3D Journal: Critical Evaluation

Throughout the Asset Production Project, I have come to terms with making use of Maya for 3D Asset Production and will likely continue to use this as my main software of choice for 3D Modelling. I have learnt far more than I did with 3DS Max and am able to create better models than I could with my choice of program.

However, the biggest issue throughout the 3D Project was the documentation, journal and research. While I did create all the tasks in time, I did not correctly document all of them and therefore was not able to go as in-depth as I could've. I believe moving forward I should focus on improving my scheduling and time management to better accommodate time for documenting the processes I take throughout future projects.

I believe that with effort and persistence, I may be able to create an effective schedule that gets the work completed on time and means that I don't have to stress and worry about completing everything last-minute. I have shown slight improvement of this over my previous projects with my practical work, but my journal and documentation work is still not up to schedule.

Moving onto the work itself, I am most proud of my Kobold character - to the point that I may want to revisit the character model in the future and finish/improve it. I feel that it may not be up to standards with animation, but it may be usable for such a thing in it's current state. It its likely to be the most complex single model I have created to date. With my other work, like the tasks, I feel they were up to standard in terms of quality but I can see areas to improve with all of them. For instance, I would like to improve my workflow to avoid issues like the ones I came across with the Joystick model. I'd like to get better acquainted with modelling with subdivision in mind so I can create higher quality models for the use in Normal maps and the like.

My short experience in other programs like ZBrush were useful. Due to the nature of the program, ZBrush's 3D workflow is massively different and un-intuitive compared to that of other software. However, the program itself is powerful and is able to produce extremely high quality work. Understanding the basic process of this program will likely be fruitful in the future if I were to ever get into the 3D Asset Production scene. This may be the case with my goal to focus on design, as those in the Design workflow often interact with people from all areas of a games production studio.

Overall, while I will likely not focus on 3D for year 2 and 3, the knowledge of how to create models will assist me in the future - especially in the area of creating prototypes. I found this part of the course to be extremely useful for future endeavors, such as the Indie Development project.


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