Final Stamps

DNA Stamp Design

Mushroom Stamp Design
I am very pleased with the grass i have managed to create. I created 4 lines, created the materials for them and then duplicated them 1000's of times across a green ground area. Although i think the final render looks good i am still not 100% pleased with what i have created.



Parrot Stamp Design
I feel that this stamp design my poorest out of the 3. This is down to it being the most difficult to create. Again the materials used were very basic as i could not get the technique to use for the leaf tutorial on my pc at home. If i was able to do this, but replace the leaf with a feather, then i am confident that i would be able to create a much better material for the feathers and the parrots texture.

My Fungi Model

In order to create my models of Mushrooms, i decided to create a sphere, and then I tapered it to make it squeeze towards the centre around the bottom of the shape.

This second screenshot shows the soft selection tool being used to create the stem of the mushroom. I dragged the stem about until i was happy with the shape of it.

Once i was happy with the shape of the stem, i then used a second taper. This was used to thin the top of the stem to make it look even more life like. Once that was done i used the modifier TurboSmooth. This smoothened up all the edges and faces of the model by adding more polygons.

Now that the model itself is finished for the first mushroom i decided to create another one using the same techniques as before, but this time i would create it so that it is on a different size and scale to the previous. One technique i used different though was the taper tool on the stem. I used it on the bottom of the stem to make it look like it gets gradually thicker as it goes up (unlike the first mushroom, where the thickness happens all at once around 3/4 up the stem).

There are my finished models of fungi. All that needs to be done now is to get a material and texture them up.

The Deoxyribonucleic Acid Model (DNA) :)

When firstly creating this model of DNA i made it from a single plane. The image on the left shows the plane being modified into a lattice. This seperates all the segments of the plane up into tetra shapes. It also gives the user the option of choosing tetra, octa or icosa ends to the segments. These are the pyrmaid shape things on running down the edges of the model.

In order to make these more DNA like i chose tetra joints and put around 50 sides to make them spherical in shape, along with a radius of about 5.

When modifying the struts that run from edge to edge, i chose a large number of edges so that it make them cylindrical and more life like, with a small radius.

The next steps i took were to twist the model into a DNA-like structure. I did this by applying the twist modification. Once that was done i then moved the twist modifcation above the lattice in the modifying list. This twisted the actual lattice instead everything that the model consisted of.


The final part of the model was to create a material that mapped the effect of DNA. I did this by using a falloff in the "Diffuse colour" section, and then selecting various colours to make a kind of gooey DNA effect. To make it more realistic i used the bump map and selected "Mix". This allowed me to use 2 different effects together, such as noise and cellular.

Once these were mixed it was just a case of playing about to get the required texture on the model.

Last but not least i used a simple JPEG image as the background of the final rendered model. Then it was just a case of finding the appropriate angle and screenshot for which will be the final render the my DNA model :D

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
To look for tutorials online when learning new techniques. Making steady progress throughout the module considering i had no knowledge of this program before.

Weaknesses
Lack of self-motivation, i am also easily lead off course by others. I do not use this program enough to be comfortable with all the techniques that are necessary for my stamp designs.

Opportunities
As this is my first ever blog, i think its a very good way to present work. It will give great references for future jobs or other university courses. Also I will be able to see the progress i have made since the start of the module.

Threats
After the firsts week of this module i was stuck for thought for my ideas. I didnt want to choose things that were easy to create as i would have felt that i could have done better at the end of the semester. Deadline day is soon approaching so i really need to knuckle down and get on with completing my modules.

Over the next few weeks expect there to be development in its fullest form :)

This is my final rendered see-saw this is fairly simple to create, it is just a case of creating the shapes and putting them together in the correct order

i have found a very useful website that has various tutorials for 3ds max:
http://www.good-tutorials.com/

This mushroom i made using a few taper effects along with maps in the material editor. I created the material by using the noise feature and then copied it over to the bump section.

Leaf Design 2nd attempt

This is my second attempt to make a 3d leaf, i feel that this one looks more realistic than my previous attempt. Using the same techniques as before but, taking a little more time.