Project 3

Using 3ds Max Design, I created a Walkthrough and Flyby of my Revit models from Project 1. These virtual simulations of the houses are meant to give a clear explanation of architectural details and how the spaces can be moved through. To accomplish this goal I first imported the models to 3ds Max. I then applied new materials to several surfaces including the grass, the water, the exterior and interior walls, and some furniture. I used images from the web and personal images in some case to create materials or used the default material maps in 3ds Max. I applied bump maps to most of the materials to make them more realistic. Then I created a camera and a path for it to follow for each animation. It was very important to get the path just right so that the details that I wanted to show could be expressed. I set up key frames in each scene to direct the camera to the correct position for head tilt, and look left and right.
After I had all the paths done, I went through and put lights in each room that the camera passed through. The lighting was tricky, as I had to balance the natural light with the artificial light and not let the windows look “washed out”. Then I rendered each scene. The flyby had 300 frames while the walkthrough had 910. The rendering took a significant amount of time. After it was all done I combined the images into an .avi file and enjoyed the show. The process of creating these walkthroughs taught me a lot about rendering and animation.
3ds Max is a powerful program. The main thing I had trouble with was learning the details of the software because they are so numerous. For instance, Revit has very limited and simple rendering engine with just a few buttons whereas 3ds Max has a very complex system with many options and choices for rendering which took a long time to figure out. Also, sometimes the program would not let me or other students undo simple actions like moving and object.

I also rendered some high quality images of frames in the walkthrough.