Dumpster Development

I have been given the task of creating a 3d dumpster model for a 3rd person action adventure game set in the grimy streets of a modern metropolis. The technical specifications required me to work in Centimetres so I went into 3ds Max set the Unit Scale to Metric 'Centimeters'. The model had to be within 650 triangles and the texture was to be 1024x1024. 

To proceed with this task I first went outside to find a dumpster to use as my reference. I took some photographs using my smartphone and jotted down some approximate measurements. 

Reference Photographs 

Modelling the Dumpster 

My first step was to create a box with the correct measurements in as the width height and depth. 

Used the Bevel tool to hollow out the box. 

 I used the connect edges to divide the lid into sections to allow me to reshape the top side. 

I created the wheels by making a Cyclinder and a Box, I used the Bevel tool to shape the box into a wheel connector. I was able to delete the hidden polygons on the Cylinder that were covered up to save on the polygon count.  

After the wheel was created I was able to move the pivot to the top of the wheel and then position it at the same height as the base of the bin by copying the Z co-ordinates over. 

Cloned the wheels to make additional wheels. 

I created the handles on the sides out of a box and using the Bevel tool. 

 Then I used the Mirror tool. 

Once the handle was positioned correctly, I set the pivot to 0,0,0 and mirrored it to create the opposite handle.  

Texturing and Texture Creation 

UVW Unwrapping. 

I rendered the texture for use in Photoshop later to allow me to create the texture. 

Next I wanted to create an Ambient Occlusion map to add shadows to the texture. I searched for how to bake ambient occlusion on Google to remind myself how it was done. 

I set the Renderer to use Mental Ray and under the Output I set it to create Ambient Occlusions with 1024x1024 dimensions. 

I had to combine the two textures into one using Photoshop, then saved them in the Texture file keeping them on a separate layer and setting it to Multiply. 

 I copied parts of the reference photos into Photoshop and edited them to fit the textures. 

Copying the texture into another document, I was able to create a specular map by desaturating the image and then changing the lightness of different parts. 

I created a bump map bitmap image by copying the texture and desaturating it, adjusting the brightness for where the bumps need to occur. 

Go Bananas Dumpster (click to view in 3D)

Evaluation 

I think the strengths of my Dumpster model are: that the model looks realistic in shape and it's texturing. The dimensions are approximate to the real thing and it is within the polygon limits set by the brief. 

The weaknesses for the model: the textures on the wheels aren't perfectly round, I could have made them more realistic by taking more reference photographs of the wheels. The bump map could have been better if I spent a bit more time on it.