Team Breakdown and Project Review
Throughout the production the roles of each member in the group didn’t change too much from what we predicted originally, meaning we worked well as a group and for the most part achieved what needed to be done.
In the beginning we didn’t have a lead role but knew Jordan had the most technical knowledge. After discussing with the head of studio for the 3rd years the importance of having a head or lead we decided that Jordan should take on this role. He wanted to gain experience in team management and kept on top of our asset production each week successfully. In the end however we felt as a group that having one person making important art based decisions for everyone may have been the wrong choice. Jordan gave extremely in depth and exceptional technical advice and stayed on top of asset production. However there were many things that he wanted changed that were not necessarily, in the rest of the groups opinion, warranted/needed changing. If we were to do the project over again I think it would of been wise to have a head of asset production and management and a head of art direction. That being said, this project could not have happened without his in-depth knowledge of modelling, texturing and real-time engine production processes and managing our asset production.
Hayden’s role never changed from being the main asset modeler. He produced most of the models existing in the final build and also helped with unwrapping his models for texturing. He worked closely with Taylor to help with what the texturing could look like for his models, for example the books and small desk items. It was obvious that he learnt an extreme amount of knowledge about modelling in Blender and the importance of creating visually pleasing, yet low poly models for real-time engines and game production.
Taylor’s role as the main texture painter stayed current throughout the project. From the get go she produced high quality work, even though she had little experience. She dedicated a lot of time to learning the texturing pipeline for asset production. She created most of the base textures for the island and also many of the smaller, lower priority assets. Without Taylor’s high quality textures there is no way this project would look as good as what it does in the final build and all of the group members greatly appreciated her dedication to the texturing process.
My role in the team was to create low poly 3D models as well as exploring texturing for these models. Because I took on both of these processes I felt that I didn’t get the chance to go as in depth into any one of those pipelines. Throughout the project I felt like I was progressing the least and I struggled with accepting that was because I had a more generalist role in doing the entire process and couldn’t spend as much time on getting to know in depth processes. I found that creating models was much more enjoyable then the texturing of these models. This made texturing difficult for me as I didn’t feel competent at producing high quality textures, especially as good as Taylor’s. I learnt a lot more about modelling and in particular, natural environment assets. If I had the chance to do the project again I would prefer to stick to modelling only and creating higher quality models by dedicating the time solely to this process. That being said, I have learnt that creating/painting original textures by hand isn’t for me as a future creative professional. I have also learnt a considerable amount about the dynamics of working in a team to produce a high quality piece of production for games. This was a learning experience I hadn’t yet engaged in during my animation degree and is extremely important for the future.
Final Project
As much as I love our final environment design there are a few concerns I had that unfortunately couldn't be changed because of time and essentially we would need a few more weeks. We felt that the end product did look slightly different to what we envisioned originally and I think this could have been changed had we seen the island together and textured sooner rather than later in the semester. I felt that some of the assets were not following the intentions of the final production and didn’t stay true and realistic to the story. For example, we felt that the house should have been a bit different (possibly smaller and more run down) to fit realistically into our story that the island had been uninhabited for many years and that the last human life on the island had constructed the house with the supplies that were salvaged from the wreck. I’m sure with more time we may have been able to fix this issue but that’s life. That being said we as a group are extremely happy with how the project has turned out and the visual aesthetic. Peace out!