Progress : Animation

Project 3. Producing an animated video with a minimum length of 60 secs. Rendered in 3ds Max 2013. Stitched & edited in Adobe Premier Pro CS6.

First, begin with a story line.




I let the music inspire my story. Every rhythm of the song gives life to a scene. From there, I divided the  minutes of the song into 'scenes' or 'segments' to form the video. I wanted an 'Alice in Wonderland' feel. A little bit of the quirky, whimsical, dark, & beautiful. Am a big fan of anime & Studio Ghibli films so I went with a background song used in The Cat Returns.

Song used :
Waltz (Katzen Blut) by Nomi Yuuji (Studio Ghibli Inc copyright)
Hardware :
Asus N56, Intel Core i7, Nvidia GeForce GT 650M, 8gb RAM
Render time :
100 frames (3 secs of video), 15 minutes
500 frames (16 secs of video), 2 hours +

Once the story line has been decided, the painstaking rendering process begins.

Render (apply daylighting, materials) as you would a still image, but save the render with these settings.

F10

Time Output - select Active Time Segment or Range if you want to render your video in scene batches
*scroll down*
Save File - select File (like a Save As) & create a new name for scene > save in AVI

Remember to change the file name for every Save File before rendering if not you'll be very sad.

Play with key frames & the time key. Once you're familiar with these 'tool's you're free to manipulate you camera view & motion however you want. Oh wait the camera part!

To make your camera 'move' you have to :

Add Camera > Target or Free
*then*
Draw a path > Line, Helix, Circle..depends how what kind of 'path' you want your camera to move in
*then*

Go to Motion > +Assign Controller > Path Constraint > OK
*then scroll down the same Motion tab*
Pick Add Path > Select the Camera you created & the Path & they shall UNITE!

Set one of the Viewports > Camera View. If you move the time bar you'll notice the scene moving, as if you're the one holding the camera. To 'record' every camera movement, click AUTO and it'll be red.

Time Configuration settings.

Render Output, Camera Path, Time Configuration all set? RENDER TAIM

Cameras for different scenes

Daylighting test. To simulate sun set & sun rise, apply the Camera Path settings to Daylight instead of Camera.

Test renders. 

bitmap > avi file to simulate moving sky

Final scenes

Adobe Premier Pro CS6 to stitch & edit videos. I'd like to thank a Sam, Adrian & Youtube sensei for teaching me what I needed to know! Such a noob when it comes to video-editing.

Be prepared to sleep at rendering hours depending on your hardware. In my case every 2 hours over the course of 2 days. 3ds Max should really think about incorporating an alarm system once a render is done.

Submission : Project 3

Project 3 | Animation

House N by Sou Fujimoto brought to life with Nomi Yuuji's Waltz (Katzen Blut), 3ds Max 2013 & Adobe Premier Pro CS6.

Stuff to improve : Daylighting. Applied avi file to bitmap to simulate moving sky but the file had such a low resolution. Camera speed.


WIP on this final project coming up!

Submission : Interior Renderings

Rendered interiors of House N by Sou Fujimoto.

Walkway | Sakura View

Love the shadow effect given off by the sakura trees onto the grassy walkway. Gave texture to grass by increasing the Bump but not effective enough. Forgot to UVW Map the roses to look more real.

Must learn how to make it look more realistic.

Private | Bedroom View

Love the daylight on the bed. Tree shadow gives a nice touch. UVW Mapped the white carpet. Environment image was just nice with the human, giving it a bit of context. Trouble with blending walls.

Must learn how to make it look more realistic.

Progress : Interior Rendering

Project 2b. To produce 2 interior renderings of the same building (House N by Sou Fujimoto) at eye-level.

First Scene : Sakura View

Fixing the camera view. Lens 15mm. One-point perspective at eye-level. Added some furniture such as the flower, basket shelf, garden chair from 3D Archive. Pretty much like shopping online ^^

Adding material & texture to my furniture to make it look realistic.

M > Compact mode > Arch Design > Bitmap > Timber jpeg > apply to selection > Modifier > UVW Map > Box

Changed Environment background.

Rendering > Environment > Bitmap > Select image from folder > (tick) Use Map 

Viewport Background > (tick) Show Background

Played with the daylighting to suit current Environment. Added texture to pillows & other decorative objects. Added a bird.

Light > Daylight > Modifier > Manual > Move > Adjust using Top view & Front View

Adjust the bird to scale. 

Added a photo & frame : Plane > Bitmap > Apply to plane

To form the frame : Box > Adjust length, width, height > Modifier > Edit Poly > Select polygon > Inset > del

Render, for about 5 minutes.

Second Scene : Bedroom View

Fixing the camera view from bedroom. Current Environment background kept.

Added Pink Concrete to Wall. 

Added furniture such as bed, table, antique clock, light stand to inject life in the image. Daylight still not right.

Adjusted Daylight so it shows on the bed. Gives a lovely effect. Rendered glass on the 'window'.

Added more decorative items such as books, tree sculptures to carry on the Sakura tree rhythm.

Added texture & patterns on the bed, table & walls using UVW Map. 

Render for about 10 minutes.

*Rendering was smooth. During the Apply to Materials step, 3ds Max 2011 tends to hang on my Asus N56 despite it being a few days old. Intel i7 core, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 2GB. Must find out why.

Submission : Exterior Rendering

Project 2 required us to produce an exterior rendering of an existing architect's building. The building I've chosen is Sou Fujimoto's House N simply because of it's geometric-like nature but at the same time, it engages with the surrounding environment.

Adding a human figure in to give the photo a bit more of context.

Overall quite happy with the composition. Will have to improve on the lighting bit.

Second submission for exterior rendering. Wanted to give it an emo feel, in stark contrast to the previous Spirited Away in Spring. Will have to work on the materials but overall am okay with the composition.

Submission : Okashi no Pikachu

Comp Apps II Project I | Produce a 3D Sculpture

Perspective

Front

Left

Right

Top

Bottom

Progress : Okashi no Pikachu

Comp Apps II Project I | Produce a 3D Model in 3DS Max

For our first project, we were required to construct our first ever 3D model using this wonderful sorcery called 3ds Max. I chose a Pikachu to act as my model guide because it's so cute & yellow. ISN'T IT?
#salvi.jpeg

Attempt 1 :

Started with a sphere to form the PikaHead. Extruded using Edit Poly to form PikaEars.

2 spheres. Bridged them.

Edit Poly > Polygon > Extrude > Move / Rotate to form PikaHands. However, decided to redo the whole Pikachu because the body was too chubby. Tempted to go on with a Chubbychu but eh, some other day la.

Attempt 2 :

Instead of solely extrusions, decided to piece together the PikaHead with Cones for ears. Extruded the top front of the bottom hemisphere to form PikaCheeks.
#pinchpinch.jpeg

Followed comrade Pam's advice on using Box to form the body instead of Sphere. Easier to adjust the Segments but it still gave Pikachu a boxish feel.

Can I just say it swallowed a box?

 Played with Vertices & Polygons to form an almost accurate body shape.

Formed the PikaHands using Edit Poly > Polygon > Extrude > Move(to change angle) > Extrude > Rotate.

TurboSmooth every step of the way just so the end product doesn't differ so much.

Edit Poly > Polygon > Rescale > Rotate to enlarge & form the PikaFeet.

Attached PikaEars to PikaBody. Added PikaColour. TurboSmooth.

Created PikaTail separately so it does not get TurboSmoothed.
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Attach PikaTail to PikaBody.