Class #2
Hi Everybody,
Here are a few items from Class #2.


AND THE WINNERS ARE...

I want to recognize Oliver and Fan who tied for first place in the contest to speed-model a random 3D shape that I tossed out on the table. Each of them made a GMAX model of this shape (left)... in under 60 seconds! Way to go!

Cindy came in second place. Way to go Cindy! You guys are truly movie-making 3D-model-creating GMAX gurus!

LESSON HANDOUTS:
Here are links to the 3 lesson handouts from our second class.

• Lesson 4 - Editing Vertices
• Lesson 5 - Twisting and Bending
• Lesson 6 - Intro to Animation

GMAX DEMONSTRATION FILES FROM CLASS #2:

Here are the GMAX files that we played with in class. The first one is the animation that I showed you of the bending/twisting cylinders.

• Dancing Cylinders
  Here is the demonstration of the 'Bend Modifier' and the 'Twist Modifer' that we discussed in class and in the Lesson 5 PDF download file (above).
  
  

• Dog Animation
  The 'Dog Animation' download file is the bend/twist demonstration that I showed you in class using a 3D model of a dog. We used the bend modifier to "wag" the dog's tail. And we used the twist modifier to make the dog shake his head.


CREDIT:
This 3D Model was borrowed from the book-CD of the book that we are using in this class: "The GMAX Bible" by Murdock.





• Butterfly Animation
  I didn't get a chance to show you this one. It's an animation of a 50 foot Butterfly sitting on the Brooklyn Bridge :-D I made the wings using the extrude modifier discussed in the Lesson 3 PDF download file from Class #1. Play with it if you have time. See if you can understand how I made the different parts. I'll show you everything about it in the next class.











• Solar System
  This file is for the next class. You may want to download and play with it for now. It shows how to rotate objects around another object (like the planets around the sun).
  
  The Sun
  Oh...The sun in a mass
  of incandescent gas,
  a giant nuclear furnace,
  converting Helium
  into Hydrogen
  at a temperature of millions of degrees. Author Unknown
  
  
• Spiky Thingy
  Ummm... OK. So, it's a spiky thingy.
  Oliver was making objects like these, so I just put this up there for fun to show you what you could do my dragging vertices and surfaces away from a sphere.
  

WHAT WE WILL DO IN CLASS #3:
In the next class we will learn how to use the material editor to "paint" textures and colors onto your models. I'll show you some really cool animation tricks to make your models look and move more real. Also, we will install the free 3DS Max 30-day demo program. And, I'll demonstrate how to render your animation to a movie file so you can make a movie of your animated model. And, we'll begin discussing what you want to do for the class project. (We have to use the demo program to render to movies because the free GMAX program can't render. So, sad... but, hey, it's free!)

I'll see you next week!
Russ DeWitt