What ive learned

this project has helped me to reinforce a lot of the skills i had started to develop in other projects for example i am now confident and competent in the use of lights and cameras and my modeling has improved a lot. i have also become better at using the set key tool and am becoming good with using materials, in that i now know about tiling them and using the UVWunwrap tool and the UVWmapping tool and the gizmo function. other then these i have learned about giving materials an inner glow to light them up rather then just shining a light on them. over all i feel i have learned a lot doing this project.

presentation done improvement needed!

We have done our presentation now and it seemed to be well received though some improvements were suggested one of which i was able to improve upon in the time left the others i wasn't.


one of the criticisms that was offered was that the dining room scene was very empty and needed some more detail and filling. to improve on this for the final deadline i put in a plate at each seat with knives and forks either side and i also included a bread rack in the middle of the table i feel this has improved the overall look of this scene and met the criticism it received.




the other criticisms my scenes received was for the balloon scene i was told it was slightly to long and it would of been good to have something in the back ground in the darkness, i had decided to put in a star scape by including some self illuminated star shapes of varying sizes but unfortunately i don't have enough time to change this before the hand in. i was also told that it could of been good if when the camera looks down it could see a map of Essex below which would of been good but again i didn't have enough time before hand it to do this. other then these points the whole things seemed well received and I'm proud of it.

Advert made!

I've now rendered my scenes and given them to Chrissie to put into premiere pro and told her which sounds i would like included. i feel we are now ready for the presentation to our client Ellie from visitessex.

points of interest

these are various parts I'm proud of how they came out in the render the first is the house with the Christmas lights and the lights in the windows all of these came out beyond expectations.








the next one I'm proud of is how the jam jar came out using a label found online this also came out beyond my expectations and I'm really happy about it.








This final one is of the transition between the outside of the house and the inside when the camera gets to the door in this scene the door then opens showing a soft bright glow which the camera then goes into i did this using an omni light behind the door with two planes one behind it and one underneath both of which are slightly reflective so the area is filled with the light. i am especially proud of this as with the fade out tool in premiere pro it came out really well.

Camera work done!

The camera work has now been completed in the balloon scene i used a target camera with the target focused on the balloon so that no matter where i moved the camera the view was pointed at the chosen balloon. the camera was then animated using the set key tool and i moved the camera so that it followed it as it flew around the screen seeing the other balloons in the background.

the camera work for the dining room scene is now completed this was done using a free camera which i animated using the set key tool guiding the camera round the table using the camera view to make sure it was focused in on where i want it to.

the camera work for the outside of the house is now done this was done using a target camera which was focused on the door as it zooms in. this was done in the same way as the other scenes by using the set key.

all these scenes are now ready to render.

balloons animated

the animation of the balloons is done i did this using the set key tool and took each balloon and animated them separately so i didn't accidentally have any mid air crashes. i did this by having the set key selected moving the timeline then moving the balloon to the next place and hitting the set key button. i also animated the light in the same way moving the daytime light out of range through the ground to give the impression of the sun setting. the next stage is the camera work.

Materials Done

the materials for the house are now done i used several different materials on different parts. i used a tile texture jpeg on the roof a door texture jpeg for the main door and a different one for the garage a brick one for the fences and a metal one for the gate. the ground is a mixture of a pebble texture and a grass texture. the windows were taken from the pictures of the house this is based on. i also added Christmas lights which are flattened spheres with a self illuminating material on. i also added different lights i used a free directional light in each of the front windows with the range severely reduced and given an orange glow to look like warm inviting light from the windows which is the reason that the picture is all lit up but in the render it looks fine. i also used a free directional light over the whole scene with the colour changed to be very dark so it looks like nighttime while still being able to see everything. the next stage is the camera work.


the materials for this scene were a lot easier to sort of as i only needed a dark wood texture for the table and chairs and wallpaper for the wall and a carpet for the floor. apart from this i have added two omni lights in the air to give enough light in the room. the next stage is the camera work.

the materials for this scene were a little harder as i had to make three of them using photoshop by using coloured boxes in different ways saving them as a jpeg and importing them as materials. the grass in this scene is the same as in the house scene and the sky is a gradient ramp given certain specifications as agreed upon by the whole group so we all have the same sky. i also included a free direction light and a spot light one of which was for daylight and the other for nighttime light as the beginning of this scene is daytime and the end is night. the next stage for this is animating the balloons and lights to make them look like they are flying.

Modeling done!

i have completed modeling the two scenes in three parts the first is to the left is the house scene this was done by creating a box and stretching and extruding different polygons and vertexes until it was the right sort of shape this was repeated on the fence and the gate. with the gate to make the wholes i just deleted every other polygon on the front and back. the next stage is applying the materials.




this is part two of the house scene. the walls and floor are just planes but the table and chairs were made by me this was done in much the same way as the house taking a box and extruding and pulling the vertexes about until they were the right shape. i then highlighted the legs of the table and used the MSmooth tool to give them a nice smooth pattern just like the legs on a real table. i also modeled the jam jar and toast on a plate on the table the jam jar was a cylinder with the polys edited and then turbosmoothed. the plate is a flattened sphere and the toast was just flat boxes. again the next stage is to apply the materials.


this scene is the balloon scene this was made first by creating a huge plane for the ground and a cylinder for a horizon. i then used the softselection tool to make a general terrain look to the ground. after this i moved on to the balloons which started off as spheres which i pulled into the balloon shape and then pulled the bottom up into the balloon so it looks like its hollow i then moved on to the basket which was just a box with the middle pushed in and the ropes are just cylinders. the lights in the balloons are omni lights with the limits the light can reach only to the outside of the balloons and given and fire like colour so it looks like the burner inside is on. the next stage is the materials.

Next Project!

this is the second part of a two part project in this blog i shall be going over the parts of the group project that i have done. this project is to make an advert for visit essex to try and increase tourism into essex by animating an advert which can be used online.

the details of the advert the group of me, sally, chrissie and tracy are making are on our group blog at www.virtualenviromentgroupwork.blogspot.com.

the scenes i have taken to make are the last two which is the hot air balloon scene and the house scene both outside and inside.