Lighting.

Lighting

Lighting is a complex function in 3dsMax, and its worth noting that it is possible to go to some depths with all the functions of lighting.
What I have learnt is the basics of lighting, enough so that I can create effective lighting on my models to help them appear more realistic.
The two areas that I learnt were:
Omni Spotlights, and Target Spotlights.
Omni Spotlights allow you to light up any part of a scene, working essentially like a light bulb. A good use of such a light would be to place a light from within a pumpkin to create the glow of a Halloween jack-o-lantern, or from inside a window, to create the glow from a house.
The second light type, target spotlight allows you to create light from an angle, either above or below an object. This allows you to create for example the sun shining down onto a object.

Beneath the light options for both of the these further options which you can add to the ligths to give them different effects.
One option, allows you to give the light colour. This could be useful for creating an orange glow for an early morning sunset.
Other options allow you to increase shadows, and their shapes - allowing log shadows for evening scenes etc.
You could also add a "speckled" effect to your images, which could create a rain style effect - this does however increase rendering time, as it renders more information.
Finally, lighting allows you to create atmosphere, which can include fog - I will find this particularly useful for my October image, which will need fog to add a creepy atmosphere.

On learning these new functions available to me in 3dsMax, I now feel that I have barely scratched the surface of this complex program. but I do however, look forward to both learning more about it, and also to making my final models.
I am finding the 3d Modelling complicated myself, and whilst I am creating what I want, its quite a task to create the objects.
I have also found a problem with opening files created by a newer 3dsMax program and the one in the university - This will slow my performance, as I am yet to find a work around.

My only examples of lighting use are not avaliable yet as it is part of my fianl image and not rendered.

A summary so far.

I have been using 3dsmax for just over 3 weeks now and I feel its time to recap over what I have learnt.

So far I have a created a small array of objects, ranging from a chilli, to my red button of doom.
The first few times I have used 3DSmax, I have found it to be fairly confusing, and quite complex, and the camera controls took me a great deal of getting used to.
Once I got to grips with these camera controls and the basics of manipulating a shape into a 3d object, I feel that I am now capable of creating simple ojects and making them look realistic - Coupled with my new knowledge of adding materials, I was able to make these models look much mroe realistic.
I ahve also nwo created a list of models that I wish to create for my calendar product, and have started work on this, by modelling a pumpkin. This has proved to be fairly challenging, as pumpkins have varying sizes and shapes.

Rendering.

Rendering is a very important stage when making models in 3dsMax, as it allows you to make your 3D creations look more like the objects your designing them to be.

Rendering is made up of several areas, and you can build a pallet of different materials which will allows you to render every object in your 3d composition.
The material Pallet can be brought up by pressing M on the keyboard, and brings up space for you t create several different render styles.
To create a new render style, you first click on an empty space in the pallet, then from the options below you can choose the type of render you wish to add. The options are:
Blinn – Which creates a shiny plastic like effect on the object
Arisotropic – Makes the object look rougher, detailed and is a good choice on natural objects such as hair
Metal – Makes objects appear with a matt finish
Oren-Nayar blinn – Applies a velvety finish to the object
Phong and Strauss – Produces a plastic effect, but not as well as other filters
Translucent shader – creates a soft illumination like glow to the object

Along with these styles, its also possible to add in your own material from an image that you have downloaded from the internet or even created yourself in photoshop.
To do this, you click the material button and then choose the file that you wish to use and it will apply it to the object that you select.

An example of my use of the processes listed above can be seen below on my creation, which is entitled "red button of doom"