1. BriefYour task is to create a believable,mechanical, digital 3D model to be usedas a worthwhile asset in a computergame.

2. When starting my research, I first decided what I wantedto base my mech on. I chose a wolf and so I collectedimages of wolf mechs so I could look at the structures alongwith shapes and patterns that interested me. Almost all ofmy research images are of wolf mechs because I was morefocussed on how the structure of my mech would be formed. 3. To continue my research, I collected images of different textures that could be used in my mech. I lookedat different types of bolts, rivets and various patterns that could be used or altered for the armour of mymech. 4. My next piece of research was looking at different types of grating and their patterning that I could usefor inspiration. The main reason I wanted to look at metal vents was because I knew that I woulddefinitely choose to use grating on my mech; particularly on the face and shoulders. 5. For the colour scheme, I chose to stick with silvery metal colours but chose to use black as well to contrastthe metal. I decided on a basic colour palette so that the colouring of the mech wouldnt accidently go overthe top. I chose the colour red because it contrasts well with the silvers and blacks. However, I might onlyuse dark reds on the mech but I think it will depend on what the different reds look like in comparisonwith the rest of the model. 6. Following my research, I designed a moodboard using shapes and patterns that Iwould potentially like to use for mymech. My mood board also represents thecolour scheme that I would like to use formy model.The images of the wolf and wolf headdrawings show what the mech is basedon, but my mood board gave me the ideato draw over the top of images to beginwith in order to structure my mech. 7. The drawing above is the same as my originaldesign, but from a different perspective. This wasso I could see how the shape of the head wouldwork from different angles.The drawing on the right is my final design forthe head of my mech, though I may have tomake changes during the actual modelling. Ichanged the design to this as I was aiming for asleeker look for my wolf. 8. Final Sketch Page for Mech Head 9. Before creating any designs forthe body of my mech, I took animages of a wolfs body and brokeit down into shapes.This is to help me with thestructures and proportions of thebody. 10. Now that I have an idea of the structure of thebody, I can now begin to draw out possibledesigns for my mechs body.Ive started off with drawing the shoulder as Iwould like to expand them so that theshoulders are large and bulky in proportion tothe rest of the body.Again, I experimented around with patternsthat I liked the look of in order to choose myfinal design. 11. Final Sketch Page for Mech Body(Shoulder) 12. After drawing the shoulder, I decided to startbreaking down the mech body into other parts.So I chose to look at the foot as I find that thesmaller parts of the body are harder to model.After zooming up on the foot, I then chose tolook at the leg in order to expand on myprevious sketch. 13. Final Sketch Page for Mech(Leg) 14. Using the different patternsI have looked at and addingsome of my own ideas, Iused the same image that Iused for the body structureand drew a design for mywolf mech over the image.One issue that I could havewith this is that I havedesigned something that isa bit ambitious for me tocreate within the timelimit. However, I thinkthatthisgives mesomething to aim for. 15. I have used various methods to create the head. The curvedI began my model by first creating the head plates are boxes that have been curved using the Bendand aiming to work along and down the body. tool. A lot of the grating has been done using BooleanThese screenshots show the final head fromwhile many shapes such as the plate on top of the muzzledifferent angles. have been created using Inset and Extrude. To savetime on modelling, I used the Symmetry tool to mirrorone side of the head on the opposite side. 16. Even though I was following the final design for my mech head, I did make some changes as I progresseddue to complications. These complications involved the proportions of the head; the head was not wide enoughto fit all the details in correctly. This is why I moved the positioning of the grating to go behind the eyerather than be placed below it. The muzzle itself is also squarer and the pointed muzzle isnt as defined asin the drawing. 17. After building the mech head, Idid a white render of it so Icould see any potential changesthat could be made.As shown on the left, I chose todraw in some wires that areconnected to the back of thehead. I also want to look atadding a plate over the foreheadthat will hide the sphere insidethe model.If I have enough time, I wouldlike to consider adding a lowerjaw to the model to give a betterimpression of teeth. 18. This screenshot shows how I began to createthe body of my wolf. This is where mydrawing of the wolfs body structure comesinto use.I have begun to create the basic body shapeof my mech and plan to create the armourfor it over the top.This is to avoid any hollow space that maybeen seen between the pieces of armour;particularly around any cogs or machinerythat will be embedded into the sides of themech.However, this did mean that I had lesstime to model the armour because I neededto dedicate time to getting the body shaperight. 