Final Evaluation (My last project, and time at NUA)

Since the beginning of this year I have been working on my final project. I decided to improve my Zbrush skills and gain more knowledge of the programme by creating a dystopian robot character, which also includes a hologram UI piece. I came up with the idea to develop a dystopian themed robot because of my dissertation as it was based around such games as ‘Fallout 4’ and ‘Dishonoured 1/2'. There are some design elements of a steampunk vibe, this is inspired by the game Dishonoured and the rest of the model is stylised by Fallout and even from the film ‘Mad Max’. The UI element has a Fallout theme from the colours used. Also from the franchise of films ‘Alien’ because of its retro approach.  

I first had to start sketching some quick initial designs. At first, I struggled, I had to do quite a few silhouettes designs to finally get a sense for where I wanted the concept to go. After the quick sketching stage and then from that I started to draw more detailed designs. After I had an idea of where I would like to go with the concept I started to go into Z brush. At first, I wanted to get familiar again with Z brush as I had not used the program in a few weeks. I knew this piece was going to be different from my past Z brush designs as I would have to learn other techniques that I have never used before such as creating hard surface meshes. Because of this I did give myself at least a week or two on research with experimental practice. Through research I watched certain YouTube tutorials and I bought Z Brush books, this all helped. When it came to model my character, I chose to do all the 3D in Z brush and not go into Maya for the first stage. This was preference and I wanted to start everything fresh and learn from the experience. I had heard that hard surface modelling in Z brush was quite difficult so I wanted to test my ability. It did take time and practice but I felt I had done well to achieve the desired effect. There were areas of my model which I felt I needed some guidance such as the left hand. I did use some free downloaded insert meshes for some parts, but this was mainly in the left hand and for small details such as the bolts. At first, I was going to use an insert mesh for the upper leg but in the end, I made my own. The reason I used some insert meshes in some areas of my model was due to anxiety of how much time I felt I had. Due to ill health and having many hospital appointments I was feeling stressed about getting everything completed. Another reason I felt like this was because I wanted to focus on the UI element of my project due to wanting to apply for UI designer roles within the games industry. This was a big reason why I wanted to incorporate UI in my model. During this time, I was planning on doing a whole inventory screen with things such as the character, icons and information etc… as a separate piece which would display my model and give the impression of a in game effect. This added to my stress as I knew this would add time and take some time to do every bit of detail. After talking to tutors and guest’s visitors about the UI idea, I got the impression that it had been done before, so I wanted to do something a little different. This is how I came up with the UI becoming a hologram piece instead. I am pleased it went this way as I think it has worked out for the better. 

Throughout this project I feel that I have learnt so much more about the modelling stage within Z brush. I have used new methods to gain certain effects such as textures for poly-painting, I have posed the model and given the model a sense of present by placing the character on a diorama and by adding details to that such as rocks and foliage. In my previous character sculpt using Z brush I did not use some features to their full advantage. Even though I felt I could have branched out in some areas I believe I achieved so much more in this project than I did my last. I would have liked to of spent more time on the UI area and may of adding a title screen with my piece, I do not think it was necessary but it would have been a nice touch and it would have given me more UI themed work for my portfolio. UI will be something I will continue to develop.

Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my final project. Some areas I could have added or spent more time on if I felt I had more time to do so, but I think I have created a character that depicts well with my theme of a dystopian world. I have had good feedback from others, they have said they appreciate the design of the character, this was nice to hear as it can make all the difference if you are not feeling confidence with the project. During this project I have been very busy with other matters. Ill health is one but I haven’t let this stop me in furthering industry networking and experiences. This has all been a big part of my time recently. I managed to work alongside some of the developers at ‘Codemasters’ while working to promote their game ‘Onrush’ at EGX Rezzed. From this experience I have gained further knowledge of the industry and had the pleasure to continue my connections with some of the development team, in which they have all been so helpful. This gave me the confidence boost I needed. I have also been offered a job at ‘Rockstar Lincoln’ as a QA tester. I would never have imagined having a job lined up straight after university. I feel very lucky to be given the opportunity. I still have the passion to find a position in an artist role within the industry later in the future. I will not give up on that, but I do believe this will be the best opportunity at this time and I look forward to learning new skills in an area I am not accustomed with, and working alongside others who share the same interests as me. 

