Introduction
This is the final Blog entry related to Assignment 1: 3D Worlds Project for Animation Strategies. Along with my, and the team’s finished projects being uploaded to Blackboard, we must also write up our self assessments and team assessment forms. These would detail how both I and my team members performed and coped throughout the project. In addition to that document I would also be writing a500 word conclusion based on my overall final thoughts as well as uploading the final video and my SPLD sticker.
Team and Self Reflection Forms
The Forge Self-assessment & Peer-to-peer assessment form
Final Reflection
Despite having to overcome some hurdles I am reasonably satisfied with how the overall project turned out, even if there are areas of the finished work which could be better. I learned how to use some of the basic tools and set up of the Unreal Engine and I was really happy and like its operation. The ability to create a scene using pre-made assets with ease, and having rendered them out in high quality with the substance painter textures was really satisfactory. Additionally having access to a very powerful lighting engine base, that could generate light, based of multiple variables such as time of day and position makes it an exciting new program I can add to my repertoire. This project has also had a positive impact on my vision for the future. as it is now starting to reflect the quality of work as seen within the industry. However there were also some downsides, that affected the overall quality of the final project, partly resulting from the ongoing Covid situation. Whilst if finally great to be locate back in the university campus, because cases are still taught offline and online, some members could/did not attend classes in person leading to team management issues.
Even though all team members completed their work as allocated, as we were never all together in the same room for any significant time and as a few members, including myself, did not keep up to date with the Trello Board, at times we went off theme for the project. To give two examples; sometimes our work was more realistic instead of stylized, and the creation of similar assets that could have been redundant. There were significant periods in the project where I had little or no communication with some team members, but fully understand the nature of the Covid epidemic affects everyone.
A personal learning experience, was that the limited period of actual teaching (a day and a half) is not a sufficient amount of time for me, and I need more tuition to both learn and understand the subject matter. To compensate for this, later in the term I went in on my own time and worked individually with Henry. I must give credit to Henry here, for his patience and teaching which helped me through this difficult period. I understand Covid has affected the normal class system and the overall university experience and this is comment is not to in any way to reflect on my tutors who are excellent trying to deal with matters outside their control, but feel I need to highlight this issue as it is a personal reflection.
Overall I really enjoyed my time working on this project and the ability to create a 3D environment using Unreal will assist me so much in the future, as it is the most commonly used engine and had started to make inroads into the animation industry.
Completed Environment and Video:
Electronic SPLD Sticker: