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Report on 3D Max ---Tong Xu

●Significance of 3D Max for Me

3D Max is of momentous significance in that it is closely related to my

final dissertation, which is about Virtual and Social Meetup System. 3D

Max plays an essential role in building various environments in the

virtual world. These days I have learnt the basic functions and animations,

and have done two related projects.

●The First Piece of Work---- 3D Hill

The scene of 3D Hill will be employed in the dissertation project as an

environment for people who are fans of exploration and discovery.

Various colors on different layers signify the vegetation on diverse

altitudes. In the final project, a road will be opened up for visitors to

explore magic vegetation types, which are changing gradually from the

foot to the top of the hill.

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The procedure is as follows:

1. Draw the plane figure of the hill at the bottom. I activated

the top viewport and adopted “CreateSplinesLine”, using Line

Tool to draw the plane figure. Tool of “Fillet” was useful then to

smooth the angles.

2. Draw outlines on different altitudes in the top viewport.

Tools of Line and Fillet were used as well.

3. Adjust the heights of outlines. In perspective view, I chose the

outmost outline, then selected “CreateGeometryCompound

ObjectsTerrain”, and then click “Pick Operand”, and then it is

available to change the heights of these lines one by one. However, I

made sure that the centre of the hill was the highest.

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4. Adjust the color of the hill. I chose “Modify” in command panel,

and making sure “Terrain” was selected, I rolled it downward to tick

“Stitch Border” and “Retriangulate”, which were helpful to make the

picture smoothier. Dragging the panel downward until I saw a choice

“Color by Elevation”. There was a sub-title called “Color Zone”,

where I changed colors of the hill 5 times (30 meters using one color).

The colors were modeled on the vegetation of Himalaya

Mountains.

5. Add effects to the hill. I used “MeshSmooth” in the command

panel to modify the picture through adding “Iterations” and

“Smoothness”.

6. Add the bevel effect to the text. To avoid modifying the finished

picture, I selected the hill and click “DisplayFreezeFreeze

Selected” in the command panel to lock the picture. Then I used

“Create ShapesText” to write the name 3D Hill in the input

square on the right bottom corner. To make the text more three

dimensional, I used “Bevel” in scrolled “Selection Modifiers”.

Now the first piece of work has finished!

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●The Second Piece of Work—A Snowy Day

A Snowy Day will be adopted in my dissertation project as a scene for

romantic users in the hope of developing a romance.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Modeling. I chose “CreateGeometryParticle SystemsSnow”,

and drew a square in the top view to show the snowy scene.

2. Change the parameters of snow. I assigned “100” to “Viewport

Count” and “Render Count” so as to make sure the number of snow

particles was 100 both in the viewport and after rendering. “Flake

Size” was defined as “2.0” and “Speed” as “10”. Flake Size defined

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the size of every particle when rendering and speed determined the

initial speed of particles coming from emitter.

3. Change the timing of snow in parameters panel. I assigned

“Start” to “-100” and “Life” to “100”, in this way at the beginning of

referring the scene of snow appeared. Then I clicked the choice of

“Constant”.

4. Assign the material. From the menu bar, I chose

“RenderingMaterial Editor” and activated an example ball.

Choosing “Maps”, I clicked “None” besides “Opacity”, and a popup

menu called “Browser” appeared, in which I selected “NewGradient

Ramp”. In the “Noise”, the “Amount” was “0.25” and “Size” was

“1.9”. When returning back to “Go To Parent”, I selected “Blinn Basic

ParametersSelf—illuminationColor”, then I modified the color to

grey (R: 196, G:196, B：196) in the popup panel “Color Selector:

Self-illum Color”.

5. Update Background Transform. First of all, I prepared a

picture of snow in an open source website. Then I began to change the

viewport background. I clicked “Alt+B”, and updated that snow

picture in “File”, then I was able to view the animation in the viewport.

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Then I changed the background when rendering. I thought it would

be easy, but for me it was the most difficult part and I took nearly four

hours to learn how to change the background when rendering.

However, I believed that I would never forget that procedure all my

life. “RenderingEnvironment”, then I needed to tick “Use Map”,

then I had to find “ Bitup” to update the snow picture.

6. Add the bevel effect to the text. Just as the procedure in the last

piece of work, I added the name A Snowy Day to the animation.

7. Animation Rendering. I pressed F10, and the dialogue box

appeared. I chose “Active Time Segment: 0 to 100”, clicked “File” in

“Render Output”, and saved the animation as AVI File.

Now the second piece of work has finished!!!