Throughout the modelling process amongst the group members we have used a variety of modelling techniques to create not only the objects but also the guildhall. The connect tool has been incredibly useful for creating objects as it allows you to separate a polygon up into multiple polygons. You can also choose the parameters in which you break them up and how many you want to add. This has been particularly useful when creating objects as you can use the connect tool to create a border around the object before editing the main face. For example the bookcase was creating by using the connect tool by first creating the outer edge, then separating up a number of other polygons for the actual shelves. Using this tool ensured that all of the shelves were the same size and same width apart.
The cut tool has also been of some use as well as it allows you to cut from vertices to vertices or line to line. Though not as accurate as the connect tool it has still been of some use mainly on the guildhall itself.
The inset tool has also been a great asset as it can do the same as the connect tool by creating a border around an object. It has also been useful for patterns, such as the pattern on the inside doors.
Apart from using a variety of tools we have also been using a variety of modifiers such as the bend modifier. The bend modifier has been applied to the glazed door and inside door handle. It is simply a cylinder with the bend modifier. It has also been applied to the grate in front of the fireplace, again simply a cylinder with the bend modifier.
The symmetry modifier has also come in handy, particularly for the doors as whatever you do on one side is mirrored on the other. This has helped a lot as we didn’t have to make changes to both sides of the door.
We have also used the unwrap uvw modifier on the actual guildhall to help with material layouts. Materials for the chimney and the steps leading into the guildhall didn’t place well but with the unwrap uvw modifier it unwrapped the structure of the shape so that we could add the map.
We have used a variety of materials either created by us in 3DS max such as the tile mapping for the roof of the guildhall or found by us on the internet to help illustrate the guildhall more. Finding our own wood texture for the different objects for example the bookcase in the library, gives a much more realistic view than the pre-set wood texture provided in 3DS Max.
Animating Techniques
During our group meeting we discussed a number of animation techniques that we can use in our animation.
The obvious one to start with would be the camera movement, as it slowly moves around the guildhall then into each of the main rooms that have been created.
Another technique that we can use is the lighting and shadows to make the room look more real. As the camera moves around the shadows will change giving the illusion that they are real objects.
We can also use the slice tool that allows us to almost melt from the old version of the guildhall to the new without having to cut between them. These will make the animation flow much more smoothly.
The slice tool could also be used to cut the guildhall so that it can be lifted up and moved as the camera enters the building. This will also make animation much easier as the camera will be very small and fiddly within the guildhall.
When we reach the animating part for the main guildhall room we could make some use of the projector. We could create a small slideshow of pictures of the guildhall. This animating technique could be done through the material editor so that the pictures move from one to another.
We are also toying with the idea to use the reactor tool to create curtains for example. These curtains could be placed on the windows, but we could also use them to finish the animation, so that the curtains close in front of the camera and the animation ends.
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