Evaluation first 6+1 weeks

Disadvantage

Despite all the disadvantages I’ve had to deal with I feel that I’ve achieved more than I thought was possible.  I feel a lot more confident in using 3DS Max now, which is quite an achievement as (like most in the class) I’ve never used 3ds max before I started.  As I’ve never used a software as complex as 3DS Max, I needed to keep up and attend all lectures and tutorials, which is another disadvantage I had to deal with.  The other disadvantage I had to deal with is the fact that my condition prevents me from using all the functions available on 3DS Max such as the use of the scroll or the right click on the mouse which makes me twice as slow as everyone else.  As I was falling behind every week I adopted the ‘waterfall model’ approach whereby I kept moving forward, which consequently meant that I couldn’t apply the details needed especially the first and third model.  The details includes materials and lighting.

The best model

My best model is obviously the glider as I’ve almost done it to perfection.  The pulley that I did was the start of me being more confidence in using 3DS Max.  I felt that I needed to focus all my focus, time and energy on this model as the assignment is based around da Vinci’s ‘machines’.  The thing that is preventing the glider from being perfect is that its missing the texture i.e. no use of the mapping technique.  The other thing is the wings look a different colour (black and red), again had I’ve applied the texture   

The worse model(s)

The other two were not so good.  The building is not even complete; there are loads of things missing such as windows, statue at the top of the dome, and texture.  The fact that it was my first model and that I was not at all confidence in using the software played a significant part.  What also played a part is the fact that the target weld wouldn’t work and that was when I adopted the waterfall model.  The third model was not that good either as I was rushed due to the deadline that was looming.  I would think that the third model needs more work than the building because the camera will be focusing on the glider and thus the person.  It would have been better had I’ve done the person first due to the restrictions I put on it in terms of its size.

3rd model - person/Crash test dummy

INTRODUCTION

My third model will be a person flying the glider.  In order to get a great deal of accuracy I will attempt to create this model inside the glider. 

FREEZE

Before I started on the person i had to make sure to first of all save the glider (obviously), and then i had to come up with a way to ‘lock’ all those entities/objects as i would do for in Photoshop or Flash.  I did some research and came up with this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voxomHt7pkU which really helped.  The picture below is an example.  

I did this by selecting tools>Display Floater>selected all my objects>clicked on the button under the Freeze – Selected.

The picture above shows the most basic of layouts of the.  It is far from the finished article as i now have to shape it in order to make it look like a person.

In trying to make the body fit through the ring I had to select the edge mode after I converted it to editable poly and drag the x inside like so. 

I did the same for the other 3 edges that needed to be tucked in and this is my outcome.

My finished article

The person on its own in the picture below.  Granted it doesn’t really look like a person, it can however be considered a crash test dummy.  The reason it looks rushed is because it WAS rushed as I was under enormous time constraint to get it done.  I think if had a little bit more time, I’d have definitely made it better.

model 2 - glider

I started off doing what seems to be the tail using arc and line in the shapes tab.  The idea was simple enough, to draw it in 2D first and hopefully using the extrude to turn it into a 3D object.  As you can see I had to make some adjustments as the image shows the tail starts off wide and then narrows down.

I then adjusted the middle part and as you can see from the picture above that I’m planning on modifying the polygon in order to make it narrower.  I then realised that polygons is not the way forward.  So i found alternative ways to make it narrow at the bottom.  In the picture below the tail was made narrow by using a line tool, although not perfect and the corners are not attached, I’m reasonably happy with it providing I can turn it into 3D.

After checking with my tutor I realised that there are a few things wrong with what I was doing.  The main thing that was wrong about my approach is that I had to draw a closed shape and not individual objects.  I also changed the glider that I wanted to model as the picture below would suggest.  This was due to the fact that da Vinci designed at least two different types of glider and the Google search engine didn’t differentiate between the types.

I created this by first drawing a box with the following parameters:

 

Then converted it to editable poly, selected the vertex mode and selected all 4 polygons at the two corners by holding ctrl and drag.  The picture below is an example of what I did.  

