The main take away of Digital Design and Animation II class was to advance my skills in modeling in 3Ds Max and setting up scenes and models appropriate for animating. These skills were brushed upon through UVW mapping, Animation Constraints, and Rigging. The skills to brush up on include creating 3D objects not from the shapes already made, but with primitives that allow you to make even more creative 3D shapes from scratch. These skills would then allow us to have unique objects that can be animated and then form a composition in front of a camera for the scene.
My knowledge of mapping models was advanced from using stock 3Ds Max maps to creating my own through the UVW editor. You will often want to go through the process of UVW Unwrapping so as to create a UV map that can be customized exclusively for the object you created. In my case, after I created a soda can, I unwrapped the 3D model and used an app called Krita (a free Photoshop alternative) to color the Bear logo I drew and applied to the model. Learning how to use the UVW unwrap modifier was a rewarding experience in itself as it allowed me to get even more creative on how to design my 3D models without being restricted with 3Ds Max's default textures.
UVW mapping will likely follow me into the future since I understand the basics on how to UV map and design my models decently and will improve the practice in the future. UVW mapping will also be very useful in designing characters and other assets. The use of the UVW unwrapping modifier also is not too hard to keep up with as long as you experiment with also changing the polygon count and adjusting the UV map as a response. My drawing hobby will also help with dealing with abstract layouts that I would have to deal with in UVW mapping.
Summary
The class of DDA II focuses on polishing up on skills already learned in DDA II so we can learn to use the skills effectively when modeling and composing a scene
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