My Game Idea

Mechanics

For the finite form of my game idea I have kept the same game mechanics as before in my previous idea. So for this I have decided to keep the idea of having 2 different visions of the same character (First Person and Sidescroller). You switch between these modes during different challenges as sections in the game.

Story 

The game itself is about an concious incoplete character that is stuck in his own game in UE4. Throughout the game he traverses through different levels and completes different challenges in alternate modes. For example one of the levels will be a side scrolling platformer based within blueprint. He will jump through from one end to the other accross his own character code. this will involve different challeneges such as moving platforms (nodes) and broken connections. As well as this there will be enemy AI attacking you. As the game progresses you become more complete and start to understand yourself, the enemy and the game that you are actually trapped inside. At the start the character is a wireframe, as the game moves on you start to build up and have more and more abilities, going through the different stages of production until you become a finished character. At first you are blind and disorientated to the surroundings but then you understand the universe that you are a part of.

Ideas Research

My game ideas

Genre

When thinking of an idea for my game I had to think of too things. Firstly the game itself, and secondly what is actually achievable. Before doing research I immediately thought that I was going to create and FPS (First Person Shooter), but I wanted to create something less generic. After doing my research and sifting through multiple ideas I came up with the concept of merging both a 2.5D side scroller and FPS into the same world.

Research - Game ideas

I generated some ideas using " http://dopitch.eatcreatesleep.net " Which essentially is a random game generator. Using different factors  and multiple completely different games it merges them into one and creates games that are completely new. Through this I picked 10 that could work. A couple that I likes were; Fallout mixed with Jurassic Park and Bioshock meets Doritos crash course. These kinds of simple ideas gave me a lot of inspiration for my game design.

How does it work? 

This concept work by having different points of view of your character depending on what the task at hand is for the player. For example when there is a challenge or an environment that needs to be traversed through then you would be in a fixed side on camera position. But if you go through a room and have to search for an object, or get confronted and have to participate in conflict then the POV of the player would switch into FPS.

Story

The back story for this game has a steam punk theme set in the early 1900’s and I will support this through the overall aesthetic within the game. The game will include a mixture of first person combat and challenging environments. Furthermore I think a key for the game would be to include multiple routes and areas and create the level into a maze. 

FINAL TURNTABLE RENDER

FINAL PIECE / ASSET SHEET

Final Folly.

These are multiple different renders that i have done within Mental Ray. The below picture is my asset sheet which shows all the required information about the project with texture maps, renders and details.

Other renders that I liked. 

PROJECT PROGRESSION / EVALUATION

Folly progression breakdown.

When we were first given the brief I didn't really know what a 'Folly' was so straight away I did some research. From first inspection I found that they can vary massively in size, style and age. This was good to see as it meant that we had a lot of freedom for development. The first thing that caught my eye was the idea of making something very old, broken and dilapidated to the point of it being a ruin. But my final idea was eventually derived from the idea of someone doing a replicate of an old Greek temple with big stone columns. As in my research I had seen this happen a few times with small downscaled temples. As well as this I had seen the Dalkeith Building in Edinburgh. I really liked the design and the look and used it as my inspiration behind my final design. In my final I ended up incorporating a few different ideas as well as giving it some age by breaking off sections, creating rubble and using textures to create the overall aesthetic that I wanted for it.

Now that I had a good idea of what I wanted to make I went into the details looking into types of columns and created some iterations based off real life examples. I looked into examples like; Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Tuscan. My favourite out of these was the Ionic design and so I decided to take it further. After a couple of separate 3D iterations I had a final design that I could incorporate into my final piece.

For my final folly I made all the different assets in their separate projects. This included; Steps, Base, Columns, Roof and the stone seat in the centre. In my first iteration for my final piece I had made them all have their own texture map from which I later found out was wrong as the whole final piece had to have a single texture map. So later on after I had imported my objects and refined their design by adding weathering and damage to the pieces to show age and to give it some character. After cleaning up the mesh’s I could then move onto texturing. For my model I used a diffuse, Specular and a normal map. I was going to use a Gloss map but as there was nothing reflective / shiny on my folly I didn’t think it was necessary.

