3D Modeling & Animation

2025-2026

Planning & Storyboard

The title of my game is Flight Response, where you are a pilot and have to scramble a fighter jet to respond to a threat. The cutscene shows a fighter jet starting, which is my character in the animation. This cutscene perfectly shows the fighter jet, and alarms blaring to indicate panic.

I will need an alarm, a security camera, the hangar, the F-117 fighter jet, doors, workbenches, a cityscape, etc. The F-117 will require special attention to detail. The jet will require animation (for the flaps and particle effects), but no rigging. My camera will be circling the jet, with the doors moving in time with the camera.

Rough Sketches

Layout

Asset & Prop Design

Alarm
Security Camera
Workbenches
F-117
City background
Trees
Ground

Artifact 1

Perspective Render F-117

Side Render F-117

CHARACTER - F-117 Nighthawk

My chosen character is heavily based on the real life United States Air Force jet, the F-117 Nighthawk. I say based on, because it is modified to work with the artistic style of the scene. The texture is basic, but fits the scene well. It is a matte black fuselage with the USAF logo and a cockpit design. I felt inspired to do the body like this because of the way light reflects (or lack of) on matte surfaces.

The modeling technique I used most effectively is shaping. I took a cube and shaped it into the fuselage of a fighter jet in a matter of hours. For unwrapping, the basic 3D Studio max Unwrap UVW Modifier worked very well. The texture was imported and edited in Adobe Photoshop, then reimported as a material back into 3DS. The biggest challenge was the resolution of the texture. Sometimes, the windows and logo would come out as lower resolution than intended. The textures were realitively easy to lay out, as I did the planning to make a UVW Template beforehand. Physical texturing really did it for the model, and I am very happy with the result.

REFLECTION --

I faced challenges with the fuselage texture primarily. These were overcame with effort, and the model turned out better than I could have thought. I am most proud of the NAV Lights on the plane, as they add to the mood very well. The character will be perfect for my animation, as the main subject.

Artifact 2

The assets I chose to model are a security camera, an alarm, and workbenches. Actually, I ended up modeling every asset in the scene, but the three ones I am most proud of are these. They connect well to my prompt by showing the panic and monitored feel. They fit very well into my hangar environment. I chose a hangar as it works well with a fighter jet (my F-117). I used basic references from Google for the security camera. Unfortunately this was not saved. The essential objects were chosen based on difficulty and mood. The more mood they ass (such as the alarms), the higher priority.

While modeling, I used the Edit Poly Modifier the most. The vast majority of my objects were created starting with a basic, six poly/side box. The prop that I am most proud of is my security camera. Multiple hours of work were put into making this small object high-poly. My biggest challenge was making the alarm spin. Eventually, I got it to work smoothly by manually keyframing the animation. For scale, I used the same unit system in each .max file to ensure they stayed a consistent size.

My scene files were primarily organized using Groups and Containers. Each item had a name, and if it was a duplicate, it was numbered. The asset list (created in Google Sheets) helped me stay organized throughout the project. Many changes were made iteratively throughout, which contributed to a well done scene.

REFLECTION --

If I could improve one part of my workflow, it would be my animation. There were some struggles with keyframing throughout the process that could have been sped up.

I learned many things about asset and scene creation throughout the project. The main thing is staying organized with the .max files on my desktop. Another is the importance of optimization. This scene took many hours to render, but would have been much longer without my optimizations.

Artifact 3

F-117 NAV Lights

The NAV Lights show that the plane is ready to take off

Alarm (red)

The alarms indicate panic in the scene, adding to the intended mood.

Spooky Outdoor Lighting

Outdoor fog and darkness indicates imperfect conditions, futhering the feeling of being rushed.

The mood that I aim to create for this scene is one of panic and darkness. I used spotlights, red lights, directional lights, and even freespots. These allowed me to show a very "dark" mood in the scene. The color of the red lights really helped, as it symbolizes emergency. The biggest challenge in the lighting was trying to get the afformentioned red lights to properly spin. With some work, I figured it out.

Artifact 4

RENDER_ONE.avi

Animation

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