Final Major Project Evaluation
My proposal for my FMP was to create a modern/futuristic interior of a Eco environment, filled with realistic water, vegetation and designs inspired by existing concepts and work of my own.
First off, I didn’t achieve what I set out to do. This wouldn’t be a negative for me, if it wasn’t for the fact that the reason I couldn’t get to where I wanted to be, was because of software problems and limitations. Even time began to come into play and forced me to abandon ideas and designs I really liked. An example of this was the use of Bifrost, the software that would have allowed me to create a fluid simulation. From the outset it seemed like it would be impossible to include some sort of fluid simulation, and I was right. With the amount of vegetation that I had planned to populate my scene with, it was just not feasible to use a water simulation, due to render times. This was my first setback. Then came the software problems. Something caused Maya’s Mental Ray plugin to go haywire. And this greatly upset my production schedule. Causing me delays of up to a week before I could fix the problem. It seemed as if my Paint FX where tipping the computational memory over the limit. But, finally it worked and I could get on with my modelling. But, I was now short on time, and I once again had to scrap the design of my interior furniture, to focus on completing my environment on time. From the beginning, my roof designs gradually changed and by the final render, my roof design had been through so many different iterations it was almost pointless planning what to create in the first place.
My pre-production phase was good, I managed to work swiftly and accurately to a high standard, and made many many interesting findings that influenced how my FMP would go. Tutorials on how to use ‘Duplicate Special’ were perhaps the biggest life saver, and I owe my entire FMP to the fact that I could understand this feature properly.
My production phase, besides the mishaps, was smooth. I made sure that I had at least something to show for each week of work, and I made no errors in regards to saving work etc. I saved in increments, and this was also a life saver when it came to the time that Mental Ray was broken. I was able to go back to an earlier save, and restart there.
Overall, I’m pleased with my organisation and my work ethic throughout this project. I’m impressed by my own final result, but I know that I could definitely improve in every aspect. Everything from the modelling, editing and especially some of the post production effects I had to apply, were well done. I used my time wisely, but due to the problems encountered I still only managed to render 2 out of 3 camera animations. I plan to render the final camera at a later date.
One thing I was particularly pleased about was my use of Adobe After Effects. Due to the large render time, it was also hard for me to use the Maya Depth of Field to create a photorealistic look. So, in post production I added Depth of Field myself, using Gaussian Blur and a mask, I was able to create a decent representation of DoF, and I’m proud of the outcome. Overall, my work is to a professional standard, but I also do realise that some of my early dreams and visions were just too high, causing me to feel as if my FMP is only half of what it could have been. I can improve on various aspects of my work, whether it be organisation or my modelling skills, it can be improved upon. This is something I look to do over the summer.
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