Once all of the individual parts were textured I could then start putting it all together. By duplicating any repeated objects like the columns, rails and rubble it all came together. Once it was all in place I just made a few minor tweaks with normal as in some places I had very sharp angles that didn’t look very good so by softening the edges it made them look a lot better. The main area I did this for were the parts that had been destroyed and for the pieces of debris.

Now that the project was all in place and complete I started researching into mental ray. This is because I wanted to do some really nice renders and beauty shots so I could present it well on my asset sheet. Through messing around with the mental ray settings I managed to get the shot that I wanted as well as finding a way to render mental ray with a wire frame. The last thing on the list was my turn table render in ViewPoint 2.0. This was a much simpler task, I did 3 separate renders; Plain, wireframe and selection. Using all 3 of these I managed to import them into Sony Vegas and edit them together so that I could show all 3 turntables in a single render.

Overall I am extremely happy with my progression throughout this project. At the start of this unit I had absolutely no knowledge of Maya. Seeing how far I have come by comparing my first model to my most recent there is a massive improvement. If I was to start this unit again I probably would have designed my folly to be slightly smaller but more detailed. Furthermore I would have incorporated something shiny or metallic as a whole so that I could have implemented a gloss map into my project. Lastly at the end of the project in the render stage I realised the properties of different materials. For this I used a Blinn but in the future if I am to make more buildings I will use Lambert as it is matt and has no reflectivity which is a problem I had with the Blinn material. Other than that I am very pleased with my final piece.

I have improved in many ways over the course of this unit. In comparison to the previous projects my organisation and time management was far better and I hope that that has reflected in my work. I still think that maybe I am a little bit weak in the 2D area as all of my iteration bar a couple were in 3D and I think that if I was to get more ideas down in 2D then I could possibly have had a better design. This is simply because doing really quick sketches to get my ideas down would have saved a lot of time in the ideas stage of this project.

PILLAR FINAL

IONIC PILLAR

After the original iteration was complete I decided to go back and look at some real life examples of Ionic pillars. After doing further research I went back and re designed it completely to make it more accurate to historical examples. The changed I needed to make were rounding it off as the original design was square. Furthermore I changed the base and the top section between the scrolls.

Now seeing the finished version I am happy with how it has turned out and looks a lot better than my first attempt. Prior to this I had done some research into using vertex and edge normals. This allowed me to make it look high resolution without a massive polly count.

FOLLY - PILLAR ITTERATION

Pillar #1

As i have decided to create my final in separate pieces and then add them all together at the end I have now finished making the pillars for my design. 

The final model at the end has efficient topology and a; Diffuse, Specular and Normal Map. 

FOLLY - COLUMN ITERATIONS

Column Iterations

I have looked into and researched folly's over the last few days and have come to a conclusion that in my final design i would like to incorporate pillars / columns in it. So i decided to look into a variety of different designs from real life (The first 4) and then went on to create my own design which implemented aspects of all of them (Far right). I liked the outcome and may go with it in my final. 

The next step for me after designing these was to try and create them in Maya. These were very quick models, But i just wanted to get a feel for what they would be like in 3D. 

CS THEORY - ENTRY TICKET #3.

Propp's theories

Haroun and the sea of stories can directly relate o props structural analysis of stories. In Propp’s first point which is ‘a member of family absents himself from home’ can relate to early on in the book where Haroun’s mother leaves home and runs away with Mr. Sengupta. Furthermore Propp also claims that ‘the hero is transferred, delivered or led to an object of search’ within this particular story Haroun is led to the sea of stories and to stop Khattam-Shud from which is the villain in the book.

Another one of Propp’s theories is ‘the spheres of action’. He claimed that every character in a story fitted into 8 separate categories, although some may overlap into more than one. You can make a successful character design as long as you make sure it fits into one of the categories that he has made. Through this it means that who the character actually is doesn’t count for the entirety of the individual, it’s a balance of both aesthetics and meaning. This relates directly to game design as the focal point of a character may well be the looks, but there is always deeper meaning. In some games you can often interchange both the personality and the aesthetics of the protagonist. But even through doing this he is still going to be in the same category within ‘the spheres of action’. As long as you use this theory as a guideline to the building of a character then it should be a successful creation.  

CS THEORY - ENTRY TICKET #2

Character Design – Composition and Basic Shapes.

Essentially in the article the main and most important thing with character design is composition. It starts off with the basics and slowly progresses through all the different stages of a characters development.

Starting with basic shapes and their meanings you can start to build an idea of the characters. With circles tending to be the good guys through to triangles as bad, evil or generally the enemy. This is portrayed very well through Mario and Wario. With Mario’s overall design being circular through his body and overall aesthetics. On the other hand Wario is more triangular in nature, generally all of the enemies in the Mario series have these appearances.

How a character is portrayed is within more than just aesthetic appearance. Animation techniques, camera angles and UI is used in a similar way. Through using basic shapes to connote different effects the player gets an immediate understanding of the character.

Another way that game developer can create personality to a game or character is through movement within the game itself. A prime example of this is Gears Of War which is used in this article to portray the style of the game. Once again using basic shapes, in this case triangles, they create the map layout to be sharp with many tight corners to manoeuvre around. On the other side of the scale they use the example of Journey which has a very smooth and soft animation and the map itself is very free and gives the player the ability to roam. With these techniques you can clearly see how they have used the ideology of basic shaped to connote different emotions and effects within games. 

CS THEORY - ENTRY TICKET #1.

'Haroun and the sea of stories' Analysis

Salman Rashid’s Haroun and the sea of stories is essentially a tale about people from a magical land. The story opens up in ‘The saddest of cities’ situated in Alifbay. The main protagonist is Haroun from which is a brave and curious child.

The sad city is ‘a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name’. In the north of the city there are ruined buildings ‘that look like broken hearts’. Furthermore in the North of the city there are allegedly factories that manufacture sadness. We know this because it claims ‘(so I’m told) sadness was actually manufactured, packaged and sent all over the world’. Also it is next to the ‘sea of glummish’ which is named due to the depression that is ridden over the land.

Haroun says to his farther ‘What’s the point of it, what’s the point of telling stories that aren’t even true? This was a turning point for part of the plot in the story as this was the reason that his farther stopped telling stories ‘The fabled Saha of Blah stood up in front of a huge audience, opened his mouth and found that he had run out of stories to tell’.  

When Haroun is at the streams of the sea of stories the genie says gravely, ‘it’s pollution’. This is when Haroun realises that the sea of stories is being poisoned.

‘His name, whispered the water genie, and the sky darkened for an instant as he spoke it, is Khattam Shud. Far away on the horizon, fork lightning glittered once. Karan felt his blood run cold.’ This is the point in the story where the antagonist is introduced to Haroun who has very little information about him although he ‘had not forgotten what his farther said about Khattam Shud’. Just before this it says ‘Iff and Butt shivered with something very like fear ’which shows that there is fear that surrounds Khattam Shud’s name.

Iff says ‘ordinary armies are made up of platoons and regiments and suchlike; our pages are organised into chapters and volumes’. This is where iff relates there army as ‘Library’ which connotes the fact that they use the power of stories to fight war. Furthermore they introduce General Kitab’s name to Haroun in the story’.

When Haroun comes across the Eggheads they claim ‘ ”We are the eggheads”. They nodded’ they then go on to saying ‘We can’t believe you don’t know this’ as they point towards the grand balcony and say ‘He’s the walrus’. In the story the walrus is the head of the P2C2E (Processes too complicated to explain), in order to get his father’s story water turned on again he Haroun needs to speak with him. 

Soon after Haroun was introduced to the Walrus the king attempted a speech but failed. The prince then exclaimed that the princess had been kidnapped ‘they have seized her’. This the point from which the city is told that khattam Shud has captured the princess and most likely taken her to Chup City in his Ice Castle.

