3D Truck... Now In Color!!

     We're almost over the hill, folks! We've officially learned about geometry in Maya, lighting, shading, and a teeny bit about rendering. You know what that means? Our truck got a paint job!

    

    She's certainly a beauty, ain't she? Fresh off the dealership lot and ready for a test drive. Woohoo! 

    I added some luminance to the front and back lights, which looks really nice when the truck is in motion. I also added some translucence to the windshield and windows, so it gives the model a neat look. 

    You can really see the rendering effects on the back here. Not only do the brake lights look activated, but the exhaust has a nice sheen to it too! Looks good enough to drive, but I don't think you'll get too far (I haven't built the engine yet, haha)!

    Since I learned how to texture, I played around with some area, volume, and point lights, so that you could see where the truck was headed. I also added in some color to the world and gave the truck a little road to drive on. 

    Once I learn how to properly texture, I'm excited to see how this world builds out. It would probably look nice with some flowers and bushes. Sounds like a town beautification project is in order! I'm in! 

    I figured out how to (very basically) edit the terrain. I am honestly really happy with the way the plane turned out... It reminds me of a Spyro level. Take me on back to Dream Weavers Home World already! 

    Hopefully I will one day make 3D models (and skyboxes!!!) that look like the OG Spyro trilogy. But until then, I'm going to keep learning until I get there.

Oh, and we weren't done! You probably figured I did another animation of the truck. And you would be right! Here it is! 

As it did last time, something about the Playblast made my video a tad sluggish, so I sped it up to make it seem more like it was drifting and less like it was stuttering around. 

    I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I still have a lot to learn about lighting and shading, but for my first rendering attempt, I'm pretty stoked that this turned out the way it did. The car hasn't burst into flames (yet), so we're good to go... Maybe!     

    Thanks for taking the time to look over my stuff. The next thing I need is a musical backing track from Stewart Copeland and it'll be good to load into the PS1 dev kit. 

    Jokes aside, I'm excited to continue to show you my progress. To whoever is reading-- thank you for embarking on this journey with me! 

    Battle On!