Unit 68 - Reflection On My 3D Render

Unit 68 Final Major Project Review & Assessment

Professional example

This is a professional (high university level) Show-reel presenting a students work, this is the kind of detail i was wanting to achieve in the models that made up my environment. realistically i new this level of detail was impossible or at least impractical for me to achieve but it gave me something to aim towards and allowed me to better focus my search for helpful tutorials to aid me.

This video shows off several different kinds of models (mainly environments and buildings). one of the first things you notice when comparing the 2 videos especially the apartment building in the professional example and the buildings in my animation is the quality of the texturing and lighting, the professional show-reel gives of a convincing degree of depth and realism however in my video it looks kind of dull and flat, this is more than likely because he is at a higher level of skill than me when it comes to 3D modelling but also because those were the areas i rushed. When it comes to the textures the maker of the professional example (Scott Homer)  spent a lot of time creating and adding them to his model which is evident as all the textures are perfectly aligned which gives them a further degree of realism, when texturing he also included sever different forms of textures including; Diffuse,Specular, Normal and Alpha Texture. Scott also put a lot of thought into his lighting positioning as well as probably including multiple different lights.

Given more practice with the software and texturing i could probably reach the same level of professionalism as Scott Homer but for the moment i barely compare.

Final Version

Multi-Story Water: Red Route - Baildon Bridge Environment

This is the final version of my 2nd year final project render, the environment it's self is set in the Baildon bridge area in Shipley. i wanted an environment that would allow me to create a wide variety of models and assets including street objects (traffic lights, Railings and walls) as well as buildings and even water (the river Aire). This environment allowed me to do that.

The original plan was to model an environment including a load of the surrounding buildings and the weir on the river, which was the main focus in the stories set in my environment, however because i was still learning how to model in an efficient and effective way i fell behind as i kept discovering new ways of modelling in 3DS Max, up until this point i had been content with box modelling and created about one third of my environment this way but when i learnt how to polygon model i decided that it would allow me to produce better models for my environment. So i decided to restart my entire environment (in hindsight this was a bad decision as it extended the time it took to create each model as well as me having to recreate all the model,s i had already done).

Because of my inefficient us of time management by the time most people were finishing their texturing phase of production and entering their animation phase i was still modelling which meant i had to rush allot of my work and make several decisions to cut certain models from my environment, and all though i had to make these sacrifices and struggled to make the deadline i am happy with my final product as it did allow me to modell sever different kinds of models and do some texturing. it also allowed me to discover and practice new forms of modelling that i may not have otherwise considered or done.

I think if i had a chance to re plan and create my model i would have better stuck to my plan and spent more time texturing and getting more models into my environment, but as i previously stated everything i have done during this project has helped me to become a better modeler by teaching me new techniques. it's also taught me to better plan and focus on one task at a time, as well as helping me to understand that not everything that you originally intent on including in a project will necessarily make it into the final piece and certain choices need to be made to sacrifice parts to better secure or improve others.

I have become more confident with implementing different models and techniques into one final piece and a high amount of confidence in texturing which was the main part of modeling that i hated because i couldn't wrap my head around. Overall the main problem in all of my final project was poor time management so in future this would be the area that i need to focus on more predominantly.

The highlight of my entire environment i think is the traffic island in the center of my road i really put in quite a lot of my time and effort into texturing that, i went through several different textures before i found the one that i thought best suited it and tried to align the textures up to give a better degree of realism (an example is below).

For the sound aspect of the unit of our final major project we had to plan, storyboard, create, edit, and implement the sound we were going to use in our final animation.

The first step to doing this was finishing or at least having an overall idea of what the final animation was going to look like so that we could then overlay the sound onto the parts of the video they were going to be played. As well as this will had to take note of any foley and non-foley sounds we were going include, such as birds, wind, cars, water ect.

I was originally going to create foley sounds for some environmental assets in my animation, name for the ricer, trees and cars. Then add a music track to the background to add atmosphere, this music would have been something fairly simple like a simple melody played on the keyboard/piano with some added stings (violin, cello ect.) if it needs improvement.

After our Digital showcase we were given feedback from several sources, most important of all of them were Steven Bottoms our client for our live brief and Kaye Elling the head of games design at bradford university, their reviews are below.

Kaye Elling – Bradford University

Lecturer in Computer Games:BA Graphics for Games

BSc Interactive Systems & Video Game Design

"I’ve been looking at the projects on YouTube and there is some great stuff there. Good to see Waqar on one of the video introductions too, I remember him from the applicant visit day. 

 I thought the Robot Lama group had some very nice concept art. There is a colour drawing of one of the buildings which was particularly well observed. Please pass on my compliments to the team, they had some successful art direction in the videos. The lighting is especially good and the misty environment was very atmospheric.

 Pixelarity showed some very nice texturing on Salts mill, and the use of water worked well too. The modelling on the tower was well detailed and the buildings looked like the scale had been meticulously planned. The web interface they used was very slick as well, great design there.

 The Cyberchondriacs’ art direction using the sepia tone worked really well in the cricket pavilion and the band stand was fantastically atmospheric, with a lovely render quality. Robert’s Park Lodge was well realised with the trees and worked very well as a full scene. The boathouse also showed excellent texturing and looked great in the render.

 I’ve checked my calendar and can’t make it tomorrow I’m afraid, as I’m doing more taster workshops. But all the best for the show and please pass on my congratulations to the teams on such well realised projects!”

MALE

Client – Stephen Bottoms  -
Here, Pixelarity's Red Route trailer goes for the expansive, Hollywood feel... in tune with the epic scale of some of their buildings, such as Victoria Mills and Salts Mill itself.
Baildon Bridge is a key site on our Red Route tour, and it's great to see it being given careful, detailed treatment here despite its relatively modest architecture.