Add lights, materials and textures to create a photo-realistic render of a scene downloaded from 3drender.com. The modelling software used was Maya and the rendering software MentalRay.
As an engineer I am interested on how artists use their tools and the possible problems they may face. I took the Advanced Animation and Modelling course at De Montfort University to actually experience what artists have to face everyday. I am not aiming to get a lighting/texturing job but to experience their working routine to be better prepared as a Technical Director.
Python add-on programmed for the 3D modelling software Blender. The add-on generates a trail of spheres both static and dynamic.
The add-on has five different parts: path generation, geometry generation (both static and dynamic), delete geometry, select geometry and change material of the trail.
Path generation uses arrow empties with a name and time attribute. It gets the x-axis direction of two arrow empties and interpolates a path using Hermite. It has a tension parameter that allows sharper/smoother turns.
Geometry can be generated in two ways: static and dynamic. The static will remain static when rendered while the dynamic will move along the path simulating a trail. Static and dynamic generation both share several parameters: we can set the geometry to get smaller as objects are generated; control the number of spheres generated; and decide the distance between the first and the last sphere. Dynamic trails add automatically keyframes for rendering. We can also decide if the geometry will remain visible to the render at the last key frame.
The final renders show some basic examples using the Blender add-on.
I designed all the website using HTML5 and CSS based on this tutorial.