Not bad for a start! <long post> Suggestions: Rendering 1. Raise the specularity and shininess on the stickers, they're almost reflective on new cubes. Perhaps add the logo to the white center.
2. look at a new cube, the reflections aren't perfect. Add a really light bump map to break up the reflections and specular highlights. 3. Get rid of ALL ambient light. If you need more light, turn on a point light. 4. Soften the spotlight. You have no decay around the edges of the light and that circle makes the image look CG. 5. Add more than one light. Usually I use a simple 3 light setup: Key light fill light and back light. Make sure that they're all not the same intensity. Key is usually .9 Fill is .5 or so, back is usually the brightest. I can see 2 lights in yours, so play around with them some more. Perhaps use area lights to soften the shaddows? 6. Get rid of the checkerboard table. As somebody who uses 3D programs, it stands out as a simple procedural texture that you just threw into the pic. Perhaps you could find a photo of a piece of wood and use that as a map? Or you could use a "use background" texture (I think that's what they're called in Max ... I usually use Maya) and make the background white. That gives you the effect of the white infinite room that you see so much on TV commercials, but you still get the shaddows. 7. If you can, try working with mental ray. It allows you to play with some really neat lighting stuff. For instance You can set it up to show bounced light. Set your cube on a white piece of paper red in front. Look at the paper. See the red? Mental ray can do that. Look for tutorials, they're everywhere. In general, your image is just too perfect. Real things aren't that perfect. Animation - I've tried animating a cube once, and it didn't turn out well. When I finally sit down to do it correctly, I want it to be fully scripted (IE select a center and the corresponding side turns no matter how many other twists have happened. Which you unfortunately can't do with just simple grouping) Anyway, back to you... the best way I found to move a cube is to move all the pivot points into the very center of the cube. That way when you select a side, the pivots are always directly below the center cubie. The problem I had was when a piece rotated more than 360. If that happens, the rotation value will go back to 0 when you key the frame, and when you play the animation, the piece will move in a strange fasion, so you pretty much have to fix that in the graph editor after you set the keyframes. </long post> *whew Hope I helped TBTTFox On 11/16/05, Gilles Roux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I tried to design a cube with 3ds Max: > > http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/speedsolvingrubikscube/vwp?.dir=/Gi > lles&.dnm=My+first+3D+cube.jpg&.src=gr&.view=t&.hires=t > > I know there are 3d designers in this group, thanks if you can give me > some advice to make it as real as possible. Materials for plastic and > stickers, animation tips... > > Gilles. > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/MXMplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/speedsolvingrubikscube/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
