Goodbye Shed

Following the explosion of the plane, I have now improved the explosion of the shed, I did this by decreasing the fragment size from 150 to 2. This has resulted in the shed exploding into millions of pieces.

Before:

After:

The Big Boom

Using the space warp tool set, I have found an easy way to create small explosions. I created a small plane and added a basic material to it. I then used the preset explosion found in the geometric/deformable set. I bound the explosion to the plane and watched as the space warp broke the plane into 5 pieces. Settings allow the bomb to explode the plane into more by increasing the fragment size. Other items that can be changed are the strength of the bomb, the spin, detonation (this allows the user to pick on which frame they want the bomb to detonate), speed and chaos.

I have attempted to blow up the shed that was created previously, however it didn't work as well as the plane, I will investigate into this further and discover a better method to destroy more solid and 3D objects.

The Shed That Used Many New Tools

Today's task was to create a building using a low poly modelling technique. This meant starting off with a box and creating a building from it. This was then converted into an editable poly which allowed me to select the edges of the box. Using the ring tool was especially helpful when selecting all the edges, as I'd only have to select one and the ring function would select the rest for me. I then used new technique to create more polygons on the box by using the connect tool. This enabled me to specify the width of the new polygon being create as well as the are in which it would be places. This was extremely useful when it came to placing and creating the polygons for the door and the windows. Once I was happy with the placement of the new polygon I used the same method to create a smaller polygon for the door. I then used extrude and bevel tools to create a door frame and the door. I used the same method to create the two windows.

That Sinking Feeling

Following on with my success at creating a realistic wave movement in the water I thought I would challenge myself. I decided to create something else that could be useful to the group and the project. I decided to try and create a ripple effect on the water. With the help of this tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa6udmVKGn8&feature=related) and a few hours this is that I managed to create:

Using various different components and of course my favourite mental ray materials I have managed to create a realistic ripple, although the timing of the ball and ripples could be a bit more synchronised (it looked better in 3DS then it did rendered). I used a variety of new tools, such as the space warps and the bind to space warp tool. I clicked onto the geometric/deformable menu and chose ripple. I then used the bind to space warp tool to add the ripple effect to the plane. I was then able to adjust the settings of the ripple through the modify tab. I then added a ball and quickly used the auto key to animate the ripple and ball.

That's The Way The Water Flows

So today, I thought I would try and attempt to create some relatively realistic looking water, simple enough right? There is a preset for water under the mental ray materials. But I wanted to challenge myself further. I wanted to make the water look like it was moving. I started off by creating a plane and assigning the pre-made water material to this plane. I then converted the plane into an editable poly and moved down the modifier list until I found the noise setting. I adjusted the parameters within the noise setting, however I only adjusted them on the Y axis as this would create more realistic wave movement. I then added a plane underneath the newly created water and added some omni lights to emphasis the movement. I then rendered the scene and this is the result:

I used this tutorial from youtube to aid me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzzz48iYwUk