The tower was modelled based on designs using simple primitive shapes. First a gengon object was created with 5 sides with a low fillet number and converted into an editable poly. The number of segments was set reasonably low to eradicate any unbeneficial polygons that can take up memory. Then each face of the gengon was selected (Ctrl + click) and extruded in. This gave the fillets of the gengon an extruded edge. The complete object was then selected and mirrored below the previous one. Then using the scale tool, the gengon was reduced in size. To make the larger top gengon slightly tapered, I selected the top two rows of polygons and increased their size using the scale tool. The top over hang was created using the same technique. Then the side of the over hang were selected and extruded in like before.

The middle of the tower is a simple mirror of the first gengon object. The scale tool was used reduce the width and lengthen the shape. Then the Taper, Twist and Squeeze modifiers were added to give the shape a quirky facelift. The curled railing was created by drawing the outline using the spline tool and extruding the face. This was then copied four times and set on the edge of each point of the middle gengon. When creating the splines I quickly learned that if any point is overlapping, the spline will not be correctly extruded so care was taken to ensure this does not happen. Also the ‘attach’ tool in the splines modify panel menu is useful to merge splines before extruding.

Adding detail to the tower was essential. I did this by creating a 32 segment sphere and converting it into an editable poly and deleting half the selected sphere. However on retrospect this isn’t the best method. I soon after learned that a hem-sphere can be created in the modify panel of the sphere (by selecting the ‘chop’ not ‘squash’ option) and the number of segments should be a maximum of 24 as the detail is too small to pick up unsmooth polygon faces. Then the one sphere was copied and the scale varied. This process was repeated till I had 8 hemi-spheres of varying sizes. These were then grouped and mirrored 4 times to each side of the middle gengon object.

The roof of the tower was created from a primitive cone object. To ensure the shape could be deformed easily with the use of modifiers, the height segment of the cone was set to 10. The object was converted into an editable poly and the bottom row was panned out using the scale tool. Then the Squeeze modifier was applied to the whole object. The axial bulge curve was set to 2.66. The radial squeeze was set to -0.03 and the curve to 4.52. To add more texture to the roof, a plug-in modifier called ‘Greeble’ was applied.

The weather bane was created by drawing the outline with the line tool and extruding the shape from the spline created. Then the object was selected and placed directly at the top of the cone. The position of the bane was slightly offset to enhance the towers battered and quirky appearance.

The base of the tower was created from a box object with all of its segments set to 1. The object was converted into an editable poly and the top face was selected, extruded and scaled to create the taper effect. By extruding the face, a new row of polygons was made which meant that creating the over hang would be easy by again using the scale tool. The window was created by making an extrusion of a spline and using Boolean to extract the shape of the spline from the side of the tower.

The foundation column of the tower is a simple box primitive with its height, length and width segments set to 8. This figure could have been reduced to 1 but I left the number at 8 in case any modifiers were to be added at a later stage. Once the tower was completely textured all the objects were grouped and merged with the complete scene with the trees and the gate. To see an image of the initial model design Jed’s tower please see the ‘concept ideas’ section.

I created a number of different types of furniture for the film and most were modelled with a similar method. I will discuss the modelling of the cabinets found on either side of the robot morgue. First a 6 segment box was created and converted in an editable poly. Then the back faces were selected and extruded. The front face was created by insetting the front polygons and extruded in the square shape. The Squeeze modifier was then applied to the object. However if the cabinet was re-modelled I would use a chamfer box as the base object instead of a standard box.

The handle was created from a 24 segment sphere. The object was converted into an editable poly and the middle sphere was selected and stretched using the scale tool to create a ‘pill’ shape. Then one half of the object was selected (without the stretched polygons) and using the scale tool panned out to create the shape for the handle. Then the face of the front part of the handle was selected inset and extruded in to create an indent. To create a smooth oval shape to the handle, the Squeeze modifier was again added with an axial bulge curve of -2.39. The radial squeeze curve was set to 2.19 and the amount to 0.09. Then the object was placed accordingly on the cabinet.

The gothic emblem design was taken from the larger version that hangs on the wall on the robot morgue. It was created by drawing the individual splines with the line tool and extruded each collectively by 0.076m. Then all the splines were grouped as one object to make it easier when working. Individual lines would have been awkward to move and there is a chance one or two may be unselected when moved. Also rotating individual lines could have produced an undesired effect.