I am sad to be leaving NUA, but I do think that it is the right time to gain the experience I need within the industry. I cannot believe how quickly my time has gone while studying at NUA and I have enjoyed the experience immensely. I have improved certain skills and learnt new ones and I will continue to learn and add to my portfolio in my own time. I have had the pleasure to be taught by brilliant tutors and learnt a lot from each of them. I have met and worked alongside many fantastic people and gained lovely friends in the process that I hope to stay in contact with after university. It has been a delightful experience and I would happily do it all over again if I could, but onwards and upwards to my new beginning. 

Final Evaluation

Since starting my 3rd year last September/October my main focus has been my main project which was a project of our choosing. As my specialisms is in character development I wanted to continue this and create a Roman Sci-fi sculpture piece. I chose the theme of sci-fi because it is a theme that I enjoy, I like the visuals that go into sci-fi design. It is also a popular theme through most medias especially in films and games, This theme would look good in my portfolio. At first I was going to focus the model on a dystopian era through a human character which themed well with my dissertation subject. I decided to change the theme of my idea as I may do a dystopian character for my final major project at the end of the course instead and I like the idea of forming roman (ancient) with new such sci-fi. I thought it would cool as I have not seen many designs like this before. I knew I wanted to do a roman theme character but at first wasn't sure on what type and era of roman history. By doing research on types of gladiators the Murmillo gladiators caught my attention the most. I thought I could implement the sci-fi element well in the helmet design. Throughout my university degree so far I have stuck to concept art as a safe place and haven't really branched out of my comfort zone, this is why I wanted to do a Zbrush model of a character and I have always wanted to gain more knowledge of the programme and produce a high detailed character. It is beneficial if I develop 3D skills also.

The other focus of this term was to write my 5000 word dissertation. At first the thought of the dissertation worried me, I'm not the strongest at academic writing due to my dyslexia but I have not let this hold me back. To be honest, at the start the though of writing it was daunting and analysing the relevant resources, but once it was all organised and had the guidance on how to structure the report it became clearer to me and I found to actually enjoy writing about how narrative is framed within the environments of Fallout 4 and Dishonored 1/2 and comparing the two to the film Stalker by 'Andrei Tarkovsky which hold similarities within its environment and events to my chosen games. I believe by using the support given such as attending tutorials, lectures and seeing my specialist tutor I have gain the knowledge and developed a better understanding of writing a piece like this which I'm pleased about. 

Throughout the term there have been other projects such as tasks each week from my concept piece sessions and my anatomy sessions which I have to produce a wax model of the human anatomy showing muscles and all. Within the anatomy sessions it has been great to physically create a model piece by hand. I have learnt a lot already and hope to continue this project soon and to get back on track. By studying the anatomy of the human body this will help me improve my anatomy drawing. This will help in my next project. By doing the weekly tasks in my concept art sessions I have seen improvement in my photo bashing techniques. In first year I attempted to do a photo bash once for the first project and its did not come out too bad for a first attempt, but since doing them on a more regular basis I can see a definite improvement since my first attempt in first year and my second attempt a few months ago. It has been rewarding to be given tasks such as the environment pieces to develop which also had to be completed in a short time period. By doing this I have learnt new skills in Photoshop through its elements, I did not understand areas such as the layer masks. With this I will continue to enhance these skills to develop stronger pieces of work in the future. 

Overall by producing my roman sci- fi character in ZBrush, I have learnt so much already and still have so much more to learn. By doing this project it has given me the confidence to carry on these skills and to develop another model in the near future. Not all was successful, there where times when the model would not go to plan such as the posing method of the model due to not understanding the fundamentals of posing on a high poly model. With help from tutors I overcame these problems, though not perfect it worked. I was still able to pose my model but not to the ability I would of liked. This is something I will remember in my next model piece. Overall I think the model was still a success and for my first attempt at a character piece it came out better than I hoped. I believe the theme flows well within my model which has had good feedback from other in how detailed my model is. 

Throughout doing these projects I have notice the lack of digital artwork produced especially in my main character project. I would of liked to of developed higher quality drawings for my character piece but found that it became difficult due to the time spent on the 3D aspect of this project. I am glad that I had the concept sessions each week as this gave me something different to focus on even if it was for a day or two. In my next project I would like to go back and improve my drawing skills as I feel I have lacked in my ability slightly. Overall I feel this has been a successful few months and learnt a lot from it all from developing a 3d model to writing a 5000 word academic piece, I look forward to my next project. 

