6th Week - Guinness Time!

Now, I knew that this wasn't going to be a simple object to make but...by jiminy, Iv already been pretty exasperated by the most basic of things

Firstly, it began with trying to get the spline the right sorta shape for the beer glass, y'know, so it looks mildly believable. But, as it turned out, took me (and a few others willing to help a guy in need!) a good hour or so of line tools, extruding and re-sizing - and this was just to get the
curvature and glass form even!

As the image clearly shows, creating a pint glass, let alone any other type of tall, 'slim-at-the-bottom-and-flared-out-at-the-top' glass, is definitely not for the easily irritated.
The irritation begins when, once you have drawn out the spline, lathed it and studied the final result, you find out that its not exactly the same as what you had in mind, and so there's still more faffing around to be undertaken.
So, I have the 'glass' and it needs to be altered..how difficult is it?!
Very, as it happens, or perhaps it was my lack of subtlety and deftness of touch that meant each small adjustment would make far too extreme changes (and the fact the object was beginning to 'digitally-fracture' along many of the delicate construction lines used to make up the splines!)

Another aspect to take into account was the complexity of the texture/material editor. I wanted to create the usual glassy reflections and refractions of light filtering through, and the sombre, thick liquid that is Guinness held the glass.

But, typically, the presets that are part of the program weren't exactly what I expected, with no presets named 'snazzy-pint glass-reflections' or 'Guinness-like ale-colour' unfortunately, and so I decided to alter my own to get as close as possible.

The first custom was a bitmap that Id saved from messing around in Photoshop with black and white brushstrokes, and the second one is an adaptation of a walnut-wood preset - neither really demonstrated the qualities I was looking for.

Hence the final result with this prototype not looking too impressive, I have to admit!

I was determined to do something right, so I brought onto the screen a saved JPEG of the Guinness glass I was trying to emulate and decided to try and follow the outline of the glass with the spline tool, probably the easiest way to get the shape and form I wanted, I guessed! So, to do this, I constructed a plane flat onto the board on-screen, rotated it so that It was standing up, selected the Guinness image from my files and imported it onto the drawing board, thus giving me a easy method to draw round the glass.

Max allowing me to do this with an imported full-sized glass gave me an idea that meant I could probably import other BITMAP files that could have come from edited JPEGS in Photoshop or a hybrid of other imagery from before.

As the image shows, I was able to get a closeup: a section of the reflection and the condensation from the full-size Guinness glass image, and then combine those base statistics with another hybrid of reflections I concocted from before to create the remarkably accurate rendition of the material on the bottom right.

After some careful consideration (and perhaps some disruption of the material editor - I'm sure some of the levels alterations I managed to do weren't part of the preset list!) I managed to get a set of three pretty accurate material that aren't too dissimilar
from what I had in mind originally.
Now of course, its always going to turn out slightly altered to your initial planned idea, but this has come along quite nicely so far.

Lets hope I wont take as this long with the bunch o' roses..

Week 5 - ' The Halloween One'

*Fast Show reference #2 .. - "This week, I'll be mostly drinking vinaigrette"*

*Phonejacker reference #1 .. - "The names Terry Tibbs - if ya wanna car, ya gimme a call... Goodnight, Godbless, Much Love"*

Right-eo then,the postings over the coming weeks will alternate between each of the three months, basically, so this week is the Gravestone/Memorial thingumabob, next week will be either the Bunch of Roses or the Guinness Glass (whichever inspires me first - READ AS: whichever looks the best with the least amount of effort!)

And so, here is the initial quick construction of the 'stone in question...

Basically, the side pillars are made up of a number of small boxes lined up vertically and horizontally, the top plinth is just another rectangle placed on top and the center slab is fitted neatly between all three. Once I converted the central slab into an editable Poly, I selected the single face of it and tried the 'indent' modifier, which I felt gave it both a sense of 3-dimensional realism and a solid and faceted texture-mapped base to work from later on...


Now it gets a bit hit and miss...



From there, because I had the sense to make the pillars each be constructed from 6 separate 'stones', I could manipulate each one accordingly. In truth, all that happened was me selecting the bevel modifier and using it on the forward-facing faces of each of the pillar stones. Funnily enough, I wasn't even trying to alter anything in particular, and they ended up as the image shows without too much input on my part





I then, perhaps getting a bit overexcited, selected the forward-facing face again, went to the bevel modifier once more and proceeded to pull out the flat surface of the face and manipulate it so that it became a pyramid protruding out from the existing..protrusions!
The gravestone, by now, was beginning to look ever-so-slightly Gothic, but no matter, because I knew that the spirit of All Hallows Eve was there to be captured in this one static image (Note To Self: Must add in atmospheric effects like fog and that!)

Even so, I needed to add a greater sense of depth in each section of this centerpiece



What I did end up doing was making sure one pillar was just what I was looking for - even though it doesn't show up too well on the image, I not only selected the faces of the extruded pyramid and then indented them all together to enhance their forms, I also modified the horizontal plinth with the indent tool to make a good space to add in some semi-integrated text at a later date




With the main structure of the gravestone all in place, I thought about adjusting some textures to temporarily put in place before I get all my ideas finalized
I found a suitable grey concrete texture preset, which I then modified by increasing the bump-mapping and then taking in down to sub level categories by applying it in a box form, so to avoid stretching and distortion of the overall textures integrity
Luckily, it worked out well and now I should be set up to develop further ideas for this scene, including how I will add in a believable dirt mound and graveyard floor (using hillocks and grassy knolls to add realism - its the key word in all of this, y'know!)

4th Week - Ideas comin' out me ears...

Well, basically, this is a late post as I haven't had a chance to muster enough energy (ill over the weekend in all fairness!) to get on here and put something worthwhile, so...this is still pretty progressive stuff

As you know, Iv got the 3 following months as my chosen ones - February, March and October, with Valentines, St Patricks and Halloween as the events respectively

So, to get some ideas out in the open, I drew up a handful of possible designs that are plausible in 3D Max

February - Valentines Day

Considering how much I let this 'public holiday' go way past my better judgement, I guess the designs aren't too sickeningly slushy(!) The Cupid idea could be slightly past my ability (and patience!), but the bunch of roses or the box of chocolates are both reasonably achievable...

March - St Patrick's Day


Funnily enough, who'd have thought that a lack of Irish heritage in my blood (yep, I checked and the family names Mancunian - odd, but evidently true!) and I come up with ideas such as these - perhaps a stereotype, but I like the idea of a 'MAX-ed' Guinness glass (and yes, I know I spelt it wrong, thankyouverymuch)

October - Halloween


The Halloween designs were actually the most fun to do - gave me and excuse to look through all my old horror comics from when I were a wee lad! Although the pumpkin scenario is tempting, as is the bat (simple as it is), the final choices are definitely between the the cauldron or the gravestone (which could be furthur developed into something more later!)

All in all, the designs above are indeed ideas which will be carried thorugh to the finalized piece, but I know that it weill come down to which ones are going to be the most effective and are able to be constructed whichtin the avaliable time - we shall soon see how this pans out...

Week 3 - More Max tech.

So, by now Iv got no excuses in which to blame my inadequate skill at this - now its the 3rd week and theres plenty with which I can practice...

Here, Iv got a handful of images which Iv messed up and subsequently placed on here for all and sundry to criticise at their most basic level

I was primarily required to create a 'map' from which I could place onto various shapes and objects Id created - hence me, being the ostentatious person I am, created a map of my name

This, albeit simplified, is 'the' application of that map, brutally presented on top of a unlikely cylinder. Also note the extremely naff presets conjured up by Max to demonstrate 'planets' - if you don't know what I mean, its the doughnut and the sphere next to it

As a final representation, I have added in 70's education TV-esq backgrounds to jazz it up.
Sods law, as soon as I try to do this, a texture map disappears from the sphere and the teapot - perhaps the programs way of telling me that I'm just not original enough for it to show what Iv achieved!

As a example of my apparent lack of ingenuity or originality, I decided to succumb to the urge of the simpleton, as in good ol' monochrome. Surprisingly, its almost worked in my favour - the favour of an artistic and contemporary that is. I mean, I could go on about the the silhouettes and the physical presence they create, but...its all totally unnecessary!

Roll on next week - from next week, this page is dedicated to those calender months I was jabbering on about last week, but they will here again next week, although this week was about something only slightly relevant...or something along those lines...