Evaluation for Unit 64, 65

What you enjoyed?

I enjoyed the creative process of this project, I was able to make different designs for a ship as the choice was a ship or a car and thinking about a car it is restricted to one design but a space ship can be different physically. I had hundreds of ideas for a ship such as it s shape its size and features such as weapons and armour. I created a mood board with different influences the general picture was a ship with offensive capabilities. I created my first ship and I realised there were many design flaws so I changed many because I realised that making such features will take up much attention and detail. I made a decision to make a new ship. Since I had such limited duration of time to do so I rushed it a bit and physically the ship was no better than my first one but the main physical flaw was removed my ship didn’t look like a basic box. Another thing I enjoyed doing was making a planet for my ship to orbit around I got a basic primitive sphere and I applied an ash texture to it and with some use of projecting lights I made the planet look like it was on fire. Also I found some pre-set foliage options which I used it made the planet more vibrant than it should be.

In general I enjoyed the whole experience but the thing I would like to most is to work with in depth particle effects and I know there are some as I have explored and used some such as in the new ships video its been chased by fire. I would like to create an explosion or work with the physics to work with planets gravity.

What you found difficult?

I found the animating difficult as this was my first official project I had no experience involved with animation. At first I made a basic animation of a ship orbiting a planet I worked upon this by making a video from a cameras view. Doing this was very difficult as the camera was very fiddly to work with and the end result was inadequate. Also the camera in its perspective view was annoying as I wanted to look at my model at a different aspect it denied me that and that was very frustrating. To be honest modelling was a bit difficult as their many tiny details that are physically wrong and changing them wasn’t much of a problem. Overall it wasn’t that hard to create a ship but what I found the most difficult was the lack of imagination.

What would you do differently?

I would do a ship with more complex physical attributes. To venture into the unknown and to create something new is a mystery itself. If I was to make a new ship I would make much bigger and give it more precise physical details. I would get one source of inspiration and stick to it rather than have too many ideas. One scheme is enough to make a perfect ship. While variety is a good thing so is practicality.

Creating a ship shouldn’t be hard it should be enjoyable. Given the chance I would work with only a few shapes to keep it simple but to focus on so little would be a big step. Otherwise another thing I would work with is a theme rather than make a ship form the future I might make another ship such as a stealth plane as this is modern and it is achievable and also it has simple textures which can be replicated very easily

What I have learned?

I have learnt a basic range of features in 3D Studio Max such as modelling and texturing. I have learnt that the main component the core of a design is imagination the more wild the more bizarre the design the more the possibility is better. Probability is considered as one design is not too simple every idea is malleable to an extent.

Also exploring further features I was able to learn about basic particle effect such as fire and weather conditions such as hail and rain. I have learnt how to unwrap objects to use as a map for a ships physical appearance. The process known as UVW Unwrapping was difficult at first but listening to the tutor he explained like it’s a giant jigsaw that you have assemble piece by piece. This translated into finding the pieces working with them and then putting it back together. His advice aided greatly as the textures I did were perfect even though the physical quality of my ships aren’t the best. I have learned that to start again is to have a clean page which can be used for new ideas. Know this creating a ship might be difficult but patience can result in detail and progression. If I could start again I would make a ship more bigger rather than a fighter plane I would make a ship identical to ones I see in games such as the Normandy in the game Mass Effect.

In Studio Max I was able to explore the options available and found that new tools would help give my ship a visual advantage.

Tools used:

Basic primitives

Lights

Camera

Auto Key

Timeline

UVW Unwrap

Editable Mesh

Material Editor

Photoshop (for the textures)

Evaluation for Unit 64,65 basic outline

For my Unit 64, 65 work I had to develop an object I had the decision of a car or a spaceship, I decided to go with a spaceship as with this I am able to explore my imagination for different styles of ships. When I started I created a mood board to help with the design I looked at multiple examples of well known ships in the sci-fi genre and also alien vehicles.

After a bit of research I drew up some designs for my ship originally it was to have a crystal on the back to be its fuel source but I thought about that and it would be hard to model and the texture would be a bit hard to do so I got rid of that the main structure was just a box with wings and the front of the ship was slanted down to make way for a cockpit. I did some concept art at different angles such as top, left and front and side. I looked at the design again and made some more changes such as the appendages I originally designed.

Now I started to work on the 3D model itself it took about three weeks to make but it was similar to the original design. After that I started to work with texturing. I changed the model to an editable mesh and this helped me in the construction stages. I used the UVW Unwrap modifier which helped me make a blue print of the ship. Given that it was simple once explained so I unwrapped it and made a suitable outline for what the ship could look like I placed the blueprint into Photoshop and after some image manipulation I created a metal texture with a hint of beige I think.

Also as part of the texturing I have placed some popular images on my ship on the side I placed the Ghostbusters logo and at the bottom of the ship I placed Han Solo frozen in carbonite. After texturing I managed to create an animation which had the ship following a line that circles around a planet I made. It was basic really.

I grew tired of my old ship so I created a new one. This new ship would be better. Since I started again it took me a week to make it because of this time lapse it is of a really basic design. This was a good thing as I could do new textures for the body I used a recycled crystal texture that I made. Also unwrapping the new ship was easy because I had some experience with texturing I manipulated the new ship and placed some unusual pictures on it. I used a brush on Photoshop in the shape of a symbol and I placed on the front I also found an image of a phoenix which I used.

