Final Reflections on My Creative Decision Making

I had two main goals when approaching the creation of my major project. The first was to test my artistic ability and see if I could convey a story through an environment scene. The second was to prove that I had the skills necessary to create a game-ready environment and assets that were fit for purpose within Unreal Engine. Both of these goals required their own set of criteria that has informed my creative decision making throughout the duration of this project.

To evaluate whether the visual design of my game environment successfully communicated what I wanted to say to my audience, I developed a set of criteria based on a methodology for analysing mise-en-scene within films. Film, much like video games, employ a visual language to convey emotion, themes and story to players and audiences. I felt that it was important to understand how filmmakers and set designs approach mise-en-scene and apply a similar level of analysis to my own work.

I paid consideration to the space, light, colour, differences of exterior and interior design, and set decoration to create a thematically appropriate environment that would tell its own story without the use of any dialogue. I feel this approach has helped me to critically and objectively evaluate the successes and shortcomings of my skills as an environment artist. By organising my environment into these categories I have been able to tackle each element of my design individually and evaluate them on their own merits. For example I experimented with lighting in a separate scene first so that I wouldn’t be tempted to leave the scene with one setup if it was starting to look good. I wanted to experiment with different lighting scenarios and give myself an unbiased perspective without interference from the other elements at play.

In addition to my evaluative criteria, I was influenced by a variety of sources from the forefront of the industry. I would study the work of other artists and try to evaluate what I felt made their work in particular at the forefront. Often times these examples would inspire my own creative process and I would attempt to emulate them within my own environment. Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) for example features an environment that has run rampant with overgrowth and it was this that prompted me to greatly increase the level of foliage and vegetation within my scene. I was able to justify this as a story element because it indicates to the player how much time has passed since anyone has dwelt in the mansion.

Alongside my criteria and artistic influences, I was also mindful of the technical limitations of Unreal Engine. I had to ensure that my scene would run at a solid sixty frames per second for optimal visual performance. I took particular care in making all of my assets fit-for-purpose within the engine, being aware of the polygon count of each asset. As my target audience are gaming studios and other environment artists, it was important for me to prove that I was adhering to the industry standard on both an artistic and technical level.

During the development of the environment I have received critique and feedback by posting my work on forums such as Polycount. This has helped me to not view my work in total isolation and align my expectations with reality. It would have been easy for me to create something that I thought was visually appealing and be done with it, but I have had to take on board feedback, apply evaluative criteria and build the environment to meet the technical specification of the game engine. When taken together, these factors have been responsible for the final results I have achieved during Semester C.

Final Reflections on My Learning Over Semester C

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.

Final Reflections on my Career Goals

I have used this project as an opportunity to completely retool my portfolio so that it adequately reflects my current abilities as a games artist. My major project will serve as the highlight of my portfolio and I believe it to be my strongest piece for a number of reasons.

Firstly the scope of the project is sufficiently big enough to show employers that I am capable of managing my time effectively to meet deadlines and maintain a high level of quality whilst working on large scale projects.

Secondly I believe this project to be my first real success into the realm of real time graphics. My lighting has improved a great deal from previous projects I created this year and this has had a knock-on effect on the overall quality of the final images and promotional video. I finally feel I have shown my skills in the best possible light (pun intended).

Thirdly I have used this project as a means to demonstrate that I am a competent prop artist. I have been able to create several new pieces for my portfolio within short time frames that show I have an understanding of how to create game-ready props. The quality and process I used to create the assets still needs to be refined, but the inclusion of individual assets within my portfolio was something that I felt was needed to show off all of my relevant skills.

Lastly this project has become the most viewed and liked piece on my Artstation page, gaining me almost a hundred new followers in just two days. I believe now is the time to ride on this success and use this project to help me network with other like-minded artists. I am hoping that by building a strong network of artists my work will leave a strong impression on them and they may think of me should a suitable position ever arise. I have already had some interviews with both independent and triple A gaming studios, but ideally my hope is that I can find a role that will allow me to develop my skillset further whilst being allowed to develop an entirely new range of skills.