It is true that I have been in Game Art & design for four years. I still feel as though as if it was only last year that I was starting. The understatement that I gained while being in this class has only been growing. When you come into this concentration you know you have that mindset on solely creating a game. I was like that, but of course then again I didn't know how to start or what it takes to do it. This pathway taught me step by step on what skills are critical in the gaming industry. Made me more independent but made me work with a team as well. I got to understand that there is so much more to things than it seems. Just because you think (or see) that the process or the job is easy once you actually get into it, you'll get to understand it better. One lesson that I know that hit me hard this year was to not fall behind. To not let go pass the due date and manage my time. Because it really does make a difference when you get things on time, it feels good. Another thing I have been working on during my years in this pathway was public speaking. That right there is a huge one in which I give thanks to my teacher(s) (Mr. B and Mrs. Nile). They have helped me with it and I will keep trying to get better to the point where I will enjoy doing it. To be completely honest I'm not sure what information was least helpful. It's either that it doesn't exist in my brain anymore or just because I can't think of any. I kind of want to say coding, but that's only because I'm not that good at it. Meaning in the long run I hope to practice per say C++ and Python. It would be cool if we were to spend more time on video editing. I felt like that was short and including sound editing. Because I felt like if I knew how to use Adobe After Effects more than having to work on projects in the long run would help. I actually have an idea for that. So, what if we were to learn about video editing and then we would have to create a game trailer for the game we are creating. Of course, they would have to start planning, but really this project would be at the end since they should know how to storyboard and all of that. One other thing that would be cool is if we were to do more with 3d Modeling. Since you can do so much with it, why not do more? One other thing is having to create an inforgraphic. I know I have been doing them for years, but...sometimes we just need a little more better understanding why there are some elements that doesn't not work. So for our Independent Project we worked on VR. We made a horror game from what we had. Basically, you are in DSA trying to gather every flash drive to escape. There are two enemies which are the Chicken and the Pig. My role in this project was to 3d model the build and create the enemies along with other assets. There were a whole boat load of problems that I had to face during this school year. First it was having to see what I could do to have correct measurements of the building. We asked for blue prints, but they didn't have any of it. And not only that, we can even take it outside of the school. Either way, that isn't the least of the problems. So what I had to do was measure a few of the walls and pretty much had to estimate how the build was made. Not sure if you noticed, but the school was build strangely. I had to make sure I was putting walls were they were suppose to be and making sure everything was fitting. This made it a bit challenging as both of the floors aren't really the same. Another problem was the texturing. Oh how that was a bother. I could not believe that, that was a problem. And it was such a simple solution too. The problem was when I was finished with the model and I had to send it over to Unity, the game engine we were on, the textures didn't show up. The only texture that showed up were only the lockers. I really don't know what I did to have that show up, but I made sure the textures were there in the end. Oh but at the end of the quarter once everything in the model was finished, we set it up in Unity and everything was pretty much there. I knew that there were going to be some problems, but while I was out apparently there were so many problems that we decided we were going to use the original rather than the new one. Nothing really went wrong for the enemies, but they did need to simplify the polys because it was so many that it lagged the entire game. And well we did simplify them. Both came out great. That brings me up to the point that I am proud of the chicken and pig. But credits should be both Abigail Stover and me. I had fun doing them even though apparently they were cute too. I'm also proud of the toilet (of course), but what I am really most proud of is how well we worked together and pulled this off. Well what I learned upon working in VR is that the components aren't that easy. It's a whole different level. What I can share about doing the advanced studies course is that I can work with teams and that it really tests you on your ability to work independently (which I kind of can). I learned that it over the years when I usually work by myself I'm slow, but I think I saw improvement. Also my determination is strong not all the way, but it remains throughout the project. My greatest take away from this course was probably being able to work in 3ds Max with some confidence. It's something I will probably work in whenever. Also being able to work in a team is pretty great, I had fun even though I had to keep my eye out to not bother people.