I then dragged the Y axis in order to get the desired effect.  In order to evenly move the edges in at the opposite end, I did the same thing but this time I used the uniform tool like so: 

 In order to make it ‘flappy’ I was on the edge mode, selected the line going through the centre (length segment) and clicked on loop so that it would select the other 3 edges and then dragged the Z  like so:

My progress so far.  All I did was add basic objects such as:

I duplicated, changed the parameters like sides etc.

In order to model the pulley that is attach to the rope and links the feet movement to the links, I had to draw a cylinder with two its height segments set to 3.  I then went to the edge mode and I selected two edges like so:

I then loop them and dragged the whole thing inward like so:

 

Then I had to delete the centre in order to make it go into pole.  I did this via the polygon mode which took a little more time that I’d hoped for so asked the tutor if there was a quicker way.  The picture below shows my progress.

The quicker way is to hold down the selection region and select the appropriate one, which in this case is the circle, like so:

I then dragged and delete like so:

The alternative way of doing this is to do it with a tube instead of the cylinder and it would have saved me a lot of times as all I had to do was pull in the height segments.

The lecturer advised me to look back on the mapping technique or the spline technique, in order to model the wings.  The picture below is the finish article of the mapping technique.  Although I do see the technique being incredibly useful in the future I fail to see how it could help me model the wings, especially given the fact that the wings I am trying to model are not angled appropriately. 

So I explored the possibility of the spline technique. 

As you can see from the picture above, I am having extreme difficulty using the spline technique and especially the line tool, despite the trial and error approach as well as markings.  I began to explore other ways of modelling the wings.

The picture above was my solution, or part of it.  I decided to draw a box and use cut to add polygons in accordance to the wing when looking at it in 2D.  This technique enabled me to be both accurate and quick.  All I have to do now is select and delete the corners of the box like so:

This turned out to be a bit of a mess.  I thought that I could apply turbo smooth to smooth the edges but this is what it did:

This could be because its essentially a flat shape.  As you can see I had another go at it, but this time I tried to move the vertexes into the correct position.  With very little time i had to make a decision to apply the flat as my wings:

After reviewing the wings, i felt there is still some improvements to be made such as the ‘bone’:

The glider I was modelling resembled the bat, due to da Vinci’s knowledge in anatomy, it would make sense that he used this knowledge, in conjunction with his passion for flying, to come up with the design, as the structure are very similar. 

 

In order to attach the ‘bones’ or what looks like thin treated woods, I had draw a thin cylinder and placing the polygons onto the wings like so:

I then run out of polygons to place as the picture below shows:

My solution was to either start again and make the cylinder taller, or more simply add or ‘cut’ polygons

The problem with the second option is that I had to cut all around the cylinder and not on one side otherwise it would look like the picture below when I tried to place it:

I realised that would take twice as long so i started again but this time i placed the end points first and worked around that:

 I am not exactly happy about this out come as the cylinder has been twisted and been made to look thicker.

My 3^rd and final attempt is to start again with a cylinder that had significantly higher height segments which would give me enough polygons when I convert it to editable poly.  In all of these attempts the soft selection was unchecked as I did not want it to affect other polygons.

This is my final design for my wings.  There could be improvements made to them for example I could fix (smooth) the edges by adjusting the polygons just like I did for the bones/ treated woods, but sadly I was out of time and needed to move on.  Also I realised that the colour is different, due to the one on the left (black) is showing its back as I rotated it.

My finished article below.

I finished it off using tubes, cylinders and changing their parameters etc them to suit my needs and placing them in accordance to Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings.

model 2 - glider research

When I sat down to model the glider, it became very apparent that there are not enough da Vinci’s pictures to go on.  The mood board hindered rather than help me; it presented me with a few complications such as what picture to choose as they are various different types of gliders.  After doing some research I found that the wings are modelled upon bats and birds, which could suggests why there are a variety of numbers of gliders.

I will attempt to model using these two as reference points instead:

 

SOURCE:

http://sped2work.tripod.com/leoglider.html