19. To build the shoulder of my mech, I started off with the circular shape that would be on the centre of theshoulder to act as a joint. This is shown on the left-hand side screenshot. The screenshot on the right showshow I have taken different boxes and converted them into editable polys in order to distort their shape.These shapes are used as the armour. I have also used spheres that have been cropped by altering thehemisphere amount to show the joint lower down on the top of the leg. 20. I used the shoulder joint as a starting point for the front leg, so I started building from the top of the legdown. I used two boxes that I converted to editable polys. I was then able to move the polygons, edges andvertexes as required. I found that the legs were particularly hard to model due to shaping and matching theproportions with the body. 21. To continue from the development of the leg, I created thepaws. At the beginning, I was planning to start from the feetso I did an experiment with the foot (see right). I turned boxesinto editable polys and used tools such as bevel, extrude, insetand chamfer. When it was time for me to make the paws, I didnt think that my first attempt suited the style of the mech so I redid the paws. I created them using the drawing of my final design (see left) by creating a ChamferBox and straightening out the bottom. I scaled down a sphere to create the claws and moved the vertexes to give the claw a point. 22. For the body of the mech, Ibuilt it so that it would getthinner towards the back.This is so I could make theshoulders look bulkier.I created the armour byoverlapping boxes of differentsizes. Each of these boxeshave been converted intoeditable polys so that I couldcreate a variety of differentshapes and structures. Thearmour for the shoulders werebuilt bigger so they wouldextend out further whenoverlapped; again, adding tothe bulky effect. 23. To create the hind leg, I used two boxes;one for the thigh and one for the lower leg.Before I converted the boxes into editablepolys, I made sure that I had severalsegments for the thigh box and threesegments for the lower leg.By adding extra segments beforehand, itallowed me to create the needed shapes alot easier by moving the polygons and edgesaround at different angles (e.g. the lowerleg goes in 3 separate directions, which iswhy I added three segments).I found that the hind leg was the hardestpart of my mech to model, mainly becauseof proportions. Because I decided it would beeasier for me to build the thigh using aseparate box from the lower leg, I had tomatch the proportions not only to the bodybut also to the lower leg and paws. 24. Though I expected it to be hard, I foundit really easy to create the tail. To modelit, I created a cylinder which I convertedinto an editable poly. I then selected thebottom face and used to inset tool beforeextruding it. This makes the shape thatis extruded out a bit smaller. I keptrepeating this until the cylinder hadbecome very thin. I then selected thevertexes at the end of the tail and usedthe weld tool to join them up into apoint.At this point, the tail was straight so toget it to bend, I used the Bend tool andaltered the values to control the angleand direction of the tail. 25. The left screenshot shows the completed model without any texture. To begin my texturing, I chose a base colour towork from so I applied a metallic paint texture to the entire mech. You can see the results of this in the render onthe right. 26. I textured the head with differenttypes of metal that would contrastwell. I also used a red glassmaterial for the part representingthe ears.For the visor. I followed the redcolouring, but I chose to add aglow to it. To do this, I applied ared texture with self-illumination.I then used a lens effect in theeffects menu and added a glow. Ithen changed the values to alterthe size of the glow and itsintensity. This took some time as Ihad to experiment to find out thebest intensity. 27. For the shoulders, I wanted to add somegrating texture onto it so I used the UVWUnwrap tool and creating the diffuse mapin Photoshop. I also created a grayscaleversion in which I altered the levels tocreate a bump map so the grating wouldstand out more.I did go back to the diffuse map inPhotoshop at a later time to darken thecolour of the texture. The light texture onthe shoulder blades was too light so itlooked odd on the mech.I also made a change to the shoulders byscaling them larger. This is because Ithought that they were too small so byincreasing their size, I could make theshoulders look bigger and bulkier. 28. The renders below shows my completed mech from a front and back view; however, these are not my finalrenders as I have not included any lighting at this point. The next two slides show my first render andmy final render. 29. While I am happy with my final render, there are somechanges or additions that I would like to make.For the section above the hind leg, I would like to addsome grating to the side faces.As the hind legs were one of the last things that Imodelled, I wasnt able to spend as much time on them asI would have liked due to the time limit. Currently, theyare very basic with no detail. I would like to use theBoolean tool to engrave plating edges into the leg. Iwould also like to create rivets and other bolts to identifythe joints of the leg. I would also like to add some armourto it to thicken it up a bit. 30. Along the back and body of the mech, I would Along the neck, I wouldlike to look at adding rivets and different types like to add wires that of bolts just to add some extra detail. connect to the back of the head. I also want to use the Boolean tool to cut a gap into the side of the neck so you can see cogs inside the mech that I will build.I would like to use theBoolean tool to engraveplating edges into the legand the joint at theshoulder. I am alsoconsidering adding a lightred glow to the gaps tomatch the glow of thevisor.