Final Outcome – 3D Render
Video Flythrough
Critical Appraisal
After completing the environment project, I have learned a lot about the workflow and pipeline of making one, from the initial ideas, to conceptualising, modelling, sculpting, texturing and putting my scene into a game engine. I have gained a lot more knowledge on these professional programs that help each step of my project, some software I did use in year one like Maya, ZBrush and Substance Painter, even though I was familiar with their basic functions, this project was a good recap on using the tools I have learnt before, and I have now learnt even more in-depth tools and methods to achieve certain desired outcomes more efficiently with fewer errors. Unreal Engine 4 was a software I have never tried out before and was completely new to me, this project taught me so much more about using this game engine, on how to transfer an idea of an environment into a virtual game environment that players can walk around in.
My strengths through this project are that my concept art looks very close to my 3D final outcome, and I can convey my theme very accurately. Comparing the line art to coloured art and to my 3D final outcome, the treehouse model looks basically identical, the only changes are the placements of roots, pools of acidic water, the height of mountains and the time of day. However, these elements do not largely affect the environment, as they are still present in the final 3D render. In my opinion, the final outcome being at night shows off my model better, as there are glowing elements to the treehouse, the starry backdrop with the glowing neon pink tubes portrays the futuristic discovery theme even more on point, relating back to the previous research I have done on futuristic themed environments.
My weaknesses are time management and not sticking to the plan I made before, this creates a big issue as towards the deadline I start rushing my progress and not getting the most optimal results I can achieve because I am trying my best to manage and finish the project on time. This can be improved by putting the deadline dates I set for myself in my calendar or phone reminders to remind me to finish a part of the project earlier. Another way is to set a count down timer for each deadline I set myself to show that time is running out for each section and I should get working on it.
In future projects, I will have to get on top of my self-set deadlines, in addition, apply the newly learnt knowledge I have gained from Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter and Unreal Engine 4 on my next game arts project. All knowledge gained from this project will help to shorten future time spent on the problems I have encountered, as these problems that took me a long time to fix are now learnt from, and in the future will not hinder my process, as the more comfortable I get using these programs, I will be able to efficiently create my desired outcomes even more accurately and with fewer obstacles.