3D Modeling & Animation Reflections
2025/26
2025/26
Why did you take this class?
I chose this class because I wanted to broaden my skills as a visual artist and to learn more about the world of 3D design. I believe that having a diverse creative skill set can open up a lot of opportunities for both careers and personal projects. I own a 3D printer and it would be neat to be able to create my own specialized models for printing as opposed to finding pre-made ones online. Generally, I am also just curious about how 3D modeling works, and what goes into creating the impressive models found in movies and games. In total, it was a combination of wanting to learn useful new tools and a curiosity about how modeling works that inspired me to take the class.
What do you expect to get out of it?
By the end of this semester, I hope to have a decent basic understanding of how to create, rig, and stylize models within 3DS, and be able to apply these skills elsewhere. Taking this class will hopefully pair well with my previous experience in video and graphic design. Ideally, this will allow me to implement models and 3D skills into other graphics, videos and more. In addition to this, having a certification within the program will help to fill out my resume and expand upon potential job opportunities. It's also beneficial to learn new tools and I hope to learn enough to be proficient in modeling while also enjoying the process. So, as the semester progresses, I hope to achieve these goals and have fun doing it!
Summary
In this module, we focused on learning how to maneuver about the interface and basic skills in 3ds max such as creating, transforming, modifying, and cloning polygons in the viewport. I learned how to create and move the standard primitives, or shapes, which include boxes, cones, spheres, and more. I then applied this new knowledge into creating beginner projects such as the snow man that mainly consists of transformed spheres and a few cones and cylinders. As I progressed onto the temple of the primitives project, I gained experience working with the array tool which allows you to uniformly clone objects in rows, columns, and even layers. Additionally I was able to modify existing polygons precisely by utilizing the modify tab and the objects parameters. Ultimately, the skills I gained in this module will be useful later on in the semester.
Applications
These skills are most heavily utilized during the blocking phase of the production process and are crucial to developing your skills further as a 3d modeler. More specifically, having experience with understanding and using transform tools correctly to compile multiple objects is a key step in learning the program. Even with just these basic skills, I can now create simplistic yet still semi-professional looking models, such as the pencil, that could have uses as props in video games or even low poly backgrounds or environments. Knowing how to precisely modify object placement and size helps to make models or scenes that look cleaner, but also prevents further clean up in later production phases. Generally, an adequate understanding of basic skills in 3Ds can greatly boost your career as a 3D modeler, and allow you to become more fluent in the program.
Summary
For our second module of the semester, we further developed our skills via learning new tools such as editing pivots in the hierarchy tab, grouping, snapping, and inputting exact parameters while creating objects. One example of how I used these skills during the module was creating the four corners scene. By using the keyboard inputs within the command panel to type exact parameters and coordinates, I was able to create a scene that was precise and nearly identical to the tutorial. Later in the module, I learned how to customize and use the snaps tool to assemble the parts of Aflie Hitchcat. Within the snaps tool, you can select various options for how it functions, including snapping to edges, end points, grids, and more. This combined with the use of isolating axes allowed me to precisely align and assemble the front legs and then the rest of Alfie's body. Then, using the group function, I was able to organize the parts within the scene explorer and move multiple polygons as one linked object. In all, this module allowed me to build upon my previous skills and increase my efficiency and precision.
Applications
The most useful skills I gained through this module were the snapping and grouping tools. While at times frustrating, snapping allows a modeler to perfectly align almost any part of a object with another object in the scene quickly. Not only is this more precise than attempting to align objects visually, but it also speeds up the process and creates cleaner models. Secondly, the group tool is incredibly useful as a modeler to organize objects in the scene explorer and move multi-object models with ease. Organization is important when modeling especially while working in files that require many objects and the group tool is an easy way to do this. Furthermore, combining the snap and group function while transforming models makes assembling objects much easier and faster. Overall, all tools learned in this module will aid a modeler by saving time and staying organized for future projects.
Summary
Over the course of our third module, we learned about sub object editing and how to apply various modifiers to yield different results. Specifically in our first project of the module, I utilized the edit poly modifier to create the various parts of a flower. What edit poly does is it allows you to select and modify any part of an object such as vertices, edges, faces, and even the entire object. This was by far the most useful tool I've learned yet as it expands my skills from modeling with basic primitives, to building more complex and customized objects. Furthermore, we also learned about other modifiers such as taper and bend, which I used to create the flowers stem in the field scene, as well as noise which adds a natural randomness to models that can make it look more organic. Our skills were then put to the test with our final student choice project. I practiced using reference images, edit poly, and other object manipulation skills to block out and render a toy dinosaur. I created some of my favorite projects this module and I look forward to learning more.
Applications
While being the longest module yet, this module taught us critical modeling skills when it comes to customizing primitives. By being able to manipulate objects on a more precise level, we can now create simplified geometric versions of nearly any shape we may need. This is incredibly useful for any type of modeling considering the majority of models will likely need to be more detailed than the primitives provided. More specifically, this is useful for modeling objects and scenes based off images. Other modifiers also improve modeling efficiency by applying present manipulation techniques to an object that would be difficult and time consuming using only edit poly. With these skills, we have now gained the most basic understanding of what it takes to model objects and as we move forward into lighting and even animation, these tools will be incredibly useful.
Summary
Module four focused on manipulating lights and cameras. Throughout the course, we learned about the various different types of cameras, lights, and how they functioned. Some examples included understanding the difference in control between physical cameras, free cameras and target cameras as well as how spot, direct, and omni lights function in a scene. For the 3-point lighting project, showcased on the right, I learned to position and edit the settings of a camera to properly capture a dynamic and well centered render of my previously modeled dinosaur. Using a spot light as my brightest key light, I then positioned other omni and spotlights to light my subject from multiple angles in a way that softens harsh shadows and best showcases the models details. In total, this module opened the door to being able to showcase models in a visually pleasing way.
Applications
After completing the modeling process, it is important to be able to showcase your work in a way that highlights the details. Lights and cameras allow you to transform simple images into well lit and well positioned renders that have semi realistic attributes. More specifically, lighting is especially important for modeling landscapes and scenes that are meant to mock real life visuals. For example, I created a small, simple scene of a desk and lamp, and placed various different light sources throughout the scene and inside of models. As a result, I crafted a dimly lit and semi-realistic room that resembled the way lamp light would function in a real life setting. For modelers that create architectural works or even object and character modelers, understanding lighting and camera angles allows for more striking and realistic renders that best illustrate their technical skills. These rendering skills will be especially important as we move into materials and understanding how lighting affects certain textures.
Summary
This module was centered around everything materials and a little bit of maps. Through a short still life project, we learned how to use the slate material editor and how to edit and apply many different types of materials. For the ring, I used a metallic gold present and manipulated different parameters such as roughness, metalness, and IQR which affects the ray depth and how reflective certain materials appear. The Heart of the Ocean pendant used two different materials, one silver metallic for the outside and a blue tinted solid glass material with an IQR of 2.4 to replicate the real life qualities of a diamond. On the other hand, the bowling ball was created with a composite material, a material that combines two or more materials, called shellac. The base material was a marbled red and black color map while the second layer was to add a transparent gloss. Furthermore, we also learned a little bit about opacity maps and how to import and use your own bit maps as materials.
Applications
Materials now allow us as modelers to decorate our models and apply textures that resemble the real life objects we may be trying to replicate. Especially when it comes to objects that have special patterns and textures or require parts to be transparent or reflective, materials add depth to models and make renders look much more professional and accurate to real life. The material parameter editor also then enables us to change present maps and materials to achieve more customized and unique looking textures. Material editing knowledge and an understanding of how to navigate the slate material editor will also serve as a good base as we delve further into working with UVW maps. So far, these material skills along with lighting level up models from digitized and somewhat flat looking objects into nearly photorealistic ones. It's especially interesting to see how objects with different materials interact with each other and the scene around them in terms of shadows and reflections.
Skills & Techniques
Throughout this first quarter and the first half of this course, I learned many tools and techniques that took my understanding of how to work with 3ds max from absolute beginner level to having a decent grasp on the programs basics. First we started with understanding basic primitives, which include boxes, spheres, cones, cylinders and more. Using only these primitives, I learned to block out and compile multiple shapes into one cohesive model, such as the temple of the primitives. Moving forward, I then learned about modifiers, a key one being edit poly which allowed me to edit sub-object pieces like faces, edges, and vertices. With this knowledge I made models such as the field scene, the robo dinosaur, the spaceship and many more. This was what really allowed me to grow as a modeler as it took my skills from only being able to model simpler, geometric models to more complex and customized ones. Finally to conclude the quarter, we worked with lights, cameras, and materials. This had to be my favorite portion of the course so far as it now gives me the tools to play around with the visual effects of scenes and models as well as add detail. Overall, I am much more confident as a modeler to conclude this quarter compared to when I had never even opened the program before.
Challenges
As I learned new tools and techniques to make models, each presented their own challenges. Some things I struggled most with were messy details when modeling with edit poly. This happened a lot especially during the most difficult model of the quarter, my robot dinosaur. Often my shapes would be made of custom splines with unique and intricate edges that when made into a 3D object would get mixed up and complicated, especially at round edges and corners. To overcome this I would zoom in closely to the messier areas and using the vertex selection tool, I would hand move each point to a place where it was no longer overlapping or confusing the model. While this certainly was not the most efficient way to solve this dilemma, it worked and I was still able to achieve the look I was going for. The downside to this method was I would sometimes get areas that still looked sloppy after manually fixing them and I often had to sacrifice areas of detail like along the neck armor of the dinosaur in order to not overcomplicate it. However it still resolved nicely and by using clever lighting techniques to render the final images, I was able to disguise certain areas that lacked precision. Going into the next quarter, I hope that my skills will improve and I get more better and more efficient and resolving struggles such as these.
Goals for next quarter
Moving forward into the next quarter, I hope to develop my skills even further. More specifically, I want to increase my efficiency as a modeler and learn new skills to hasten the modeling and design process. One way to improve can simply be getting more practice with precisely using some of the edit poly tools. On the other hand, starting with more accurate blocking for the models would save refining and detailing time later in the process. Additionally, I hope to get better at assigning materials, which we had briefly covered at the end of the quarter. I want to be able to create custom and visually interesting materials that, paired with models, best mimic real life objects or combine lighting and textures in a striking way. Lastly, I am especially excited to learn to animate and I hope to combine my modeling skills with rigging skills to create professional quality animations that I can be proud of. In summary, there is always room for improvement and as I gain more and more experience, I hope to be a proficient 3D modeler by the end of the course.
Summary
Through this module, I learned how to customize and use a special mapping system called UVW that works similar to XYZ coordinates to apply custom textures, images, and appearances to 3D surfaces. We used a modifier called UnwrapUVW to apply an indiana jones costume to our lego mini figures. Through this, we learned about peeling maps, selecting and manipulating clusters, editing seams, and how to reduce distortion through various tools. Then to demonstrate these new skills, I quickly modeled a simple tank and learned about multi sub-object materials and how to assign different textures to different faces of the same object. However I did mine a little differently and exported my UVW into photoshop and made a custom UVW texture that I then applied as a physical material.
Applications
UVW mapping works especially well for simpler geometric models and there are various different ways to affect how each face of the texture appears. For example, with the tank model, a multi sub-object material can be applied to make the lower part of the tank textured with one bitmap that looks like tire treads, while the upper surfaces are a a bitmap of a rough metal texture. UVW's finally enable us to unwrap models add customized patterns, similar to sewing clothing, that are not available in the preset materials. Despite its complexity, this saves time and achieves a more detailed look. Through this we can apply things like faces to characters and detailed clothing textures and have precise control on how the textures are applied to the surface, as seen in the lego model.
Summary
We got our first introduction into a process called "rigging" in this module. Rigging is essentially using various tools like bones, bipeds, skin modifiers and weight solvers to give your models a movable skeleton that allows you to pose and later animate models. We practiced this by creating bones for the stone monster showcased on the right. I learned how to create and edit my own bones and then apply a skin modifier that attaches said bones to the model. I then used weight solvers to compute how heavily each bone affects each part of the model. We also learned about controllers which can take many forms and allow you to manipulate models in different ways. For the lego Dr. Frankenstone, I created a controller for the head and body and added locks that moved different parts depending on which way I turned or moved the controller. While complicated and tedious, the rigging process is crucial as we move into animation.
Applications
With the addition of rigging, I can now pose models without changing the actual structure of the model itself. Bones go inside the model and function similar to human bones, as in moving a bone moves the model. The Biped preset is especially useful for models with limbs or several moving joints that are more similar to a bipedal structure and the preset can simply be modified to fit the model. With proper model posing, modelers can better showcase models from many angles and positions that can be used to tell a visual story. These built in puppet like structures also are used to move parts to animate moving parts of models which opens a surplus of creative possibilities and expands skills from still visual modeling to 3D moving storytelling.
4 Corners - Path Constraints
File organization was key for completing this project, and by keeping multiple folders per module and per assignment, I was easily able to access my file. It's important to also back up all files to the drive occasionally so that if files are lost on the desktop, they can still be recovered.
As far as the task itself, we learned that adding a path constraint to the car restricted it's movement to only follow the assigned path. This made it so that the car appeared to be driving along the path of the road. However to make it more realistic, the following axis had to be flipped to make it drive the right way, and I added a bank parameter of 0.2 to make turns look more natural. Then after adjusting the animation to 24 seconds, the car's speed or duration did not change, which then required the re-scale time option to be edited. This is so that the key frames would extend through all frames, meaning the car was in motion throughout the entire 24 seconds. This also made the car slower so it looked more leisurely. Finally, by using a custom 30 FPS instead of 29.97 (NTSC), the frame count was more exact and allowed for a cleaner looping animation. Higher frame rates create smoother animations but also have higher frame counts and rendering time. On the other hand lower frame rates appear choppier and more like stop motion, but do require less frames and therefore require less animation work and computing power to render.
4 Corners - Lights & Cameras
Different kinds of lights influenced this scene in various ways, for example the omni light was set to a soft purplish color with low intensity to replicate the look and feel of moonlight. In contrast a skylight was used to provide a warm yellow light to fill the entire scene, similar to sunlight. Though it was somewhat time consuming inputting specific color and position parameters to animate the lights, the effect in achieved was really cool, making it seem to shift from day to night smoothly.
In order to create the appearance of headlights coming from the car, I had to first use the align tool to align the spotlight to the correct headlight by adjusting axis parameters so that it shone in the right place and direction. Then I linked it to the car so that they moved together as one piece. After animating with key frames, the addition of headlights made it so that they turned on at night, allowing us to see the road ahead in the free camera render. Each light added to the scene mimicked the lighting of real life day and night. For example when the scene changes to night time, the only lighting comes from the car's headlights and the faint glow of moonlight. Similarly during the day, a bright overhead skylight fills the scene and casts shadows and the headlights are off, just like real life. In order to make it realistic, I edited the colors of all the lights and timed them with keyframes to come on at certain times, flowing smoothly between each and rotating around the plane, similar to the orbit of the sun and moon. Then by enabling shadows, especially for the daylight, objects like trees or buildings cast shaded areas across the scene that stretched and moved as the light moved, just as shadows do in real life.
Finally, the scene was rendered with two animated cameras. The free camera (video 1) was linked to the car body in order to mimic the view of a passenger inside the car looking out at the road ahead. In contrast, the target camera (video 2) was placed in the center and linked to track the cars movement around the track. Unlike the free camera, this provides the point of view of someone outside the car, watching it move along the road through day and night.
Summary
Module 8 finished off our skills as a modeler with learning to animate. Through animating multiple scenes between Dr. Franketstone and the Frankestone monster, I learned to navigate the timeline as well as various new UI's. I began with animating simple objects like spheres by using keyframes to block out the movement and then letting the computer animate all the frames in between. Working with something called the curve editor, I was able to precisely edit the speed and timing of the keyframes using tangets. Tangents are naturally added and help to make movements appear more fluid and natural. Then as things got more complicated, I worked with footsteps to more easily animate bipedal models like the monster. I also got to animate cameras which, along with object animation, help to really make a scene. For example in the walkthrough scene, the camera followed a path that established the scene and ended with framing the main character. Then with the encounter and running scenes, the cameras were set to track the characters at certain times to tell the story in unique and visually interesting ways. Overall, despite being tedious at times and a very iterative process, learning to animate quite literally can bring models to life.
Applications
As we approach the final months of this course, the skills we learned in Module 8 will allow us to fully animate the scenes for things like informational videos, game cut-scenes, and especially our PBM. By even doing as little as animating a camera, we can now improve the presentation of our models from simple rendered images into fully rendered videos that give the viewer a 3D look at the models. In terms of the entertainment industry however, models can be animated for moving/looping parts in video games in cut-scenes or backgrounds, or even be used to tell entire stories in short films or movies. Specifically for the PBM, I'll use animation skills to create moving parts for my science lab like whirling machines, rustling papers, pistons, and even a mysterious incubating experiment.
What new skills or techniques did you learn in 3Ds Max this quarter?
We worked through three final modules this quarter that focused on materials, rigging, and last but not least, animation. In module six I first learned the basics two new modifiers, UVW Map and UVW Unwrap which taught me how to unwrap objects into 2D maps to apply custom textures. Next in module seven, I learned about things like bones, bipeds, link and path constraints, and the skin modifier to properly attach bones to objects. This set the foundation for learning the animation process by teaching me how to make objects move and customize how they do so. Finally in module 8, I first learned how to set key frames to make simple animations such as moving an object forward. Then in the final project in brain buffet, I learned to animate both the stone monster using figure mode and footstep mode, as well as the lego figure by using controllers.
Though animation is one of the more difficult parts of 3Ds, I feel I know animation constraints very well after the projects I’ve completed this quarter. Specifically, the 4 corners animation project was the most helpful in learning this as it taught me new aspects of the tool and went more in depth than Brain Buffet. To summarize what I learned:
It taught me to be careful of linking the parent object of a group to a path rather than every item in the group.
It taught me the bank parameters as well as how to flip the following direction
It taught me how to link camera targets to objects through following the car
What aspects of 3Ds Max do you feel more confident in using now compared to the beginning of the quarter?
By the start of this quarter, I was just getting a grasp on the material editor and how to apply materials to objects. Now with my current skillset after learning to UVW map, rig, and animate scenes, creating and applying materials is one of my favorite aspects of modeling. I can confidently work with physical materials and edit their parameters to achieve the desired effect as well as connect them to multi sub object materials and shellac materials to add complexity. During the final project of the class, I used all of the skills I’ve learned on how to edit materials to detail my scene. Especially multi-sub object materials, which were something I hardly knew at the beginning of the quarter, were my most utilized and I had the most fun with customizing them and their plugins.