The final Boiler pump and environment

http://ve-boilerpump.blogspot.com/ This is a link to the group blogspot that shows the full workings and final assembly of the boiler pump project.

Modelling the head

After the flat polygonal shape was created. the next stage was to ''pull'' the points out to create some depth to the image. This was acheived by setting up two angles in the viewport. Front and side views. The points were then selected in the front view and drawn horizontally to the points inline with the side view reference plane.

This acheived a fairly close representation of the face. After this some more fine tuning began, whereby adding more faces where required and furher manipulating the vertices of the face, a closer representation could be acheived. A symetry modifier was used to vreate the second half of the head, and the mirrow gizmo positioned to achieve accurate results.

The final boiler pump scene

After working alongside fellow members of the group a final animated scene of the boiler pump and surrounding environment were created. The boiler pump was created in three seperate parts and assembled together within the environment. It was unfortunately decided that the hot water tank and other models i have created were taking up too much time whilst rendering and too much space within the environment so were deleted. also the bump map used on the concrete floor was removed to further reduce rendering time. looking at the final video this was a shame as the floor texture looked rather too flat.

However the assembled models within the environment worked together and a camera path was set up to follow arounf the room showing various objects, and most importantly the functioning boiler pump.

We used a voice recorder to save a sound description from myself, stating what the object in the video was, its purpose and function.

Finally the sound and video images were assembled together in another software package, with a fire background sound to simulate the boiler.

Using Splines lines were drawn to begin creating the flat surface of the face. Seperated into quads (four sided shapes) to allow easier modelling later. note the quads are drawn to follow and flow with the topography already lined out on the base image from photoshop. Finally the splines were attached to each other and a mesh created from the final object, showing the hard line seperate surfaces within

Creating the Reference planes

Using 3dsmax a flat plane was created, with just one segment, elevated in the front plane/axis. Using material editor the bitmap created in photoshop was then applied to the plane. Selecting 'show in viewport' as an option in the parent section of material editor allowed the image to be seen in 3dsmax.

A UVmap was then applied to help position the image correctly on the plane and prevent any distortion. Finally this plane was copied and rotated 90 degrees to show the left side view, the bitmap and plane were finally moved to aligh correctly with each other and frozen (with show in gray turned off) to prevent accidental selection of the planes during modelling

Topography

The following stage is to create the topography on the reference planes that will be used in max to model the head. The initial blue lines show hard edges, creases and protusions in the surface. the red lines show the quad build up of base polygons. noting that around the features the quads tend to become smaller. and that they follow the underlying muscular nature of the human face.

3d Head

The task at hand is to follow the tutorials online (cgindia.com) to model and texture a head in 3d'smax using my own face as a base image. Initially two pictures were opened in photoshop and using lens correction and some basic editing the pictures were tidied up and correctly alighned.

Boiler Pump Environment
The sequence of images below show the creation of a room, styled to appear like that of a cellar in a large house or industrial building. The intial construction of the room began with four walls, a celing and floor. From here objects were created to fill the environment. consisting of the following:
- Hot water tank (basic cylinder then modelled, rusted metal texture bitmap)
- Toolbox (two chamfer boxes, with extruded sections for form the handle and lock, bitmap applied)
- Spanner (modelled from a basic box with a reflective metal texture applied)
- Shelf unit (box shapes, with applied bitmaps and textures)
- Copper pipes (created as individual assemblies consisting of cylinders with extruded sections to form the flanges and bolts. A coppery texture was created using a yellow based phong material with a smoke map. Bolts used a silver metal texture)
- air cooler box (basic chamfer box with a plastic coloured white material, fan blades created as extruded ellipses and grouped together. vents are flat sections with a rusted metal texture)
- shovel (modelled box and cylinders with applied textures)
- Stairs (standard stair shape from 3dsmax with applied bitmap)
Lighting was created using mental ray omni lights. two directed through the windows into the cellar and a further light located above the stairs. The foreground of the room was left clear to enable space for the boiler pump and to allow it to form the focal point of the room.

Boiler room further updated to allow the boiler pump to locate well within the environment

This Render shows the boiler room nearly complete

It is just awaiting the addition and animation of the boiler pump. There are a number of small articles within the room itself that can be animated. namely the fan box, where the blades could rotate and the vents flap.

Further development on the cellar

Some further items have been added to the scene, windows in some of the walls to cast light into the room. a toolbox, shovel, spanner, book and a few more pipes. the pipes were all created using cylinders and the flanges and bolts were extruded polygons from the basic shape. the others items were prominently modelled using basic box shapes and extruding out.

A start has been made on the lighting of the scene using omni lights to cast fairly realistic lighting effects. the main sorce of light comes in through the windows, and a secondaray light source takes the shape of the omni light and a light bulb hanging from the ceiling (still yet to be modelled)

The Cellar under development

Initial Layout

The initial construction of the boiler room consisted of makinf the room itself and copper pipes to connect various items of heating equipment together. Namely a boiler, and the pipes, bolts and flanges used for the construction of the pipe wotk. a set of shelves have also been created. a flight of stairs with a door at the top, (currently a bitmap, i intend to create and actual model for this however to allow the door to animate)

The cellar will also be filled with various items you would typically find including tools and appliances. Lighting in this form of environment is ABSOLUTELY crucial, as it will make or break the feel of the room on completion.

The Task

I was tasked with creating an environment for the animated pump to sit in. Looking at the images provided a suitable home could be any of the following:





- naval engine room


- maintenence workshop


- boiler room (cellar)


- situated within a side room within the rail network





I chose to initially set out to create a boiler room, the likes of which you typically see in the cellars of large homes. I searched the internet to find comparative images for this purpose and looked at video footage in some films. The original 'home alone' film was a good example of this

Boiler pump animation

The following photographs were taken of the boiler pump at the museum display.