Why I chose 3D Modeling & Animation.

Why did you take this class?

I chose to take 3D Modeling and Animation because I think it's really cool to see how people make objects in 3D and how people make animations and even make games. I think it would be a cool and fun experience to start making designs and animations of my own.

What do you expect to get out of it?

Something I expect to get out of this class is different skills I can use in the future and the knowledge of how to make 3D models and be able to make animations on my very own.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I chose the 3D Modeling and Animation class because I think it would be fun to work with technology and learn how to make cool designs with computers and make animations on my own and make them into real-life animations and see how I can turn something realistic. I wanted to take this class to get a better understanding of how to program computers better and slowly start working on my own projects and animations. One goal I want to achieve in this class is to earn my certification and move on from this class to gaming designs so I can start working on my own game designs and slowly start working on my own game and work on my very own animation and make a good portfolio so I can put it on my resume so I can get a good job with the experience I have with working with computers.

Module 1 reflection.

What I've learned: In Module 1 I've learned A LOT, and it was a lot of fun and challenging, but I was able to use all the tools to help me complete my projects and get good grades. One of my favorite tools would have to be holding Alt and holding the scroll wheel because it helps me get around faster instead of me struggling by clicking the little cube on the side to move around. It helps me by getting a more accurate angle on my project so I can get a good grade.

How may the skills I've learned help me in the future?

I think the skills I've learned so far could take me far places and are one step to getting me to making my own game and making more cool projects in the future and going places.

Summary: I've gained a lot of knowledge in Module 1 and I thought it  was both fun and challenging. I especially liked the "alt + scroll wheel" navigation tool because it helped me get those precise angles for projects. I think that these skills are important for creating my own game and working on future projects. This shows what I'm learning now connects to my long-term goals. So, the skills I've picked up can help me in making my own game and other projects later on.

Module 2

3/6/2026

So far I've made a lot of really cool stuff with the tools I'm learning how to use in 3ds max. One of my favorite tools is the extruding tool because it really helps me out on the projects. One example is my Lego minifigure; I needed the extrude tool to pull down its neck and make it fit in place, and another way I'm using it right now is by trying to make my wings on my spaceship, and I'm getting better with all the tools I've learned how to use, and hopefully I'll be using them as an advantage on my 3D modeling certificate test

Module 3       3/25/26

I’ve made a lot of progress in this module, and I feel way more confident in what I can do. I’ve really improved my skills with the Edit Poly tool to make shapes. Right now, I’m working on Module 4, where I’m learning all about lights and cameras. BrainBuffet has been super helpful whenever I'm having issues with projects. So far, I’ve used these new skills to create a spaceship and a detailed chess pawn. I also have a few more projects that I can’t wait to start doing. Overall, I'm proud of myself for learning new tools and learning new things about computers that I didn't know about. I would recommend taking 3D modeling for a class because you could have a lot of fun making stuff in 3ds Max, but you're also learning a lot about 3ds Max. One of my goals in the future is to take the certificate test and pass and also take 3D modeling 2 my sophomore year and start working with games and producing my very own games. Right now I'm currently working on my project; I'm working on the Pokemon vicinity. It isn't as easy as I thought it would be; it requires a lot of edit poly to get all the body parts looking like the reference image. Overall I'm getting better at using the tools and all the controls to get my projects looking good.

Q1 summary

I included this in my portfolio to demonstrate how much I've improved in 3D modeling using 3ds Max. I got inspired by the awesome racing ships from Cowboy Bebop. I applied box modeling and use Edit Poly to create the hollow wings, and I'm really happy with how well-balanced they turned out. One major challenge was working with splines. I had to start over several times because I was unsure of what to do! My friend Dante eventually showed me that you can adjust the points even after you've finished drawing, which saved me a lot of time. I'm proud of myself for not giving up, even when it was frustrating. I also created a nature scene featuring mushrooms and flowers. I had to figure out how to use the array tool to make the petals spin around the center. This project taught me a lot about keeping my models organized, and I believe I did a pretty good job, although there's always room for improvement. Overall, I think this module was definitely the longest module.

Module 4

Module 4 for me has been the one module were you actually have to lock in and understand how to use the new tools that Brain Buffet teaches you. Module 4 we worked lights and how to increase the intensity of the light and use the lighting skills we've learned to  make a backdrop and add one of my projects i made from other modules and put them in the backdrop to put lighting to make them glow. Another tool I've learned this module is how to render, we use render to make a picture of our final project look nice and glow one example is Citizen Kane we had to make the project look like the actual movie scene so we had to put a omni light in the lamp for it to look like the lamp was turned on and then we had to render the photo and then put the rendered image into monochrome so it would look like the actually movie scene I did the same with my lamp I made first I made the base which required me to trace half of the body and then use the lathe tool to make the body look accurate, Then after i put a omni light inside the lamp after I finished making the top layer of the  lamp and I had to dim the intensity of the omni light so it would look good. Overall I've learned ALOT of new skills and tools and I hope to learn some more tools and skills lather on so i can start on my PBM.

Module 5

In Module 5 we learned a lot about using different tools and using the rendering tool to render our image to make it look good. We also worked on the "still life." project, and it required us to make a bunch of different items to get our final project to look like a bunch of items were stored in a container. We made a bowling bowl, a falcon, and a diamond; for the diamond, we had to add a shiny texture to make it look glossy and make it shine like an actual diamond. In my opinion this was the shortest module, and I think I need to work more on it to get my texturing skills better so I can really get ready for my PBM.

Module 6

Module 6 was one of the shortest modules yet, A quick summary of what we were doing in module 6 is we were working with new tools we made Indiana Jones as a Lego figure and we made his clothing and everything to make the Lego figure accurate we work a lot with materials and different types of materials that we  used to add a different type of texture that we add on our creations that we made we also made a tank and we used alot of edit poly for that and after we finised making our base we could add a texture of our own which I found very fun. We also used A lot of Uvw map which helped out alot with Indiana Jones and his clothes. We had to make the clothes fit in perfectly and after all was done we turned out with out very own indiana Jones lego figure and tank and that was all that happened in Module 6. Im hoping all these skills im learning could really help me on  my PBM and I cant wait to start learning how to animate and make my projects come to life.

Module 7

Module 7 is probably one of or the most shortest modules out there all we did  for Module 7 is we learned how to start rigging and we also learned how to create bones and make the skin of our project connect with the bones we just made and we made it move like actual human bones and we had to make 3 different poses with the frankenstone and with our lego figure which was fun to do but it was difficult at the start but as I started paying closer attention to the video it was actually way easier than I expected. I think learning these tools will really help with the PBM and i can make something really cool and to pass the cert test.

Module 8

Module 8 is the most hardest,stressful module yet we are finally starting to make animations. We are trying to recreate a scene from from indiana jones basically what happens is our lego figure is walking straight down an aisle and he stops beacuse he sees a giant stone monster aka Frankenston and Frankenston jumps at Indiana jones and he turns around and books it. This is all we were really doing in module 8 it was fun adding bones to Frankenston and making his skin move with the bones like an actual human being. But one thing this module is good for is it's teaching us how to animate and we would really need it for our PBM beacuse we have to make our creation move around.