Year 2: Post Mortem looking back on everything.
Here we are at the end of the second year, writing my first proper blog post in almost 6 months. It is really weird spotting all the chinks and what we could have done better in certain areas, but like its also kind of satisfying seeing how far we've come since then despite how bad some of the projects were for me. I know I could have given far better quality work than I did this year, but the purpose of this post is to say, "Look I screwed up here and there I know that, but look at me now, I can actually do stuff I was struggling with and worrying about before."
During our first project ; The film Room, I barely knew how to use different maps, Albedo/Base colour was literally the only thing I knew how to do, then I learnt kinda how roughness and metallic maps work but I was still kinda unsure and very tentative on how it worked.
Stuff went downhill towards the end of this project, one of group members who had the floor, one of the most important assets, wasnt cooperating with the rest of the group and it was the day of hand in and we ended up having to re-do all of his work overnight. By the time Off the Map came around everyone learnt their lessons on making sure stuff was done waaaay before the deadline, sort of anyway I think every group has at least one person who has issues with handing things in on time.
Regardless of all the stuff that happened, the film room pulled through in my opinion, sure it could have been way better texture wise, and its a bit too dark and there are a ton of emissives needlessly placed around the level, but it wasnt a train smash, a bumpy ride sure but we pulled through okay.
We got it pretty close to the source material too...
Just wish it didnt come out so damn dark.
Anyway next came the turret.
I think I big problem for me during this project and the next was that I had a very set idea of what I wanted and it bit me in the ass, I was unaware as to how precious I was being with the concept and refused to change anything.
Like I've mentioned a million times before I want to publish my own IP. Its something I really enjoy, just creating stuff for the IP and benchmarking myself everytime I create something or follow through with something.
So I think what I've learnt now, after one "Could be better project" and a flunked one, I think the "Dont be precious" message has hit home.
The Turret mechanically was okay, its design worried me, but me being precious and stubborn with the idea I didn't change it to work better. The turret worked a little in the end thankfully, not as well as it could've - it followed the player around and it could aim, but not fire anything-.
I learnt alot from the turret project despite its "Could be better" result, I learnt quite a bit about light, how it affects materials and that keeping to a good schedule is extremely important. Also your own health is important as well, I got pneumonia towards the Christmas break and spent Christmas and New Years coughing and dying. I recovered though, unfortunately it set a precedent for the character project and what would be an eternal game of catch-up for the rest of the year...
The Character Project- what should have been my best project turned into my worst and was a harrowing experience.
In short because I took a week extension to finish the turret because of my pneumonia I took a week longer to concept and plan the character and thus was never able to texture him properly and create the vision I wanted. Hell the designs were poor as well, being precious and stubborn cost me a project, and when it rains it pours not only was the project going poorly but me and my house were being emotionally held hostage at home with a mentally ill person...so that was fun...
I look at these and feel awful, I cringe with how badly I did. Its blobby and incorrectly rendered, these are quick thumbs sure but they dont tell you much and feel too similar to lead to anything better. However, once the concepting was done I had to tackle Zbrush, I program I had never really used before except for quick BPR renders on the turret. I had no idea what to do for a week. But once I got it, once I learnt to tackle Zbrush I loved it!
Sure looking back at these sculpts, they could have definitely been made more interesting, but for a first time sculpt the anatomy was okay.
(Insert better picture of his anatomy tomorrow)
I knew I was running out of time, so I cut so many of the design choice I wanted to make, I cut out most of his storytelling features and that was silly, but again I was basically fishing for marks here, trying to tick boxes where I could.
There was also the issue of Rex, Chris Wright knows the story since our house had to come to him and inform him why some of us in the house hadnt been in for a week. Long story short; We we're being held emotionally hostage in our own home by someone who was mentally ill and kept threatening to commit suicide if we even left the room she was in. It was a harrowing week to put it mildly and almost all of us in the house left the experience depressed and not at all in any state to cope with anything. On top of it all work kept piling up, presentations were due in, Off The Map came along and our house was put in a group together. So from then on we slowly got our lives back in order.
And eventually things started looking up which was really frigging great, like holy hell. I like to think my presentations were okay, at least the final ones with the poster and explaining what I really wanted to do with the character. That and I started coming along with my 2D design skills and that was what I really wanted to do and Now at the time of writing this...I can do it... I can frigging paint... I wrote a distressed blog post before Easter about how much trouble I was having trying to replicate the same results for a painting I had done, worried that It was only a fluke that I was only this one trick pony.
It was this image, I had painted it just out of the blue one day and It ended up being one of my best character illustrations. Then I struggled trying to paint like that again and actually worked myself up about, banging my head against a brick wall trying to match the kill level shown here. I produced things like this:
Not great, no where near the same level of painting as the wizard... Then the day before my final presentation this happened:
This was so much better! Way more along the same lines as the Wizard character. Sure some of the proportions look a little off, but it isnt major (It's a little misleading due to the way his armor is worn and the skirt thing) It was also a much better design In my opinion than my my first iterations of the hunter character.
The character project for me had only just ended there...when his design was realized and completed in a way I could accept. I aim to remodel him over summer and try and give him the recognition he deserved. (Also ya know for a damn portfolio piece)
So now I got to focus on Off the map in earnest, I had been doing it while trying to get the presentations done, granted most of attention was going to off the map. I was basically the character artist for our Off the Map group, me and Charlie Wallace who had both flunked our character projects, I guess you could say we were out to prove ourselves and what we could do.
So after a quick concepting phase for Puck it was straight to modelling, I only need a confirmed idea to work with my team, and so once I got the all clear from my team to get going I damn well got my ass into gear, I didnt want to be caught modelling and unwrapping in the last two weeks. I managed to finish modelling and unwrapping in 5 weeks, and textured him in 3 days after Easter, at the time of writing this Puck is also fully rigged and has animations to play once I get the chance to put him in level, but I've tested him in unreal and he damn well works. But first here are some images of his modelling as it went.
Puck was terrifying from the get go, I thought he might look less creepy as it went on but this wasnt the case, so I ran with it and the level surprisingly also ran with it with its eerie blue colours. Sculpting went well I had a very clear idea of what I wanted him to look like once I got all the all clear from everyone else.
We went with a version of Puck true to the character, mischievous looking, gobliny and generally a little silly.
In the final result, we ended up getting rid of the neck ruffle, it was messing with the rigging ending up in a melted chin kind of look. But once I got the hang of substance painter he started looking pretty damn dapper!
I'm pretty proud of puck actually, I proved to myself I can make a character that functions and looks the part. Sure he isn't perfect, his topology and unwrapping can use a little work but otherwise I'm pretty proud of him.
Our level itself is also coming along nicely, we did an asset dump today so its starting to look a little more lively
We have really pretty water thanks to Eva, we just need to set dress essentially.
Like I said puck works really well in engine has has some set idle animations which work in our favour when we place him at certain points in the level to tell the player things or give directions.
So yeah at this point we're on track again, a little behind some other groups but I think we'll burst forward again soon. One more thing before I end off this blog post:
A painting I did earlier today, mixture of bashing in textures from various insects and painting in details, I'm not done yet so its a WIP but its coming along really nicely and I can actually say to myself; "Hey I can actually paint, maybe I can actually do this?"
