This week at university we had a 3D workshop that lasted the majority of the week, we were tasked with making a street scene in 3DS Max and texturing it. We had no tri or texture limits but we had had to make sure we were efficient and not make anything ridiculous like a 20,000 tri phonebox; everything had to be in proportion too so no 500 tri phoneboxes next to a 5000 tri dustbin. Initially the task did feel a little daunting especially on top of my other work but I definitely gave it 100% ( and barely slept) but the end result was pretty satisfying. To begin with I modelled a phonebox, I mainly tried this as I had previously attempted it towards the start of the year and thought it would be good to compare; its safe to say i've improved. To be fair it was the start of the year so it was pretty terrible, the tri count was through the roof and the textures didn't line up what so ever but this attempt turned out to be a pretty realistic phonebox. I also decided to use previous assets I had modelled for various assessments to help build a realistic scene, with a little help laying it out from Google maps I managed to create an accurate street around my architecture project. During this week I also learnt a lot about rendering and the use of lighting which is something I had been guessing a lot in my previous work but I will definitely try to incorporate these techniques in my future work. I may also look in to external rendering software such as Marmoset Toolbag.
I do feel a lot more confident using 3DS Max now and I am lot more confident about the Transit van project I have been set that I will need to hand in next week. It has also pushed me to do 3D work in my spare time too like I would with visual design, perhaps modelling objects that I find interesting or that challenge me.