For the animation of the new shop I practiced using some particle systems such as fire and glowing lights with some practice I managed to make the ship been chased by fire. I would use a camera for the animation but I am not really experienced in that area.

The influences I had for the old ship was for the appendages the tripods of The War of The Worlds as I thought that having a ship with limbs could be good visually. For the shape of the ship I looked at the game Mass Effect which is a sci-fi game the ship in that is called the Normandy. Since my old ship was obviously the shape of a box I abandoned it and made a new one and since I rushed the new ship I wasn't able to produce a good quality ship but the texture it had was good as I created it myself.

Brand New Ship

I grew bored with the last ship I had so I decided to make something new.

This new ship is much better than the old one as I was able to make new textures and some new animations.

Evaluation for my Game Trailer Storyboard Part 3 Continued

Discuss the technical aspects of your work and highlight the strengths / areas to develop?

I my previous post I discussed my skecthes for Jack, what I did next was to make a written narrative for the story and to do research on a suitable comic layout I opted for something basic for the layout I decided to use nine frames for the storyboard.

Now my work on Photoshop begins I made a rough example layout (which I saved over), this was the foundation for the storyboard to be worked upon. For each frame I used multiple layers to work with I made a practice frame for which I put my 3D scene into it, if you look at it now the frame is warped that was a bit of practice with a transform tool. For the other frames I duplicated each of them so the height and lentgh of each frame should be the same. For the title layer I added a gradient effect to make it look more appealing than a basic title.

For other features I implemented many images to help make it look real the clouds are noticable in the first few frames.

On more of a technical side I used many tools features in Photoshop most commonly the brush tool to help color many blank spaces in the stroyboard, I also used the ruler tool as this helped me put each frame in a neat order to make everything suitable.

Evaluation for my Unit 67 Game Trailer Stroyboard part 3.

Discuss the technical aspects of your work and highlight the strengths / areas to develop?

For the production of the storyboard I drew some further character development skecthes which helped me get an idea for what Jack could do. In mind this was just a harbinger for me as I went on to develop more skecthes of Jack in different a different appearnce and color scheme. Jack with a red and black robe is evil Jack I got the idea for this as an oppsite of good Jack I gave him a simple color scheme to match his evil intent. For a third edition I gave Jack a futuristic design this gave me the chance to work with options I haven't yet fully explored.

Evaluation for my Game Trailer Story board Part Two

Is the end product suitable for my intended audience?

I think so as my intended audience is young adults and upwards as the storyboard does contain some graphic content which can be inappropiate for a young audience. My storyboard is not meant to divide its audience into groups based on age or race, I would like my storyboard to be enjoyed by people of all ages (just as long they can mind a little blood).

Also I would like my storyboard to be enjoyed by an audience of Samurai Jack fans as he does have a large fanbase.

In my storyboard there is some inappropiate imagery as in one frame a mushroom cloud can be seen this can be reminscent of World War Two and for the atomic bomb. Seems I should have used a different image for that as if the effect of WW2 can be felt today. Swords are inappropiate as Jack uses his to kill his opponent in the second to last frame there is a lot of blood shown and an image of Haunter the Pokemon which I included the reason I applied his image because he adds to the atmosphere of a death, sticking to the theme of death was important as I wanted to pertray this as a moment of clarity.

I based my storyboard on no age as I didn't want any of the audience to feel discriminated as the aim for his comic is to be enjoyed by a large audience of people. I made an effort to stay away from one particular audience though, young children as they are delicate matter when it comes to adult content. Finding ways to go around this was difficult as a course of action was to have material which wasn't revealing but faithful to the source.

Honestly though Samurai Jack was broadcasted on Cartoon Network which is popular with a young audience I was young when I watched Samurai Jack for my storyboard I wanted to show him form a different perspective in his Animation he didn't kill any humans, he killed aliens robots etc. I worked around this and based it on a Samurai theme. Rival clans fighting each other was a common sight when Samurais were a turning point in Japans history.

The other ideas I had for characters which I was going to use for my storyboard was a specific Pokemon in this case if I went with this idea the target audience would have greatly expanded as Pokemon is popular worldwide. Every race, gender and age love this as Pokemon have a large collection of interactive features about it such as games and an anime series.

Evaluation for my Unit 67 Game Trailer Storyboard Part One

This is my finished storyboard for my Unit 67:





















Does the end product match my intentions?

I can answer this without a regret as I made this comic myself I shaped this within my mind and it matches my intentions definitley. At the beginning of this project I was curios as to which charatcer I would choose for further development, I mulled it other with a few choices but in the end I chose Samurai Jack as it is one of my favourite childhood cartoons and also easy to draw.

Afterwards I researched into comic layouts and been a fan of comics and graphic novels myself I bought my own comics from home to research on. To make it more personal I chose my favourite series X-men which is done by Marvel and I rserached into many comics and graphic novels done by Alan Moore most notable Watchmen and V for Vendetta. When Alan worked with Marvel he write Civil war which is my favourite stroyline and also memorable as it led up to Captain Americas assassination.

The comic extract was from the X-men stroyline Second Coming I tried to fit the grim style and deathly atmosphere into my storyboard as someone dies and I dedicated a frame to his death I hope the style is suitable I know the visual quality isn't very good but then it was my first comic that I have done.