The legs for the cabinet are again made from extruded splines. The method is the same as above. The other detail on the cabinet, i.e. the raised bumps were created from hemi-spheres that were simply copied, edited to vary the size and placed a box shape on the front of the cabinet.

I began by drawing the outline of the gun handles shape using the line tool to create a spline. The outline was drawn without mapping a reference picture on a plane but by eye using quick sketches I had made. I didn’t want a replica of the colt so decided it was best to model it based on my designs and not off photos. In retrospect it would have been easier to have made a sketch of the gun and map it, but it worked out quite well this way too. Under the line options (modify panel of the spline) in vertex mode I edited each point of the lines geometry to create the shape. I added new points with the ‘refine’ tool.

Then the inner spline was drawn and attached to the outer. This would make the basic shape of the gun’s handle. This was then extruded by 15.5 and kept at 1 segment to keep the polygon and face count low.

For the handle’s grip, another spline was drawn and extruded. This extrusion however was slightly greater to make the grip stand out from the rest of the handle. Although the texture of the grip would inevitably have a bump map with a high setting, I gave the grip more depth by increasing its thickness from the rest of the handle.

The trigger was created in two parts with the same method as above. Firstly, the outer rim was created using the spline tool. Then using the line tool again, the outline of the trigger itself was drawn. Both were then extruded.

The gun still looked very flat until I added the gun barrel. The barrel of the gun was created using a primitive tube object. The outer radius was set to 9.64 and the inner set to 7.158. To ensure a smooth barrel and to exclude the use of the MeshSmooth modifier, the segments were set to 32. The height and cap segments were set to 1 as no further detail was to be added.

The lower barrel part was created by cloning the previous tube and resizing it using the modifier options. The segments were reduced to 24. It was positioned directly under the top tube and placed so that a small of part the tubes mesh sat inside the gun.

The tip of the barrel was created using the line tool to create the basic spline and then extruded. Then using the FFD 4x4x4 modifier, the front was shaped. Below the tip, a simple box primitive was placed and edited using the FFD 4x4x4 modifier to shape the edges around the barrel of the gun.

The revolver was the trickiest part to model. The shape was built using the spline tool. A circle spline was used as a template to build the indented shape. The inner circles are 6 circle splines that were attached to the outer. The whole shape was then extruded.

The whole gun was then selected and a white material was applied. By applying a one tone material I had a better idea of the look of the gun, as the different parts were no longer multi-coloured. The laser part was built by copying the gun barrel and reducing the diameter of the tube. The segments were then increased to allow easy modifications to the shape.

The tube was then converted into an editable poly and three quarters of the object was selected. Then the selection was set to ‘local normal’ and extruded by 1.5. The whole object was then flipped so that the thin end was towards the handle of the gun.

The laser part was then copied and edited using the scale tool to create the eye piece. This was then placed behind the first laser object.

To join the laser tubes to the gun itself, a simple box primitive was created and shaped using the Taper modifier. The box was then copied parallel and three sets were made. These were then placed along the top of the gun to attach the laser to the gun.

To create the stairs at the bottom of Jed’s tower I had the option to use 3Ds Max 6’s built in stair objects but decided to build the stairs from scratch. First the number of stairs was determined, which I decided to be around 35. Then a box primitive was created for the base of the stairs. The length and width segments of the box were set to 2 and the height to 1. The shape of the stairs was defined through ‘box modelling’ by extruding every second face, increasing the number of extrudes by one as the number of steps increased. This gradually created a full set of stairs. The stairs could have also been modelled using the line tool to draw the outline of the stairs using splines (from a side perspective) and extruding the shape. This method would mean fewer polygons but would inevitably be far more time consuming and difficult.

The stairs railings were made by creating a primitive cylinder object (with a relatively low number of segments, around 8) and adding the Noise modifier. This gave the railing a crooked appearance. Then 4 segment cylinders were added to join the railing to the stairs. These again had the Noise modifier applied to them. Initially only one was created, and then cloned and rotated to give to the impression of varying shaped rails. These small details help maintain the continuous quirky theme of the film.

To make the decorative detail on the stairs, I simply drew the shape using the line tool, and extruded the spline by 0.01m. Then the spline was mirrored and copied to create a horizontal clone. The splines were arranged under the top railing and connected to the support cylinders. The whole model was then grouped and appropriately named.

