3-D work, Reflection

      What did you do and how did you do it?

    Our goal was too create a 3-D trailer for a video game (not actually create the game itself but make an idea we could draw from to create the trailer itself), we were able to use the 3D studio Max software - which we spent our last year learning the basics of. By modeling basic and advanced primitives, working with the various camera angles, creating and applying textures and lighting effects - as well as creating a camera and animations - all resulted in our final product, it has taken the latter half of our second year to create this project, the following questions will go into more detail on my own thoughts of the project. 

·       Does your final design meet your original intentions?

   In terms of scale, no. I thought I would be able to model something a little grander than my final product, I underestimated how difficult it would be to create the specific object shapes (curved and flowing rather than angular) and overestimated how are simple things like dustbins and lampposts would be to create (realizing only after I had tried various methods, that there were more simply ways of doing things. All that said - in following my original ideas and concepts I think I hit the nail on the head, it looks similar to how I pictured it and the textures and effects, even though there not perfect (lighting is a tad strong and inconsistent, there could have been more effects added given time), are pretty much what I was after. 

·       Self evaluation – how did you manage your time? How could you manage your time more effectively?

·       What did you struggle with?

    To be honest I struggled with most aspects of 3D max. I was really over thinking it all to start with, there were always more simple and quicker ways to do what I was trying to achieve. Adding the camera was easier than anticipated, but that still doesn't mean it didn't take a long time to set up. Getting the lighting how I wanted it, whilst fun, took a long amount of time - as well as experimenting with various other lighting effects, like Omni lights or spotlights. 

·       What did you find easy?

   

    I would say nothing in Max was easy, but looking at it all, making the smaller, simpler models, (like lampposts) took very little time in comparison to the larger models and were actually quite fun to experiment and play around with. Also once I got a light source actually in my environment playing with how it looked and all of its settings was much simpler than I expected.

·       How does your finished design compare to professional examples?

    Good... if your comparing it to something from 10 -12 years ago; when I look back at much older games (e.g. Vampire: the masquerade - bloodlines), great games in their own way but limited by the technology from their times, with environments and buildings that are as angular and basic to what people in the class are achieving - if not exceeding. My own environment isn't as good I don't think - looking at it out of context of the games setting and potential story. But for the most part, compared to the huge expensive environments of today very few pieces of work compare to those. That said - a few people in the class created a very specific style, which I would think fit in perfectly in certain games. (e.g. two of the class created a cell shaded style that would fit perfectly in a game like "Borderlands").  

·       What do other people think of your finished design?

    From the feedback I've had from friends and family - my design gets a similar view: very red, unique, evil and interesting. Whilst its not the most detailed feedback in the world, it told me a few things that I could improve upon, which I will explain below.

·       What could you improve upon? what would you do differently?

   Given more time on the project, and/or more research from myself into 3D Max to learn the more intermediate skills, would be to simply make more. My environment is actually quite small with very little in it compared to some of my classmates, id want to add a few more buildings, props etc. My lighting - whilst it comes across perfectly and sets the tone for my scene, there was more I could have added (e.g. the lampposts or other sources of light. This also applies to effects, if I had the know-how and the time, I would have tried to add an effect or two (that said, I do feel like a lot of people just threw a fog onto their scenes for the hell of it, and I wanted to avoid doing something purely for the sake of it). Textures were also difficult to work with, even now they are not perfect and I don't have a large variety of textures (although given the context of the story and environment, there doesn't need to necessarily be that variety, but it would have shown more of what I could achieve).  

·       It’s not about the finished product, it’s about the journey. What did you learn?

    Like with my sound work, I learnt just how nitty gritty and time consuming all these small details are to put together, designing a game is a very long process and using 3D max we have been given a peak inside. I learnt a basic set of skills that it is up to me, to take that my spare time to improve upon and learn new things. Seeing what other people could accomplish in the same amount of time I had and created such amazing environments, it just shows where peoples imagination can go and it was wonderful to watch other peoples environments just expand into really great looking work. This product has opened a door and given me a glimpse into this industry and I look forward to learning more in the future. 

Sound Work for Project: Reflection Questions

• What did you do and how did you do it?

For our trailer my job was to create a piece of narration to go with the environments above the other sound elements to explain some of the back-story across a minute or so. I planned a couple of different "scripts" from my back-story, to see what would work well before moving onto Cu-base and learning how I could edit sound with all the various MIDI and sound effects. I then used the sound studio to record my voice with various accents. I ran through it a few times with a few different voices. I then edited my narration to get rid of any dialogue I got wrong (or frustrated shouting ^^), cleaned out the vast majority of background noise and unnecessary dialog. I made two versions of my narration, a shorter one and longer one depending on how our trailer would turn out; I was told I could use the longer one, so my final task was to edit it and play with effects to make my voice seem older and in a certain environment (like a church for example).

• Does your final audio product meet your original intentions?

Yes - I followed my planning very closely, once I'd picked my dialog all I had to do was test accents that I could pull of without sounding terrible; the only thing that differed was some of the dialog after I had done - didn't fit with the content being shown on the trailer, so more of my narration was cut, but around a minute or so is still in the final trailer.

• Self evaluation – how did you manage your time? How could you manage your time more effectively?

Using CU-base in the sound room proved difficult to start with, considering the software wasn't operational for the start of the year, getting used to it was impossible, so when we finally got onto the software and had our work planned, there was no time to spare. I think out of all my units and work this was the one I had the best time management, due to the fact we have 1 hour a week in here, I had to really knuckle down to get the narration I wanted; getting my originally planning completed, being the first to use the recording studio, having it edited and done to get feedback and then changing it based on that feedback by editing my voice to better "fit the bill".

• What did you struggle with?

using CU-base was difficult to start with, it took a few weeks to get my head around the software and when actually doing my narration it's really hard to use an accent and stay on the same sound (my final voice sounding like a cross between Deckard Cain and Sean Connery, although considering there two similar voices it was not so bad).

• What did you find easy?

Coming up with the script was easy, all I had to do was draw from my back-story and put it into some kind of context for the narration.

• How does your finished audio compare to professional examples?

It is obviously not as professional, most professional tracks have the narration fit in perfectly, with the necessarily effects to make it stand out and draw in the user - since my voice-over didn't fit perfectly with the other audio or the scenes (we did the best we could... to a degree), but I still think it sounds ok for a first real attempt.

• What do other people think of your finished audio?

A lot of people who heard my audio by itself (classmates, friends and family), thought it was good (some gave me feedback which I used so I could add more effects to my trailer, or take some away).

• What could you improve upon?

I like the final product, but I think hearing it with the trailer the church effect needed to be toned down, and maybe I should have tried a few more recordings to get the voice just right.

• If you were to do it again what would you do differently next time?

The main think would be making sure when the trailer is fully put together that the audio all works well together where ever it is played that some aspects of the audio don't drown each other out - for us, the backtrack was far too loud - anyone who saw our trailer didn't really pick up my narration, as they could not hear it at all - which for me was really disappointing because lots of people wouldn't hear that work from me.

• It’s not about the finished product, it’s about the journey. What did you learn?

I learnt a lot about how sound works in games - in a technical sense - and I can now really appreciate the whole process. I knew a reasonable amount about it beforehand, and I know how important good sound is in games but I had no idea it was so finicky and time consuming and how difficult it is to use the software and to get file types to work with each other (lots of importing and exporting), it was a real eye opener - and although it took some time to get into the software - I really enjoyed it and look forward to learning more about sound in the future.

Finished Trailer (+evaluation) - Showcase this Thursday

Here is the link to our trailer :) - thankfully we got it finished last week (despite someone deleting all my audio from the trailer, that we fixed just in time...) http://www.youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dx-IICdtkjS8%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&feature=youtu.be&v=x-IICdtkjS8&gl=US Whilst I'm not 100% happy with my part (given more time and research I think I could have made a much bigger environment and added more effects too it if nessesary) although I really like my audio - an odd cross between Sean connery and Deckark cain (Diablo series) made for an amusing voice. It is also irratating that after all the meetings and planning - that only 2 of my team really stuck to the concepts and plans for our environments (apocalyitic , stone environments fitting the story) and most us of fog was just seems thrown on for the sake of it "ooo fog, spooky" which was why I didnt use fog - dont get me wrong, some of them pulled it off nicely, others it felt forced on for no purpose. And the Audio backtrack (the dubstep music...) was completely off for the type of game / trailer - although it was surpirisingly errie so still managed to fit in with the trailer, thank god. But I cant put fault on my teammates with so much of my own, I cant say i'm really that happy with my own contribution when so many in the class have made proffesional looking environments (see other trailers aswell). I also think the entire class would hve made work of a better quality given more time and work in 3DS max - being stuck doing powerpoints for around 5-6 months really shot down morale for the group - In my opinion we could have worked on each PP for maybe a week or so in class and then been given it in our own time - since it was all research work for the most part - there was no need to give so much class time too those pieces of work; and maybe thats something our tutors look at for future years. It also didnt help that the sound studio was having technical difficulties for the 1st part of the year, meaning getting to grips with the sound software took more time than anticipated and made it difficult for some students to get much sound work done (luckily I did a fair amount at home to get my narration to my liking) All in all, pleased with the final product, but this is a very small 1st step towards the doors of this industry and the only way to progress - uni or not - will be to fuly dedicate myself too this medium that I love, increase my skills annd give it my all in the future. Next few weeks I will be updating my writen work / PPs to make them as good as I can - except to see finished documents on this blog if i can get them on it ^^

So today we are combining all of our renders and sound together - whilst we are encountering some problems with files and audio by the end of the day I hope the majority of these problems will be sorted and we will have our trailer ^^

For the trailer I'm tried this morning to get the group on task to plan this trailer properly (final version) most listened and have the majority of the work done. My part in the trailer is around 24 seconds long and I also have the voice over - during the whole thing (potencially) Alex's scene leads into mine (form his memorial to my university) after me is Ivo, (roberts park) the overall length is pushing into 3 minutes so far - more than enough time for the audio we need. Whilst I'm not personally happy with how things have turned out or my own work - we have to work with what we have got now, ill evaluate more in a later post - for now, this needs finishing.

Easter! - site presentation

So ive just about finished my voiceover work; I have a basic camera run through of my 3d scene (will be on the college website) and all my log work (which is on a word document rather than on here until I manage to get the full document on here later on) - Over the easter I need to go back to written work and concept work to make sure all is kept up to date. Time is the biggest constrait of any project, that and how you use it; Im confident I can get all my written work bumped up if I make the effort over easter.

Nearly there

So currently my 3-D environment contains the main buildings, the floor and lots of props - all it needs from the next lesson is lights and possibly a skyline. The only thing i'm really irritated with are the textures, whilst they have to be similar I have managed to set some apart from the rest, but when I add lights it may help the individual objects stand out further.