Final thoughts

Overall I have enjoyed my time on this course and I have learnt a lot about myself, whether that be working independently or working in groups, and this is something I wouldn't have been able to get if I tried learning this without going to university. I have learnt that I work better with groups, like-minded people around you are with you working on the same project and not only motivate me but also they taught me new things I didn't know.
Now my showreel is done I will focus on expanding my knowledge into different engines, and continue working on environment projects  to reach my goal.

Next steps

My next steps now I have finished my university course is to improve my environments even more till I am happy with the quality of the scene. What I don't want is to rush out and send my portfolio and showreel to many games companies when I think the work needs improving, but then I need to learn to let go and there is a fine line between the two, but over the summer I will be working on the environments I have created during this year and polish them to a good standard.

My next task is to create a portfolio website, with the research done earlier in the year I have identified what makes a good portfolio and the tips and tricks to make potential employers notice you more. Also my aim is to improve on my cinematic work and keep updating my showreel.

Where do I see myself in a years time? I would say I will be working on my portfolio in the next few months and hopefully some time later this year or early next year I will be applying for environment/prop artist jobs in the UK, with that said my aim is to get my foot in the door and if I need to start off with a different role and work my way up that is what I must do.

Where do I see myself in five years time? I ultimate goal is to work abroad, whether that be USA or Canada, I don't really have a games company I really want to work for that stands out to me, however I want to work on AAA game environments.

I know what I need to do and how I can reach it, I need to plan ahead on my projects and stick to the plan and adjust if needed instead of rushing, I need to keep my portfolio and showreel updated frequently, maybe every 6 months to show I am still creating new environments, and as I get through each environment I and come across problems, I resolve them and get better for the next one. I will need to make connections in the industry, my short term goal is to join forums such as Polycount and join in art competitions such as the monthly challenges they have, and try make some friends that way, as well as in real life events that involve games and developers which I need to try attend.

final showreel creation

Now my environments are complete I can create my final showreel, to do this I used a video editing program called Sony Vegas, this allows me to combine music and video as well as adding little effects that help.

Looking back at my original plan I wanted all three environments in there however I have chosen to not include my modular building one because I feel it is too generic and will let the showreel down so I am keeping it to two environments.

The beginning of the showreel my name will appear with my intended job role along with the software used to create the environments and my email address at the bottom, this lasts around 5 seconds before the first environment appears.The sci-fi tavern has two camera in which pan and rotate around the scene, beginning from the door and ending at the door, the focus is on the interior of the environment however showing some exterior elements I worked on such as the bridge. I really like the transition between the cool blue indoor lighting to the warm outdoor lighting. The next environment then appears showing the temple from a low angle, rotating around, I really like how this captures the sun rays in-between the pillars, then a close up of the temple, followed it finally rotated from a high angle to a low angle. And finally at the end finishing with my contact details.

Temple scene final look

Now I have finished texturing this environment, creating materials and adjusting the lighting I am happy to see it is complete, there is much room for improvement however and this is the first environment out of the two I will be working on improving over the summer, however at this stage with time running out I can say it is finished.
The materials are quite simple all around with diffuse and specular on all assets and normal maps on the walls, floors and plant beds. The temple itself is missing details I would have liked to have added, especially on the pillars since they look a bit flat and the temple top.

Temple scene lighting pass

Now I have everything modelled, UV mapped and light mapped I proceed to exporting it to a game engine which is UDK in this case. I usually struggle with light mapping, I get all sorts of errors, however for this scene I didn't get many problems and this shows I am improving in this aspect. An important milestone for me is to have the lighting pass done before texturing because lighting can make or break an environment, it is so important which is why I treat it so.

As you can see the scene is enclosed with the walls around, I plan on adding a grass landscape around the scene to show there is something around it like the concept suggest, however I am leaving the fog effect to create the effect I want and camera work to keep the focus on the temple area.

Furthermore you will notice the trees are not here, at this stage I have decided to not include them, I tried to create them however it was taking far to long and problems kept creeping up and when it comes down to it the in this scene the focus is the temple and even though it looks a little bare I hope the texture work and lighting can bring this to life.

Temple scene creation

For this module the aim is to create a showreel, and I am making an environment for different modules that will be added to the showreel, but I am also making an environment for this module too. As you saw earlier I did a breakdown of the temple scene from Gears of War, and now I am making it in 3D. 

Here is a screenshot showing the modular pieces that are used in the scene, I planned the scene so I can focus on a section and duplicate it around to save time and be efficient, everything in the scene is duplicated around apart from the top of the temple. 

The meshes are quite simple, the shape of the temple has been captured well I feel, there are elements I missed out such as the eagle sculpture has been replaced by a small concrete piece and I have not put in the trees as of yet.

Time Management

I have learnt throughout these three years on this course how important time management is, and as I get through each project I come across many problems but I have learnt from these and now I think about my projects much more, and plan in more detail.

For example the current plan I have for my Advanced 3D module, I broke the scene down into an asset list and expanded it by estimating how long each asset could take, this allows me to plan my time and see how realistic a project is, whether I need to downgrade it or not, or even upgrade it.

I feel this is the best way to plan, to have a detailed list like below and not only that but to have a weekly schedule, depending on how long the environment might take, so I plan out the jobs such as research, block out, modelling, UV mapping, light mapping, texturing, material shaders, lighting and so on.