Thursday 24 May 2012

Titanic Telegraph in 3D

I completed my first proper 3D project in May 2011. This is a short post showcasing the work I did in AutoCAD reconstructing one of the telegraphs from the bridge.

I didn't have much to work with. A few photographs like the one below and some dodgy measurements from a website that disappeared mid-way through me working on this!


But using this and my beginner 3D modelling skills I managed to create something I was actually quite pleased with.

This is the overall view of the telegraph, rendered using some basic AutoCAD materials and with a lot of guesswork as to what it would have actually looked like. (Photographs from the Father Brown collection were invaluable, though black-and-white!).

Texturing with UVWs

Work on Building 77 is progressing... steadily. There have been many improvements since last I posted, mostly with texturing the model. I wanted this post to focus specifically on one area that I've found really useful, and that is texturing using UVW maps.

I used this for my gorgeous aurochs horns that I have decorating the north-east platform. I wanted a really good bone texture but 3DS Max was lacking in standard ones! Which isn't really a surprise. In order to create my own texture I decided that a UVW map would be my best option, especially given the unusual shape of my horns. It meant I could create the texture myself using my mesh as a template and then "wrap" my texture around them.

I followed this very good tutorial which gave a decent overview of how to go about doing this: An In-Depth Look at UV Mapping an Object in 3DS Max 

I'm not going to go into the details of how I did everything, as there are far better tutorials out there already! Rather I want to show you what I started with and what I ended up with, with a few steps thrown in along the way.

Monday 7 May 2012

Introducing Building 77

So I'm finally getting to grips with 3DS Max and am working on an exciting new project - recreating a building from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, Turkey. 

I'm working from information found on the online Çatalhöyük database, mostly photographs and measurements although I was very glad to find a floor plan on one of their research publications which meant creating the layout much easier!

After much drama, I thought I'd share with you my first, blocked out version of the house.


Site photograph