To give the staircase a gothic twist the Bend modifier was applied to the stairs. The bend parameter was set to an angle of 322 and the direction was left at 0. The bend axis was set to Y. This transformed the stairs from a straight line shape to a ‘C’ shape. To hide the edge that was created by the Bend modifier, a box primitive with the same height was added to make the stairs appear as if they are connected to a wall.

Firstly to create the basic seat, a 6x6 box primitive was created with the height set to 1. This was then converted into an editable poly. Then the four central polygon faces were selected and in ‘polygon selection mode’ the ‘soft selection’ menu was opened and the ‘use soft selection’ box was ticked. Then the gizmo was lowered along the y axis to create a dip. To make sure the polygons along the back faces are not affected, the ‘affect backfacing’ box must be un-ticked.

The back of the chair was created from a box but the shape of the object was edited by applying the FFD 4x4x4 modifier. This allowed me to alter the structure of the box and give the chair a quirky appearance. The arm rests were created by purely cloning a chamfer box with segments set to 1 and a fillet of 3. Before cloning the chamfer box I made sure the smooth option box was ticked.

The decorative features below the arm rests were created by drawing the shapes with the line tool and extruding the splines. Then the extruded objects were mirrored across. These features were added to not only build up the bulk of the chair but to make it look frightening and ominous.

The legs of the chair were made from a box object with a height segment of 6 and then converted into an editable poly. Then two of the segments near the bottom of the box were selected, inset and extruded in, one more than the other. Then a Taper modifier was applied to the whole chair leg. The leg was then mirrored across the x axis to create a second leg. Then both the legs were mirrored to the opposite side.

To create the electric coils on the side of the chair and on the leg rest, a cylinder was created with 14 height segments and 18 sides. This was to ensure that once the Bend modifier was applied, the cylinder would bend adequately without requiring smoothening. The Bend modifier was set to an angle of 337 along the Z axis. The cylinder was then copied another 6 times and placed on the back of the chair. The seven cylinders were then mirrored across. The leg rests cushion was created from a chamfer box and converted to an editable poly where soft selection was again used to dip the centre. The base of the leg rest is a simple1 segment box. The seven coils from before were copied again and positioned on the side of the leg rest.

The whole chair was then selected and frozen to make working on the other parts easier. To make the stand for the external switch box I firstly created the base of the stand from a hemi-sphere. This was converted into an editable poly and the centre faces inset and extruded inwards. Then a smaller section of the top faces were selected and extruded up. The Taper modifier was then added to this newly extruded selection. The shaft of the stand was created from a cylinder with 8 height segments. Each alternating section, excluding the base section, was selected inset and extruded in to give the shaft a more detailed appearance. The Bend modifier was applied to the cylinder to create the curve in the shaft of the stand. Its parameters were set to 99.5 along the Y axis.

To create the main part of the stand for the switch a box was created, converted into an editable poly and then the front face was inset, bevelled in, inset again and extruded in. This creates a little detail around the edge of the box. The buttons are simple extrudes of a circle spline and the handle is made from a cylinder in between two thin chamfer boxes with another editable poly cylinder attached as a handle. To make grips on the handle, a similar technique that was used on the shaft was employed.

The electricity wires connecting the switch to the chair were made by applying the Bend modifier to a long thin cylinder with a radius of 0.006m and a height of 3.198m. To ensure adequate bend on the cylinder the parameters were set relatively high, 24 height segments and 18 sides. These were then positioned accordingly.

A hemi-sphere object was then created for the head plate. To mould its shape, the FFD 4x4x4 modifier was applied and then it was converted into an editable poly so that the bottom faces could be inset and extruded in. The bars connecting the head plate to the back of the chair were made by applying the Bend modifier to a 16 segment 24 sided cylinder. The radius of the cylinder was about 0.038m and the height set to 2.182m. Then the cylinder was mirrored along the X axis to make a duplication which was positioned accordingly.

To balance out the aesthetics of the electric chair I added a column with switches on its left. This was made from primitive objects. The base is a hemi-sphere that has been squashed using the scale tool, the shaft is a 1 segment cylinder with 24 sides and the body is made from a box. The box was converted into an editable poly and the front face was inset, bevelled, inset and extruded in. To create the switches on the front a box object was converted into an editable poly and in vertex mode its shape was edited to replicate a light switch. This was then cloned 6 times. Then the whole body was twisted to face inwards by applying the Bend modifier along the Z axis at an angle of 39.5.

