Evaluation

I got off to a slow start because i wasn't used to the software but after the basics had settled in I found it alot easier to work on parts by myself. The tutorial worksheets came in handy when things got complicated but for most parts I could copy reference from the internet. With it being my first major creation on 3ds max I am very pleased with the outcome, I would have preferred a little more detail especially around the small guns on top and on the wheels but with the time given this is the best I could do. Also i would have liked to texture map my tank like what I learnt when making the house and dice etc. The animating wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and although it is short it still shows good movement. The only thing missing from the aimation side of things was my tank following a spline like I tested with the simple box shape earlier on but overall I think this tank project went pretty well.

Tank animation

I animated the wheels, tracks, turret and gun to render a very short movie of my tank in action.

Tank Step 11

To finish off I improved some of the edges using smoothing groups. Here is my completed 3D tank shape.

Tank Step 10

To make the tracks around the wheels i created a spline in the shape i wanted them to move in. I then made a box for 1 individual part of the track and then copied it 50 times. I then combined them all to 1 object and linked it to follow the spline i made earlier around the wheels.

Tank Step 9

I finished off the top of the tank with a few more detailed parts on the guns and the extra parts in blue towards the front.

Tank Step 8

I found a decent reference for the other gun too, maybe not as detailed and the trigger end could be alot better.

Tank Step 7

I found a good reference for the machine gun and did my best to recreate it. the holes in the barrel were hard work but certainly look really good. The rest of the gun will just be made of basic shapes as lots of detail may be a bit too complicated for me.

Tank Step 6

To make all 14 wheels I only had to make 1 and then copy it 7 times for one side and then copy that side over to the other. Also I made the ariels on the back and the hatches on top.

Tank Step 5

After hiding the base and turret of the tank I made the basket on the back.

Tank Step 4

This is what the tank looks like so far, including the main gun on the front. I made each of the three parts seperately.

Tank Step 3

I have now started to make the upper part of the tank in the top view, again using a box and editting the mesh from each view to fit the blueprints.

Tank Step 2

I mirrored it to the other side and raised one of the faces at the front a little. The grey shows what the tank really looks like (Smooth+Highlights) and the red shows a Wireframe that is used when editting the shapes (Mesh).

Tank Step 1

Here I have started with a box shape, editting the mesh to fit around the side blueprints for the lower part of the tank.

Blueprint

Blueprint showing Plan, Elevation, End Views. I will use these print to help me create my real A1M1 Abrams Tank.

Box Tank

My first animation on 3ds max. A box, representing a tank, following a simple spline/path.

Wheelie Bin

Here I have created an alpha mask in Photoshop of a picture of a bin. The white part represents the solid and the black represents the transparent. When opened into 3ds max it will show a 2d bin like the image on the left.

Terrest House & Bin

This time a more difficult shape, made from a box and a prism. The images I took myself of a nearby terrest house that i used 4 times across the front and back of my design. The roof texture is just from google and again used 4 times. The brick texture on the side I took myself and edited it on photoshop so that it fit together when mapped a number of times.

Box

I made the images for these 6 faces by myself on photoshop. I think it looks pretty cool but still a basic cube shape.

Fish Tank

Same again but here I got four images of fish in a tank for each side, 1 of a water ripple for the top and one of gravel/stones for the bottom.

Dice

My very first creation on 3ds Max. A basic cube turned into a dice by texture mapping 1-6 on each face. ;)