3D Modeling & Animation Reflections
Year-Year
Embedded Files
Quarter 1
Quarter 1
Reflection 1 Title
Reflection 1 Title
9/1/2025
Reflection 1
Why did you take this class (3d Modeling and Animation 1)?
I took 3d Modeling and Animation 1 because I was interested in 3d Modeling. I have never taken a class like this one, an art class, so I thought it would be fun to test my hand for my senior year. I also am also interested in weather or not I like 3d Modeling, because it seems like a fun hobby. I have seen many videos on the internet of people making animations, and this is what gave me the idea to sign up. I saw some animations of cars, and it looked really cool. I want to make something like what I saw in this class. I had room in schedule so I figured I would take the class.
What do you expect to get out of it?
I don't think I will be quite as good as what I saw on the internet, but I hope to be given a baseline knowledge level. I hope to be given enough knowledge that I am in a position that I can teach myself whatever else I want to know. Once you reach a level of mastery in a topic, you are able to easily teach yourself any additional knowlege when you need it. This is what I am looking for. I want to learn to make basic animations. This includes making all the models, as well as setting up the scene and animating.
9/10/2025
Reflection 2 - Module 1
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activites. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use? Be specific and provide Images of example work to help you explanation.
Througout this first module, I learned how to use basic functions in 3ds Max. Firstly, I learned how to manipulate the camera, and viewport, which allows me to get a better idea of what I am creating. I learned how to create primatives, using the commands panel. I can create a variety of primatives, as well as change and manipulate them using the modify tab once they are created. I learned to use the basic tools such as rotate and scale, to move and rotate these primatives around. This allowed me to create my first creation, a snowman, as shown below. This snowman demonstrates the basic skills that I learned, scaling, moving, and changing the color of primatives. Then, I created a pencil. This pencil, as shown below, is simmilar to the snowman in style. However, it is slightly more complicated, and demonstrates skills like using more complicated primatives, and being more precise with the manipulation and movement of the primatives. One tip that I learned with the pencil to make creating these precise movements more easily is using the coordinates at the bottom of the screen to move each primatives to a precise, exact position. This is much easier than attempting to reach the same precision when moving it with the mouse. Finally, I created the 'Temple of the Primatives'. This scene was more complicated than the previous two, requiring me to create a reference image inside of 3ds Max, and create my models to match it, using, manipulating, and combining many primatives to achieve this. I also used the array function to duplicate the columns once I had made one. A tip I learned during this project is to use the keybinds to change the camera angle, from perspective, to front, left, and top. This is much faster, and helps to give you a better understanding of where your models are in the scene.
Discuss how how you might use these skills in the future and explain why they are important. Give clear examples from the work you completed in this module.
The skills I learned are important because they are fundamental to using 3ds Max. Mastery of the basics, the skills which I learned within module 1, are crucial to continue learning, and developing more advanced skills later on. I can use these skills to create these basic models, and within reasonable time constraints. Even the skills of making these basic models will be helpful later on, allowing me to create basic stand-in models for my scenes, as well as quickly creating concept art. This is important because my goal with this class is to be able to create models and animation, and these models are the first step toward creating more advanced ones and detailed models. The ability to make models is also needed to make animations, as I need models to animate.
9/22/2025
Reflection 3 - Module 2
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activities. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use? Be specific and provide images of example work to help with you explanation.
First in this module, I learned a little about how to render scenes. I created a scene called "Four Corners Scene", made from using various privatives. After completing the scene, I rendered an image for the first time, as seen below. Then I learned how to manipulate pivots, and when to use which type of pivot. I also made a small cat character, which required more precise and exact manipulation of privatives than ever before. I used the snaps, customizing which snaps I wanted to help reach high levels of precision for a large portion of the model. Attached below is an image of this cat in the "Temple of the Primatives" I made previously. Importing this temple into the scene with Alfie was also a new skill that I used. One tip that I learned is to have four viewports up at once, each one looking at the model from a different angle. For example, I may use one from the top view, one from left view, one perspective looking down at the model, and one perspective looking up at it. This allows me to understand where I am moving objects in my scene better, and be more precise and efficient while creating my models.
Discuss how you might use the skills in the future and explain why they are important. Give clear example from the work you completed in this module.
Firstly, knowledge of creating renders in crucial and foundational for 3d models. Renders allow me to create a finished image, as opposed to simply screenshotting viewports as before. This will be use for almost everything moving forward, like the 4 corners scene I made. The skills I learned while creating the cat character, such as using snaps, are especially important because it not only allows me to make precise models, but create this precision fast and efficiently. I nearly cut the time in half that I used to spend moving primatives around by using snaps to snap them into position. Importing objects that I also learned while making Alfie is important because often, each model will be made separately to speed up the process, and allow many people to work on the same scene at the same time.
10/8/2025
Reflection 4 - Module 3
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activities. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use? Be specific and provide images of example work to help with your explanation.
This module was spent learning a variety of details oriented toward adding more detail to models. Specifically, edit poly was introduced and used heavily. Edit poly can be used to turn basic privatives into more refined and specific objects. For example, in my Lego minifigure model (image 1) required using the edit poly modifier to change a basic cylinder into a Lego head. I also learned how to use splines to create specific shapes, as shown in my chess pawn and screwdriver (images 2 & 3). I also learned to use various other modifiers, such as noise to generate random shapes (shown in image 4 field scene) and smooth and mirror (shown in image 5 spaceship). Finally, I culminated these skills in my video game props. I used mirror to create the blade, creating one side first then mirroring it over. I used edit poly to turn rectangles into different shapes, like the handguard and blade, I used mesh smooth to smooth over rough edges. I used noise to vary the gemstones added to the sword.
Discuss how you might use these skills in the future and explain why they are important. Give clear examples from the work you completed in this module.
The skills I learned in this module are very important going forward. Using edit poly is a foundational peice in modeling, without it I would simply be arranging primatives. This allows me to have much more control of my models going forward, and will allow for much higher fidelity and detail. For example, I would not have been able to create my sword without edit poly. In addition, smoothing over modules will be applied to almost every model going forward, because very sharp edges almost never happens in real life, and is unrealistic.
10/24/2025
Reflection 5 - Module 4
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activities. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use?
During this module, module 4, The main focus was on using the lighting and some rendering in order to present the models that I created. I leared how to use and differentiate between different types of light. For example, I used spotlights in the first two images attached to create more atmospheric effects. I used omni lights in the second image to represent the lamp. I also learned to change settings in these lights, for example in the last image I used the sword that I created in the last module. In addition to lights, I leared to use cameras. Mostly, I used physical camera, but learned about the other two types as well. Using the camera allows me to create specific views for my objects, and change the parameters of how the render will look. In the third image, I combined my knowledge of cameras and lights to light the sword I created last module and make a render of it. I used three lights, a main spotlight, a secondary one to cancel the shadow of the first, and an omni light as backlighting. I used orange lighting to create a fire light. Finally, I refreshed by modeling skills by creating a simple table and lamp, using splines and lathe, and then applied lighting using omni and spotlights, and rendered an image.
Discuss how you might use these skills in the future and explain why they are important.
The skills I learned, lighting, camera, and rendering, will be very important moving forward. Previously, once done with a model, I would simply screenshot the viewport. However, this method is not very good for presentation, and by using lighting and cameras, I can create a much more stylized depiction of my object. Using lighting can help to make models look much better, and create a better atmosphere. In addition, when I begin to animate my models, cameras will be necessary to capture this.
10/31/2025
Reflection 6 - Quarter 1 Reflection
Throughout the first half of this class, I have gone from zero modeling knowledge or experience, to a skill level sufficient to make basic, but appealing models and scenes. I learned how to use move and size various primatives to create various very basic models. I then moved into manipulating these models, using things like edit poly and meshSmooth. I learned how to use lighting to present my models. I learned to apply materials to my objects, increasing their fidelity. I learned how to manipulate renders, to create a high quality image of my models. I learned all of these specific skills and techniques in the first half of the class.
There were specific examples of my learning throughout this quarter of the year. For example, the spaceship that I modeled in unit 3 was my first major usage of edit poly to create a model from scratch. Another example is my sword model, I continually worked on throughout most of the quarter. The lamp was a notable project where I combined my knowledge of modeling, with my knowledge of lighting that I learned in unit 5. Overall, my knowledge of 3d modeling has gone from zero, to solid basic foundations for modeling, and creating scenes. Moving forward, these skills will allow me to create simple animations, and potentially better renders.
Quarter 2
Quarter 2
11/7/2025
Reflection 7 - Module 5
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activities. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use?
Throughout this module, module 5, I mainly focused on using materials and textures, and how different renderers interact with these. I made four different models, and presented them in a display case, called "Still Life!". First, I made the falcon (far right), this was my first experience with texturing. I used the compact material editor to select a wax material preset. Then, I made the ring, this was my first experience in changing from presets. I used a gold preset, but then made changes to it, to allow it to look more yellow. The Heart (far right), was made up of two parts, the metal part was easy, I simply used a silver preset, but for the diamond, I needed to create custom values, editing a stained glass preset to match a diamond. Finally, the bowling ball was the most complicated, I took a marble preset texture, and stretched it out to cover the entire ball. I changed the colors to red and black, and added shine to it.
Discuss how you might use these skills in the future and explain why they are important.
The skills I learned in this module, texturing, are very important. These texture allow me to increase the fidelity of my models significantly. This is very apparent when comparing my models from last module to this module. It allows me to have greater control of the style I create my models in. This also allows me to be able to differentiate between materials, with more difference than simple color change. I demonstrated this increase in fidelity by applying simple textures to my sword model from last module, and by comparing the two the significant differences is easily noticed. Going forward I will likely use these skills on all of my models.
11/14/2025
Reflection 8 - Module 6
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activities. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use?
Throughout this module, module 6, I mainly focused on using UVW maps. Learned how to break objects up into individual faces. This allows me to use custom and specific textures to objects. For example, in the Indiana Jones minifigure, I use UVW maps to apply specific graphics to certain parts of the minifigure. to do this I used the unwrap UV modifier. This allows me to split up the faces of the object, and arrange them in order to properly texture the minifigure. I also created multi sub-objects in order to use two different bitmaps while texturing the tank.
Discuss how you might use these skills in the future and explain why they are important.
The skills I use will be useful for future projects. When I wish to create object that to use a uniform texture, I will use this. For example, If I want to create some form of sign, or graphic on one of my objects. This also allow me to position the textures much more intentionally and have much more control of how the object looks. The increase in control will allow me to increase the fidelity of my models. Using uvw maps is a significant improvement in my modeling ability.
12/9/2025
Reflection 9 - Module 7
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activities. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use?
Throughout this module, module 7, I mostly focused on rigging. I first learned about bones, and how to create them. I learned how to create chains, and used weight maps to make the skin move correctly. I also learned about different setting for the bones, to make them move in different ways for different purposes. I learned how to apply these bones to models. I could then use them to pose the model.
Discuss how you might use these skills in the future and explain why they are important.
The skills I use will be useful for future projects. Using rigging and bones allows me to move my models around, so for animation it is critical. The rig for me to move the model around much easier. This will save lots of time when making animations for moving objects. Otherwise, animating objects that have moving parts would be much harder, and be extremely tedious.
12/16/2025
Reflection 10 - Module 8
Describe what you learned in the module and it's associated activities. What topics did you explore? What tools or techniques did you use?
Throughout this module, module 8, I focused on animation. I learned how to use the slider at the bottom to more through time. I learned to use keyframes to animate my models. To use keyframes, I do not have to create every single frame. Instead, I just make important moves, such as saying I want the arm down on frame zero, but I want it all the way up by frame 10, and the computer will do all the work in between. This is much more practical that going frame by frame and making small adjustments. I also learned how to move cameras along certain paths to get the best camera angles of what is happening in my animation. This is the first time that I have ever made an animation, only modeling before, but I used all these aforementioned skills in the Big Premiere! video that is below.
Discuss how you might use these skills in the future and explain why they are important.
The skills I learned will be very important for future projects. This allows me to create animations, instead of my previous still images. If I want to create more animations in the future, these skills will be crucial. Without animation skills, I am unable to animate, which is a significant obstacle in animation. I will use these skills in my PBM, as I create a short looped animation. This is likely the last set of skills I will learn in this class.
big_premere_2025.mp41/12/2026
Reflection 11 - Quarter 2 Reflection
Throughout quarter 2 of 3d Modeling and Animation I, I learned a significant amount of skills. Out of all of these skills, the two most impactful and important are obviously the ability to create and edit textures for my models, and the ability to create animations. These are two essential skills, and have been critical in learning how to model in 3ds Max. At the beginning of the quarter, my knowledge of these topics was severely limited, I only knew how to change the color of elements. However, at the end of the unit, I was not only able to create and edit textures, but create some animations too. This is a significant step in learning 3ds Max.
While I did learn a lot of new things in Quarter 2, topic from quarter 1, such as modeling and lighting still proved extremely useful. The project that demonstrated this and allowed me to learn the most was the Big Premier Project. This allowed me to tie together my knowledge from Quarter 1, such as modeling and lighting, together with my new knowledge. However, the project that best demonstrates my final skill in 3ds Max is my PBM project. This project serves as a conclusion to my modeling for this class, and demonstrates all my skills. It shows how I can model, when I modeled objects like a future tank or laptop, it shows how I can create a scene and light it. Most importantly, it shows how I can animate realistic and cinematic movement in my scene. It is the culmination of all the skills I have learned throughout this course, and is shown below.
PBM_Final_2026.mp4Page updated
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