3D Max Skybox's

I have started to create a sky box for 3D Max, I am going to show how you can do this in a step by step tutorial. This can also be seen www.D-an.co.uk.

OK so we are going to get a texture a sky box, this is done by creating a tile-able texture, this will then be tiled across the sky box to create a realistic effect.

Step 1: Open Photoshop Once you have done this you need to open a new document with the dimensions 512x512.

Step 2: Import the desired texture image and fit it inside the canvas but using the transform tool (Ctrl+T).

















Step 3: Go to Filter>Other>Offset
And change the dimensions to 0's to 256x256 and the edges will become tiles and meet up.





















Step 4: After this you need to you the clone stamp tool and then get rid of all of the lines, repeat step 3 and 4 until all lines are gone.














































This may take about 6 or 7 times, and the finished image should look like this.























I will be updating this tutorial and showing you how to get this image in a skybox on 3D Max!
Visit www.D-an.co.uk!

New Website

Hey all!

Be sure to visit my brand new website! This has just recently been made and I am going to also be showcasing my work on there as well as here. So be sure to head over to www.D-an.co.uk !

New 3D Max Work

More of this at www.D-an.co.uk

This is some simple landscapes I have created, Chris has shown us some very simple methods of creating them by using Displace in 3D Max and creating some simple black and white images in Photoshop. Once this has been done you can then look for some textures and apply it to the landscape and add more realism to it.
Here are some of the landscapes I created.
To start of I opened up a new image in Firefox, This was 512x512px and 72DPi This is the proper size generally used for maps and textures. Other sizes used are 256x256 and 128x128 These are used because they are the proper sizes for games engines and work properly without any errors or glitches. Once I had created this document I then used the paint bucket tool to fill the background black. The went to Filter>Render>Difference clouds and applied Difference clouds twice. This then created a number of clouds that created a contrast between the black with the white clouds. Then I opened 3Ds Max created a plane and in the modifier tab I changed the length and width segments to 100. And also in the modifier tab I selected Displace and selected the bitmap to be used as the one I have created and saved in Photoshop. This then makes all the bits on the image that were white tall and the darker bit lower. You can change the height by going to the strength bar and dragging the mouse up or down. This will create a nice looking effect. After that you can improve this alot by going to a texture website and getting a picture of a rock surface of some sand and then putting it over the original Photoshop image and using the blending options. I found that colour dodge gave a nice effect and defined the low points ffrom the high.

If this is real, that guy is pretty awsome. I bet it is PS'D though.

Top 5 Firefox Addons.

Linkification.

This addon is great, basically what it does is finds any links on the page and converts them into clickable links! Completely cuts out copy&paste! Makes everything so simple.

Linkification addon page.

AutoPager.

This is another great addon, if you are looking through Google images this addon would automatically load up the next page onto the bottom of the one your currently browsing so you don't have to keep switching, it also has settings for loads of websites!

AutoPager addon page.

Full Fullscreen.

This little addon actually gives you fullscreen when you press F11, It gets rid of everything except the browsing windows and the tabs. Makes things look a lot nicer. Also goes well with Stylish.

Full Fullscreen addon page.

Stylish.

This addon customises the web in a way I have never seen before, certainly a good idea! This lets users load styles for different web pages, for example when on you tube you can have all the ads removed and it will load the pages with HQ or HD videos in bigger but not fullscreen. You can also make pages look a lot better and more compact and ad free.

Stylish addon page.

No Script

This addon blocks all scripts from being run in the current page, so any malicious Java or cross site XSS cannot be run and exploit any loopholes or security problems your computer may have. Also this is the best ad blocker I have ever had as it stops the ads from loading.

No Script addon page.

There are many many more addons avaliable here!

3D Max Animation.

Naming every object that is going to be animated or used again once modelled is very important, This is especially important for bones as you will have a list of all bones shown and if you labelled them right the next process of skinning them will be easy but if not it will not. The stretch tool is also very important as you can increase and decrease the size of objects; this is very useful when trying to create realistic 3D Models or Animations. As you could have a model soldier but have his head very small, only a small problem as the stretch tool can easily fix that. Skeletons are also very important when animating, As I mentioned above with the process of naming the objects and IK giving a model a skeleton will help you to no end during animation as it makes the process so much easier, And a model that has good quality rigging will create good quality animations. When playing a game the physics are absolutely crucial you don’t want to be able to jump 20ft in a World War 2 Shooter game just as you don’t want to be hindered by badly coded physics in a Sci-Fi game. Real World physics are very hard to re-create, but not impossible many games recently have come close, The Cry Engine 2 implements some very realistic physics into games such as crisis and the Source engine 2 was also very good when it first came out.

Staging in 3D Max.3D Max Stage.

Lights are a very important part of almost any type of filming; Animating or photography this is because it can either create a very realistic effect or just ruin the mood/atmosphere of what is being watched/played.
Cameras are also a great way to enhance your animation, you can use different camera angles to you advantage extremely well, some effects can be created by some great lighting and camera angles, these two go tighter very well.
Motion blur is a great effect to give the a feeling of going fast or speeding up, E.G GTAIV have implemented motion blur into the game, when you are driving fast the sides of your vision blur, this creates a much more realistic effect.
Particle systems are like Snow, Rain, Smoke or even dust. It is the little things that add so much realism but would be almost impossible to model of animation by hand.

3D Max Viewports.

Viewports In 3D Max and most other 3D programs you can change the viewports, usually there is 4 Viewports, these can be moved about and configured to the users liking. You can have them in certain positions that are best for making 3D models E.G Right Left and Top view are all 2D Views which makes it easier to create models as you don’t have to move that camera about all the time, this would also create a strange shaped Model as it is like tracing something then moving the tracing paper.

For the viewport there are a few pre set views which you can use, These are Front, Back, Top, Left, Right, Bottom and Perspective but you can also move the viewports in any 3D position by holding down Alt and the middle mouse button you can move the perspective view around a point. If you hold shift and the middle mouse button you can drag the view around the 3D Space. Holding CTRL is also another way of doing the last movement.

Floating pallets such as the material editor and the time configuration menus are very useful as you have easy access to a good number of options and tools without having to go rooting through various menus. They are called floating pallets as they “Float” and are not embedded as such into the main UI of the program.

There are also many very useful keyboard shortcuts, Such as Pressing the spacebar when you have something selected locks what is selected, When pressing “G” this will make the grid in the centre disappear or there are also the very useful keyboard movement shortcuts I mentioned above.

Some Amusing Pictures.

Here are some amusing pictures.

Review for 3D Max work

Below is all of the work that was produced for 3D Max, we had to be put up for an interview and have all of our work witnessed and show what we knew of 3D Max so that we could pass this unit because we were so far behind. I think it is a shame I am only going to get a pass for these units whereas in the other units I have surpassed that and gained merits and distinctions, I am going to see if there is anything I can do to bring these grades up, as I would be disappointed to have my overall mark brought downas I haved worked so hard.

Car Crash Animation.

This is a small car crash animation that I have created, I didn't create the models but only animated them, This is why I had to animate the computer that I showed below. I like this animation although it is only short I think that it looks good and if I could spend some more time on this I could possibly get a professional standard of animation. I think this animation turned out how I expected and I am happy with the final product that I have created. I think if I was going to do this again though I would learn about particles and how to use them in 3D Max so I could maybe create some rain some dust coming from the cars wheels and possibly even add some fog. I also think that some sound wouldn't go a miss if I did this again. Although I think this requires a higher level of knowledge in 3D Max than I have currently been taught. I am fairly sure that this animation will not offend anyone as I don't think there is anything to be offensive in this short animation, but if anyone is offended please contact me via this blog.
Overall I think I have animated this well the frames have been organised well and it isn't messy so you don't get confused while animating as this would become problematic.

Below is the animation.

Computer.

This is my computer that I modeled, I hadn't original intended it for animation use and had to create this quickly. I am not overall impressed with this animation as it was rushed in order to for me not to fail this unit. I had to give the computer some simple arms and legs and then give it some bones so I could animate it. Once I did this I animated the computer kicking the monitor, the monitor then flies off into the air. If I were to do this again I would not animate a computer, but because of the circumstances I didn't really have a choice. I like how I have modeled it and think it looks almost exactly like my computer, but do not like the animation.


And below this is the computer, Not animated.

Review of 3D Max work

I am now going to be reviewing all of my work that I have done for Sundesh. As we never got to make a final presentation I am just going to look at the work I have done. I will also post some videos and pictures.

No slideshows.

I have temporally taken down the slide shows so I can water mark the pictures, Then we will have no thieves stealing my pictures XD. I am also going to take down all of the other pictures in my post and replace them with watermarked pictures.

Storyboard Review

The above image is my final storyboard, I think this turned out very well, The only problem I think I had was thinking of a name for the game. I used Photoshop 3Ds Max Google maps and also Google Street view to make the scenes and I think that they all worked out very well.


















This image I made by getting some images from Google maps and using the plane model form 3D Max, I then put both of these in Photoshop and enhanced the image to my liking.


















This is the image where I have used Chris Griffin, I had to add Chris to one of my images for a separate assignment that tied in well with this one. I also used Google Street view for the background image.















This image was also made with the help of Google Street view, I tried to make this look like a sniper scope, I think I have done quite well with this scene as I have created a good final effect.







This is the splash screen that I made, This had the age rating on and also the company that is making the game, It has my name on it (I have fuzzed it out) and it also has the PEGI Symbols.












This is the scene that shows the release date of the game. I like this as the text looks mirrored and so is the skull.












I think this is good because "The fight of your life" makes it seem more personal to the person looking at the storyboard.











This is one of my favorite pictures, but I also had a problem thinking of the name, I used Photoshop and 3D max for this and I think the helicopter looks good and adds a nice effect to the picture.
















This is a picture that I also like, This has the helicopter from the picture above in it and a soldier and column from 3D max.















This is the picture just before the one above in the storyboard, I think this is a lot like my drawings and so is the one above, I am happy because I managed to capture the image that I had in my head. I also think that the background looks good because it suits what I had drawn.

Unit 67 Review

I think that my storyboard came out very well in the end. The drawings I had made when I planned it didn't really give me too much hope as I am not the best drawer ever but I managed to create a good final product.











The plan of my storyboard is below, This is the plan that I made for my storyboard this was also the plan for the game trailer that we never got to make because of complications. This plans shows each scene that I have made in my storyboard I think that I have re-created everything in my storyboard that I had drawn with accuracy, The final product looks a lot like I envisioned it.
















The image below is a template for my storyboard, This is second template I made as I had planned to do a different design but I changed my mind because I didn't like the first one I did, I decided to do the template by hand and then scan in the final image to photoshop and use it through that. This design is not like some others that have boxes unconnected and in non conforming shapes. The image below is the first template that I made and then changed.


















Here are some of the drawings that I have done in the still life classes, I think that some of them are good but overall are just average. I need to practice more at drawing as I am not amazing ans it shows when I am drawing. In the still life classes we did some drawings of some bowls and kitchen utensils on a table surrounded by a cloth I attempted to draw this and I think it went OK. We also used to pastels to draw some wooden models made for posing , I think that what I drew came out quite good and I am pleased with one the drawing with three models on it. We then went outside and drew a church, This was harder than it seemed and so only turned out OK, But after that we moved on and I drew a car and a house which I think was good. I would have liked some of my still life drawing to be like what I have put below but I am not that good yet. The person who has drawn this has used many different techniques that I would find hard to use but they have created a very good effect and has obviously ended up creating a really good final picture. Some techniques he would have used would probably be perspective and advanced lighting techniques. You can easily see that by the way this person has collectively used and combined many techniques shows they are advanced and they have created a great final image.

Below is a slide show of all of my drawings that I have done including concept art for my icons.

Drawings.

I am also going to put a slideshow of all of the drawings I hae done over the period I have been at college. The slide show will be above the icons one.

Unit 18 Evaluation

I think for the majority of my icons, what I have created fits quite well into the plans that I had made for the end product. This goes for all of the icons except the horror icon, this is because the original plan I had made didn't look too good so I decided to start over. I don't think that anything I have created would be offensive to anyone from any background, I haven't included any from a religion or any content that is too violent.

I have kept a similarity in each of the icons, each icon has some blood on some part of it or around the icon. I like this because it means the icons aren't all really different even though they are each for completely different genres. I am pleased that I managed to draw all of the icons but one, as I have never thought much of my drawing skills but this has let me see otherwise because what I drew I think is quite good. I also think this has helped me improve my Photoshop skills as I have used a few techniques I haven't used before, such as making the image look like it has depth by using the opacity settings.

I think that I managed my time very well as I had completed all of my icons well within the allocated time with time spare to improve on what I had created.

I think if I was going to do this again the only thing I would do differently is be a bit more imaginative with the horror design, but apart from that I would keep everything else the same.
As I am very happy with the overall result of what I have created.

Below is the sort of standard that I was looking to achieve when making the icons, I think I have achieved near to or about this quality of my icons. I am very happy with how the final products look and will keep them. This image is hyperlinked to take you to the creators page.

Unit 18 Review

I think that the icons I created worked very well, I am happy with the outcome and I am also pleased that I used all primary sources for creating my icons. I drew every icon by hand and the used photoshop to enhance it, and for one image I took a photo and then enhanced that image in photoshop.

On the left is my fantasy icon. I used a sword because many fantasy games have people carrying around swords the size of a small car, compensating for anything? :)

This icon is the horror icon, this is the only icon I didn't draw, it is a photo of our car when it was snowing and my hand on the front. I am happy with this icon because it has turned out well after I had re-designed what I was doing for this icon.

















This is the humour icon , this is my least favorite icon out of all I made. I think this may be because of the colours or maybe because of the slightly un imaginative design. If I did this again I would think harder about what I could do for the humour icon.




















This is my Sci-Fi icon I like this because the beam in the middle looks nice and also the shape in the background looks like a crop circle.
















This is probably my favorite icon that I have made. I like this because I drew the grenade and then used photoshop on it, The blood in the background also looks good behind the grenade. This icon is for the genre war.

Unit 18 Digital Graphics

For this unit I created some iPhone icons. The icons were for different games genre's, these were Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy,War and Horror. I have embedded the slideshow for my finished icons at the bottom of this page.