This will be my last school year Blog post, as I'll be graduating soon (hopefully) and saying goodbye. Iv learned a lot over this year especially in modeling and scene work. Making models was super difficult when we first started all I could make was basic shapes combined and maybe a lathe or two. Textures and lighting were an adventure and really add a lot to the scene. Cameras were short and only the start of animation. Sadly, or maybe luckily we didn't have to do rigging this year.
Ill be using these skills in the future for sure, though I may use a new software and have to adjust slightly. I'm glad I was able to learn as much as I have, and im excited to create more in my own time.
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The latest few projects iv done have used cameras inside of 3ds. Iv been learning their functions and what they are good for. First the settings, similar to real cameras they operate with shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Just like real life they are give and take when it comes to interacting with each other. The biggest difference is that you can create your own light sources, and how it interacts with the model in the picture. settings are a bit confusing in the menu but the options are limited which is helpful for finding a foothold.
Another big part of cameras is their use in animations, and how they move. Similar to real life they can influence the entire feeling. depth of view being a big part, as well as its smooth movement. You can attach it to spline and have it move on a set path. This is perfect for animations and for creating movement even when there technically isn't any. Recently we have started to do uvw mapping for textures, we started small with a box, creating a wrap in another program and being able to set it so that it wrapped around the 3d box like a print. This created an awesomely realistic looking box, one I used with a box i had next to me in real life. The only real downside is my compute likes to compress things so the graphics aren't perfect but its realistic enough. So now I am experienced with simple objects and how they would be wrapped.
Now what does this mean for higher poly count surfaces? Its going to mean more images and lots of more measuring plus placements. Last time I set the box to be in centimeters, measuring with a millimeter ruler and just moving the decimal place up. you can set the size in 3ds to cm as well and easily get matching proportions. While it would be nice to be able to create something new every time we make a scene it saves time to have standard objects. You can adjust them as needed for the scene in question but it pays to have objects prepared. It saves time and it also can benefit from having new objects paired with with it so you don't go off base. I haven't had to reuse much, Though having an example doesn't hurt. Something you can do to widely change it is just adding a new texture or new indents to the model.
Cloth, while I thought it would be hard to use as my teacher described it, The usage was quite simple, I made my cloth out a plane. first I would give it a larger amount of faces so that the cloth could move more realistically. Then I would select the type of fabric and put it in my scene. My piece of cloth was used for a flag, I chose cotton and connected it to a pole by freezing the parts it connected too, as well as making the pole a collision object so it didn't phase through. Lastly I simulated it which just determines a path in respect to any forces around or linked which made it a lot more realistic, and then it could be easily played over and over.
Spacewarps, The forces which can act upon a scene where easy enough to place down, you adjust them mostly in their own modifier tab. Other spacewarps can act upon spacewarps that are already set, for example, through linking sprayer and gravity the water falls in an arc. Spacewarps can also affect kinetic objects, like cloth and wind, creating a flapping in the wind. Both are good for animation and apply a nice design to the scene. I think that the mechs project was a good introduction to using this, I feel like over time my incorporation of 3d into a 2d space will be better, especially with shadows and saturation. definitely this is something I'm going to have to work at to get done well, but I feel it will create a lot of opportunities in my artwork. One of my ideas for something I could create is maybe a suit of armor or perhaps maybe a creature to put in a foreign looking environment.
recently in my dda class we have started using bevel and chamfer quite a bit, along side pro-Boolean that is, but iv started to use them more often. They come in most handy for making designs look more realistic, their indents usually effect corners and make them slanted or smoother. Iv used them mainly to add just a little bit more realism to my shapes, most things have corners like these instead of an exact edge to the shape.
Another new tool I learned about is the poly object which is really useful for creating shapes with random amounts of faces, like pyramids and 20 polygon spheres. This tool is only really for making shapes or adding something to a shape that needs a few extra faces to it on one side. Lastly sweep and scatter have been life savers for making foliage, they add alot of technique to create the appearance of varied life. Is the promise of schools reopening just an idea for what may be possible or is it to serve as a distraction from the reality of schooling currently. I personally do not think there is much of a benefit to reopening schools, not all kids will go back which complicates the schedules for kids at school, as well as the files and work accessible changing. We either all need to go face to face or just stay with the current online learning plan. There could be better planning and grading plans as right now almost every kid seems to be struggling.
Either they are struggling to keep it up or prevent one bad grade from tanking their entire first quarter grade. Being a senior and needing to apply to schools is scary, but having to switch the medium in which I'm learning would likely also lead to worse performance. During this oh so scary month, of October I'm learning about how to execute creating a canyon scene the best, ridges and dusty paths, a town overlook with plenty of jagged out peak. I wonder what game might still use western as the time period as often its pretty boring to me. Its confusing but I feel that i can probably make the rocks look good, what I'm worried about is making it a ravine by accident, canyons and ravines are so similar in my head. If someone was really walking a ravine they would want a way out, but a canyon is more of a cluster to explore, with branching paths of escape. Honestly, i would never go in one anyway, its wild to think time and water made them.
Congrats on school saving children from Covid, but somehow its harder to breath than ever, between a confusing website, multiple problems with teachers, and a confusing regiment, This year is one of the hardest. I don't mean to be super whiny with how this year has been, but I feel that it really is difficult. In person classes were better for most people when it came to understanding, zoom being a substitute is like watching remember the titans for every class. Its good as a quick solution but i wish a more solid idea had come through before we had decided to go with this. I wonder if there was a time frame that we could have stopped covid-19 from reaching here, and that two week spring break didn't turn into the next year.
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