Final Animation Scene - Test Shot - (Textured, Lighting, Shadows).

The screenshot below shows my final animation scene with the desired lighting and shadows I wanted with the help of physical sun and sky. I wanted to give a desert ambience and feel to the scene to make it feel more like a war-zone. The lighting effect also gives a sunset feel to the scene which I also like. 

Final Animation Scene - Test Shot - Textured.

So the image below is a test render of the entire scene together completely textured. As you can see everything has come together quite well. The windows on the buildings are reflecting quite nicely. The bump maps on the smaller houses and the tanks have come out very well and show a good level of detail. The next stage is to sort out the physical sun and sky lighting so that the gamma and lighting reflects the scene better to make it more realistic. I will also lower the horizon line in accordance to the camera height because for the sake of the animation I only want the sky visible in the background. I am also going to add some haze to the sky and change the colour contrast to give more of a desert war setting as that is the look that I am after for the final animation.

Tank (3D Model) - Texturing Complete.

Today I finished the texturing for the tank model. Like with the street scene I used the lambert material and then applied image texturing and bump maps to the majority of the tanks armour. The bump map also gives the tank more of a metal feel and I also feel that it makes the model stand out more. I used the blinn material for all the bolts on the tank like the armour plating and hatch bolts. I then used a standard lambert material with a colour for some details of the tank such as the engine grate, hatches and tank track treads.

Street (3D Model) - Texturing Complete.

Today I finished the texturing for the street model. For use I mainly used the lambert material as I applied image texturing and bump maps to the buildings in the scene. For the large building at the back I just used the standard lambert with a colour as my camera will be too far away in the actual scene to see the detail of the building. I also used the standard lambert with a colour for both the pavement and the road as I thought this would suit the scene better rather then the scene be completely image based texturing and bump maps. I also used the standard blinn material with reflection for the windows of all the buildings to add more realism to the scene as well as detail.

Turret (3D Model) - Texturing Complete.

Today I finished the texturing for the turret model. Like with the helicopter model I used mia_material_x. I applied the metal preset for the main body of the turret including the turret barrel. I also used the copper preset for the cables and joints to give more of a rusty metal feel. Again I did not use any UV's or bump-maps as this model will be positioned down the other end of the street scene adjacent to the where my camera will be so you would need be able to see the detail if I applied it to the turret. Taking render time into account again I decided to keep the textures simple using the mia_material_x presets to give a metal look to the turret model.

Helicopter (3D Model) - Texturing Complete.

Today I finished the texturing for the helicopter model. I used mia_material_x for the model, I also applied different presets such as chrome for the rotor blade connectors and the barrel of the under-mounted machine gun. I used the metal preset for the helicopter body and other features such as the weaponry. I used the rubber preset for the wheels and the outside structure of the machine gun. I then applied a blinn to the cockpit and made it transparent to give a see through glass effect to the cockpit windows adding realism. I did not use any UV's or bump-maps for this model as the model will fly over the camera and will not be close enough to see any texture detail if I added any. I took this into account so that it would help keep my render time down considering I will have lots going on in my animation scene.  

Post - Early Prototype Presentation.

Overall my early prototype presentation went according to plan scoring high on the evidence of research section. The examiners seemed happy with the progress I have made so far and I believe I am on course to completing the final project successfully. The feedback I received was good. The success of the final project will strongly depend on the quality of the final animation meaning that I will have to render at a high quality in order to fulfil success of the final project. The other piece of feedback I received was to use bump-maps on my models. Having done this already for the street models and the tank models I believe I have fulfilled this feedback. The only reason I have not used bump-maps for the turret model and the helicopter model is because they will not be close to where the camera is positioned meaning you would not be able to see the bump-map detail anyway. Again with regards to render time this will keep that down because I would have used fewer bump-maps.