Reflection on different group ideas and comment/response to one of the group blogs. How is the modelling stage going.

 Comment/response to one of the group blogs.
(Would have been posted on Joseph, Michael, Troy blog but blogsite would not post).

The group has decided to produce an animation showing how the restored guildhall might look. The idea of making the rooms within the guildhall without doors would enable each member of the group to design the rooms individually. The rooms could then be brought together to form the final animation. Also the rendering time is reduced by rendering individual scenes.

The idea of using one camera to view the outside and inside of the building is good because this creates a tour from a single person perspective; as if they were being shown personally around the building.

In 3dmax a plane was created and the material editor was opened. The bitmap was selected and topology file was chosen along with collapsed layers. The bitmap was then dragged to the plane and showmap in viewport clicked on.

In the modify panel the uvw map modifier was selected to enable the gizmo to position the image within the plane. Open the material editor, select go to parent and increase the self illumination to 100.

A clone was made of the front image plane and rotated through 90° to create a side image that was perpendicular to the front face view.

In 3D max the perspective view was first selected and configured using the layout pad intially to the top and front view . Right clicking on the top and front view names, the views were then changed to front and left view.

The zoom extents all icon was clicked to maximise the views

(keyboard shortcut Alt w).



Front view maximised

The next stage is drawing a shape spline line topology over the existing topology that was created in photoshop. In the create tab of 3Dmax the shapes icon was chosen and line selected. Under creation method the initial type and drag type were both set to corner. Zoom into the chosen area and click once to define a point. Draw the line to the second point and click. Continue the process on the other two points and draw the line back to the starting point to create a square shape. A dialogue box then appears enabling the spline to be closed.   

The topology area under the nose was changed to allow the shape spline line topology

to follow the profile of the nose.

The image shows the topology before the modification. 

 

 

                          The image shows the topolgy after the modification.



                   The final  image of the quads drawn on top of the existing topology.

The escape key was pressed to de-select the line tool and one of the shapes was selected.

Select the modify panel and right click on the shape.

Drop down to convert to> convert to editable poly.

The shape is now converted into a surface which is in effect a single polygon.

Scroll to editable geometry and to the box next to the attach icon box.

A dialogue box appears - select all items in list - click attach and one complete surface is created.

Right click on viewport name and select edged faces. The topology will now be displayed.

To enable the edge of the mask to be straightened along the x axis, a box was drawn around the first set of vertices from the forehead through the nose to the chin. In the geometry tab on the make planar icon , x was clicked.

In the left side view the vertices were pulled out to follow the profile of the face.

How is the modelling stage going, are you having any problems with low poly modelling ?

The image below shows a perfectly straight line topology through the centre of the face and this was achieved by revisiting/ redrawing the central line area in photoshop. The use of the make planar tool will create a straight line, but if the topology is not correct within photoshop to begin with, some of the topology will be outside of the make planar line. The vertices will then be pulled out incorrectly with vertices crossing over.