The work on this game, form concept art to finished assets, I am pleased with how well developed and researched our initial art direction was and how well it translated into our finished assets. I am especially pleased myself with how the 3D models came out and the props as well, as I spent so long making so many of those props.

Concept art

concept art for all three characters and dragon for our art guide presentation

Edrei’s final design sheet

Concept art for the Dragon boss, mainly focused on how the composition of the level would help make him intimidating and help the production with the dragon mostly being hidden

Props In Engine

props laid out ported into unreal

Here is a short showcase of each prop up close in unreal engine to show off how the emissives, lights, textures all look in engine.

props, textured laid out in blender

I even went as far as to make a short animated sequence for one of my first props, but only ever just did this one as most other props would just simply need to move or rotate and animating them like this would have took too long.

Main characters models

Two main character models, modelled and rigged in blender

Here are two animated actions I did for one of our characters as well, showing off both my animation and the rig itself

2D VFX

On top of some character and prop animation I also had a shot at two 2D animations, one to be used for the fire of a torch, lantern or candle props I modelled, and the other the fire for a fire trap prop I also modelled. They are just short simple loops but I thought it would be a nice addition to give the game more life and more personality to it than some stock overly realistic fire like there was before.

Here is how they look in game on one of my torches.

How did all this work come together?

Here is a playthrough of our game recorded very recently by our level designer. As you can see, of course the characters were not finished in their textures and animations, but all of my props I had finished were finally able to be imported into unreal and they all fit so nicely to decorate the levels, I do wish we got to keep with trying to make our own brick texture to match the art style more but I am glad all of my own props and work were able to be so consistent to the initial plans with the art direction in the art guide.

First Year has been a load of ups and downs for me, it was very tough at the start and very tough at the end, but everything in between has been a fun process of learning to work in blender and some 2d animation software, working as a group, and getting to know all of my classmates. I feel I have meshed well with everyone and it is a shame to end the year, especially with everyone under such stress and tension with the extremely tough deadlines. But its lovely to see people in the classroom between classes constantly. We are keeping each other sane, mostly. I’m excited to get into the next year but also not because wow I need this summer to enjoy a break after all this stress and back to back work. One problem I have noticed with the layout is the class is how little time we have. I do love that we only do two days a week, it does really work well because you can still actively come in and work whenever you want in between classes, but my issue lies in how many weeks we have overall. it feels like the holidays are so excruciatingly long, that one its awkward coming back to class after such a long break and slowly getting back into interacting with the class slowly, but it also, more importantly, leaves us all with a lot less time than we need to effectively complete a project, when people are also likely working or unable to access equipment necessary for working throughout holidays, as I believe the university grounds are often closed down over these long breaks, so people who are lacking or missing equipment are unable to work when outside of the classroom. I think this is my main concern going forward and I will absolutely be making the absolute most of my time with the university still open and me being able to frequently access the equipment.

I have also enjoyed the randomized groups, however I have seen how much of a struggle it can be when you are paired up with people who don’t quite fit you. I have not run into this all too much and have enjoyed most of the people I have worked with as the most of them have been very hard working, good with communication and apologetic and professional when there are any problems. However, I do think that it being more easy for people to have the option if they really really need it to choose who to work with or who they won’t want to work with in the future would be very handy for the class as a whole.

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed first year!