CS MOCK PRESENTATION. (Designs)

CS project work

For this unit the final CS work will be based on 'Haroun and the sea of stories'. Using characters and meaning within the book we were asked to design a character for the presentation and talk about our designs, iterations and the reasons behind why we made them like that. Furthermore we need to used ideas based on Propps theories.

With this project we had to work with a partner. So this is purely my own work as Harris (My partner) did other iterations.

My Designs

Mood Board

Face Iterations 

Final Face Iteration

BA3 - THE BRIEF.

Our project

For our most recent and final unit for my first year we have been asked to create a 'Folly'. This is a smallish building that rich people used to build in their gardens.

Throughout this project I will be looking at all the different aspects and details within this architecture. I will be showing evidence of iteration through all the development steps that lead up to my final piece.

The final piece for submission will be my very own folly design using aspects of real life examples as well as incorporating my own ideas. In terms of textures it will have; A Diffuse, Gloss, Specular and normal map. This will mean that hopefully by the end of this project I will have a very high quality game ready asset ready for submission.

TEXTURED SUBMISSION PIECE

Dilapidated Doorway

I am still very new to the concept of unwrapping and texturing within Maya but as this is only my second texture study I am quite happy with the outcome.

In this project I used the topology of the model itself to give off the weathered effect. Next time I do a textured study I will add a lot more to the textures themselves to give even more damage and ware to the scene.

BIG MAYA STUDY

City Street

For this piece I decided that I wanted to make something on a much larger scale in comparison to my other studies. Now that I have got to grips with the software and am feeling a lot more comfortable  using it I decided that I wanted to make an environment piece. Organic things are much more difficult to make in a package like Maya so I went for a city street. The entire thing is made up off the top if my head and didn't use any references which is stupid of me. So next time I will do my research.

It was a lot quicker and easier than I originally expected it to be. This entire scene took just over 2 hours to create. This is mostly because it is all repetition.

I started by making a singular window and then duplicating it into a line of 8, then attaching another row above and finally adding in the door. Furthermore all of the other assets in the scene are duplicates with a very simple mesh as throughout the whole piece I wanted to keep the whole thing as efficient as possible.

BASIC MAYA TEXTURE STUDY

Texturing for a beginner

As I am very unfamiliar with texturing in Maya I thought that I would start off with something extremely simple. For example I have decided to pick a basic barrel as its not so much about the modelling.

I am pretty happy with the result as the thought of UV's in Maya was very daunting. Hopefully I can progress to more complex objects in terms of texturing. Next time that I do a textured asset I intend on creating my own texture either from scratch or simply one I have taken myself.

MAYA STUDY #2

PRIMARY RESEARCH IN NORWICH.

Photography

We were given a task to take pictures for reference in Norwich by our tutor. We were looking at mostly Victorian and Medieval work from which in Norwich there is an abundance.

BA3 - MAYA STUDY #1

Study #1

For this piece as I am not very experienced with Maya I decided to do something simple, I did not use reference as at the time I was just playing around with the software in order to get the grips of it. This was the result. This took me just over an hour and I am hoping that as I continue to practice I will improve with my efficiency. A few things I could improve on is the topology and the methods from which I made this. 

CS ESSAY : THE EVOLUTION OF THE 3D ARTIST

The evolution of the 3D artist

Computer games have been a very popular aspect of people’s lives for over 30 years, and they have come a very long way. In this report I will be discussing how the progression in the making of these games has affected the 3D artist. I will use secondary and primary research from industry professionals to explain how it has evolved and where it is going.

It all started with 2D games that date back to the 1950’s but they weren’t popular until the late 1970’s with the creation of arcades and home computer games were available to the public. 3D work was first implemented into games in 1982 with 3D Monster Maze. The game itself was very simple and involved you as the player in a maze, with one entrance and one exit. Within the maze there was a dinosaur and you had to escape alive. It was entirely programmed for the ZX81. The game was rendered using ‘low-resolution character block graphics’. This is a very primitive way of design now but at the time it was ground breaking technology.

We have come a very long way since then, a prime example of how 3d art has evolved within the games industry is the Tomb Raider series. Lara Croft, the main character in Tomb raider 1 [1996] was built up of just 540 polygons. It was such a low count due to both software and hardware limitations as at this point it was designed for the PS1 which had 2MB of RAM and 32 bit processor.  10 years later as things developed further Tomb raider: Legend [2006] the same character consisted of 5000 polygons for the PS2, and later in Tomb raider: Underworld [2008] only 2 years later had 32,816 polygons which was released for the PS3. This broke a Guinness world record for ‘Most detailed video game character’.

This progression was mostly because the hardware allowed them to create much larger and more detailed elements as in comparison to the PS1's 2MB the PS3 had 512MB of RAM. As time has progressed, so has the technology. The release of the current generation of consoles and their more advanced hardware has allowed artists to create far more detailed models and assets. For example the Killzone series had a remarkable difference in detailing between Killzone 3 [2011] on PS3 and Killzone: Shadow Fall [2013] on PS4 as it had a huge difference between 10K and 40K assets and
models.

Given these changes an artist needs to keep their skills fresh and up to date. Geraldine Cross who has over ten years experience in the industry and who currently works in human resources within the games industry came and presented us in a lecture. She confirmed that the quality of games has improved dramatically over the past ten years as she claims ‘The quality of games now bears no resemblance either to 10 years ago’. Furthermore she recommends that 3d artists keep up to date themselves without relying on their employers.

Stef Bow, a professional junior artist at Sports Interactive, confirms that she makes an effort to follow industry and 3D news. She has a subscription to 3D World Magazine, noting that ‘along with tutorials and amazing examples of work, it has industry and tech news for working in 3D - the software, the hardware, the techniques’ (Stef Bow, 2015). To keep in touch with developments Stef keeps involved with the 3D art community as a whole via various forums and Twitter. She confirms ‘My Twitter is really just a massive list of industry related news’ (Stef Bow, 2015).  This allows her to stay in contact with any changes or advancements within her sector of the industry.

The current state of the industry is continuing to develop. The future of the industry could go in many ways with all of the more recent technological advancements with both hardware and software. An example of this is the Oculus Rift. Stef’s colleague Andrew Willmott claims that the next big change in the games industry will involve headset-based VR (Stef Bow, 2015). For artists this also means that there could be massive change in how we model in terms of 3D sculpting. Future replacements for zBrush will let the 3D artist interact with "real" 3D objects using VR technology.

This means that the future of 3D modelling may indeed lie within these headsets, interacting in real life to create digital models. This in combination with hardware would allow for extremely photorealistic detail and structure. Research suggests that Virtual Reality is going to be the way of the future. A new start up called ‘Leonar3Do’ is a brand new piece of ground breaking technology. It allows you to manipulate 3D objects as if they were right in front of you.

All in all we have come a very long way since the origins of 3D art. In reflection to my research the future definitely lies within Virtual Reality in terms of both games, art and design. From both general research and from speaking to industry professionals the extremely rapid pace that 3D art is evolving leads to hard evidence implying that the future truly does lie within Virtual Reality. With big names like Sony with their Project Morpheus backing the Virtual Reality campaign in due time 3D artists might well be using these headsets to create their designs.

 

Even the software we currently use is constantly updating. So even if VR doesn’t take off then artists will still need to adapt to these changes. Stef says that even though she thinks her job won’t change dramatically she will still have to learn new iterations of software or even new software entirely (Stef Bow, 2015). For example Mudbox and Maya, 2 of the biggest 3D software packages release a new version every year. Meaning that developers are constantly having to adapt to these changes.

 

Bibliography    

 

References

Bow, Stef (2015) Interview via Email with Stephen Abbs.

Cross, G (2015), Lecture notes at Norwich university of the arts [5 Feb. 2015]

Flavorwire, (2014). Lara Croft Infographic Charts Her Evolution From 1996 to 2014. [online] Available at: http://flavorwire.com/newswire/lara-croft-infographic-charts-her-evolution-from-1996-to-2014 [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].

GamesIndustry.biz, (2015). Guinness World Records 2010 Gamers Edition. [online] Available at: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/guinness-world-records-2010-gamers-edition-lara-croft-secures-six-records--including--most-detailed-video-game-character [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].

Leonar3do, (2015). Leonar3do - New Era in Human Computer Interaction. [online] Available at: http://leonar3do.com/ [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].

Plunkett, L. (2015). Just How More Detailed Are PS4 Characters Over PS3 Characters?. [online] Kotaku. Available at: http://kotaku.com/just-how-more-detailed-are-ps4-characters-over-ps3-char-507749539 [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].

The Verge, (2013). Sculpting in virtual reality: meet Leonar3Do (hands-on). [online] Available at: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/7/3845122/leonar3do-3d-virtual-reality-objects [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). History of video games. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). 3D Monster Maze. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Monster_Maze [Accessed 19 Feb. 2015].

Appendix

Stef Bow – 13/2/15

Hi Stephen,

Here goes:

- Dependent on the stage of the production, what kind of hour do you put into working per week?

Generally I work 9-5. I am lucky to have flexible working hours, so I can work 10-6, or 8-4 etc.

The norm is 8 hour days. Sometimes I will do more - closer to deadlines I will do more .Maybe working until 8pm or 9pm? (Or, personally, I prefer to go to work earlier)

So generally the average is a 45 hour week, which goes up towards final deadlines ("crunch") maybe to 50/55 hrs or more?

Some studios have a much harder crunch period, with very long hours. Ours is pretty relaxed in comparison.

- Aside from being a 3D artist, what other roles do you have if any within the team?

I don't have any other roles with our team. I suppose, other than doing the 3D modelling, we also do all our own research and reference collection (e.g. we have a day out of the office to collect photo references for textures). We don't have a concept artist, so any concepts need to be drawn up by us. But that's it for me.
 

- What is your favorite thing about being a 3D artist?

My favourite thing about my job is that it doesn't feel like a job - I love going to work and spending my day working in 3D. My favourite thing about working in 3D and as a 3D Artist is the planning how I'm going to take the idea/concept - whatever it is I'm going to make - and create it in polygons. How best to model it. Mapping it out in my head, breaking it down on paper. I really love that bit.

Plus, it's just plain cool to make things in 3D and sit back and look at what you just made. Even cooler when you get to see it in a game!

- What would you say is the next leap forwards in graphics technology that would make a huge difference to your work?

I'm not massively knowledgeable about the technology side

, so I've asked one of my colleagues about this (Andrew Willmott) as he knows much more than I do about current and future tech.

His thinking is that the headset-based VR (think Occulus Rift and Microsoft and Sony are also pushing in to this area) is going to be massive because of the improvements and the sense of real virtual presence. For artists this means that there could be massive change in how we model in terms of 3D sculpting. Like zBrush does now, but we will be interacting with "real" 3D objects using the VR technology.

He tells me he knows someone at Occulus who is working on such a sculpting application. It sounds like it will be awesome as it would be the VR version of working with real clay.

- How many early versions / variants do you make before someone selects the version to take to completion? Obviously there is concepts first, but do you have multiple 3D iterations before you get started? 

A lot of the versions/variants are done in the concept stage. Once you start modelling, the design has been decided upon. At that point it's really tweeking the design for what works in 3D. Small adjustments that would go back and forth between you and the concept artists or level designers as you work towards the final piece. As we don't have concept artists or level designers here

, my approach is to sketch and draw out several designs for something until I have one I'm happy with, then start to work on it. I share my work with my team to get feedback from them.

I will have saved versions of my work as I progress from start to finish, but not completely different variations. Having the iterative steps saved means I can go back to a previous version of something doesn't work or I screw it up

I hope that answers your questions. Feel free to send me more if you have anything else you want to ask or you would like me to elaborate on something.

Have a great weekend!

Stef

Stef Bow – 17/2/15

I really like Geraldine. I was at a workshop with her recently. I'm sure she must have had some great stuff to say to you!

