SWOT Analysis

Strengths
For this module, I think my main strength is the ability to pick up the modelling aspect of 3DS Max quite quickly. I have used very primitive 3D modelling packages before which gave me a good understanding of the terminologies used, of how 3D space works and is converted into a 2D image through rendering.

Another strength is my enthusiasm for this subject in particular. 3D modelling has been something I would like to pursue in recent years, so I am doing my best to produce a great piece of work that I can be proud of. That enthusiasm allows me to put in plenty of hours of work at home in my own time without it feeling like a chore.


Weaknesses
A weakness in this project is having a fairly limited understanding of what the software is capable of. As time progresses and I spend more time using it, it does appear that almost anything is possible to create.

At the start of the project, the models I created were very basic and had problems in them. After learning much more about the program and how I could improve the models, I decided they weren't good enough and spent time going back to recreate them which took time.


Opportunities
Doing all the work in tutorials and my own time have been good for me to gain an understanding of an industry standard 3D package. Building all of these models also gives me the opportunity to go back and recreate them to a better standard. I have done this before, with particular reference to the gun and the car, but could keep going back for more and more improvements. This could hopefully be the start of a journey to a career.


Threats
The main threat I can think of is the reliability of the software. A couple of times I have set up a render and expecting it to take about an hour or two and right near the end an error message appears. "Mental ray has encountered a fatal error and must shut down" is not a good thing to see at 97% complete on a render that has been going for hours.

Another threat is that once a render has successfully completed I will notice some small error which is enough to make me have to go back to the scene to change it and re-render which wastes valuable time. This has happened once or twice, but is progressively less common as I get used to checking my work properly before starting the render.

One final threat is the fact that I have been working on almost all of my modelling and animation at home which is running the 2011 version of 3DS Max. I can save the files as 2010 versions so they work on the lab computers, but they do not convert very well. Materials and vertices are often completely wrong. I have been doing my best to show evidence of my own work throughout this blog as I know marking will be carried out on the 2010 version.