Evaluation for Unit 64, 65

What you enjoyed?

I enjoyed the creative process of this project, I was able to make different designs for a ship as the choice was a ship or a car and thinking about a car it is restricted to one design but a space ship can be different physically. I had hundreds of ideas for a ship such as it s shape its size and features such as weapons and armour. I created a mood board with different influences the general picture was a ship with offensive capabilities. I created my first ship and I realised there were many design flaws so I changed many because I realised that making such features will take up much attention and detail. I made a decision to make a new ship. Since I had such limited duration of time to do so I rushed it a bit and physically the ship was no better than my first one but the main physical flaw was removed my ship didn’t look like a basic box. Another thing I enjoyed doing was making a planet for my ship to orbit around I got a basic primitive sphere and I applied an ash texture to it and with some use of projecting lights I made the planet look like it was on fire. Also I found some pre-set foliage options which I used it made the planet more vibrant than it should be.

In general I enjoyed the whole experience but the thing I would like to most is to work with in depth particle effects and I know there are some as I have explored and used some such as in the new ships video its been chased by fire. I would like to create an explosion or work with the physics to work with planets gravity.

What you found difficult?

I found the animating difficult as this was my first official project I had no experience involved with animation. At first I made a basic animation of a ship orbiting a planet I worked upon this by making a video from a cameras view. Doing this was very difficult as the camera was very fiddly to work with and the end result was inadequate. Also the camera in its perspective view was annoying as I wanted to look at my model at a different aspect it denied me that and that was very frustrating. To be honest modelling was a bit difficult as their many tiny details that are physically wrong and changing them wasn’t much of a problem. Overall it wasn’t that hard to create a ship but what I found the most difficult was the lack of imagination.

What would you do differently?

I would do a ship with more complex physical attributes. To venture into the unknown and to create something new is a mystery itself. If I was to make a new ship I would make much bigger and give it more precise physical details. I would get one source of inspiration and stick to it rather than have too many ideas. One scheme is enough to make a perfect ship. While variety is a good thing so is practicality.

Creating a ship shouldn’t be hard it should be enjoyable. Given the chance I would work with only a few shapes to keep it simple but to focus on so little would be a big step. Otherwise another thing I would work with is a theme rather than make a ship form the future I might make another ship such as a stealth plane as this is modern and it is achievable and also it has simple textures which can be replicated very easily

What I have learned?

I have learnt a basic range of features in 3D Studio Max such as modelling and texturing. I have learnt that the main component the core of a design is imagination the more wild the more bizarre the design the more the possibility is better. Probability is considered as one design is not too simple every idea is malleable to an extent.

Also exploring further features I was able to learn about basic particle effect such as fire and weather conditions such as hail and rain. I have learnt how to unwrap objects to use as a map for a ships physical appearance. The process known as UVW Unwrapping was difficult at first but listening to the tutor he explained like it’s a giant jigsaw that you have assemble piece by piece. This translated into finding the pieces working with them and then putting it back together. His advice aided greatly as the textures I did were perfect even though the physical quality of my ships aren’t the best. I have learned that to start again is to have a clean page which can be used for new ideas. Know this creating a ship might be difficult but patience can result in detail and progression. If I could start again I would make a ship more bigger rather than a fighter plane I would make a ship identical to ones I see in games such as the Normandy in the game Mass Effect.

In Studio Max I was able to explore the options available and found that new tools would help give my ship a visual advantage.

Tools used:

Basic primitives

Lights

Camera

Auto Key

Timeline

UVW Unwrap

Editable Mesh

Material Editor

Photoshop (for the textures)