Year 2 week 29

Year 2 week 29

Last stretch.

I don’t want to complain buuut where da monkeys is half of my group? You would think that last week before the dead line they would all be here working their asses of but nope. They aren’t anywhere to be seen. At least my other two team members are here. Looks like we will have to complete this game all on our own. So for the next week I am aiming to make all the assets that aren’t done and also complete some more of my part. I’ve finally made my falling tree and it was actually allot easier than what I thought. I thought there would be the usual Unreal 4 bull doo doo but nope it actually all went to plan. Yay for success.

So for the last week all I’ll be focusing on in getting my head done and working like cray cray. I’ve taken some days of work so I can go in and help my group as much as possible.

Later that week… so I’ve completed my part of the level and its looking pretty good! I’m actually really happy with it but it was just a shame that we couldn’t put the cat in. I’ve also moddled a few more assets that other people were meant to do like lighting scones. I’m actually kind of glad they still haven’t shown their faces as this means it’s going to look better on me and the other 2 members.

Year 2 week 28

Year 2 week 28

Much type such Character

So this is the hand in week for the character re-sub and 2500 word essay. My goodness that was allot of all nighters and hard thinking! I decided to write my essay in a style I don’t normally do purely because I can’t. The style is supposed to be a proper University level essay format where I don’t just blab words onto a page like I do here on my blogs. I’m not going to lie I hated it. I only did it to show that I can and that I wanted some extra marks. I’m pretty sure that essay is worth 33% of my critical studies. Which means its 10% of my overall grade. So hopefully the assessors like it and can see I put allot of effort into it. Oooor they will probably just look at it and be like “yeah that’s how it should be so cool nothing special.”

My character project hand in was such a breeze though. In the notes that my tutor gave to me was that I needed to add more concepts and just submit it properly as when I first gave it in the files weren’t working properly. So this time I made sure that all the files could be opened on any computer. I even left a note saying it should work properly and if it doesn’t then it can’t be my fault. I left this just because it covered my ass when they come back to me saying that their computers can’t open it again.

Year 2 week 27

Year 2 week 27

How do animate.

Sooo… turns out I can’t animate to save my life! So I’ve been trying to animate the cat and put him into engine but I just can’t seem to do it at all. I guess this is why I’m doing games art and not animation. Because I use CAT rig this means there are no default animations to work with so I have to do everything from scratch frame by frame. Then there is the issue of putting it into the game engine. I’ve nearly pulled my hair out for trying to accomplish this but I just can’t seem to get it to work. Sometimes the animation would export properly then I’ll have problems with blueprints and arrrgggghhh!!!!

So I scraped it. Its more effort than what’s its worth also seeing as we are only a couple of weeks away from the final deadline I think I should spend my time wisely on other things like helping others with their areas. I’ll probably make that falling tree that I wanted to do.

I’m not going to lie but I generally think I could have been placed with a better group. Any group but mine. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that I am the cream of the crop but at least I’m actually doing something! We have 2 people in my group (I shall not mention because there’s no need) that haven’t added anything to the map yet. Well there is but it’s a small building and a bridge that aren’t to scale or even fit in with the level. I look around to see everyone’s creations and look at our nowhere near complete game with like 2 weeks left to go and cry.

Year 2 week 26

Year 2 week 26

Smile!

So I've taken the responsibility for the Cheshire cat. One of my team members already modeled the cat but she did it in a seating position so we can rig or animate the cat. As I have nothing else to do ive taken the cat and re modeled him in a standing position. I have then rigged the cat nicely so he can run, jump and do whatever we need him to do. This was actually pretty easy as I used CAT rigging which allows me to make kind of rig and not just the standard human rig.

I am starting to get abit over whelmed with the amount of work I need to do for the 24^th I need to re do my character project and I also need to submit a 2500 word essay! I’m absolutely crap at writing essays as you can probably tell by read through some of my blogs. I've come to the conclusion that I might be dyslexic but I don’t know. I’m not one to make a fuss. If I cut my hand or need to go hospital then I’ll be the one to say naaaa I’ll be okay just man up. So I’m sure I’m not dyslexic, I’m probably just dumb. But like ive said before my main man Einstein said “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” 

Year 2 Week 30 Alice Post Mortem

Finally its all over!

Project : Off The Map

Project Contribution: VFX/Mushroom area/Engine/lighting/rigging/modeling

Summary

For this project I ended up in charge of all the VFX. I was also in charge of doing the wonderland mushroom area.

 I unfortunately wasn’t here when the group allocated areas of the map for everyone so I had to take some areas from other team members. This project really tested my team skills and the ability to work in areas I wasn’t comfortable in.

 I did really enjoy designing and modelling my area I took from Dom which kept me interested in the project. I also found this project the most challenging as during this time I had many life events going on at the same time such as getting a new job and join sports teams. This meant I had to learn to balance my time effectively.

I also found myself not having much to do every now and then so I would as to take some work of other team member’s hands including modelling and rigging the cat.

Assets contributed towards;

-1 Cat-Rigged and modeled

-5 Trees-modeled and textured.

-3 Tree parts-modeled and textured

-2 tree animated. (falling, Swing)

-4 types of Rocks- modeled

-2 flowers-modeled and textured.

-8 Mushrooms modeled and textured

-7 Particle systems including changeable colors etc.

-2 Blue printed mushrooms to jump on.

-1 Scone light Modeled and textured

-5 Playing cards modeled, textured and animated.

Things that didn’t make it;

-Outline shadier using post processing (see image below.)

-2 Mushrooms modeled

-1 Spooky eyes particle system. (See below)

-The cat is fully rigged we just didn't have the time to put into engine.

-Blue print where a line tracer is fired from the character to the camera and anything in its way will become transparent.

-Blueprint that makes the camera sway a little to make game play smoother (see above)

Concepts:

Modelling: 

Texturing/Engine:

Beauty Screenshots (Without wires/Engine):

Unwraps (Render texture of unwrap/Evidence of UV packing efficiency):

Our art style is very simple and therefore we didn't need to unwrap anything. The only thing I unwrapped was the playing cards

Conclusion:

In conclusion I wouldn't say this was my favorite project although it has thought me allot of new skills sets within Unreal and working in a group. This project has been pretty fun to do as the art style was unique style. After completing this project I can happily say that I specialize in VFX. The main problem I had with this project is that there was a lack of modelling and texture skill required so there for I could practise and improve in my skills with that area. Throughout the project I have done my best to take on other peoples work because I was unfortunately assigned nothing to do at the start of the project. So everything I have done has been done because I said “let me do that” I think this was a large floor in my work flow as this meant me sitting around not really knowing what to do, or if I can do anything. This was all down to poor communication. I feel as though I have contributed more than a few of my team members and I am happy with the amount of work added by me. Well… there is always room for improvement and therefore like I say in every project conclusion I think that if I had more time this game could actually be really good.

Due to the art style again this means I didn't get to use programs such as Zbrush and there was no need for PBR. I think that if I were to be marked down for this then it would be very unfair. Same with my unwraps.

I was miss understood at the start of this project as I stated that I can’t come into labs every day due to personal events. This was taken by my group and tutors that I was using my time for unproductive events such as “getting pissed” this was not the case however as near the start I had some personal family issues to resolve and I also just started my new job as my financial state was at a critical state. I get that Uni should come first but for my Family and staying alive is more important. So I apologies for any inconvenience and wish to excuse my absence.

A follow up from this is after everything settled down I made sure to post as many times as possible to my group when and where I will be in for meetings. I made it clear that I wanted to contribute to the team and wanted events like meeting and catch up sessions. Evidence can be seen of this in my screen shots folder> Facebook.

For my next project I will make it a priority that I am assigned plenty of jobs for myself that way I’ll have plenty to do and lots to learn.