What are all the models (assets or props) you will need to build for your scene?

• The Grimmerie (A magical book)

• The tree house hideout

• board 

• broom

• shelfs

• A table

• Pots 

• pans

• tea /coffee cups

• utensils

• fruits/ vegetables

Which of these items will require detailed modeling or special attention?

• The Grimmerie

• The tree house hideout

Which objects or characters (if any) will need to be rigged for movement?

• The Grimmerie

How does the design of your character reflect their personality or role in the story?

My character is a magical book, its reflects its role by being magical making objects float, and making light.

   My inspiration for my character was the Grimmerie from the movie Wicked. I designed the cover of the book and pages to reflect the one from the movie. My sketch of the room the scene is gonna take place in helped me a lot to create the actual thing in 3ds max, without it I would've been lost, but because I had the story board I already knew everything I wanted/needed to make for my scene. The modeling tool I probably used the most is edit poly. The grimmerie, unlike normal books, has a hexagonal shape to it, so I used the move vertex tool so I could get the shape that I wanted. The shapes I used all had flat sides so I used the flatten material tool in the UV editor. I made texture maps in photoshop for each page and then for the cover of the book. I first went to the UV editor the object, flatten it, took a screenshot, then put it in photoshop, after that find a picture I want on the object, take a screenshot of that, put it in photoshop, line the picture with the UV editor, save the file, put it as the background of the UV editor, then finally put the map in the material connect to a physical material, then connect the physical material to the object. I'm most proud of how the materials turned out on the object, because it was hard and a lot of steps but it turned out good. 

For the scene I wanted to build an environment that looks dark, and mysterious. My inspiration for the props and environment was Elphaba's hideout from the movie Wicked. I'm proud of how the broom turned out, because it looks realistic and also it looks like the one in Wicked. It was hard making the material for the books in the book shelf, I was able to do it with Photoshop and the UV editor. I tried making the vibe for everything this old, strange, weird vibe. I organized my props by making one at a time then making the groups name called what that certain object is for example bookshelf 1. The asset list helped me a lot. I already knew everything I needed to make, so I just had to make it. I ended up not making everything I put in the asset list like pots and pans because I realized I just didn't need it. While making this project I learned that I could basically take any image and put into the object I wanted with the UV editor and photoshop. I'm excited to start animating and see how everything I worked on turns out.

With the lighting for this project I wanted it to give an old, mysterious, and magical vibe. The types of lights I used were Omni lights and spot lights. I used the spot light as the ceiling light, mainly lighting up the center with an orangy color. I used three omni lights, one on the Grimmerie for it to look like the book lit up (because of its magic), and the other two on the window, one was a dark blue/purple color and the other an off white color. These two lights together looked like natural moon light. Changing the lights intensity, color, and temperature helped a lot, at first I faced a problem. The lighting looked like studio lighting instead of natural lighting, so I changed the settings on the lights and moved them around until I got a good result.

I'm proud of the animation part the most, because the finished animation looked better than what I had imagined. I made sure the animation was a loop by copying the way the book closed then flipping it, I also did this for the camera path. For the objects levitating I looked back to check which were visible then setting the visible back to their original spots, the rest I just moved out of frame. At first I wanted the book opening to be slower so the viewer had time to see the magic of it and take that in, but towards the end everything was squished and sped up so I sped up the book and moved the objects levitating towards the middle.