Quarter 1

Screwdriver

Reflection - I faced a lot of challenges when creating this screwdriver in 3ds max, particularly when trying to adjust the loft. The biggest issue that I had was that, for some reason, if I made a transformation to some part of the loft--like rotating the tip so it isn't twisted--but then wanted to undo it, the undo button wouldn't actually reverse my change until I hit undo all the way back to before I even added the shapes to the loft. I kept running into issues where I would accidentally move a part of the loft that I didn't mean to and then had to nearly completely start over. While I didn't find a solution to this particular issue, I did end up finding a solution. I made a copy of the screwdriver that I started making adjustments to in order to see which adjustments looked right, so that I wouldn't make any changes on the original until I was sure I would like them, and I reduced the risk of making a mistake and having to undo. I eventually found out where I needed to apply rotations correctly and put them on my original screwdriver. In the end, I am happy with how the screwdriver turned out, and I think that learning how to use a loft was pretty interesting.

Spaceship

Reflection - I enjoyed making this piece a lot, since it allowed me to experiment a lot more with the edit poly modifier and gave me a good idea of how to use the tool and what it can do. To achieve this final result, I started out with a box and used the edit poly modifier to transform it into this spaceship. I inset some faces to have better polygons to adjust--for example, I inset the side of the box to pull out the wings, and I inset the tops of the wings to pull out more details. I also beveled faces to pull out forms or to push them in. I also moved around vertices, edges, and faces to edit the design and position things around, pulling the forms in different directions to create more dynamic shapes. The only other tool that I used in this piece was a symmetry modifier, ensuring that the final spaceship would remain symmetrical and accurate. I'm happy with how this piece turned out and with what I learned from it.

Field Scene

Reflection - I'm proud of this piece because it was the first time I modeled something without following a tutorial. I had tutorials for one flower and one mushroom, but the others I made myself using what I had learned. In this piece, I am most proud of how I modeled the magenta flowers. I wanted to try experimenting with the petals and overlapping them. I used the edit poly modifier to shape the petals and give them a slight curve. After I was happy with the shape, I used the array modifier to wrap them around the flower center. After that, I duplicated the petal, adjusted its size and position, and applied another array to make another layer. I repeated that a few more times until it looked how I wanted it to. I'm proud of how it turned out because I hadn't done a lot of modeling on my own before this project, so I had to experiment a lot to get things to work. I'm glad I was able to figure things out and create a new design.

Fox

Reflection - One of the biggest challenges that I faced while making this piece was figuring out how to model the wires that made up the body and tail of the fox. I knew that I wanted to create loops of many small wires to create the different segments of the body, but I didn't want to have to manually position every single one. For a while, I was stuck on how to balance accuracy and efficiency, until I began playing around with the different features of the array modifier. Before this project, I had used the array tool to create copies of objects, but I hadn't known about the modifier; the modifier allowed me to continuously adjust the position of the loop as a whole as well as the parameters affecting the loop. This gave me greater control over the wires and their placement, making it much easier for me to position the different loops around the body. Another big issue I faced was creating the tail; I knew that I wanted the wires to spin in a spiral, creating a helix that wound around itself and up, but I didn't know how to create that effect while also keeping the tail's position smooth. At first, I tried modeling out a helix and using the path deform feature to wrap the wire model around it, but I was having an issue with the wires rotating oddly around the helix. In the end, I realized that the array modifier I had used for the body segments had more controls I didn't notice. After experimenting some more, I found a way to create the loops increasing in height, and I added a bend modifier on that array to make the tail bend smoothly.

Quarter 2

Table Lamp

Reflection - The main challenge I faced while creating this piece was modeling the lamp. I wanted to use a spline and a lathe modifier to create a symmetrical shape for the lamp, but I was having trouble with creating the lampshade. I wanted to have the lampshade be hollow and open at the top and bottom to allow light to exit from those spaces, but, in order to connect it to the lamp, I couldn't leave open space between the lampshade and lamp. When working with the spline, I knew that connecting the lampshade and lamp directly would at least create a disk between them in the model, but when the lampshade was disconnected I couldn't get it to loop around the lamp properly. In the end, I decided that I could connect the lamp and lampshade and then edit the lamp with the edit poly modifier. After using the lathe modifier with the spline of the lamp and lampshade connected, I used the edit poly modifier to remove the disk that was created between them. That way, I could place a light inside the lamp without worrying about the connection interfering.

Citizen Kane

Reflection - In this piece, I feel proud of the lighting and placement of the characters in the scene. For the first two shots, I was following a tutorial to get the lighting and characters in the right places, but I still made sure to try and keep the figures in my scene looking close to the original movie clip. I was careful to be aware of how the Lego figures were placed in front of the lighting. For the third shot, I picked another scene from the movie clip to try and replicate. I adjusted some lighting to illuminate the wall behind the character and create a strong silhouette, and I was careful about placing the character sitting on the desk in the right position. I put a lot of thought into the set up of the third shot to try and make it look similar to the movie clip, and in the end I feel proud of my placement of the lights and Lego figures.

Textured Tank

Reflection - While creating this piece, I learned how to use the multi sub object material. The tank was modeled using a box and the edit poly modifier, and I followed along a tutorial to create the base shape. After following the tutorial, I continued to add a few extra details to the model. Once the tank was modeled, I began using the multi sub object material to give it a texture. This material allows me to use different materials and maps on different polygons of a model, allowing for more detail than a single material does. I learned how to assign different material IDs to each polygon and then assign different sub materials to those IDs. By doing that, I was able to apply different materials to the tank even though it is a single object. I used a material for the metal, camo, tracks, and wheels. I was happy to learn about this material because I will be able to use it in future projects to make more complex models using a lot of materials; I won't be stuck using a single material for the entire object.

Gem

Reflection - The main tools and techniques that I used to create this piece were primitives and the edit poly modifier. I started out with a hedra for the base of the gem to create the spikes, and I used three gengons to create the larger spikes. Once I had the base shape and position for the gem created, I used the edit poly modifier to adjust things. I connected edges and inset faces to give myself more geometry to work with, and I shifted around the vertices to create sharp points and flat flat faces using my sketch as a reference. My main process involved working one spike at a time. I would add extra geometry where needed, shift around the vertices, and adjust the final shape to create the spike I wanted. Sticking to using primitives and the edit poly modifier helped to simplify my workflow, making things more straightforward and easy to plan. I am very happy with how it turned out in the end. I am happy with the jagged shape of the spikes, and I feel like I was able to replicate my sketch fairly well.