Over the course of my final major project I have developed my skills further as a 3D artist. I feel that particularly during this final semester I have really improved my abilities with both Substance Painter and Unreal Engine, the latter of which I feel my lighting has greatly improved in.
I set myself the goal of creating a strong portfolio piece alongside several individual assets that I could use in my portfolio. As such I was expecting this final term to act as a culmination of my skills, and wasn’t expecting to learn much more than refining my existing abilities. However as learning is something that happens regardless of whether you are actively seeking it, I have acquired a range of new techniques and processes that I believe will help me flourish as a 3D artist in the years ahead.
I feel that I have established a good workflow for creating assets and textures, setting up materials efficiently within Unreal Engine. I have improved the implementation of my 3D elements from Max to Unreal, taking into consideration the limitations of real-time game engines. I have also taken on feedback I received from other projects last term that have helped me greatly improve my texturing in regards to realism. I now no longer create random scuffs and add dirt to surfaces without consideration, I have tried to apply them where they would appear logically in the real world. All of these skills have helped me to improve my craft and create a major project that is considerably stronger than my work from last term.
The area that I believe I have learnt the most however is in my time management and self-reflective writing. Thanks to the adoption of Gibbs Reflective cycle, I feel I am able to evaluate myself and organise my thoughts on different activities into a consistent method of analysis. This has helped me to manage myself over the duration of this project by breaking down each task into sizeable and approachable sub-assignments. It has been through developing this approach that I feel I have learnt perhaps the most crucial skill as an artist, knowing which areas of my work to spend the bulk of my time on.
I believe I used this to great effect on this project by forcing myself to stop working on any 3DS Max elements during the last few weeks of development, and instead focus entirely on getting the foliage that was in my environment to look more convincing. As this was an element that covered large parts of my scene, I think I correctly identified this as the area to improve on in time for my deadline. Of course I would have loved to create a larger scene but polishing what I had already was of the most importance to me.
Examining the forefront has helped to both inspire and focus me as I work. By exposing myself to the incredibly high standards of the industry I have been galvanised to push myself to achieve more with my project. As I am entering the industry my competition is no longer other students but professional practitioners within the field. This means that I have needed to adopt the mentality of “if they can do it, so can I!”
Finally I have learnt the value of a strong social media presence this term. I have moved beyond posting my work solely to Artstation and researched other vectors of dissemination to spread my name. So far I have hosted my work on Youtube, BitChute, Polycount, Instagram, Facebook, Blogger and Patreon. By creating a unified brand across all these social media outlets I am aiming to achieve the widest possible audience for my work. Whilst my target audience is largely to be found on professional sites like Artstation and Polycount, I feel that cultivating a strong following on casual platforms will ultimately ensure greater exposure amongst other creatives across a wide range of fields.
I will always continue to learn. Some areas that I may not even consider important, may end up becoming the most useful skills I can acquire. As I move out into the competitive world of game art, I hope to continue to adopt new methodologies and modes of thinking using what I have achieved over this semester as a stable base for further improvement.
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