Person

this was the easyest of the models, just combiningcapsules together.
I have created several capsules to create a simple human body, used the scale tool to squish the body, neck and head. Next using soft selection on the body to decrease the curve at the top of the body.

Finally adding texture to the body

Parachute

I created a pyramid, converted it to an edible Polly and removed the lower faces, copied the pyramid, scaled it down a tiny bit to fit inside the first pyramid and reversed the normal to turn the smaller pyramid inside out. After this I created 4 cylinders for rope, angled them so that they were all pointing towards the center and added texture to everything.

Tower

I created the shapes for the tower and aligned them all around the central cylinder so that the fitted together. The top most part involved removing the faces from a cylinder to create battlements. The supports to the top are created by combining 3 boxes together, and using the snapshot tool like the tank to copy them around the tower.

Tank

To start off I created a cone shape for the tank, then a cylinder for the body, and another cone for the base, but made the cone not form a point to have a flat lower surface. Then I realised that the top of the tank looked different, so had to edit that to create a cylinder and another cone on top which involved remaking the first cone to not include a point. Following this was adding materials. This involved finding an old wooden plank texture, then figuring out how to make 36 planks. I attempted to make an individual plank, but this would have made the render time way too much so started looking for another way, and found about tiling. The original image had 6 planks, so I increased the tiling to 6, so that there were 36 planks on the main section of the tank. Following this I added bumps to the texture to make it more realistic. I then reopened the image in Photoshop, and slightly edited the contrast to make the wood darker for the lower sections of the tank. Then repeating the previous steps for all the sections of the tank, but with lighter and darker versions of the plank texture.

Following this I created a shape of one side of a cannon in illustrator, then used that lathe tool. The first time I did this my cannon was too thick, so I redid it in illustrator, which ended up with it looking like a candlestick, so went back and redid it again. There was one more problem though that the wood texture was visible through the cannon when it was indented into the tank so I extended the base which gave room to indent the cannon into the tank without seeing the wood texture.

After creating my cannons I had to duplicate them. This involved creating a circle around the tank, then aligning it with the center of the tank. Fixing the cannons to the path constraint of the circle. To duplicate them I had to right click on the the tool bar to add extras, hold my mouse down on the array button to select snapshot, from the snapshot menu select range, 37 ( it placed cannon 01 and 02 ontop of each other), then instances and that made my 36 cannons.

A problem occurred here when I duplicated the cannons because they were all facing the same direction, I had to click on the follow box so that they were all facing outwards from the tank, then repeat the snapshot tool.

Animation

Creating animations using 3ds max is very simple and easy to use, probably easier than actually making the models. This involves selecting an object, pressing set key, clicking on the frame where the animation will start, clicking on the key to add a key frame, sliding the frame to where the animation will end, using move, rotate or scale tools to perform the animation, then clicking on the key tool to add another key frame, finally unselecting set key to continue modelling.

This can be expanded on by using the curve editor which was used on a bouncing ball animation to speed up when the ball hit the ground, and slow it down at the top.

Then using the parameter curve out of range tool and clicking on loop to make the ball bounce repeatedly (this added the dotted lines to the curve editor)

I copied the ball 3 times, then used the dope sheet to edit the time that the animation started, and duration of the animation for 2 of the balls. Slowing one down, and speeding another up.

mental ray

i created some standard shapes
changed the material/map browser to arch and design
added templates
and changed the colours
then added mr(mental ray) sunlight and sky

Pumpkin

this is my first attempt at using lighting to craete an effect for a 3d model of a pumpkin. i started by importing an image of a pumpkin
added a red plane underneath the pumpkin to give a base
placed a yellow omni light inside the pumpkin to act like a candle shining from within the pumkin
added a target spot light to shine ontop of the pumpkin

changed the colour to a dark green, decreased the hotspot to 15, incrased the falloff to 40
and added an atmosphere volume light, the decreased the density from 5 to 0.5
the atmosphere effect made light look as if it was shining through smoke

Leaf

imported the image of a leaf into photoshop, then used the magic wand tool to cut out the leaf

followed by adding another layer, then filling in black around the leaf
then adding another layer and filling it in white

importing the lead into 3ds max studios material editor, removing the white background with the black and white image by adding it to opacity, then adding bumps to the leaf for texture

then adding the leaf to a plane to bend it into a 3d shape

Material Editor

imported the wood texture into the material editor, then applyed it to a box

this can also beed done to apply multiple texttures to different sections of the same object
clicking on the get material tool, then Multi/Sub-Object

then adding the wood texture, and a general colour to the same material window, inorder to give an object multiple textures

first i applyed the material window to the default teap pot shape, them selected the top element and changed the material ID to 2 so that the colour changed to the secondard colour from the material window
i am not sure why the teapot appears to be 3 colours, with a light and dark wood, even thout it is the same texture

the texture can also be rotated on a surface, incase it was facing the wrong way