3D Modeling & Animation

PBM made in 2025 by Ellis Cundiff at Chapel Hill High School

Career & Employability Skills

Artistic Statement

As a 3D modeler I strive to make the best products I can. I'm motivated to this because of my love of 3D video games. Every model I make aims to make a product worth being proud of. This process is easier because of my attention to detail and wanting to make a clean model. I also try to bring ideas from the outside world to help inspire my creations, from people's suggestions to wanting to create a model worth showing off. My main reason for modeling is to inspire people to be creative and that you can create anything you put your mind to.

Artifact 1: Use 3D primitives to create and render a complete scene

Artifact 2: Use UV wrapping to texture a 3D object

Modeling Process: 

For this assignment we were tasked to texture the model that we created in the assignment prior. I started with the tentacle where I UVW unwraped it to create a flat plane to apply texture to the model in Photoshop. I added an orange to the tentacle, and I did the same with the head and the body. The only difference between the tentacles and the head and body is that I added a gradient that went from the same orange to a nice purple.  After doing all that I had the basic color of the Octopus, but it was still missing something. I decided to a white dots that I made partly transparent to add a little more to it. It makes the model more appealing to look at now, and it didn't overpower the purple and orange that I had there originally.

Tools Uses:

This assignment required very few tools, but of those were photoshop and UVW unwrap tool. The UVW unwrap tool unwraps the outside of an object and projects it onto a 2D surface. That 2D pictire can then be imported into Photoshop where I can add color and texture to it. When i'm done with that I can bring it back to 3ds Max and it will move the 2D colored picture to the 3D object. 

Challenges Faced: 

The only challenge I faced was that the UVW unwrapping wasn't being cooperative, and it unwraped each individual face of an object. This was I problem, but because I didn't have the time to weld all the hundreds of poly's together again I made the texture I little more simple. The texture still came out pretty well, and I'm happy with it.

Artifact 3: Develop a scene using detailed lighting

Modeling Process:

To create this project I first made the tank. To do this I made a box and booleaned another box out of it. This left me with the shell that I could make see through by going to object properties and changing the parameter for visibility. I then added a base at the bottom of the "glass" which was a little bit larger width and length. This same box I would later copy and put on the top. The last part of the tank is the sand which was a yellow box with different vertices to make it bumpy. The next object I made was my castle this consisted of 4 rectangular prisms which were connected by 4 other rectangular prisms that were skinnier and shorter. The last thing to make this model was adding another box in the middle of square to make the floor and ceiling, and I textured it. The last model I created was a plant which was made by taking a cylinder and adding a curve and taper to it for the stem. Then I added some cylinders that were more oval for the leaves up and down the stem.

Tools and techniques:

The main tools and techniques I used were the use of primitives to block out a basic object. I also used the edit poly modifier, but only a little because the objects were all pretty basic. Another technique I used was the the object properties, these object properties can change many things about your primitive, but I mainly used one; visibility. The visibility parameter made it so I could make certain objects see through, so I could make water and glass, and see whats inside them.

Challenges:

The only challenge I faced during this project was when I had to change all my lights from arnold to scanline. This was more of a setback then a challenge though. I had to do this because the arnold renderer, even though it produces great products it does so at a very slow speed. I needed to change the lights so they would work in a different renderer and look better.

Artifact 4: Develop an animated loop using a custom object

Modeling Process

To complete this artifact their wasn't much modeling because it was asking us to animate the scene we already made. To animate the scene I started with the octopus. I used the set key to help me create frames in which the model would change direction and move around like it is floating. I would move it to one place with the set key on and the key button to create a key frame there. This would allow me to change the direction of the octopus in fluid motions, so it doesn't skip around from frame to frame. I also did this with two different plants to make it seem like they are swaying from side to side in the current. 

Challenges Faced

One challenge I faced during this challenge was making the animation be able to loop, so it wouldn't move around from the end to the start. This was hard because the coordinates at the end were going into the thousandths, and it was hard to remember. Once I got it to the same coordinates by changing the end coordinates to something easy to remember and creating a new frame that had those same coordinates. It creates a fluid loop, so it works, but it still pauses at the start. 

Tools Used

The only tool that I used in the specific artifact was the set key button, which made key frames in my animation. I would turn the set key on and then move or rotate an object then press the set key button to make a key frame where the object was positioned. This artifact didn't require me to use any other tools to finish it because I was just animating.

Artifact 5: Develop and animate a complex scene

Modeling Process

This artifact I had to animate the camera for ten seconds. To do this the process was similar to the process in the artifact above. I set key frames in designated spots throughout the timeline after I would move the camera around to different positions in the scene. When I render it will result in a camera  moving around to see all sides of the main object, the octopus. Since you can see all the sides of the model you can appreciate how much detail I put into it. The animation of the camera comes back to the same spot, so it is a fluid loop.

Challenges Faced

A challenge I faced for this artifact was making it the full ten seconds. I solved this by changing the amount of frames from 180 to 300. This made it so their were enough frames in the animation, but it still didn't have movement throughout the whole thing. To do that I would take the key frames that were already there, and shift them down, so they fill the whole animation. This would make it so the animation of my objects could be seen throughout the whole animation.

Tools Used

I didn't use very many tools for this part of the assignment, but like the artifact above I used the set key button. This would allow me to make key frames in different frames of the animation. I would move the camera around, and then press the set key to create those key frames. It would allow me to make fluid movements throughout the animation, instead of it jumping from place to place.