And then there were maps, and animation, and a load of other things...

3D Studio Max - Scanline Renderer - Glow after effect

As I continued experimenting inside 3D Studio Max, I discovered more and more things to add to a render scene. None of them were particularly useful for Architectural modeling, but they looked cool anyway. 

I learned how to make lights glow, and i started using boolean operations to obtain complex geometry. I still had no idea what "Topology" meant for a three dimensional element inside the program, so that is why this metallic moon looks so "choppy", but at the time I was quite fond of this result.

I had also discovered more complex settings in the materials, hence the very particular result of the reflections on the surface of the moon. 

The counterpart to this image was a geometrical "Sun", which I like to think of as a "Dial" too. I had a lot of fun making the various parts, not to say trying to get the bump map right!

3D Studio Max - Scanline Renderer

I still like the resulting image, although it was starting to dawn on me that the scanline renderer was only useful for this kind of conceptual, not really realistic work.

Apart from this, I started using black and white images to mask elements in the scene. I was starting to use a program that was becoming more and more useful at the time, to work with images and to create new ones. That program was called "Photoshop" and I had no idea at the time I'd start to love it so much! In a whim of inspiration, I created a series of Sea related images. They are very raw and blotchy: bear with me, at the time I drew these by hand using a mouse!

I used these images as a Map, on a light shade, that resulted in this very short video:

This video became my best result at animation for a while, until I decided to have another go at organic modeling, ignoring the fact that I was no good at it.

In my next post, I'll talk about how the things I was learning contributed to my studies.