EVALUATION
What was my FMP about?
My FMP was designing, modelling and animating 3D Game Character. That includes concept design of character, modelling it in a 3D software and then animating it.
Which Character did I create and what power it contains?
My character’s concept is an ancient Greek Monster called The Minotaur that is half bull and half man. It has no hidden powers; however, it’s very powerful and strong.
Where did I research to develop my design?
I took a look at a range of different hybrid characters from movies, games and the characters developed by other artists, collected all of them images and put them in a PowerPoint presentation as an evidence of my research.
What were my strengths during the project?
My strengths were my ideas that I generated, my drawing skills, 3D software skills and most importantly, the help and cooperation of my tutors.
Did the final character meet my expectations?
I think I did quite well overall considering it was my first time modelling and animating a 3D character. I have created 3D assets before but I’ve never worked and animated a 3D character before that. According to my research, I expected it to be a fully detailed and texturized model but it did not come out to be like that. The reason for that is again the same that I’ve not worked with 3D character modelling before but I am happy that still I was able to give it the look that it’s meant to have.
What could I have improved on?
Well, as far as the design and modelling of my character is concerned, I am very happy with how it looks. The thing that I think I could’ve improved on is the movement of its body, speaking of which, the movement of its body parts while animating it.
Which computer software did I use for my project?
I used a 3D software called NewTek Lightwave 3D 9. It has two software inside it. One is called ‘Modeler’ that is used for creating models and the other is called ‘Layout’ that is used for animation purposes. I used modeller to create my 3D character and used layout to make it move and animate.
What problems did I have? Did I solve them?
I’ve had problems these problems during this project:
1. Modelling my character’s head.
2. Adding bones inside my character’s body.
3. Getting the right movements
4. Bones not rotating properly.
The first problem was modelling my character’s head and face. Then I asked for help from tutor and he told me put a background image of my drawing and work on it using the ‘create points’ tool inside Modeler. So, that’s I solved this problem
The second problem was adding bones inside my character’s body. The reason I count it as a problem is because I had no idea how to put bones until my tutor helped me again with that. So, he taught to work with ‘add bones’ and ‘child bones’ tools. What bones do is they give the object, the actual movement.
The third problem was to get walk cycle of my character’s body. I did struggle with this and this is the only problem that I could not solve properly. Well, I did manage to sort it out to some extent but still, it’s not what I wanted it to be.
The fourth and the main problem was to get the bones’ movements right. I struggled with this issue for 4 days and that’s the major drawback of my project. I believe, I could have solved the 3rd problem aswell if this problem got solved earlier. Again, I asked my tutor for help and he helped me solve this problem.
Final Production:
After I finished my character’s modelling and evaluation, I rendered it and uploaded the movie youtube to share it on my blog as an evidence of my work. Updated my final production log and schedule.
What did I learn from this project?
I did learn a lot of skills and techniques whilst working on this project. I improved:
· my drawing skills while drawing the concept art of my character.
· 3D software skills like rigging, adding textures, adding bones, making the body move and creating an actual 3D character (which I think is my biggest achievement within this project).
I learnt:
· to originate, develop and research an idea for a media product
· to pitch a proposal for a media product
· to manage a production process to create a media product
What worked and what didn’t work within this project?
Everything worked out great including the research, ideas generation, concept design and modelling of my character. The only thing I doubt is the final movement of the body. It did work but it’s not as good as I expected it to be. However, I’ve still got to the point where I can say that I’ve done what I planned.
Conclusion:
I enjoyed a lot while working on this project. I learnt a lot of new research techniques and 3D software skills. So, I am happy with the overall results. The place where I lack is the movement which I could not get perfectly right. I did try my best but it did not work the way I wanted it to. I believe I could’ve done a lot better if I got the movement right. In the end I would say I am glad that I finished my project in time and got what I wanted.
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