3ds Max

I've had my first seminar using Autodesk 3ds Max and I have found it really hard to use. The program is so complex with so many features.

I followed a tutorial given to me in the seminar to create a blob character. I had a few problems, one problem I haven't been able to change is the shape of the inside of the mouth, it came out distorted - the back of the mouth is not straight and flat.

Morph Test on 3ds Max from Chris Thorby on Vimeo.

I have been trying to learn more about the program by watch tutorial videos on YouTube. I followed a tutorial about how to create a morph animation and tried to make a sphere stretch and bend to the letter 'C'. I got a liquid metal texture from the internet as I wanted to create something similar to the T-1000 in 'Terminator 2' (Directed by James Cameron). This took me all day to make and is only 3 seconds long, what I would like to do is make it so it forms into solid 'C', instead of looking like this stretched blob. This is my first animation on this program.


Morph Test 2 on 3ds Max from Chris Thorby on Vimeo.

This is my second morph test, I used the melt modifier to start off with so the 'C' forms from a puddle of liquid metal, which looks much more interesting. I have used text to create the letter 'C' and made it 3D with 'Bevel', I have animated it to make it spin. I tried to make my liquid metal morph into the text 'C' but it didn't work, I hope to learn how to do this. I would also like to create a metal character the 'C' can morph into or have the character morph into the 'C'. I made this animation last longer by adding more frames. I have used 500 frames for this, I used only 100 for my first morph test.

My liquid metal creature I created. I made it with one eye, but I don't really like it being black and white as it doesn't fit with the liquid metal look. I need it to be completely metal looking including the eye but I need to show a pupil.

Business As Usual - My Edits

Edit 1

Business As Usual - Edit 1 from Chris Thorby on Vimeo.

The first group edit was done really quickly and my last name was spelt wrong. I have changed it and added capital letters where's needed to make it neater. I have also added a new font, one I think is far better than the basic black "Arial". I think this font is more clear.

Edit 2

Business As Usual - Edit 2 from Chris Thorby on Vimeo.

I have cut where the argument begins and enlarged it, so I crop out the background that can be seen at the top. The sheet is meant to fill the whole frame.

Edit 3


Business As Usual - My Edit from Chris Thorby on Vimeo.

I have changed the font of the titles and I have used harsh cutting for the argument to make to more aggressive. It's not really a one shot film now because I have cut it but it's an edit I really wanted to do. I have used the editing to create the close ups, as if it were the camera. I could of filmed more scenes and edited them in but that would have completely changed it from being our one shot film, I wanted to use only what we filmed and see what I could do with the editing. I have drawn attention to the hand gestures as they show the argument best by themselves. Olivia is pointing and shoving in this argument, whilst Alex is holding out his hands questioning and denying what she is accusing him of. I just love the difference between their hand gestures, it works better than showing the face shouting.

I think making lots of cuts definitely works for this argument, the way we are moved all over the place in terms of what we are seeing puts us on edge and makes it more tense.
There is a moment where Olivia begins to smile during the argument in the orginal edit which makes you realise the argument isn't real. I managed to enlarge the film and crop out her mouth showing just her hands and part of her body. I have enlarged parts of film to create the close ups and I managed to cut out a lot of the background that could be seen behind the 2nd backdrop, which I'm really happy about. I think the editing I've done makes the film far more engaging.

Evaluation of Interactive Space Project

http://makingnewmaps.com/maps/Chris_Thorby/index.html

I have finished my interactive space project. I have never done anything like this before but after following some basic instructions I managed to work a lot of it out myself. I am quite pleased with how it looks, people just expect it to be just bedrooms so it's shocking to see a giant eye or hands reaching out of a room. I really like Room 355 where you can look around the town; the pubs and church as when you hover over one of them buildings a brief piece of history is shown. This is Reepham, my home town and you enter it through my room. I wanted to give people a little tour around where I live, it educates people on some of the history of Reepham which makes it interesting and engaging. I had to get some help with making this text box appear as the text on mouseover didn't show up long enough for people to read.
I didn't use the text 'Enter' to click on, instead you can just click on what's inside the door frame to enter. There was no need putting this text there as I made it so 'Enter' appears on mouseover.
I was going to edit the hallway so it looked more dark, scary or stylized using Photoshop but then I thought the fact it looks like a normal hallway makes it far more shocking when people find whats behind each door. The ways I would improve this project would be to add more images for the hands, I would like the hands to reach further out of the door when you keep clicking until you get to a black screen when they have reached too close.

