The Snowman: Tutorial

I needed to create a snowman for the use in my December scene. Rather than list how I made the snowman, I’ve turned it into a useful tutorial.

1. Start a new 3dsMax scene.

2. Draw a sphere using the geometry tool. Name this sphere “body”


3. Draw a second sphere, smaller than the previous one. Whilst I am not listing dimensions, it is worth mentioning that they need to be proportionate. Name this sphere “head”.

4. You now need to adjust the positioning of the second sphere using the select and move tool so that it is directly on top of the smaller sphere. Make sure that you check the front, top and left/right view to make sure its in the correct place, rather than the perspective viewport.

5. Now we need to give the snowman a nose. To create the nose, we start by drawing a cone onto the stage. This is best done in the perspective view.
After drawing the cone, it may be necessary to rotate it so that the point faces away from the snowman’s body.
After rotating the nose, you will most likely need to switch to one of the alternate views and again use the move tool to align it up so it is dead centre. It will be necessary for the nose to intersect the head to make it look more natural.

6. The next important stage for us is to add eyes to the snowman. Start by drawing another much smaller than before sphere. You will then need to adjust it into a position similar to the one shown in the image below using the move tool.

7. To create the opposite sides eye, you will now need to duplicate the first eye. To do this, right click and choose “clone”. Make sure that the box is listed as instance is the one selected, and change the name to “right eye”. Click OK.
A duplicate has now been created, and is actually beneath the current eye. Move the new eye into position using the move tool. The image below should now be similar to what you have so far.

8. Now we have the basics of a snowman, we will add the final piece, a hat.
Start by drawing a cylinder. Make sure that the radius is bigger than the head, but not the body, and that the height is no more than 0.3.
Move this cylinder onto the top of the head using the move tool. Chances are, your snowman should now look like below:

9. Now you need to create the rest of the hat. To do this, create a cylinder with a smaller radius that the last part of the hat, but a much greater height. You snowman is now basically complete, and should look something similar to below:

To finish off, add some materials to the snowman to give him colour, and create some buttons, which can be done similarly to when you created the eyes.

October Comes

My first month was finally completed about a week ago.
In the scene, is a pumpkin patch set against the backdrop of a late October evening.
The processes used to create the entire product are as follows.
Firstly, I created the pumpkin, which involved a standard sphere. From this sphere, I immediately gave it a texture. The reason I did the texture first instead of later was so that I could model the pumpkin off a photo of one I found online.
After this I converted the shape to an editable poly and selected the top segments of the shape. Using the extrude function, I was able to make a realistic looking stalk for the pumpkin – I then selected the segments, and coloured them green to finalise the basic pumpkin shape.
I then continued to sue the extrude function with the rest of the pumpkin. This allowed me to add dents and to give the pumpkin a more natural shape.
In a new document, I then created a single flat plane. This was to serve as the ground. I then gave it a bump map, to make it look rougher and more natural. This was done whilst adding a grassy texture, which was obtained from the Internet.
Next, I imported my pumpkin into the scene. This was then duplicated many times to make a group of pumpkins. I then edited each on individually, similar to the creation process to give them a unique look.
I then created a night background in photoshop , featuring a moon and stars and added it to the render.
I then added a camera to give a more first person perspective to my image, and then I finally added lighting from both sides of the scene to give shadows and to make the scene look more realistic.
The final image is below.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis -
Strengths:
So far my, strengths in this project have been my use of materials.
In my opinion I feel that I have mastered the art of making textures and materials look fairly realistic.
A good example would be my pumpkin patch. To create the pumpkin skin, I took an image of a pumpkin of the internet and I opened it in photoshop. This allowed me to edit the skin and to make it a slightly richer colour (giving the pumpkin a less realistic look, but making it appear more as you expect a pumpkin). The same material was then applied to all the pumpkins and then each pumpkin had its material separate edited to make the patch look varied.
My other strengths in 3ds max include the use of cameras. I feel that I can change the viewpoint easy and create some unusual and exciting viewpoints. This I feel I will be able to use better when I render my final models.
Weaknesses:
My biggest weakness in 3dsMax, and the most visible is that I find it hard to work out the best way to approach creating a model. Often, I find that the easier way of creating a model is often not he most logical eg. working with a cuboid can often be easier to make obects such as arms, rather than the more obvious cylinder.
Also, I have problems occasionally changing the shape to make it into a more realistic styled shape. A good example would be that i have so far found it impossible to create a realistic looking stick to use as an arm on my snowman for the winter scene.
Opportunities:
I was introduced to a new method of creating realistic models in a recent tutorial. The method is called "bones" and involves me creating an inner structure to an object allowing me to flex the object. This method will help me overcome the stick problem mentioned above.
Threats:
The only obstacle I have come across so far that could cause me problems is that I am using a newer version of 3DSmax on my computer at home, which creates files that are not compatible with the version avaliable to me in university.

Cameras

In the most recent lecture, we were introduced to cameras.
Cameras allow you to choose the angle that your final render will be shown from. A very good use would be to, for example to gve an image a first person view.
To add a camera to a scene, its simply the same as adding a light. Simply click on the camera option, choose "target" and draw the camera where you you would like it to be.
Should you wish to change the perspective to this camera, simply right click on the camera and choose view from camera. When you come to render your object, make sure you select the camera angle you have created, and the object will be rendered in your camera view.