12/04/11 2

 Today i finished both of the tree models, all i had left to do was to create the LoDs for both models. I rendered both the front and side view ports, saved the images then took them into Photoshop where i used the images to make alphas to put back into Max. After the textures had been loaded up in max, i created two planes and placed them in the centre of the scene intersecting, i then applied the images to the corresponding planes, creating the LoD of the trees.

LoD of tree 2

LoD of tree 1

12/04/11

Today i went to the labs to continue work on my tree project that i am redoing to better my work from the first term, i made great progress in my opinion, managing to get both the models completed up to the LoD creating, which i intend to do the next time i am in the labs. i textured both tree models and successfully made the alpha channels for the foliage of the trees, these alpha channels worked perfectly, which is a great improvement on the original submission where there were many faults including: terrible renders, leaves not showing up on both sides of the plane, 3ds Max not correctly showing the opacity information. these problems were addressed today with alterations to the original Targa image in Photoshop and also changes to the Max settings for the display of the alphas, so these new alphas i am very pleased with.

Final render of the first tree

Another render of the first tree

First tree

Second tree render

The second render of the second tree

04/04/11

Today I visited Bradgate park, I went to Bradgate to do visual design work in my sketchbook, the drawings that I produced were, in my opinion, a vast improvement to the previous Bradgate park drawings in the first term, which I am pleased with.i primarily focused on small thumbnails, then moving onto a sketch for the final piece, I took a photograph of this particular scene so that I could later add detail to the preliminary sketch of the final.

I stayed at Bradgate for most of the day, getting the thumbnail sketches down so it was a very productive day I thought. The scene looking across Leicester how ever was difficult to draw as the weather did not help the visibility whilst on the hill. For this reason, the main focus was on the closer assets, like rock formations for example. For the rocks thumbnails I tried rendering techniques without smudging which I had been advised to lighten up on using.