This Month Overview
This is the final Blog entry for the Major Project. Most the work is completed and it is now catching up on the blog. I will go over my work and see it there are any details I can tidy up, or adjust to ensure the final product looks better. After that is complete I will upload my blog and other work to the University for final marking. The final images of each characters and the animation will be on the Major Project Portfolio page.
Tidy Up
I will do another round of spell checking and correction on all texts that appears in the animation. I will also adjust the lighting in all my scenes to light up some areas that were too dark to previously make out. On top of that, I would fix some prevalent issues such as character’s feet not being on the ground. Sounds were also adjusted to better sync up with the final reel of animation.
Upload Work
Once I have made all the final fixes, I will check to see if all my files and weblinks open up to their assigned locations, I uploaded my work to Backboard. This would be a link to the Blog page for my Major Project, a link to the Portfolio for my Major Project and Video link to the Final Animation on YouTube.
Final Thought on Products Quality and Conclusion
Overall I really think the final product looks good and I’m happy in relation to the time I put into in but in completing the work I realised many of my own limitations that came to affect me all the way to the finish line.
Due to the processing power of my PC, my textures underwent a downgrade when being imported to Maya from Substance Painter. The way my textures were made and added to the scene also led to many issues with the lighting, not only affecting how a scene is lit, but also leaving to me unable to create VFX effects such as ‘glowing blaster bolts’. I also kept running into delays due to how long it was to create and rig (including weight painting and UV Mapping) the characters. Organic modeling was not a skill I was great at before, and if I did hard surface models (such as robots) for this project I think my work would have been more professional looking. However knowing that organic models are common in all forms of animation, I would have still took the direction of this project as a lesson in order to stretch myself. It was the correct decision as I now know more about how to make and rig organic modals.
What I fell I did do well was in animating the characters. Given how I only had around five weeks to get the physical animation done (due to the previously mention problems), it looks reasonably good and I am relatively happy with my progress. My tutors (Alec, Henry and Mike) all mark animation out as my main strength and I should look into being hired as ether a core animator, an in-between animator or a pre-visual animator. That is great feedback as it also help me decide which job role to aim for when I leave university. I’m also impressed with my ability to get my ideas on paper to reflect the final product despite some the issues I ran into. Some students might have had to restart their plans anew but I did not need to, and the final product does hold a strong personally that reflects the comics they were inspired by.
With the work finally uploaded I’m going to prepare for my final year show. Afterwards, I will take a month break to myself and then go job hunting. In addition I will also work independently to improve and work on my weaker elements such as lighting, organic modeling and rigging. As a person with Autism, ADHD and Dyslexia it would have been better if I had been working in a group, as Neuro-Typical people can bring things to the table that are not within my gift. Working alone is difficult as there is no one to bounce ideas off but that was not to be on this project and I just got on with the task. The lessons that being on my own did teach me were resilience, independence and time management as I had to drive the whole project myself.