DMUGA Week 9 - Trio Completed (SF Pt. 3)

This was the last project of the three required of the style matrix. I have to admit it wasn't the best project, but I did learn quite a lot about designing & making stylised assets. This was an area previously unexplored for me so it may have been a bad decision to have chosen it for one of the projects in terms of my grade, but at the same time I'm glad I did due to the knwoledge gained from having done it. There were other factors that influenced my decision to go for this one instead of the rooftops as stated in 'SF Pt.1', although, the outcome isn't completely terrible, so hopefully it'll all be OK.

If you would like to see the hand-in project summary, please click HERE.

If you would like to just see the beauty shots and my general informal thoughts about the project, please read on.

Here's the beauty shots:

If you're curious, you can actually fly around as a saucer sweet too:

General summary of the project:

I wasn't exactly excited about perhaps completely failing on this project when I decided to choose it because I had no idea what shop I would do, how much character I could give a building, or even about whether I am good enough to hand paint any textures. I have learnt quite a lot on this project, I know where I can improve, and the outcome itself isn't shockingly bad.

Areas I know to improve on:

1 - Detail in the textures = if you are going to give an asset a unique UV space, DO SOMETHING UNIQUE WITH IT! There are a few assets where I wasn't sure what I wanted to with them so I made them unique so that if I did want to come back and change them individually, I can. It's good I did this, but in terms of the project and my grade, I should have just overlapped them to save space and make more assets in general.

2 - Don't forget about structure = The silhouette of the roof was improtant at the beginning which I kept, but I didn't make it very believable. The roof leading to the top balcony doesn't make any sense, it only looks like that because I kept the silhouette and didn't think about the structure.

3 - Mirror where you can = Usually if I do a more realistic style, I am very careful about what things are mirrored & overlapped because for the most part they usually need to be unique. However, until a fellow student pointed this out, I didn't realise how much more of my model could have been overlapped & mirrored to save space, and produce higher texel density assets.

So, what's the plan?:

Now that the practical side of the style matrix is finished, I need to produce the 4000 word write-up supporting what I've done; detailing, summarising, & critically analysing areas of all 3 projects. I thought I clarified what exactly was needed at the start of the term, but I need to have another detailed read to know for sure what is required of me.

I know there is a week for 'polish' & the write-up, but I intended to finish as soon as I can in order to get every element done to a finished standard so that it was less stress for me. I am in a good position for the moment, I need to stay focused and blast through a drafted essay to then improve over the following week (also correct anything in the projects if there is a blatent mistake or something I can quickly add).

Alongside this, our FMP group will continue meeting, trying to refine our ideas & make sure that what we want to do is acceptable and a very solid project.