The Transit Van

So yeah, put it off again, despite telling myself I wouldn't. Damn the Christmas holidays! They have made me sluggish, sleepy and damn lazy! Its been hard trying to get back into the swing of things since resuming Uni and the new projects have felt somewhat daunting. With 2D projects like character design (eeek I'm rubbish at it) taking priority my poor old Transit van became nothing but reference images and good intentions.

I set out making the design document fairly early, I didn't think it was going to be too problematic, just something I would probably forget to do. I set myself out a weekly plan of what I wanted to have done and admittedly failed to stick to it. I think my problem with 3D is I always think its going to harder and more boring than it is, I put off starting a project because a blank 3D max with photos of what you intend to create is daunting to say the least! However once I manage to knuckle down and just get to it I enjoy the experience. I enjoy the challenge with 3D Max of figuring out the best way to create something and adding all the little details and getting it as pretty as possible. I have done from the very first lesson where my simple church model ended up having a graveyard with tombs, headstones, paths, fences and even a welcome sign to the church. I need to find a way to get past the initial hump of starting a new project.

Another reason I put off starting in Max is because I know its generally not going to take very long. We had 4 weeks to do our Transit Van and, like the house, this was much more time than needed. Despite restarting the van once or twice I completed the modelling within a week, modelling my final van took about 2 days, around 16 hours. Unwrapping can be annoying and fiddly but generally doesn't take masses of time either with textures being relatively easy to create. I'm confident I could model and texture a Transit van within a week if that was all I was focusing on. so with a 4 week time frame I could make 4, IF I didn't spend so much time faffing about not wanting to start. Damn you Christmas you have made me lazy!!

So down to my Transit, what have I created....Well this....minus the awesome face.

 I was really happy with my van. I did restart it once or twice and am pleased I did. I haven't used reference images within Max before and think this was the main reason I struggled with my first van model. Deciding it was too fiddly to not have them, I put some in, restarted the model and think the result is much better for it!

It is under the 5000 tri limit at 3653 meaning more details could be added if I wanted.

It is still yet to be textured and with just over a week remaining for the project I don't see that being problematic.

 I do however have some drawing to do...best get to that.
Damn you Christmas you have made me lazy!!