BA1b Final Evaluation

When researching into game art over a year ago and looking at all the 3D modelling people have done around the world, it was inspiring and intimidating all at once. That's still how I felt for this unit, I was excited and keen to learn but also felt like I could easily fall behind and get stuck, which I did. I still managed to finish all 5 tasks successfully, and by the end I feel I've learnt enough to do it in my own time and 3D model anything I put my mind to, with limits of course. I also learnt a lot more about the studies side of games, things like the diversity in gaming and ludonarrative, though could probably use a refresh on them maybe over summer as my memory is not the best. I liked learning about this side of it, especially as I am an strong feminist and want to fight for more equality and diversity in gaming.

I still am not 100% sure if I want to focus on 2D or 3D for the future, because if I did look into doing 3D modelling in the future it would be character modelling and we haven't looked at that yet. I might do it in my spare time, design some of my own characters or use characters from my favourite show and 3D model them for practice to see what its like. This will hopefully give me a clearer idea of what I want to do in the future, but I'm still pretty confident I want to continue focusing on drawing, character and creature design in particular.

I feel like I've improved hugely in this unit, looking at my first lamp to my bell time machine, they are at completely different leagues from each other and I'm so proud of that. I still feel like I need to practice in certain areas that I was confused in, such as UV mapping, so that I can make sure I know the process back to front and can do it whenever needed.

Looking at my pillar and time machine I can however tell there are problems that I could solve with time, like the pillar having holes in the texture, and the tiger part of the pillar had some serious problems with the mapping which I wasn't able to perfect it in the time I had. The time machine I could have worked more on the stick and handle part, maybe drawing my own texture for the wood and adjusting the low poly mesh to make the handle area more 'fabric like' instead of the more hard look it has currently. But overall I'm happy with both, I had never done 3D before and now I'm making amazing things, its a great leap for me.

Overall this unit has been a hard challenge, but I never stopped and even though there have been times where I just couldn't work properly because of personal illness, I still did a tremendous job. I managed to use my time far more effectively than before, and didn't feel so overwhelmed by the end of the unit. I finished, and successfully too, and I'm very proud of myself.

BA1b 3D - Time Machine 14

This is my finished time machine in Marmoset. I am happy with the end result, and think it turned out really well. I decided to make both the ball and the numbers to glow on the bell, and I am happy with the result.

I think with more time I would have perfected the stick and string, but I am extremely happy with what I made, and am proud of myself for finishing well on target.

BA1b 3D - Time Machine 13

Whilst putting my time machine in Marmoset I had some different issues with the maps. In the first three pictures the normal maps weren't projecting properly, and I discovered it was because the low poly / high poly weren't the exact same as the map I was projecting, so I put them through xnormal again and sorted out the problems.

The picture below was a problem with the low poly not having the handle long enough, so the map projected further down and looked wrong. 

I managed to fix it by simply making that part of the low poly longer. Luckily these problems weren't too tough and I should hopefully be finished soon.

BA1b 3D - Time Machine 12

Below are my maps for the time machine. I had baked parts seperately but i decided to merge them all in photoshop to make the other maps easier.

Normal Map

AO Map

Roughness Map

Albedo Map

Metalness Map

Emissive Map

BA1b 3D - Time Machine 11

My next step was to UV map my low poly time machine, and below are my trial and errors.

Finally i sorted it all out, realising that you can lower or increase the amount of the grid that repeats, so the one below is the best one.

Below is what the UV looked like in the UV editor.

Life Drawings

Here are my life drawings from every session we have done this year. I have only taken them with a phone camera so the quality isn't great, but once I get the chance I will try and scan them.

BA1b 3D - Time Machine 10

This is the high poly of my time machine, made in zbrush. I decided to give the stick a handle area, making it like I had fabric wrapped around the end as seen in the picture below. I like how this looked, but I will have to edit my low poly in maya so that the two would work together.

I indented the Roman Numerals at the top for the time, the English Numbers in the middle for the day, and the Kanji numbers on the bottom for the month.

Overall I'm happy and I'm gonna move on to the mapping.

BA1b 3D - Time Machine 9

This is a drawing of the character and the bell I drew in my sketchbook, using copic markers which i hadn't used in a while. I like the character, but I don't think I'm going to have time to model them.