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Weekly Reflections
Week One
This beginning week was my introduction to 3D Modelling. We covered basic blockouts, narrative through items.
Maya for me has been tricky, it’s certainly not the most intuitive piece of software I’ve ever used. Nailing down what exactly my problem is with it is not easy. For one I don’t really enjoy 3D modelling, I find it hard to visualise how something should look even with references.
3D modelling is very similar to pixel art in terms of creating a simple blockout of something is fairly unchallenging, however mastering it and creating a truly great model is a high skill ceiling.
Narrative through items was a lovely time until group activity was introduced, I absolutely love Narrative. I want to be a Narrative Designer, but I also absolutely hate interacting with others. Well not so much I hate it but I find it scary. Group work is the biggest challenge for me.
Concluding this week I am not looking forward to the year, 3D work just doesn’t interest me.
With this in mind my target for next will be to push through and complete the work to a reasonable standard.
Week Two
In the second week, the lessons followed the example of the first week and pretty much exclusively covered 3D modelling.
After the first week I feel a bit more confident using the tools in Maya, but I still am not thrilled with the work. Turning around and seeing the models others have made can be disheartening.
Our hero assets are a bit strange, I don’t really know what to do about that. Maybe the asset I elected to create is too simple? Possibly I am not really sure.
I suppose the issue with it lies in the fact I don’t find any of this obvious. Whenever I try to imagine how I want something to look, my mind becomes so cloudy. Furthermore this week I was disrupted by illness and only made it to college one day. Adding to my troubles as I now have a bunch of work piling up that I need to make my way through.
A target I’ve thought of that I want to give a try is tying everything to narrative, no matter how small or tenuous the link, this might help me make some sense of it.
Week Three
In my third week I was given an introduction into Unreal Engine.
Nothing too complicated was covered, we did some greyboxing which I found rather pleasant, it was more a less like building Lego snapping everything into its correct place. A mistake I made building my greyboxed house out of round edge cubes meant I had to rebuild it. Still it wasn’t a huge time consuming task so I didn’t mind, I’ve learned to be more considerate of how the objects I click together will interact with one another and look to avoid such a mistake again.
The lesson provided a brief overview of how to program a street lamp, while it was a little bit of a step up from Construct 3 the tool I used last year in complexity, the logic remained fairly consistent from what I am accustomed to.
Three other tools were explained, the material editor, foliage painting and the landscape editor. Unfortunately all of these kind of blurred into one and I was so tired I forgot most of what happened. Luckily I do have a solution. I am going to research myself to remind myself, which will allow me to complete the tasks, along with allowing me to add to my research section of my website.
So much of my week was interrupted by illness which has made it especially difficult, this is a course where you can become lost fairly quickly. Thankfully I’ve had the courage to discuss this with my teacher.
My targets for the next week are to research: the material editor, foliage painting and the landscape editor.
Week Four
Week four has come by really fast.
Honestly I’m finding this project really difficult. Remaining focused has proved challenging and the lack of a tracker to help me only serves to make my focus work.
Sickness has really halted me in a lot of ways so far this project too. I am concerned about the work piling up, I am struggling to find a rhythm with it all.
The narrative lessons have been the toughest on me, I predicted these would be the ones I liked the most. My forecast has been way off the mark however, while I like the content of the lessons, all of the tasks are too much for me. I feel overwhelmed, it’s a lot of work and with the slow pace I work it takes a long time to complete.
Building my level is also really proving to be an issue. First off the scene I chose has a very tight camera angle for the most part so there’s a lot to interpret. Secondly, do I use my own assets or do I use pre-made assets? I figured using pre-made would be a breeze and decided that but it’s hard to make the level feel uniform doing it in that way.
Making my own assets is uncomfortable, I don’t enjoy using Maya at all I find it cumbersome. Spending the weekend thinking about how to approach it might be a good idea.
Yeah that’s what I am going to do. The target is to think about how I want to approach my level over the weekend, hopefully come next week my way forward is more clear.
Week Five
Much like the previous week this one has been a pain to live through.
All the work piling up is really damaging me mentally, maintaining focus has been impossible, especially due to my persistent illness. There’s also been a spell of laziness as well. I don't want to shy away from that. Feeling unwell constantly has made it all too easy to make excuses not to do anything, along with the difficulty and lack of enjoyment of the tasks I have been avoidant.
I told myself that the plan for this week was just to survive it and do what I can. That’s exactly what I did.
One positive thing to come from this week is I finally found the answer to what to do with my level, I would blockbench for my modelling. Blockbench is a modelling tool more associated with Minecraft. I decided it would allow me to bring my pixel art skills from last year into 3D and make the modelling more comfortable for me.
I asked my teacher to clear up some things I was confused with and that helped a great deal.
After that I didn’t do anything of note for the rest of the week just slowly doing occasional work.
My only target is to make my way through as much of the mountain of work as I can before next week. I’m not sure how much I will be able to have done, but I’ll feel a lot better knowing I tried.
Playtest
Final Evaluation
For this project I made a level in Unreal Engine based off a scene from a movie. The movie in question of my choice was Inglorious Basterds
Writing this evaluation is awkward for me. How can I speak for work that is not there? As I am sure you can tell browsing through my site there is a massive sinkhole of stuff missing.
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So I'll focus on the little I did do.
I did a little bit of experimentation with greyboxing and using the material editor in Unreal Engine, no significant problems to report there.
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Other than that I did my weekly reflections, yes I have so little done that's all I can really bring up. I think instead of trying to pulled together some very loose positives. I'll focus mainly on what went wrong? why is there such a lack of work?
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Is it because I didn't do it?
Yes and no is the answer. Much of my work is done but either not on my website, I don't know where I saved it, or I didn't evidence it and need to redo it. In lesson I did follow along with what the tasks were. The issue was I was so intently focused on the tasks I never evidenced any of it.
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My studies was also interrupted constantly, by illness, by my dad going to hospital and depression. ​
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When it comes to illness it's due to a problem with my throat causing breathing difficulties, I have used this as an excuse to avoid work, while it is an issue significantly limiting my ability to complete my tasks, I definitely didn't make the effort I should done on days where I felt better.
Depression has been in my opinion the biggest problem, when I've not been going to college or a chess club I attend once I week. I have spent most of every day laying in bed doing nothing. Everything I do feels like a chore.
Seeing everyone's levels during the playtest really opened my eyes to how little effort I put in.
My level is terrible with a obviously rushed production. Inconsistent textures, a lazy layout, not the best lighting.
There is not a single thing I did this project that hasn't been rushed. I've tried to do everything at the last minute but time has ran out for me on this project.
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I'm not sure I'll even be able to advance to the next project. Whatever the case if I am extremely lucky to able to I will be giving everything to ensure I do not see a repeat of this.
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The worst feeling of all this is not the failing but knowing I didn't really try. If I had tried my best and failed I could of found some solace in that. I also feel extremely sorry for the people that wasted their time teaching me.
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I had planned on doing a lot more work and rushing to the finish line on my final day like I have done many times before but that was foolish and I am now suffering the consequences.
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Sadly I don't have the energy to continue on the work so I'm going to submit what I have and hope for the best.