  

Final Evaluation

Since my last hand in that was in February and since coming back after that term I have been involved in some different set of projects, which my main was a collaborative game project with a team of 5 people (Me, Ben L, Ben R, Curtis and Olivia), I also was involved in a week-long cross-course collaborative project in fine art this consisted of a team of 5 of us once again. (Me, Michaela, Elly, Jo and Shin), during this week I also had an interchange project that was one session looking at UI/UX design, Designing a swimming pool. During these projects, I realised team work was a very important part. Without my teams, I would not have been able to get where I am now with the game and the fine art collaboration project. I have realised how important it is to keep communicating within a team if you are working together because if you do not do this so well you do miss out on what you should be doing and not seeing the progression of the project at hand.  Even though I attended all my sessions with my team meetings for the game and fine art project I can see how certain members within my team did not have a better understanding of the tasks set.

I believe in doing my collaborative projects I have learnt how you must be more patient with how other people do their work, I find that I like to get straight into a project if it has to get done, I have seen how some others do not work in the same way as I do, I especially saw this in the fine art project as Jo and Shin did not have any or not much knowledge of the programmes I and other game students have, they work differently to us in the way they pitch a creative idea and the speed they work. I did enjoy branching out into fine art for a week-long project with Jo and Shin, we all got on very well and worked well together, when we did all meet up. The only downside to the fine art project is that we could have been more organized as half way through the week as our idea did change as our communication wasn't as solid as it should have been during the first day or two. Overall we all put in a good amount of effort on all sides and produced a final video that was presented successfully.

In the collaborative game production project, I knew me and Olivia would end up in the same group as we were working in the same group during our game jam and worked well together. It wasn't hard to find a team we knew Ben R fairly well but I did not know Ben L and Curtis. I liked the idea of being in a team with people that I haven't ever spoken to it was exciting to see how we would all get on as a team and to work with a team were most members where 3D artists, I thought it would be a good experience to see how they produced they own work and to see if I could pick up any new skills along the way. I would say the communication within the team could have been better in the first week or two but this did improve except for one of the members. At the start of this project I would meet the team and we would discuss the game and what tasks which were set for each of us. I would meet them for an hour or so and leave to do some of the tasks (Concept art) at home because I work better sometimes with less distraction around me such as noise, I understand in the game industry I will not be able to do this, I must break this habit. I think now that I should of stayed and worked more often at the university with my team at the beginning of our production, this did change mid-way through to the end of the project I should of started to work more inside the university with my team more as this would of gave me a better understanding of different skills that I could of learnt by them. As a concept artist for the game I did find at times that I wasn't very useful nearing the end of the project even though my team stated that I had done a lot of work for the game and should be pleased as they were with my contributions to the project. I would have liked to of done some 3D work or blueprints for UE4 that would have been placed into the game but because of my lack of confidents with 3D and the logical side to blueprints I did not want to slow the team down or let them down. Therefore, I am going to try and do more modelling in Maya and use substance painter in the summer break even if it is with simpler items or props as I am currently working on my Z Brush skills I could also gain more knowledge in Maya while I do this. I am also planning on working on a small indie game with a small group during the summer break to gain more knowledge of UE4.

Overall there were a few things that did not get put into the game because of time limits but I find if me and some other members had better knowledge of certain skills there would have been a higher chance of achieving these tasks. There could have been a few things in the game that could have been improved on such as the controls at first while playing the game it can be a little tricky to get used to and I find that this could be a problem for the public who will play this at the Norwich gaming festival, a games controller may have been a better option for how to control the character for our game. After a while you do get to grips with the controls in the game. Something in the game that I was disappointed with the most for me was the characters in the game particularly the AI's. Because I specialise in character art it was a shame to not get the time to put in my own designs within the game. Another reason why this did not happen was because no one knew how to rig a character. I believe if we had more time to do this I would of gave it a good attempt to bring this into the game. I have rigged a character once before in 3Ds Max a few years ago now but I find it hard to remember how to do this, I may have still tried to give it ago but time limit was a big issue for us with this specific task. Overall the game project went well and we didn't have many problems as a team, we all added our own skills to this project and I have enjoyed my time doing it and made new friends in the process, I believe the game looks well developed in aesthetics it has well modeled assets and textures, it was a busy but enjoyable experience.