Your questions:

- What do you do to keep your skills fresh within your work? i.e changes or advancements in the software and learning new skills? 

A couple of things mainly:

1) I try to follow industry news/3D news - I have a sub to 3D World Magazine (there's also "3D Artist" magazine - they are pretty much identical) and along with tutorials and amazing examples of work, it has industry and tech news for working in 3D - the software, the hardware, the techniques. I also spend time on the different forums (to see how people do what they do), follow the CGSociety and (if you really want to get in to the nitty-gritty tech side) SIGGRAPH.

This means even just through osmosis I begin to pick up some stuff about what new things there are and where the software, techniques, tech etc is going as well as engaging in articles to actively learn about things. My Twitter is really just a massive list of industry related news - games, tech, skills, people etc that helps me do this. By reading a little all the time I just start to pick things up.

2) If I come across something I don't know, I will hunt down some more info about it, some tutorials and have a go myself if I can. For example, I've just learned about Parallax Mapping - I'd never heard of it until 3 weeks ago (though it's not really 'new'). Since then I've read about it online, downloaded a paper on it to read and found some tutorials to have a practice with.

A combination of the two are how I go about trying to keep up to date and learn new things.

- As the industry is continuously developing, where and what do you see yourself doing / working on within the next 5 years?

My work for the next 5 years will be determined by the direction of our game firstly. We have lists of features we want to have in the next game and in future games. It gives us a road map of what we want to achieve and then we can acquire the skills and knowledge we need to do that.

I don't see my job changing dramatically - I will still be working in and creating in 3D. I will have to adapt to new iterations of software and learn to use entirely new software maybe. Of course, if I were to move to a different studio I'd have to learn a new workflow and various other bits of software such as a game engine that I've never used before - depending on what they use.

Whether it's keeping up with new things or learning something new to you because of a job change etc, there will always be the need to continue to learn and develop and Geraldine is completely right saying that you can't rely of your employer to keep you up to date - if only because what they need you to be up to date on will be things specific to their needs as a studio, not the 3D world as a whole and not your personal development specifically (although, hopefully they care about that too). You need to be keeping your toes in the water and developing yourself/

I hope that answers your questions - give me a shout if you need any more explanation or elaboration.

Stef

SELF EVALUATION FORM BA2

NORWICH UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS

UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES

STUDENT SELF-EVALUATION FORM

Stephen Abbs

                                                                                                                                                      

Student Name:

BA 2: Fundamentals 2

Unit title, number & credit rating:          

Mark Wickham George Beard

Tutor(s) Name(s):

19/02/2015

Date:                                                     

Please think carefully about how well you achieved the Learning Outcomes for this unit and write down your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for future development for each one.

1.   LO5: Demonstrate an understanding of some of the major historical and cultural influences on your subject area.

Strengths: I had a strong understanding of cultural background within the project through research of relevant subject matter. Weaknesses: I could have used the library as it is a valuable asset furtherly could have done some primary research at the cathedral. Opportunities: I should have used more of what was readily available to me instead of relying on digital resources.

2.   LO6: Demonstrate a range of approaches to creative problem solving.

Strengths: I managed to efficiently tackle any problems with creative block and maintain a solid workflow. Weaknesses: I could have used a variety of different methods when solving problems and been more time efficient. Opportunities: Could have spoken more to my peers and tutors for help.

3.    LO7: Demonstrate a basic understanding of some of the subject-specific and transferable skills that are relevant to your practice.

Strengths: I thought that I met or exceeded an understanding in relevant skills Weaknesses: I could have managed my time a lot better with practicing related skills. Opportunities: I could maybe have incorporated a wider range of medias as they were available.

4.    LO8: Provide evidence of independent planning and time-management in the development of your work.

Strengths: Strong understanding of planning stages relevant to developments in my work. Weaknesses: Could have managed my time a lot better. Opportunities: Could have used my time a lot more efficiently throughout.

Overall Action Points: (to be discussed and agreed with tutor)

Signed (Student): Stephen Abbs......................... Signed (Tutor):..................................................