In this reflection I will discuss the skills I have used throughout my first quarter of learning to 3D Model. New skills I indulged in within this quarter was the extensive use of modifiers and myself using sub object tools especially. The self Modeling project helped a great amount to understand the use of modifiers since I used a great amount of them within this project. The challenges I encountered were thinking and to address this problem I used better strategies to think about what I am going to make. My understanding of the 3d modeling concepts improved a great amount over the quarter since I have been extensive with what I have done within this class. I apply the knowledge I have gained from previous quarters in my projects by using a great amount of modifiers to make what I model look pleasing to the eye. I am very confident with my use of modifiers in 3D modeling since I use them a great amount in my work. Resources I found most helpful in this quarter was drawing or using a different medium to show what I was thinking. Goals I have for the next quarter is to make a standing animation where I don't need to animate anything.

WIthin this reflection I will explain various skills I have piucked up during this quarter. SOme new skills I picked up in the quarter was learning how to create my own maps and with that I have been able to make any type of texture I want for my objects. I also learned the use of implementing different materials within 3DS max. With me being able to change the properties of objects and have them behave as if they were a certain material. For example I could change the material of an object and turn it into a metal object with the use of material changers. These skills along with the ones learned within the last quarter have helped me become adept in all that I learn in this class and help me excel. With my understanding almost evolving within 3DS max and learning at an astounding rate within 3DS max and also within Photoshop with using it to make many different types of maps that can be implemented within 3DS max. Resources I found helpful was asking question on how to do things faster within Photoshop since this was my first ever experience with the program. With Mr.B being a great help with whatever question I had whether it be 3DS max or within Photoshop. My goals for next quarter is to become even more adept with both programs so I am able to excel even more.

For summarizing my experience with the renderers and which were my favorite, I believe that the Arnold render produced the best visual results out of all the other renderers. With this being said I think it performed better since the Arnold renderer is supposed to be the most realistic and with this being what it is made for I am able to see why this produced the best visual results. The render that was the easiest to use was the Arnold with it being the default renderer already when you open the program, with the lights being easy to use and giving an almost fluid effect and easy to change and adapt to your scene.  In my opinion the most difficult to use at first was the Scanline renderer which is the fastest renderer though with the least detailed results, though the reason I found it somewhat difficult at first is because it hadn't worked since there was something wrong within my program which caused me unable to render with Scanline. Some differences I noticed from renderer to renderer was how each handled lighting and shadows with the best presentation of the lighting and shadows being Arnold with it being very realistic. Though the worst with the lighting and shadows within my opinion is the Scanline render since it is made to be fast and not be too detailed. With my opinons being known I would prefer to use the  Arnold renderer if I was working on a real project within class. The reason I would use the Arnold renderer in this situation since I want a great amount of detail within my project and the Arnold renderer would help be accomplish this goal.

Within my scene the most challenging part of making my scene was making the environment which I had to make within 2 days since I didn't know I had to make an outstanding scene besides my object. Though I overcame this by making a complex scene that looked natural towards the game. I used both ambient and object specific lighting within the scene in order to enhance my realism within my environment. The renderer that I used was arnold so I could capture the realism within the scene I created. There were no real problems I had encountered while making this scene and I was able to overcome everything that may have posed a challenge within th making of the scene. If I had more time on this project I would've most likely gone more in depth and made an even bigger city with more buildings and added creatures from the city within the video game.

With the starting of our unit in animation there are new settings to explore. The adjusting of the time configuration affected my animation by causing it to be shorter or longer depending on which setting I chose to adjust. Some challenges I faced when key framing different transformations was being able to set it back at the original place though I eventually came over this problem. The frame rate of 15 fps impacted the smoothness of my animation by causing it the be a little rougher with the frame rate being on the lower end. The animation mode I had used was auto key though this is will likely switch between the two depending on the project I have to make. This exercise relates to the animation techniques used during game design since you need to know how to use both animation techniques during game design.

With this being the second animation we have done I feel more accustomed to animating. The adjustment of tangents changed the way the cars moved with the more is was depressed the faster the car would start or finish. The tangent that was most effective for realistic speed changed was the auto tangent with the changing of depressions though for the speeds to already be set the fast tangent or slow tangent would be the best since the speed is already set though with auto tangent you are able to change the speed how you desire. Challeneges I faced wehn modifying the tangents was when the end point would move and the car would be thrown off the plane though this happebed once and was overcome easliy. This technique can be used in game design for vehicle movement since your able to adjust the speed very percisly and there being many already set options. Though if I were to refine this animation further I would most likely cause two of the cars to crash into each and spin out and one being able to come back and finish the race while the other is thrown off to the side. 

With my usage of animation I have been able to understand the 3DS max animation side even more. The organization of my project folders and keeping multiple backups iwthin google drive helpeed me access work for this assignment with being able to pull up the project needed. I had no diffuctuly finding my file saince I kept my backups organized. The addition of a path constraint within the aimation changed the car's movement by having it follow the road exactly. Some adjustments I made to make it follow the path correctly and relaisticly was being able to bank it since cars usually bank when going around turns on roads. When I exended the animation to 24 seconds instead of 3 seconds the car's movement slowed down in turn making the animation the 24 seconds. The usage of the re-scale time option helped in increasing the frame count since if you only adjusted the frame count the animation would still only be 3 seconds the rescaling of time caused to be extened and in turn changed the speed of the car around it's path. Setting the frame rate to 30 fps instead of 29.97 impacted my animation by making it more smooth since it is a whole number instead of lengthing and making smaller and smaller decimals within my animation.

With this being the final rendering of the 4Corners animation I have learned more and more about animation. The adding of different types of lights impacted the look heavily of my scene with the lights adding a new type of perception of my scene. I didn't face many challenges adjusting the settings of the lights though it became a little confusing when modifying the color since the different amount of RGB values changed somewhat frequently. With this the effect of linking the headlights to the body of the car made the animation more realistic since I was able to make the headlights follow the car down the road. The align tool helped make sure the placement of the headlights was accurate. Animating the lights to transition between night and day affected the entire scene making it even more realistic by adding elements from the real world into my scene. Some key adjustments that were necessary to make the transition look realistic was turning on and off the headlights during night and day. It was important to enable shadows for the lights or else it wouldn't realistic at all since shadows are a part of the world. This affected the realism of the final render by making it seem more like the real world with the adding of shadows. The role that cameras had played within the scene is being able to see different view points of the car driving down the road and being able to follow and track the car as it went on it's journey. The positioning of the cameras helped change how the entire animation was viewed by adding different frames of reference.