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In this reflection I will actually will be talking about 360 videos because I do have some knowledge on it. Even though I didn't get to finish working and processing how to do it. But like I said once I do get to work things out I will be gladly to share that information to my teacher. Since I know he likes to be knowledgeable as well. But I guess I will be looking mostly in Adobe since I do even believe they had a class that showed how to 360 videos. I would like to get into that class again and try it out. Now I feel as though that not only do I have to know how to use Adobe After Effects, but I could probably also use 3ds Max. Because you see I think I could use the 360 video in order to make a nice view of somewhere. Some ideas that I though of was having to use this for others to view on hotels and such. But really it would be nice to have something like this to maybe see what a room looks like when you put a couch or a table inside. That would be cool to do and see. Actually the thing I wanted to touch on was what software I could use while editing. Of course, I could use Adobe After Effects or Adobe Premiere. But through this website I also found out that you could edit 360 videos on your mobile phone as well. There is even one for androids, which is cool. (medium.com/@letsveer/top-12-vr-360-video-editing-software-for-your-phone-and-laptop-a66186114a84) This is the website I found that gave me a list of software that I could try and I do plan on trying these. We'll see how things come out because it would be amazing to see whether they work or not.
I'm not too sure what I really what to reflect on. I know that there are plenty of things that I can research on upon having to focus on 3D modeling. I could also see what I can find out on 360 videos. Since I would still like to learn about that and even help out my teacher with it so that maybe he can add assignments, that are similar since I'm pretty sure the school won't let us have more 360 cameras, to be even more modern I guess I should say. Anyways for 3D modeling I will want to know more about what to do in working with Polys. Or at least know about the over Properties. But not only there are Editable Poly, but there is also Editable Mesh. Now I have been wondering the depth in those because I know that they are different (clearly), but I need to know what types of things I can do in order to maybe work on other projects. Because I know that I will be still working in 3d modeling. If I were to be able to do this whole project again I would absolutely do things differently and make sure things are done since I would know what to do. There would be less problems. Anyways getting back in hand I have found out that in Editable Mesh you convert the object and is defined by triangles. In Editable Poly you do it and it does the faces. Here in this website there are lots of questions with answers that helped me differentiate the two. (forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/performance-edit-mesh-vs-edit-poly/td-p/6854559)
So at this time I have sent the model towards the programmer, but of course as always we ran into some problems. To also top that off during the last week to work on the project I really wasn't there to help as much. But I have heard from him that there were so many problems to fix that he was just going to use the one he had from the start. Which is really sad to say to the least because I did try to make things work in the building. When I really think about the amount of time we had and where we are right now, I think that I was the one at fault for not finishing on time. When I think about it I feel like I could've finished it on time and had the problems be fixed to have everything done. I mean overall it's going to be a playable game, but I just would wish it would be the model I completed instead of the other one. I mean all is well I know my teammates worked really hard and made things possible. I'm proud of them for putting things together and making this game a possibility. Right now I'm not sure whether the programmer is having troubles with it, but I everything seems to be going well. Right now what I am doing is now getting to know what we are going to present to parents, teachers, etc. and showing them what we have done over the year. And when you actually put it that way it goes either to the good or the bad way.
Agenda for Next Week-
Things are getting really heated as it is crunch time for me as well as my teammates. There is much to do in order for there to have a working game. See where we are right now is that I am currently working on putting the Collisions, Navigate Obstacles, and Navigation Static which is easy to do, but there is a problem. What I know I have done are the collisions because you just add the component and the static is also easy since you just check the block. But that's the problem. Once I checked the block the texture started to act up. That really messed me up since I had a big problem (that was an easy fix) getting the textures showing up. I went to Unity's website to see whether I they had information for me to see what was the problem and well what I found was that the setting to generate the UV lighting was off. 'Okay' that's fine now and it baked, but it didn't worked. I literally was trying to figure out what was wrong, but I guess it is just the texture itself that is the problem. So what I have done was just imported the texture (even though I already imported them with the model and it should've have it on and ready), as well as the ones that I didn't import, and just dragged them onto the object, but of course the baking is still happening which kind of throws me off. Either way things are going on their way and I just hope we can pull this off.
