3D Graphics - Week 05

Session 1

This weeks work we followed the booklet a lot more closely, bringing elements together to create impressive results. There were some moments where we needed support from the tutor, but these were moments that most of the students had difficulty, so we were shown how to work through it when most came to it. Overall it wasnt too difficult, as the booklet was quite detailed in its steps (with one or two confusing moments). 

The task was to add a piece of film as a material to a shape. As I said before the booklet was quite specific in the steps required, plus we were given film to use, so didn't have to waste time finding something appropriate from online. Here is the result.

In fact, the hardest part of this task was rendering it out correctly, but after going through the modify list and what the booklet said, It was just a wrong mouse click that was responsible. Although very simple looking, I am amazed with it, and the capabilities of 3ds max. This is a feature that will hopefully come back to be used again in my work.

Session 2

In the second session we continued in the booklet, and this task was a bit more complex. It was to create a glass filled with ice cubes, on a table with a wall behind it, including shadows and reflections.

 Here is the first render of the scene. As you can see there is a shadow and reflection on the table material. Although the inside of the cup is not visible, It is still correct and I followed the steps. From here I worked on the cup material. After creating a suitable jpeg on photoshop to be used as a bitmap in the material modifier, I added it to the material, although it still looks a little like plastic, it is slowly getting to the glass look.

Bitmap made on Photoshop

Here is what it looked like after the addition. One problem with the scene is that its slightly too bright, so I went back and dimmed both the omni and target light. I think more is visible and now, and is much better.

From here, I changed the amount of diffuse and added noise to make the glass look slightly more realistic.

As you can see the glass in the second image looks much better. Now just to add the ice cubes.

Although I followed the steps, I believe I've made the parameters of the cubes wrong, and they look very similar to the glass material. Ive experimented with it, but the best outcome I could get was this.

Its not bad, but could be better, at the moment right now Im not sure what to do to the cubes to make them rougher, but will soon, hopefully. Overall Im happy with the scene Ive created, the glass actually does look like glass, and the shadow and reflection on the table is good.