- 4th quarter we are working on cameras.
- Much shorter 4th quarter because of other events outside our control and the lack of time is frustrating.
- I'm struggling to figure out how to rotate a camera around an object the way I want it to.
- Time management is really important.
This previous quarter has been a whirlwind of events that has caused us to lose a lot of class time this quarter. During this time our class has worked on lighting and cameras. Lighting was much easier for me because I had some experience with that during an internship last summer. The most difficult thing this quarter has been rotating a camera around an object. After messing with pivot for two whole class periods, I found out that my 3Ds max was bugged so the pivot function wasn't working properly. I had to redo the whole thing. The reason it was so difficult was partially because it was a new tool that I had to figure out and mainly because pivot would stop working when I turned on auto key, making the whole process incredibly frustrating. Ultimately I just decided to scrap the pivot system and decided to animate it manually which did not turn out very well. The end product is below and I'm not proud of it. The camera itself is zooming in and out during the shots which created a dolly zoom. I feel like I could become more effective with pivot if I had more time, but I needed to complete the project.
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Last week we did the entire lights unit. Which sounds like a lot of work but it was pretty manageable, especially considering I've worked a lot with lights before. That being said I'm still slow to get back into the swing of things since the end of spring break so I'm a bit behind. I did have a lot of fun learning the different types of light sources in 3Ds max and then looking for them in Destiny 2 on the earth patrol it was pretty fun.
This last week in game design our class has gone from adding materials to surfaces (painting) to UVW mapping or (wrapping). The switch has been admittedly slow I ran into a weird issue with the multi sub object modifier where instead of putting standard materials in the sub object material it instead ether replaced the material or put it within another sub object, at one point I had five sub object materials within one another. It was such a mess that I had to restart a few times. Long story short is don't use the compact material editor even when a tutorial uses it. Otherwise UVW has been fairly straightforward, I am still a bit behind unfortunately.
This last week has been tough for me work wise. I have been catching up on a lot of 3D modeling, although I have been able to accomplish a lot now that I have 3Ds Max at home, it has still been a lot to do in a week. I have relearned all tools and techniques from last year as well as my complete hatred of the cloth modifier, which gave me plenty of trouble over the last week. For the next few months I think we are going to be moving in one of two directions. It will ether be rigging or animation, and there is only one thing I hate more than the cloth modifier and that is rigging so for my sake I hope it is animation. I just thought of a cool idea for animation using the daylight and cloth modifiers to make a time lapse animation which could be cool, but who knows. Most of these tools have given me ideas for personal projects like 3D modeling a zweihander with the taper and symmetry modifiers then using that 3D model in digital paintings, which is something I will have to do on my free time. Or using the daylight modifier to simulate shadows of a cliff or mountain that I could then paint. Maybe I'll do a blog post on some of the personal 3D stuff that I could do in the future.
This Monday ill start working on simulations for 3Ds max. What that means basically is that I'll be working on for the last bit of the quarter. If you aren't already aware simulations are simply put simulations of the real world, (super obvious I know) they include light sources, mass or weight, and cloth. These all seem interesting and all will definitely be needed for making good professional grade work. Especially cloth and lighting, For all those super hero capes, realistic clothing, flags, explosions, dramatic lighting, and good old fashion reflections, that is required in all good professional work. For games I think learning good lighting will actually be the most important when it comes to simulations not only for the reasons earlier but also for creating mood lighting and realistic day and night cycles. I linked a cool tutorial about making realistic lighting.
VanLoon3D.“RealisticInteriorLightingin3dsMax-Vray.”YouTube,YouTube,23May2016,www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWu1z081EKY. Spoiler alert I like surface modeling more. Honestly this is mainly because i'm more used to surface modeling more but I recognize the usefulness of parametric modeling and as I've used it more the faster I've been able to make things. I kinda wish I still had 3Ds max at home so I could keep messing with the software. Surface modeling is really useful for making cool shapes like that space ship we made last year, while parametric modeling is really good for getting details right in a model like smoothing out a plane or adding weird extensions or making the model more complex in general.
This movie sucks, maybe that is partially because I have a bias against Assassins Creed, but it cannot be understated how much this movie sucks. Ill get the good stuff out of the way first. The movie does have lots of connections to the games though and seems to be faithful to the source material, the movie makes nods to a lot of the games plot, items and terminology such as the apple of Eden, the assassins spring knife gauntlets, the leap of faith, and how the assassins ring finger gets chomped off. That's all the positives I can think of. On to why this movie is garbage! For starters the visuals look dull throughout the movie, everything is plastered in this yellow overlay that honestly makes everything look like piss. The CGI sucks and is sometimes blatantly obvious. None of the characters are likable especially the main character who while we do get reasons to sympathize with him his performance is mediocre which makes his whole character seem bland. The movies pacing is so bad that on multiple occasions throughout the movie i got my phone out and began reading a more interesting web-comic, and I forgot that I was watching a movie. Assassins Creed got a 18% on rotten tomatoes, and a 5% from me. This is not worth the hour and 45 minutes it took to watch it.
staff!, Chosen by RT, et al. “Assassin's Creed.” Safe Haven (2013) - Rotten Tomatoes, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/assassins_creed/. So this guy named Darik Smith is a 3D modeler and he has made some pretty neat stuff. The stuff that i'm most impressed with has to be his environment modeling work. I’ve always loved good set pieces for stories and this is no exception. Just looking at some of his concept work is awesome and I super love all the detail that goes into the buildings and architecture. I want to get really good at making environments in general and making them in a 3D space will greatly help my 2D art. So i'm going to get good at making places. So that means improving with modifiers like Boolean, loft and lathe while looking for more advanced techniques in the future.
“Darik Smith.” Environment Concept Art, dariksmith.carbonmade.com/projects/6042572. Ill admit making 3D models are not my strong suit specifically when it comes to making stuff in 3D. The last few weeks have been super helpful for getting caught up, on the stuff that has somewhat slipped my mind since last year and I am just now starting to get back into the school mindset as well as working with 3D models mindset. The workload has been becoming much more time consuming over the last few weeks not really for game design specifically but school in general. It hasn't helped that there were two hurricanes that hit NC this year and both caused us to loose school days, the fallout of that being it has been hard for me to fully re-adapt to school and it still feels like I'm just getting back to school, except we keep getting more and more assignments and projects. This has caused me to get slapped with reality and now I'm catching up for the first quarter. For game design this has been much easier than I was making it out to be, essentially we have been going over the basics of 3Ds Max again you know lathe, lofts, Boolean all that good stuff.
Welp I’m a senior now….
Everything seems so different yet so familiar at the same time, like how for a fourth year in a row we start the year in Mr. B’s class with careers. I guess some things never change. This year is slightly different though instead of just learning about careers through some boring powerpoint. This time Mr. B had us “apply for a job” which is a cool concept. We were assigned to find a job then write a cover letter, resume, and create a portfolio. Which we would then turn in instead of actually applying. So I decided to “apply” to Bungie the creators of Destiny (which im currently having a lot of fun playing). I think that the most important thing i've learned up to this point has to be that writing cover letters suck. I was somewhat lucky on this assignment because the bulk of my portfolio was already done and i already had a resume written down so the main thing i had to do was write the cover letter. It's not fun. With the help of the internet and my mom whose job it is hire people i got it done. For my portfolio I had updated my art from last year and changed all references from me being a junior to a senior, as well as updating my resume for everything i did over the summer, and that's about it two weeks down only one year to go. I see u guys next post.
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Miles RomanHi, I am a student at Durham School of the Arts, and this blog will be documenting my experiences with my Game Design class. Categories
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