy as bending it I changed the angle. Bend is a new technique for me, I never used it before.

And finally I Mesh smoothed it so it looks very nice now.

And my almost finished second floor with rooms and details looks like that: