Quarter 1

why I chose this class

I took this class mostly because I heard that you have a chance to get a certificate, and that looks good on y9ur collage resume. Another reason I took this class because society is becoming more and more technology based, so being able to do 3d modeling is good. Also, This class also teaches you how to use a computer and other software's as well as 3ds Max, and like I just said, society is relying more and more on technology, and so knowing how too use and computer is crucial. 

By the end of this class, I hop to be able to fully use 3ds Max. I also hope to pass the certificate test and to get my certificate so I can put that on my college resume. The finale thing that i would like to get out of this class is to know how the modeling and game  design industry works and what is needed to get a job just incase becoming an MLB player doesn't work out. 

Module one reflection 

In module one I learned the basics of 3ds Max.  I completed a course in a website called, "Brain Buffet." in that course i explored primitives, witch are basics objects like a box, or a sphere. I learned how to move and rotate those objects, and how to change the parameters and customize them.  I know know how to use many of the  wonderful tools in 3ds. Some examples being how to use the array tool, the select and rotate tool, and the zoom extends all selected tool. 

I can use this knowledge and information to create cool projects like the ones I have already made (pictures below). I have made a pencil, a snowman, and a temple made entirely of primitives, and I am currently undertaking the project of working on my house. This information is important for a few reasons. One being that if  modeling or 3ds Max come up later in my life I will be prepared and know  what to do. Another thing is that I'm sure that a lot of different software's and especially different modeling platform's share some of the same buttons and keyboard shortcuts, so knowing all of them in 3ds will also give me a head start for other platforms. 

Module two reflection 

In module two, I built upon what I learned in module one. While there are many important and relevant things I learned in this module, the most important one was probably, "Edit Poly".  Edit poly is a  modifier that you can add to all of your creations that allows you to sculpt that figure into an actual shape instead of keeping it clunky and blocky.  

If I were to guess, I will probably use "Edit Poly", in almost all of my future projects. Not only will I use edit poly,  will also be using other modifiers. I learned more than just "Edit Poly" in module two, I also learned many others like, "Meshsmoosh". I will definitely be using those to. Some examples of my work in this module are,  Alfie the cat, and the "four corner scene". 

Module three reflection 

Module 3 was probably the most important module so far. In this module, I learned the very foundation and basics for basically every project I will ever do in 3ds max. The most important thing I learned was the new modifiers. I learned what a modifier was and how to use them. Some examples are, Meshsmoosh, Proboolean, and Turbosmooth. The most important modifier was, "edit poly". I now know how to use edit poly effectively, by using tools like, Bevel, Chamfer, Extrude, and connect. These tools make you be able to turn your scene from primitives to a realistic model.

As I said earlier, this knowledge and these skills will be needed for every project that I will ever do in 3ds. They are important beacuse otherwise, my projects are just primitives and look blocky and fake. The modifiers change that, some of them make your project realistic, some add sides or edges, and some make your shapes less blocky. Some of the projects that i have done are, my Lego Mini-figure, my spaceship, my screwdriver, my Clash Royale stadium. (all of which are attached below.)

Module four reflection 

In module 4, to put in in short terms, I learned about lights and cameras. However, its so much more complicated than that. I leaned about a bunch of cameras and how to place them, the differences between them, and what there modifiers do and how to use them.  Along with that, I also learned about lights. Like with the cameras, I leaned about a bunch of lights and how to place them, the differences between them, and what there modifiers do and how to use them. But I also learned how to make them interact with the cameras in a way that I want to achieve a good rendering based on the prompt at hand. 

I can and will use this information in numerous different ways including using lights to create a more realistic scenes, using cameras to capture a scenes exactly were I want to, and many other things.  When I made my "3 point lighting," I had to try and minimize the shadow giving off by the spaceship. To do this I had to play around with the settings of the lights until I found a good balance that worked. In the "table lamp," I had to try and make a map with realistic lighting as it would have in real life. Again, in order to do this I just had to play around with the lights settings , and move them about my scene until I got to something that I liked. Those 2 projects are shown below.  

Quarter 1 reflection.

When I was signing up for my High-school classes, I was looking for electives that really stood out to me, and one of those classes was 3D Modeling. Today I am going to talk about the beginning of my 3D Modeling journey. Throughout this quarter, or semester now, I have learned numerous skills. Some of the most important being, the basics of 3ds, learning what modifiers were, and lighting. I came into this class with no past experience so I didn't know what to expect. I certainly didn't even have a clue what "3ds max" was. 

Throughout this quarter I have improved significantly, when I started out I was still trying to figure out how to make my 3ds change from Korean to English, and now I'm struggling with stuff like the intensity of cameras or what renderer to use. I mean, I didn't even know what a renderer was when I first started. I've struggled with a lot of problems, especially involving the settings of modifiers, and I've learned that if you play around with the settings long enough and just keep trying and adjusting, you will usually come up with something at you like. As I said before, I chose this class because it stood out to me, and hopefully by the time I'm finished with this class, I will have unlocked more job options, and a new skill set.

Module 5 reflection 

In module 5 I learned about "rendering" and the "material editor". The first thing we did in this module was explored the "render setup" menu. We then moved on to different renderers like the, "scaline renderer" and the "Arnold renderer." After that we moves on to the "material editor." I learned how to use it, how to apply materials to various objects, and finally, I learned how to properly render a scene once you're finished with It. 

These skills will be very important in the future because I will need them for almost every single upcoming project including the final. For most of the future projects, I will need a final render of the object or scene I am modeling. knowing about different renderers and how to properly use them will be crucial. I only had one project in this module but It was a collection of multiple objects. In this project, I took 3 different objects from movies and added materials to them to make them look more like what they do in the movies, then I took them all together in to one scene and rendered them all at once creating my, "still life." 

Module 6 reflection 

In module 6, to put it simply, I learned about mapping. In the topic of mapping I learned about UVW's, seams, and peeling. I learned how to edit seams and move and delete them. A big thing that I learned was the UVW Unwrap modifier, and in that modifier there is something called the UVW Editor. The UVW editor is basically the command center for using UVW's and mapping. As you see down below, I used mapping to add skins to the "Indiana Jones costume," Before I did that it was just a blank figure.

These skills will be very important because they provide an incredibly fast shortcut for putting materials on things. With this information  I will no longer have to make Materials by hand and can instead just use the UVW editor to import textures I find online onto my figures and objects. Also I know that i will need to know how to use the UVW Unwrap modifier and all the things that come with it in the final, so understanding this information is crucial. In the "simple textured tank (shown below), I had to make a tank out of a box and add materials to it to create a textured tank. I used and needed the skills I learned in this module in order to do this. 

Module 7 reflection

Module 7 was definitely and complicated and confusing module for me. The main focus was learning how to put bones in our creations so they can move there body parts separately and in a realistic manner. I learned about a couple of different way to do this. Number 1 was to to the create tab and make the bones yourself. The second and more accurate way was to make a biped skeleton. Once you have that, put it in the middle of your creation and modify the biped until it best fits the dimensions of your creation. Then your going to link the biped to your figure and voila! you have a working bone set. 

These skills with be very beneficial to me in the future because now I can make any figure or creation come alive by using the biped method or by making the bones myself. Also I'm pretty sure these skills will be important for my final project. One example of this was I had to put a biped in a rock like creature. I had to stretch out the biped until it fit into the creature as best as it could. Finally I attached the biped to the creature. 

Module 8 reflection

In module 8 we learned about probably one of the funniest but also time consuming topic yet, "Animation." As the name suggest, this topic was about animating and animation. In order to animate in 3ds max, you need to create "keys" that you use to make objects and character move, lights turn on and just to make anything to anything. Animations are made up of frames. Lets say you wanted to make a character float from frame 80, to frame 100. What you would do is create a key at frame 80 of the character in its original spot, then create another key at frame 100 with it fully floated in the air, this will make the character slowly float in the air from frame 80-100. 

These skills will come in handy very shortly when I do my PBM, because my PMB is literally just an animation that I have to create. Also know that I know how to animate, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities and things that I can do in 3ds max. Knowing how to create animations is important because its just a good thing to learn, and it opens up job choices if I need to in the future. Finally if I chose to take game design and animation, I will already know how to animate and It will be a lot easier.

4 corners path constraints 

How did organizing your project folders and keeping backups in Google Drive help you access your work for this assignment? If you had difficulty finding your file, what could you do differently in the future to stay organized?

Organizing my project folders and keeping backups in google drive helped me access my work for this assignment because it made it way easier to find my file,         and made it very simple to move my file from the File Explorer, to Google Drive, and finally to this document. 

How did adding a Path Constraint change the car’s movement? What adjustments did you make to ensure it followed the path correctly?

Adding the path constraint changed the cars movement because now instead of moving unrealistically and weirdly around the road, it followed the road more                realistically. After doing the path constraints there was still a few more steps that were necessary to take in order to make the cars movement around the                          track as realistic as possible. I had to check  the box labeled "follow," and the box labeled "bank," then I had to change the bank amount to make the turns around the road also more realistic.

After extending the animation to 24 seconds, how did the car’s movement change? Why was it necessary to use the Re-scale Time option instead of just increasing the frame count?

After extending the animation to 24 seconds the cars animation changed by just getting a little bit slower. It was necessary to use the Re-scale Time option                        because when you just increased the frame count the animation just stopped at 100, while when you used the Re-scale Time option, the car moved much                            slower and the animation filled up the whole 720 frames.   

How did setting the frame rate to 30 fps instead of 29.97 fps (NTSC) impact your animation? What did you learn about how frame rate choices affect animation timing?

Setting the frame rate to 30 fps impacted our animation because we wanted to make our animation 24 seconds long, and that means we had to multiply                            24 by the fps, and using NTSC would have given us a weird number while using 30 gave us a whole number. 

Quarter 2 reflection.

Quarter 2 in 3d Modeling was to say the least, challenging and interesting. The first new thing that I learned during this quarter was Rendering and materials. When your finished with a model or project or you just want to see what it looks like you can "render" it, that creates a preview of what your finished model or project will look like. Materials are textures that you can put on your creations to make them more realistic or to give them an extra flair. The easiest way to do this is to use the material editor, which is a tool in 3ds max that allows you a quick and simple way to applie textures to models. During this quarter I also learned about bone structures, which allow you to make individual parts of your models move instead of the whole thing. The two other big things I learned were UVW's, which basically just help make your textures more realistic and make the models fit into the textures better, and animation. Animation was definitively one of the harder topics, and that as the name suggests, to use your models and scene to make animations. 

Now there is one more thing that this class taught me, and it has nothing to do with modeling, but instead just life in general. I took this class with having no past experience with modeling, so everything that we covered was completely new to me, and because of that there were so many times in the course of this class that I ran into problems. Some of these problems had simple solutions, some didn't but the thing that they all had in common was the way that I persevered and solved them. Sometimes I couldn't just ask my teacher for help and I had to solve them myself, and that taught me the valuable life lesson of perseverance and determination and most importantly, problem solving. So in the end, despite all the problems and the challenges and the hardships, I'm glad I took this class.