Week 2 - Monday: Project Aims and Time Management

As it is the start of the second week of my major project development, I feel it will be helpful for me to evaluate what I am aiming to achieve and the methods I will use to present the project as a whole.

Making assets conform to game engine requirments

Currently this project is being created with the intention that it will run through Unreal Engine 4. As such it is not only about making the models look good, but also making sure that the models and assets I create meet the requirements of the engine. For me this means using my poly budget wisely to create assets that are readable from a distance. 

For example the silhouette of an object in a game is important for players that are navigating the environment in order for them to understand what the thing is supposed to be. That may sound obvious but for some assets I created during previous projects I only focused on making them low poly without giving much consideration for the silhouette, and as a result the assets looked less believable. From this point onward I am aiming to make the shape of the assets in my environment read better from further away, as I feel this is something future employers will be paying attention to when looking at my work.

Plans for Distribution:

I will be using the Unreal Engine to create still renders of the environment and then distributing these via Artstation. I will also create a fly-through video of my game level that showcases all the details of the environment from different angles. I feel that a video accompaniment compliments still images nicely and gives people a closer look at the intricacies of the environment. 

Currently I have only considered Artstation as the main vector of disseminating my project, however I will be doing some research into other potential vectors that I can use to maximise my projects viewership.

What I am hoping to improve on:

My ability with lighting and scene composition is rather weak at the moment. When I enter my career I would like to mainly focus on asset modelling and texturing as this is where I feel I am strongest. However as I am working solo on this project I need to pick up the slack in other departments, particularly lighting as this is an element that will contribute greatly to how good the final environment looks. 

Because my knowledge and understanding of lighting is lacking in comparison to my other skills, I will be investing some time in studying some of the free to download scenes from the Epic Games launcher so that I can get to grips with the intricacies of lighting in Unreal.

Project Planning:

As it is the start of my second week working on the project, I may need to factor in more time for me to practice lighting in Unreal Engine. So far I have allowed only a few weeks at the start of the project to create the 3D elements that I will need. This may have been a little too optimistic, as I now realise I will be creating the environment in tandem with the other assignments such as UV mapping and creating textures for the models in Substance Painter.

The start of week two on my project plan.

I feel that I have made a lot of progress during the first week although I haven't modelled as much as I thought by this point. I will be reorganising this schedule to better reflect my working habits, so I can accurately plan my project accordingly.