COSC 260 Assignment 5

This was a challenging assignment, especially since I again had higher aspirations than time to do the assignment. I was going to make it a fan art of an anime character, and since I can't draw anime I used a sketch by the artist as an image plane. I actually only used one image plane, and that was for reference on the character design (although I didn't get to that part of it) and proportions. I did the bulk of the box modeling without the use of image planes for shape reference. I feel I did quite well considering this is my first time modeling a human, and without tutorials; although, I think she looked better before I added a biped skeleton and posed her. I used this tutorial to learn how to attach the biped.

Here is the max file for the model without a biped.
Here is the max file for the posed biped model.

World Builder

Please click here to view World Builder

Click here for a clip of production stage comparisons

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World Builder is a short film by Bruce Branit, co-creator of 405. It is a story about a man who creates a virtual world for the comatose woman that he loves. I find it a very enjoyable piece in presentation, story, and certain concepts explored in it. Science fiction is inspiration for tomorrow's technology; and although this is not exactly meant to be viewed as a science fiction, the "interface" that the man in the video uses invokes ponderings and inspirations as to what future peripherals and interfaces could be. Really, the only thing standing between now and something along the lines of that peripheral is projection technology, and not position detecting methods.
James Wagner conducted an interview with Bruce Branit via. e-mail about this piece, and provided the internet community with a useful article. The live action was green-screened with limited props, and filmed in only one day. Bruce spent just over $2,000 on the filming equipment and stage, but the actors did the job for free. After this he spent 2 years developing the effects using LightWave 3D. The film was actually finished in 2007, and after many attempts submitting it to independent film festivals and the like -few bringing him any successful results for his career and reputation- Bruce submitted it to Vimeo in March of this year. It has quickly gained popularity since.

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Sources and Useful Information:
Original submission of World Builder

Video clip of production stages

James Wagner's article about World Builder

Video of LightWave 3D demonstration at Siggraph 2008

Product information for LightWave 3D

Bruce Branits facebook

COSC 260 Assignment 4

Here is my stuff

COSC 260 Assignment #3

The walrus and the submarine were both modeled using image planes. I used multi-sub object mapping on all three models, with an image linked for a bump map on at least the main material of all. I'm pretty happy with it, except I could not get my camera1 object to focus the submarine no matter what I tried; otherwise that would look alot better. Fog effects are still pretty much a gamble to me, I'd like to figure out how to control it better. Here is the link to my project file.

Box Modeled Objects

I Am the Carpenter; Goo Goo G'Joob;

Web cam snapshots instead of scanner, don't have a scanner available at the moment


My notes, thumbnails, & sketch


Close up of sketch as I intend it. Those are oysters on the left, seaweed or something behind them. Anemones on the right with coral behind it. Walrus, cave, & octopus in the middle. submarines floating about in the background.

Eet's a Feesh

COSC #260 Assignment 2

To start with, I'm not sure why my rendered image turned out so rough, I tried tweaking several settings and could not get it to render as smooth as the image in my project file. The pink object was made using lathing, just from a simple curved line to suit my fancy. The blueish object I made by playing with boolean compounds, I first subtracted a knot object from a pyramid, then I took the intersection of the resulting pyramid with yet another knot object, subtracting more small shapes from the edges of it to keep it to the three simple geometric shapes that it is now; I was actually able to manipulate it with precision instead of hit and miss, the object is as I intended it to turn out. The green shape was made from extruding many polygons off of a sphere, and extruding more from those to segment the ends so that they could be resized. I then used turboSmooth on the resulting object to round it out. I'm very happy with how the boolean object turned out, and with the lighting effects on the features of the objects, even though I couldn't get a ground shadow from the extruded object to give it more weight. Lighting wasn't quite covered well enough in class, and the book doesn't use omni lights to demonstrate shadows, so I couldn't manipulate the settings for omnis in the same way that the book said to for spot light.
My project file is here

COSC #260 Assignment 1

edit:: 02/09/09 everything is up and linked correctly now

02/08/09 - IAT servers down??? Ah well: in the meantime, thou shalt be plagued with pictures of my red bull impersonation as placeholders.

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The product of exercises 1 and 2 is below:



In exercises 3-6 I encountered a few problems or shortcomings:

• I have no Mtl Library, and no libraries to load, so I used another pattern to map to the sign post sphere.


• I found it very disappointing that the book left out the step of mapping an imported image to an object. Therefore, I figured out how to do it myself, and continued working with my own file all the way through.

my result of exercises 3-6 is this:




As for exercises 7 and 8:

• The center of rotation was at the center of the object, should be able to tweak that as in adobe products. I ended up having to rotate and then move the object to animate it.


• The exercise didn't tell you how to add frames to the default 100. I googled the problem and used this to figure it out.


• I found out that the specific keyframes I edited don't seem to save upon closing the .max project


• Disappointed again that the project files had a camera object that the exercises didn't cover. I ended up looking up how to use it anyway.

Nonetheless, I completed all exercises with various tweaks of my own. I photoshopped my own sign face and mapped it to the sign, also keeping the frame as a separate design element. I changed the light type of the Sign Post Light to a spot light and dimmed it's effect area to the sign alone, while adding two light sources to the lamp post between the gas pumps. I rendered a cheap cloud effect in photoshop, and mapped it to the background; however, it did not show up in the final rendering.

As for the final rendering - I made the sign fall and spin. I also played around with the camera provided, and used its view for the final rendering:



For further detail on my thought/action process throughout see this page. The .max project file is available for download here.

First 3ds Max

The product of 5 whole minute's hard work:



click here to download my .max file of it.