Battered fish

I added on the back fins using bevel, extrude and move tools. An eye socket was created on one side with the extrude and bevel tools and a sphere placed into the socket for the eye and the attach tool used to hold it in place. For the front fin I used a plane, on the same side as the eye, which was formed by moving the vertices on the outside to form the basic shape and then using soft selection and the move and rotate tool to create a more rounded look. I then used the attach tool to hold the front fin in place.

To save trying to create the eye socket and fin on the other side I sliced the fish in half lengthways and deleted the half without the features. The remaining half was then mirrored and the two halfs attached together and the weld tool used to join the vertices.

Using polygon material ID, I mapped out the three main colour sections of the fish - black, orange and white. These basic colours where then added using the diffuse channel in the material editor.

The final thing was to use turbosmooth modifier prior to rendering, however when I did so it showed up extra vertices / polygons all over the fish, which showed up as holes when rendered. Poor fishy must be affected by the polution!

Images:

Top - screendump of fish with turbosmooth

Middle - render of fish with turbosmooth

Bottom - render of fish without turbosmooth.

Panda

Using 2 reference photos I re-shaped a cylinder for the bodyshape using the edit poly modifier, then using another cylinder with the edit poly modifier one of the legs was shaped. This was then copied 3x to create the other legs and each one moved into place.

Busy Bee

I've now given the bee some legs to walk about with until he get's some wings. One leg was created in sections using cylinders, a sphere and a torus. The sections were then attached to each other using the attch tool. The leg was then cloned 5 times and each leg rotated and moved into position

Easy as 1, 2. Bee

Using the image on the planes for guidance, I modelled the head, body and tail of the bee. I used seperate objects for each one to represent the individual sections of a bee. The head and tail were both made from spheres whereas the body section was modelled from a cylinder.

Busy Bee

The bee was started in the same way as the fish, in that I created some drawings from a reference picture and applied these as material to planes in 3DS.

Swim fishy swim

Using the edit poly modifier the cube was shaped to create the body and tail shape, leaving the fins to do next.

Another fishy story

Screen shot in 3DS showing placement of planes with fish drawings. Modeling of fish was started by placing a cube into the scene, changing the properties to transparent, resizing and centering the cube to be in line with the drawings.

A fishy story

Using a reference image of a clownfish, I drew different viewpoints of the fish using Photoshop. These drawings were then placed onto planes in 3DS and arranged to give a basic outline of the fish shape.

finally getting somewhere.....

Material on petals still showing white marks even though original and opacity images line up, so this was altered in the co-ordinates view of the material editor.

Sphere was squashed and material added to simulate flower centre.

Bend modifier and material added to cylinder to create stem.

View of scene was adjusted to give a better angle of flower.

No lights added to scene yet. Attempts to add lights to scene have so far been unsuccessful, either creating a fully lit or a dark flower with no shadows from petals....oh well, back to the drawingboard...

Stem has been added using a cylinder, but no material yet.

The array was repeated 2 times and each section rotated around the centre, where a basic sphere was placed to emulate the middle of the flower and help line up the petals.

The material was also re-done to clear up the white marks on the previous image

start of 1st stamp - wip

I decided to use the 2nd idea to start with, but to make it less complex by only including one flower and a bee.

Using a reference image of a yellow gerbera flower I selected one of the petals to use as a material, which was placed onto a plane.

The plane was then placed off centre and the array tool used with the following settings: incremental z axis: 12.0; 1D count: 30; making a total of 3600 around the z axis.

3rd stamp idea

For the 3rd concept I decided to go for something more abstract.

The aim being to try and show the delicate balance of the world.

SWOT analysis

Strengths: ability to visualise end result of what I am aiming for, however -
Weaknesses: the inability to portray across my ideas using the 3D software.
Opportunities: the chance to learn to use the 3D software effectively.
Threats: time constraints and complicated user interface of the 3D software.

Royal mail stamp themes

Action for species: capturing the beauty of the 10 most endangered plants.

Images of some of Britains rarest birds; some of which are on the brink of distinction.

The definitive stamp: also known as Machins, after Arnold Machin the sculptor of the Queen's Head, which has appeared on stamps since 1967.

Happy Halloween or The Light Show

The lighting for this was fun to do, but it took several attempts and lots of practice to get it right. Even so, there's still too much light directed towards the front of the pumpkin.

turn over a new leaf

production of a leaf using the materials palette placed over a plane.

Despite using the edit poly modifier with soft selection the leaf still appears rather flat.

2nd stamp concept

This idea is based on the fact that the honeybees are being diminished due to the destruction of their natural habitats. It is mainly due to the beekeepers and use of conservation grade products that they have managed to survive at all.

The flower also depends on the bee for help with pollination. Without the bees help flowers have a diminished capacity for reproducing, which in turn reduces the bees natural habitat.

First stamp concept

Ideas for biodiversity:

I wanted to try and show how different species interacted with each other harmoniously.

The 1st concept relates to the interaction of the clown fish with sea anemone. General the two act in harmony to protect each other from predators.

Anyone for chess

Created using the spline method.

This was a very simple way to create symmetrical image, the most difficult aspect being getting the initial path correct in the first place.

5-a-day

OK, so it's only one, but it's a start.....maybe not so editable though

Biodiversity

couldn't remember how to extrude polygons, so ended up placing windows on top instead.

The design brief is considerably less scary than keeping a blog

Blogs are for those lucky few who always have this witty abstract view of the world.....which leaves me wondering where to start. Biodiversity is such vast subject. How much can one feasibly place on a stamp that the general public will both understand, appreciate and feel inclined to "save the world!"