This document summarizes Tong Xu's work using 3D Max to create two virtual environments - a 3D hill and a snowy scene. For the hill, Xu drew spline outlines at different altitudes and adjusted their heights, applied a color gradient based on elevation, and added smoothing effects. For the snowy scene, Xu modeled snow particles, adjusting their properties, added a gray self-illumination material, and imported a background image to render the animation with falling snow. Both projects provided experience with 3D Max tools and workflows to support Xu's dissertation on a virtual meetup system.

1. Report on 3D Max
---Tong Xu
Significance of 3D Max for Me
3D Max is of momentous significance in that it is closely related to my
final dissertation, which is about Virtual and Social Meetup System. 3D
Max plays an essential role in building various environments in the
virtual world. These days I have learnt the basic functions and animations,
and have done two related projects.
The First Piece of Work---- 3D Hill
The scene of 3D Hill will be employed in the dissertation project as an
environment for people who are fans of exploration and discovery.
Various colors on different layers signify the vegetation on diverse
altitudes. In the final project, a road will be opened up for visitors to
explore magic vegetation types, which are changing gradually from the
foot to the top of the hill.
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2. The procedure is as follows:
1. Draw the plane figure of the hill at the bottom. I activated
the top viewport and adopted “CreateSplinesLine”, using Line
Tool to draw the plane figure. Tool of “Fillet” was useful then to
smooth the angles.
2. Draw outlines on different altitudes in the top viewport.
Tools of Line and Fillet were used as well.
3. Adjust the heights of outlines. In perspective view, I chose the
outmost outline, then selected “CreateGeometryCompound
ObjectsTerrain”, and then click “Pick Operand”, and then it is
available to change the heights of these lines one by one. However, I
made sure that the centre of the hill was the highest.
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3. 4. Adjust the color of the hill. I chose “Modify” in command panel,
and making sure “Terrain” was selected, I rolled it downward to tick
“Stitch Border” and “Retriangulate”, which were helpful to make the
picture smoothier. Dragging the panel downward until I saw a choice
“Color by Elevation”. There was a sub-title called “Color Zone”,
where I changed colors of the hill 5 times (30 meters using one color).
The colors were modeled on the vegetation of Himalaya
Mountains.
5. Add effects to the hill. I used “MeshSmooth” in the command
panel to modify the picture through adding “Iterations” and
“Smoothness”.
6. Add the bevel effect to the text. To avoid modifying the finished
picture, I selected the hill and click “DisplayFreezeFreeze
Selected” in the command panel to lock the picture. Then I used
“Create ShapesText” to write the name 3D Hill in the input
square on the right bottom corner. To make the text more three
dimensional, I used “Bevel” in scrolled “Selection Modifiers”.
Now the first piece of work has finished!
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4. The Second Piece of Work—A Snowy Day
A Snowy Day will be adopted in my dissertation project as a scene for
romantic users in the hope of developing a romance.
The procedure is as follows:
1. Modeling. I chose “CreateGeometryParticle SystemsSnow”,
and drew a square in the top view to show the snowy scene.
2. Change the parameters of snow. I assigned “100” to “Viewport
Count” and “Render Count” so as to make sure the number of snow
particles was 100 both in the viewport and after rendering. “Flake
Size” was defined as “2.0” and “Speed” as “10”. Flake Size defined
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5. the size of every particle when rendering and speed determined the
initial speed of particles coming from emitter.
3. Change the timing of snow in parameters panel. I assigned
“Start” to “-100” and “Life” to “100”, in this way at the beginning of
referring the scene of snow appeared. Then I clicked the choice of
“Constant”.
4. Assign the material. From the menu bar, I chose
“RenderingMaterial Editor” and activated an example ball.
Choosing “Maps”, I clicked “None” besides “Opacity”, and a popup
menu called “Browser” appeared, in which I selected “NewGradient
Ramp”. In the “Noise”, the “Amount” was “0.25” and “Size” was
“1.9”. When returning back to “Go To Parent”, I selected “Blinn Basic
ParametersSelf—illuminationColor”, then I modified the color to
grey (R: 196, G:196, B 196) in the popup panel “Color Selector:
Self-illum Color”.
5. Update Background Transform. First of all, I prepared a
picture of snow in an open source website. Then I began to change the
viewport background. I clicked “Alt+B”, and updated that snow
picture in “File”, then I was able to view the animation in the viewport.
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6. Then I changed the background when rendering. I thought it would
be easy, but for me it was the most difficult part and I took nearly four
hours to learn how to change the background when rendering.
However, I believed that I would never forget that procedure all my
life. “RenderingEnvironment”, then I needed to tick “Use Map”,
then I had to find “ Bitup” to update the snow picture.
6. Add the bevel effect to the text. Just as the procedure in the last
piece of work, I added the name A Snowy Day to the animation.
7. Animation Rendering. I pressed F10, and the dialogue box
appeared. I chose “Active Time Segment: 0 to 100”, clicked “File” in
“Render Output”, and saved the animation as AVI File.
Now the second piece of work has finished!!!
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