Influences:
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey - Directed by Peter Hewitt (1991)
In the scene where Bill and Ted go to hell there is a maze of corridors with doors. When Bill opens one of the doors he becomes young and enters his childhood nightmare. The room is bright pink and the shapes are abstract and exaggerated.

Beetlejuice - Directed by Tim Burton (1988)

There is a scene with an abstracted corridor, which is very similar to German Expressionism. It's full of diagonals and everything is slanted. The floor is uneven, the doors are exaggerated and the ceiling seems to get lower further down the corridor. One of the doors' blinds rolls up by itself revealing the lost souls in one of the rooms.

I liked the idea that each door of a corridor would lead you into a completely different place from the building like a town, a different world or a nightmare. In 'Beetlejuice' the corridor is made to look scary and nightmarish so the audience are already tense before a door is opened, with my interactive space project the shock comes after the door is opened as the corridor looks perfectly normal and I really like that about my project.

Interactive Space

I have been taught how to use html in Dreamweaver. My idea is based on doors in my hallway, I want people to click on a door and behind each one is something odd and abstract. I have used Photoshop to edit these images, I have used one photo of an open door which I will repeat for the other doors. I've done this as it was really hard to get a good photo of the door as the corridor is so narrow, the walls came out curved and distorted which I had to correct in Photoshop. I have used Photoshop quite a lot when I did Photography A-Level so I know the program quite well. I have only done a couple of doors as the editing took me quite a long time to get right, I had to make the subject in the room look like it fits with the door frame so I had to adjust shadows, lighting and use the dodge and burn tools. I sketched a few ideas in a small book, but the two I liked the most was a giant eye and hands coming out of the door as it looks quite scary and nightmarish.

The sequence 
You will be able to click on one of the 4 doors to view the closed door and then have the choice of whether to open the door or go back to choose another one.

The Start (Hallway)

Room 332

There will only be the one option to 'Go Back' which goes to the hallway.

I could make it so when this image is clicked on there will be another edit of the hands reaching closer and then a black screen.

Room 333

There will only be the one option to 'Go Back' which goes to the hallway.

Room 354

There will be 2 options: 'Go Back' or 'Enter'

The 'Go Back' option will take you to the hallway. The 'Enter' option will show you the full landscape (shown below)

Room 355

There will be 2 options: 'Go Back' or 'Enter'

The 'Go Back' option takes you to the hallway and the 'Enter' option shows the Reepham Market Place (image below)

There will be options to click 'Left' or Right', view the church or 'Go Back'.

Church:

There will be some brief information about the two churches here when the cursor hovers over part of the image. I will use a small piece from this website: http://www.reephambenefice.org.uk/reephamchurchhistory.html

There will a 'Back' option which goes to the market place.

Left (from market place)

The Old Brewery House Hotel - I will use a brief piece of information taken from this website for the mouseover:  http://www.reepham.org.uk/The_Society.htm

There will be a 'Back' option which goes to the market place

Right (from the market place)

The King's Arms - I will use a brief piece of information taken from this website for the mouseover:  http://www.reepham.org.uk/The_Society.htm

There will be a 'Back' option which goes to the market place

1. Hands

I have used the hands from two images, adjusted the levels and used the burn tool so the hands look like they are coming out of the black background.

2.Eye

I have enlarged an image of my face, put the photo in black and white, adjusted the levels and used the burn tool to make more shadows. I wanted to make it really bold and striking.

3.Landscape

In this door frame is a photograph from the lake district, when you click it you are shown the full image.

4.Town

When you click on the town in this door frame you are shown the full image of the market place where you will have the option to go left or right. If you go left you will be able to view The Old Brewery House and there will be a brief piece of information on the history, if you click right from the market place you will be able to view The King's Arms and read a brief piece of information. There will also be an option to view the church from the market place with a small amount of information on its history.

I have had to use Photoshop to fix the distortion of the closed door photos, the camera made the walls looked curved so I had to use 'Transform' and then 'Warp' to adjust the images so they were straight.

Here are the original photos: