Models for Games Notes (7/11/2012)

Tree and images:

Robin Foale        7/11/2012

• Copied the image of the tree that was available on Moodle onto Photoshop.
• On Photoshop I made a copy of the first layer using ‘Ctrl J’ and then used the Magic Wand tool in order to remove the white background. Then clicked the little eye next to the bottom layer in order to remove the background completely.
• Created another layer in which I selected the whole tree before using the Paint Bucket tool to fill it completely with white.  
• Created a new layer under the top most one and filled the background in blackness. I then merged the black layer and the top layer and called the layer ‘Tree Opacity Map’. I then made sure to save an image of the Photoshop work under the same name as a JPEG image.
• Clicked the eye next to the top layer and then added a new layer above the background and filled the background with dark green.
• Selected the burn tool and chose the 2^nd top most layer. I then changed Midtones to Highlights and changed the Exposure to 75%. Using the Burn tool I then went all around the edges of the tree to make them greyer.    
• Created a new layer below the top most one and then changed Normal to Color. After this I then used the paint tool in order to make the edges a darker shade of green. I also reduced the opacity of the middle layer to 60 in order to bring out the colour some more. 
• I then merged the three middle layers and saved the document as a JPEG file under the name ‘Tree Layer’.
• Using the Magic Wand tool I selected the tree on the top layer to outline it before clicking on the background layer and copying it.
• Making sure to only have the 2^nd to last layer visible I then cut around the top of the tree using the ‘Polygonal Lasso Tool’, making it the only one visible.
• I then copied this cut piece and pasted it numerous times until the image looked like a bird’s eye view of a tree, making sure the cross hair was in the middle at all times so as to make sure they rotated correctly. I then merged them all together. I then added a new layer behind these copies and filled the background with a dark green.
• Using the Magic Wand tool and selected the background of the top view of the tree and made a new layer, making sure to change this layer's background to black.
• Using the Magic Wand tool I then copied the bird’s eye view of the tree before filling the empty tree white. I also merged the original top down view with the green background.
• Going onto 3dsmax I created a plane with a length of 128.0 and a width of 93.0. Making sure that all segments were 1.    
• Rotating the plane upwards by 90 degrees I then brought up the material editor and selecting ‘Standard’ I chose ‘Multi/Sub-Object’, choosing to discard the original grey layer that the material always starts with thus making it black and setting the ID number from 10 to 2. 
• Selecting the first box I chose ‘Standard’, thus making the material grey again. I then made sure to select ‘Diffuse’ colour and choose the tree with the green background (Tree Texture) for it. Then I ticked ‘Opacity’ and chose the tree with the white background (Tree Opacity Layer), thus making the texture only show its branches. After making sure the texture was ‘2-Sided’ and I had renamed the texture ‘Tree Side’ I then dragged the material onto my plane thus making it look like a 2D tree.
• With the ‘Angle Snap Tool’ on I selected the tree and rotated it by 45 degrees followed by copying it 4 times in order to make it a mostly 3D tree. Then I moved around each 2D side up and down in order to make it look more layered.  
• Selecting all of them I then right clicked one of them chose ‘convert to editable poly’. After this I then selected one side and chose ‘attach’ thus bringing up a window. With this window I then selected all the objects in the scene and selected ok, thus making them one object.
• Going into the top view point I added a cylinder over the tree with ‘Height Segments’ of 1, ‘Cap Segments’ of 3 and ‘Sides’ of 12. Also making sure that the ‘Height’ was 0. Once this was done I then lifted the cylinder so it floated over the tree.
• Selecting the cylinder I choose ‘Isolate Selected’, thus making it the only visible object. Then making it a ‘Editable Poly’ I selected ‘Vertex’ mode and pressed F4 in order to bring up its grid. Then I selected the middle vertex and lifted it up.
• I then chose it outer rings and lowered them until it looked like a rounded version of a pyramid. Made sure to make the outer circle of vertexes uneven so as to add to the tree branches' effect later.
• Pressing ‘Ctrl A’ with Polygons selected I then scrolled down with all the highlighted sides until I came across ‘Polygon: Material IDs’. Here I changed the number 1 to 2 in ‘Set ID’.
• Deselecting ‘Isolate Selected’ so as to bring back the tree I then went onto Material Editor and selected the 2^nd ID number. Once here I did the same as before only with the bird’s eye view trees.
• Selecting F4 to remove the grid again I then copied the cylinders through the tree, making sure to make them different sizes so as to add variety followed by adding a brown cylinder in the middle of it so as to add a tree trunk.Thus completing my tree.