Agenda for Next Week:
The due date is getting closer and closer and there is still so much to do in order for this game to work. Not only do I have to get things into Unity I also have to add the colliders, navigation guides and to make sure the player doesn't fall out the map or anything. There's just a lot to do in such a short time that I'm really stressing out about it. Also I could not find out how the textures showed up in Unity without having to put them on manually. There's no possible way for me to get all of it done by myself so I'll just have to ask for help. But either way I think once we get pass it then the game will look amazing. Of course, now is not the time for me to think what I could of done to make it better since I haven't finished, but that's not how I work. I think about what I could of done better throughout the process and I would probably debate whether to go towards that new process or just keep the same process. Really I just want to finish this project and just create a high school VR horror game. I feel as though that we are so close to having this game being complete in a year.
Agenda for Next Week-
This week is very critical in a way where it is almost the month may and I am still working on the building. There are still some parts I need to finish, but either than that I'm pretty much done. Of course, there's also the fact that the textures might not even appear in Unity. I tried to figure out what I did in order for the textures so appear without having to do them in Unity. One thing that I had to also do was having to make the walls aren't together. Meaning that when you make a wall I can't keep going then stop. Really what it looks like is just making a box. For now what I think I will do is have to just keep going, but I just need everything to be done by the end of April which is a Tuesday. Most of the walls are textured and most of the windows are also set in place. Really I can feel the pressure of crunch time. Either way things are looking pretty great and I'm just hoping I didn't bring down my teammates down.
In this reflection I was just curious about Vray. I didn't know what it was so what I did was I researched it. Its actually interesting because it can be used in 3ds Max, which I am using right now for the project, Adobe products and even Unreal. It's basically rendering the computer graphics for animation and models. What I really looked in to was for putting together Vray and 3ds Max. You can use for any types of projects. Meaning that whether it's animation, a model or even for VR, it will render with rich quality, speed, etc. which is pretty great since you don't want to always have low polys in our models or have the rendering take three hours to do. The things they touch on are very helpful for possible many reasons but for me it would be the fact that making games with this type of render would be much more efficient and interesting. For example I saw that the lighting for the scene is actually really good. Like the way they show it through examples it looks promising, but I wouldn't know unless I tried it. Also one other thing I though was pretty amazing was the fact that they also consider the fire and fog, which makes it seem more nicer. I do want to try this out on my current project, but I don't think I have the chance to do it. Either way can't wait to try it on projects in the long run.
Website- (vray.us/) A lot has happened throughout the week and this week has been short. And really it's scary, but we are getting places. Things are starting to come together, which is great I just need to keep that going because I can feel it. Even though the deadline was on the 17th I will have to stretch it a bit further from what happened. But I will have to finish it by April, since I need to give time for the programmer to get everything settled and make sure things are running smoothly. Of course the only thing that I am worried about is the outside of the building. For the most part the inside is pretty much done, but there is still some work to be done. I still have to get student work, along with the stands with it, some pieces for the Atrium are still needed, some of the textures still need to be fixed, some of the windows need to be attached as well, etc. But looking at it, it looks pretty cool. I wish I have more time, but of course I will make the time. Agenda for Next Week-
I was searching the web for something new and I wanted to learn something new in 3D modeling. Something more advanced than what I'm doing or just adding to what I know. For example maybe I could learn how to merge 2D objects inside 3ds Max. Or better yet I could have a scene with people in it as well without having to do the spines and such. I found this website where it puts 3ds people, 3ds Max, Photoshop, and V-Ray all in one scene. Not only is it something new, but it gives me ideas on maybe my portfolio or just for fun. This could possible help me with doing animations in 3ds Max as well. As well as having to touch Photoshop in a different way. Basically in this tutorial you have a scene and you are importing them from GOBOTREE, which is a website full of 3D and 2D assets that you can use in projects. I find it very interesting since not only do you import it, but you can make changes to them in Photoshop. For example you can edit the shading of that person depending on where he/she is in that scene. And I think that's helpful since not everything is perfect to your scene in one go. I would love to try this to help with what I imagine for an idea of a house.
Website-(jamiecardoso-mentalray.blogspot.com/2019/04/3d-people-3ds-max-vray-photoshop.html) |
Note:The views and opinions expressed in these blogs are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools.
AuthorWelcome to my blog page! I am a Senior and I'm in CTE Advanced Studies. This is where I tell you information upon myself and information about certain elements in the gaming industry. Archives
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