OTM Evaluation

Your team name: Team Break Away

Your Blog URL: http://julesgameart.wix.com/julesgameart Team URL: http://teambreakawaydmu.wix.com/midsummersdream

Team members: Myself Hannah Beckie Charlie Eva Brandon Project name: OTM – Midsummer’s Night’s Dream 1. This project is to work within a team to produce a playable level that is based off of a Shakespeare theme, to celebrate Shakespeare s 400 th anniversary. The main brief was provided by the British Library for a competition, where there were four different plays to work from being castles, the tempest or forest woodlands and the midsummers nights dream. together as a group chose to go with mid summers, as we felt we had far better ideas and could really play and push around with the theme along side our own abilities. 2. Once the theme had been settled on and the general ideas with complete basics of our level were decided at a team meeting collectively. We each moved on to collecting reference to work from to help create a base idea and visual look of our level. I personally began to gather some general images I felt went in the direction we had discussed but also that could produce more and better options possibly. Within the reference boards I created, I included some original reference from the images provided form the British library themselves and looked at various elements to populate the paths and clearing such as of glow worms, willow whips, mushrooms, caves, trees, forests and colours.

I also looked at the Scott Ridley, 1985 film Legend as I thought that it would be great reference to look at for the atmosphere, particle effects and general style since it is extremely similar to the direction discussed. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

3. Once roles were discussed I then looked at researching and creating a base guideline for some general assets to possibly have within the level. I researched a few various trees, shrubs, tree trunks and flowers that grew around Athens/Greece, to help provide a base for concepting foliage. Along with other various objects such as roman columns, candles, lights, lanterns. As we did decided and semi-realistic to an extent, this was just to help create a base for shapes, colours, sizes ect. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

Even though most of the full concepting was completed by specific team members, we did decided to “concept what we make.” I then began concepting some assets, making sure to converse with my group at our weekly team meetings and then going back and improving designs when a much clearer look was decided. Keeping originals and making notes. We decided as a team to try to specialise with in an area we most wanted to progress with the exception of dabbling in other areas to help with time, understand and to progress our own abilities in other areas. My job role was asset creation as I felt I most succeeded there and would be better helpful to the group. I also concepted the assets I created which again as the whole team did that it help with time. So the process was concept asset, change and refine concept from group feedback, Model the asset, resize, unwrap, create light map, texture, check and refine texture against level, place within engine and repeat. As I created the candle assets it made sense to create the flame particle effect to go with them. That would teach me something knew, extending my knowledge and also create time for the group member who was specialising in engine to be able to do other things. It made things easier to have the flexibility. The same went for placing mostly own assets into engine as it is a little time consuming and it made roles still specialised but also diverse. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

4. When creating my assets I firstly started off by setting up some reference planes within 3ds max and then strip modelling around them, constantly flicking wire frame off to check the general shape and making sure to sort out my smoothing groups and IDs as I go along. The same was basically done for the tree assets, however I created them from splines first then continued with strip modelling, changing the geometry to give a more organic look rather than a uniform mesh. I tried to make sure that my process was efficient and fluid. I then moved on to unwrapping my assets making sure to check the x-form first and then using mainly pelt unwrap as a base since I found creating my own seams, was faster and much more efficient. I then collapsed my layers before going back into uv unwrap to create a second channel for the light maps. The sizing for the texture maps are as follows. Assets Map Sizes. Tree foliage – 1024x1024 Mushroom tree – 1024x1024 Canopy tree – 512x512 (tillable bark) Filler tree – 512x515 (tillable bark) LOD – 512x512 tree stump – 512x512

Tree stump with candles – 512x512 Single candles – 256x256 Anemone Flowers – 256x256

Candle flame – 128x128

Once each asset was modelled and unwrapped I then imported a copy of the collision mesh provided to be able to re size my assets to cut down time and make things easier when importing into engine. Once I was ready to texture my assets, my process was fairly the same each time. I would begin by selecting reference both secondary and first hand reference before then experimenting with various methods to try and get the right look and basic feel in grey scale first before then overlay the right colour. Once I had the basis for my textures I then moved on to adding any extra detail. I also decided to use hand painting for some of the details and objects as it fit well with in our theme/style and also fitted my needs better, quickly and more efficiently. To create my extra maps such as my normal and roughness, I used bitmap 2 material to create a basis for my texture, constantly checking how my textures looked in current working engine files at the time as the lighting was consistently changed and therefore textures still needed to fit well with in the lighting environment and amongst other assets the group had made. I then moved them into photo shop and edited any bits I feel needed to be changed. Once each asset was textured, they were input into engine and then tested each time, as a few times my normal maps were too intense. Some textures.

This time around I spent much more time on engine, from constantly checking textures within engine, placing my assets and textures into the level. I also spent a bit of time trying to learn particle effect of a flame in engine to be able to apply it to my candles in our level. I had to play around a little with the settings in order to see if it effected the performance of playing, frame rate, the surrounding lighting and assets. I then concluded on having lower settings which gave a better and much softer look but still added a little light, warmth and movement within the game. I then placed that particle effect on all candles throughout the level. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

5. When it comes to time management for me personally it is hit and miss most times, however I feel that working within a team really helped my managing skills and the team provide a good amount of pressure to get things done that I find really helpful tailoring your own timing to others that fit into producing a good outcome. That isn't to say that this time around my own time management was perfectly polished as it wasn't and once before Easter with personal reasoning it did make my team fall a little short which is a lesson I have definitely learnt from. I feel that at times my management were greatly improved and fairly good providing myself with time to be able to act on feedback to better my assets and work along with not having to rush and cut corners on some areas. However there were also times where it lacked greatly not only affecting myself but my team members which caused me to have to catch up quickly in a small amount of time to be on top of things. With all that in mind minus the small blip I still feel I was able to work well and communicate with my team helping create better outcomes for myself and for the team/level. To help with time and management I created tick box lists to keep by, followed the general plans made and edited by the group as a whole and updating on my progress. I do feel that we didn't plan enough time to be able to fully get assets in and perfect lighting due to confusion during the last week, however that was turned over and worked out in the end. My other team members also helped with support, encouragement and offered their own help in any and all ways. Examples of team management and planning.

6. I feel that my own personal performance could have been improved still however I feel I worked efficiently within my team and with myself to get things done even when my time management was lacking and my drive had begun to dissolve a little. I feel that my texturing skills have improved greatly and are getting much more up to speed with the level that they should be in general and for our project. I feel that by having schedules and plans I was able to have efficient time to create, improve, receive feedback and refine my texture. Also having enough time to refine the extra maps to strengthen my assets this time around. This time around I feel that it wasn’t a lost opportunity to further my experience and knowledge within engine. As I completed some simple tasks such as placing my objects in the level and creating the materials for them alongside being able to now apply alphas within engine, which feels a small triumph. I also taught myself some particle effect knowledge to be able to produce a flame for my candles. Which turned out a success and I was then able to efficiently change the settings and be able to understand what I was doing and why. By making sure I went through these processes I am now able to work with in engine not to a great deal but to at least be comfortable with in it. In conclusion I fell that I neither did perfectly well nor greatly bad but at least highly improved compared to past projects.