Week 6-8: December Snow Scene:

Snow Terrain and Atmosphere:

What I was thinking of for the terrain and atmosphere of this setting was a basic snow terrain which will have the Christmas tree situated in the centre of the terrain with snow falling around it. I had originally wanted to add presents underneath the tree as well but with the time restriction I may decide against it.

Terrain:

For the snow terrain, I started off by creating a ‘Plane’ (shown below).

Next, I wanted to increase the number of ‘segments’ on the plane in order to edit the plane more effectively and in more detail. (20 - 30 segments are preferred).

I followed on from this by going to the ‘Modifier list’, selecting ‘editable poly’, click on ‘soft selection’ and finally selecting each poly I want to extrude, and modify the plane until I am happy with the layout.

After I moulded the plane to the shape I wanted I went about giving the plane a more Sno wy texture. I did this by going into 'Material Editor' to create a material texture that would best suit the look of snow. I decided to go for a 'Noise Map' seeing as it looked very authentic and snow like. An example is shown on the right.

Atmosphere:

For the atmosphere of the setting I experimented with different particle effects for the falling snow and decided that a ‘triangle’ would be best for snow since it is smaller and looks more like a particle when using a ‘Motion Blur’ on it. Also, to give the effect of really heavy snow.

I applied a blizzard setting and rotated it so that the angle of the falling snow looked better. (I did this because Snow never falls perfectly straight).

Next I began tinkering with a fog effect just to make the scene to appear cold and also to increase the effect of the snow falling around the setting.

Background:

For the background I was thinking of using a traditional forest back drop which I could create by cloning the model of a tree similar to the design of the main Christmas tree around the edge of the ‘Snow Terrain’.

I actually created the background by taking an existing image on my computer and adding it to the snow_terrain.max file (Below is the background image).

I did this by first going to the ‘Rendering’ drop down menu, selecting ‘Environment’, scroll down to ‘Environment Map’, double click on ‘Bitmap’ and select the image file I wanted to use.

After having done the background for the snow scene I ended up with the below finished product.

I feel that the above image is good as it is and so, I have changed my design idea and have opted not, to add a Christmas tree, presents and tinsel.