3D Max - playing around and mapping

Slowly but gradually I'm starting to understand more and more about 3D Max I wanted to play around on the software to see what I come up with and within 15 minutes I came up with this very basic piece of work:



It was a very basic piece that I made in my spare time but I wanted to upload it because thinking back two-three weeks ago a simple task like this would take me over an hour.

Now in our seminar last Friday Andy showed us the different effects we could use when using maps (mapping) our task was to create a tree however it wasn't as easy as it sounds. I could understand the basics on how to actually make the tree but creating the tree leaves itself I found quite difficult. I found the different modifying options complicated but after looking around and experimenting I found how to input curves into a box. For the material rendering (mapping) I did not think that it was as hard as I thought it would be, I now understand how duffusing an image works. This was the outcome:



As you can see I have also inputted camera action and a bumpy floor, my aim was to try and get a more 3D look. Andy also helped me create a night back drop. I was shown so many things that I lost track of some of the information given to me so I plan to attend this Thursday's surgery and get some more information on the camera movements when using 3D Max.