3Ds Max, creating complex volumes

As a beginner with 3Ds Max, it seems that the Editable Poly function is the most efficient way to generate complex volumes.
My approach:
Having some familiarity with AutoCad, I'm relying on keyboard entry of x-y coordinates to construct accurate 2D shapes that can be extruded. These die-cut pieces can then be whittled to the desired form and joined with others to generate more complex assemblies.

Final Project.....=(

practical

I had a better version of this I have to redo. I will upload redone project when finished.

Project 5 - "Bring It To Life"

I spent some time trying to find the right place to take my photograph, and once i did I wanted to learn something new to show as part of the 3D animation... This project shows some reactor simulations as well as a path constraint to make the crayon appear as if it was writting on the paper.

Finally a project I'm happy with. Still had computer problems. Obviously need a dual core processor with at least 2 gig memory.

Ashley Tyson "Bring it to life"

I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do for

this project. Once I figured it out it turned

out good. I like it I added the fire in the

fireplace.

Ashley Tyson "Reactor Simulator"

I got to use the water reactor. It was fun

and it gave a really interesting look. I still

have difficulties with the camera though.

Designing the animation and laying out the camera path was fun, but I cannot use the correct words to describe the frustration of trying to apply materials and map and then all the problems of trying to get it uploaded to the blog. After all, this is a family site.

Fun project to learn. Unfortunately I did not have much time to play with this project to come up with a more original example.

this is what I initially wanted it to look like more or less. The objects are all reflective, rather than using shadows.

reactor simulation

This was difficult to render because of materials.

I had to remove the floor, shadows and other things. After that, it worked fine.

I enjoyed playing this lesson, it gave me the opportunity to explore and learn new things about this program

I enjoyed this project a lot, and I like the effects

Cloth & Particle

This was a real pain. My old laptop must have been maxed out. The program kept crashing when I'd try to alter things, especially the time line. It got to the point as I was working on the 2nd particle reactor it was nearly impossible to do anything. I decided not to push my luck and just render what I had. It took about 8 attempts to render and a lot of wasted time waiting for it to render and then have it crash. I finally got it to render, although it took 2 hours.

Project 3 "Cloth"

I had some difficulties with my flag trying to

get it to wave. I am working on 2010 and

when you create a cloth it defaults gravity,

and it defaults it to like 900. The gravity

was to strong for the wind to blow the flag.

I made the flag transparent by making a

opasity image in photoshop with the image

I made. When I put on the material I clicked

opasity, and selected bitmap, then chose my

black and white image. White being the part

of the flag you see and the black being the

opaque.

My challange on this animation was getting the particles to work just the right way... after browsing through tutorials I got a nice effect, & then realized the hard way the effects of rendering a glass effect... Very Long Waiting Time!!

flag and particle

This lesson involved applying a cloth modifier, gravity, wind and particle stream. Tweaking the wind was the most difficult. The particle still is not what I hoped it would be.

Fly through animation

The hardest part for me with this project was moving the camera in steady realistic way. I learned how use cameras and lighting to make my scenes better and more interesting.

project two flyby

The biggest challenge seems to be the camera movement. As I worked with it more, I got a little more familiar with it and it got easier. The actual construction of the letters and assigning materials is a walk in the park, but the camera work is tricky. I have a feeling I will be practicing this a lot.

project Two Jose J. Pita

For the first time I start to understant a litle bit more this class and I was able to do this video.
=)

Ashley's Project 2 "Fly Through"

This project was a little complicating. The

logo gave me many difficulties. What you

should do if you create your logo in

Illustrator is create outlines, then save it

as Illustrator 8. When you bring it in to 3DS

Max, extrude it, you will see that all of the

letters with holes in it are filled in because

it is a shape. Click where the hole should be

on each letter, and delete the extrude for

them. Click the inside lines of each letter, go

into the vertex on the modifier list, click

attach, click the outside of that letter, then

click show end result. That was the most

difficult part of this project.

project2

Because thie is a company that installs home theaters, I decided to use Hollywood premier type spotlights to light it.

project2

This video show the Melt Modifier a lot... I liked the effect of the letters melting & by reversing the process It appears as if the letters we're forming from puddles on the ground. I added a snake-like camera movement going through the letters & coming to a stop at the DC logo... I placed two omni lights at both ends so that I could have shadows coming from all letters & angles...

project1camera

This is the camera view for project one.

perspectives

different perspectives of letter project 1

This is project one. My letter is funky fresh and awesome dude. It took 5 years to complete. I have nothing else to add. Seacrest out.

Marty Childers Project 1

My main problem was trying to follow my notes. I took notes during class rather than following along on the computer.