The objects in the opening scene were modelled individually, and each step shows how and in what sequence they were created. Firstly the table was made using a 1 segment box primitive, and then I created the envelopes on top of the table. To do this I created a chamfer box with a low fillet. Its segments were set to 6 for width and length and 1 for its height. Then the Bend modifier was applied to create a curve in the envelope. Then the texture was dragged on to the mesh and a UVW modifier was added with its mapping parameter set to ‘box’. The envelope was cloned and positioned at an angle on top of the first one. The brown paper envelope under the pen was created using the same method but no modifiers were used as it was only a simple chamfer box with a texture applied.

The coffee cup was created from a donut spline. Then the Extrude modifier was applied to the spline (extruded by 80) and its segments set to 6. To smooth the edges of the coffee cup the MeshSmooth modifier was applied and its iterations set to 1 in the Subdivision Amount drop down menu.

To create the saucer a hemi-sphere was created and squashed using the scale tool along the Y axis. To create the dip in the saucer I used the Boolean compound object. To do this I cloned the squashed hemi-sphere, scaled it down and used Boolean to subtract the cloned hemi-sphere from the original. Then the MeshSmooth modifier was applied again with the number of iterations set to 1. To create the coffee in the cup I used a circle spline and extruded it by 1.5. A Noise modifier was initially added to create a bumpy appearance but the coffee did not appear old, like it had been there for some time so the modifier was removed.

The pen was made by combining 3 chamfer cylinders of varying sizes. The first (the end) had a radius of 1.144, the second (the middle part) had a radius of 1.4498 and the third chamfer cylinder (the lid) had a radius of 1.648. The outline of the pen clip was drawn using the line tool and extruded by 1.0 using the Extrude modifier. Its mesh was split into 2 segments. Then to shape the clip the FFD 4x4x4 modifier was applied and the shape was edited using via the ‘control points’.

All the different objects were individually grouped and merged into once scene. The book itself was created from two boxes with another thin box sandwiched in between. To make the spine of the book, a cylinder was created the same length as the two boxes and shaped with the FFD 4x4x4 modifier. A plug-in called ‘Quickdirt’ was applied to the spine that blends two textures together. This created a worn look on the edges of the spine.

The motion of the book opening was created through key-frame animation. Each individual frame was tweaked to give the impression of fluid motion. When animating this scene the lighting had to be switched around from the left to the right because the when book opened the cover would block out the light source and the page would appear black until the book was fully opened flat.

The room was modelled in various parts and then merged into one complete scene. I will discuss how some of the features were made. I began by making furniture for the room. I made the bed using a box object and converted it into an editable poly. The top faces of the box were selected and extruded to double the height of the bed. Then to hollow out the inside, the top faces were inset and extruded down. The legs of the bed were created from one 3 segment box object with the Taper modifier with an amount of 0.46 applied. The mattress is a simple chamfer box with the MeshSmooth modifier applied; the render values boxes were ticked. Both the number of iterations and the smoothness were set to 1.

The bed cover and pillow were both made from edited chamfer boxes. The pillow was converted into an editable poly and ‘softened’ by using soft selection from the drop down menu. The bed cover was a little trickier to create. The chamfer box was converted into an editable poly and its mesh was edited in vertex mode. Then soft selection was again used to make the chamfer box look softer and more like a bed cover. I experimented with adding the Noise modifier but found it harder to mould the shape with the modifier applied.

The books on the shelf were a made from an arrangement of primitive objects. The shelf was made from a box for the base and shaped boxes on either side (edited in vertex mode once converted into an editable poly). The screws were made from hemi-spheres. The book themselves were all made by cloning one chamfer box with a fillet, width and height of 4 and a length of 2.

To create the shape of the room a gengon was created and the camera was set up just inside the front wall facing the draws and cupboard. To create the windows a technique called Boolean was used. A box was created and placed with one side inside the walls and one left outside. Then the box was subtracted from the gengon. The different objects in the room were merged one by one, and often little things such as toys were added.

Once all the various objects had been merged, I began texturing the various parts. To create the ceiling with the stars I used the star spline to make one individual shape. This was extruded by 0.008 and copied multiple times and rotated. All the toys were made to minimize the number of polygons to ensure a reasonable rendering time but to still suggest that the room belonged to a young boy. The design for the room is very American, as the wallpaper suggests.