SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

In this module I have found one of my most valued strengths to be creativity and patience. This work is very time consuming and requires a great deal of effort to get the desired results. I also like to credit my ability to pick up and learn new skills which have helped me tremendously in terms of Modelling, Texturing and Lighting effects.

Weaknesses:

I feel my weaknesses in this area of work has been underestimating the development time needed for the models. I am pleased with the results I have but I feel that improvements can be made to some areas of my work especially texturing. The texturing for me has been the most challenging and time-consuming aspect of this work and without invaluable guidance would certainly have not been able to produce this quality of work.

Opportunites:

This module has given me the opportunity to experiment with many different pieces of 3ds max including lighting, rendering texturing, Cameras and modelling. At the start of the module, I bought a 3ds max book on the theme of modelling game elements but found some areas of this extremely challenging and ended up stopping. Now however, I can safely say I have practised and learnt enough from the module to go back to this book and complete each chapter comfortably.

I have also learnt to master a technique using planes to model objects from scratch through personal learning. This was a major part for my swordfish render which would have been possibly more difficult to produce otherwise. Finally, I have also experimented using the hair and fur modifier by following tutorials on the web which I fell will definetly help me in any future pieces of work I undertake.

Threats:

I fell my biggest threat this is area of work has to be time management. I will in future be planning work with a schedule to allow myself enough time to properly work on difficult stages of development and allow changes to be made in good time that will not effect the final result.

Final Stamp design!

And now for the Pièce de résistance... My 'Golden' Eagle Stamp:





I used simple image for the background for this stamp. The eagle itself consists of a few duplicated layers each using a different blending mode (linear light, multiply etc.) with a small Gaursson Blur and artistic brush for added effect.

I am very proud of this piece of work!

Completed Eagle Model

After a long period of time texturing the model I finally came up with this:

Eagle texturing

I've finally finished what i've found to be the most time-consuming piece of this module so far!

My Eagle render currently has over 4000 individual feathers so you can imagine how much time this took to create not to mention render by 2800 x 1900!

I started off trying to unwrap the different parts of the eagle and texturing that way, however after attempting only the body of the eagle, I found this was not the effect I was hoping for and scrapped this idea:

This experiment encouraged the idea of texturing the Eagle using individual planes with a feather image similar to the way I have done my Wings.

Now came the hard part, the feathers need to be 'wrapped' around the eagle to get the feathery effect I have been looking for. The angles of the shape were very challenging in some areas to get right and give the illusion of being covered in feathers.

I then added an omni Light to the scene to pick out the front feather and give the behind ones a shadowy efect. The light also helped illumniate certain areas of the model which made the feathering slightly easy to do.

I started by added feathers to the face and working my way around the eagle's head..

Stamp 2 Complete - Cobra

After experimenting with different backgrounds, lighting effects and images I came up with this:


The biggest issue i had with my 2nd render was trying to find a scene / background that suited a snake. A grassy field didnt seem right for a Cobra so i tried a more 'human' approach and thought about how some people interact with snakes by keeping them in baskets in some countries.

This is my result.

Cobra Snake part 2.

With the modelling finished I could now focus on texturing my Snake. I searched online for a suitable snake scale texture and was able to find this:



I felt this was a really nice pattern with a high level of detail that would be perfect for my snake. Cobras however, are usuallly a shade darker than the tone in the texture image so I needed to modify the brightness and contrast slightly in photoshop to get the desired effect.

I started off using the same method as my previous model and unwrapping the animal. I was alot more comfortable texturing this model due to its simplicity in terms of size and shapes which saved me a good deal of time when it came to creating the texture map. One important part of this texture was the scale, and getting it just right to suit the size of the shapes and being careful not to lose too much of the detail.



Feeling comfortable with the method in which I textured my swordfish I created a black and white shape layout alongside the texture map to ensure I could spot any error when the texture is wrapped around the model:



As the image clearly shows, areas in white have been textured whereas the remaining black sections need to be. I am unsure as to why the texture doesnt actually show in 3ds max until the model is rendered, however this benefitted me more as the texture map errors were much easier to spot! (black and white)

Once the texture mapping was complete I went around the shapes and carefully studied the rendering results to home in on the texture wrap errors. This was quite tricky and I did have to go back and redo some areas a few times after noticing small sections now and again while rendering. Fortunetly I managed to get a good result.

Next I created a very simple eye in photosop and wrapped this image around two spheres and carefully positioned them in the snake's head:



Last but not least was creating a scene for my cobra. I experimented making some pots that I felt the snake could lay in front off with a grassy effect around it:



To create the displaced terrain, I followed a short tutorial which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoq6-JLcmds



I wasn't particulary impressed with the result and felt that a different approach may be needed for my stamp design.

Swordfish Stamp - Complete

Here is the Final design for my first stamp..

this stamp was creating using a pre-made template for the layout (border), however the background was created myself by following a tutorial I found online which can be found here: http://www.rnel.net/tutorial/Photoshop/12484

I then imported my render into the image and applied a Multiply effect to blend the swordfish into the background. I also reduced the Opacity to around 65% and added an 'inner glow' and 'bevel' as a final effect.