Moving to Edinburgh and 3ds Max

I am moving up to Edinburgh soon, so I am just starting to pack.I have been trying to learn a bit of 3ds Max recently to broaden my software knowledge, so signed up to digital tutors again to learn max from scratch. I feel its a little less intuitive then using modo as a comparison and noticeably different from maya. But I think I am getting my head around it.

Model created by me with the aid of Digital Tutors

When I signed up again, I forgot how valuable a resource the website can be. Every video doesn't just tell you what to do to create a certain object, it tells you why you are doing things in certain ways and which tool is more appropriate for the job.

Window awning

I made this window awning/cage thing in the same way I created the birdcage. It is not finished yet, it needs a few details on it and then a normal map to give it some depth.

Some more details in the scene and sculpting a column

Today I have been working on a column for the scene. Atop the column shall also be a pot similar to the pots already in the scene. Have placed it in the scene temporarily but it might go in a different position and needs to be finished. Base mesh created in maya then sculpted in mudbox. Turntable below.

 Not a large update, just finishing the steps and a few other areas.

Pots, Roofing and changes

Current render of the scene. I have applied basic coloured shaders to simulate what the image would look like. I have used some of the paint effects in the visor to create temporary foliage in the scene.

Brackets for the Canopy/Roof type object

Not a huge update. Just a model of the fancy brackets in the scene

The difficulty of trying to match proportions and shapes from a photograph

It has proved very difficult to try match the image shape to shape for the overall scene. I think I have the camera roughly in the right place and now some of the geometry is working. However some doesn't match up quite so well, so I might just have to adapt it to make the image look interesting enough.

Current state of the scene

Finished Birdcage

So I finished the birdcage. Was having some issues with the textures but thankfully fixed them. It isn't perfect and the normal map could be a tad better, but overall I think its turned out great. Might be a bit over exposed just because of the physical sun and sky.

Normal Map version to left. Diffuse, Normal, Spec and Transparency Map to right 

I have also had trouble trying to match a similar camera angle from the reference photo of the main scene, to the maya scene.

For now I have made a quick blueprint of the rough layout of the scene and will use this in maya to build up the environment with changes here and there.

The green is an approximation of where foliage will be.