Week 1, Year 2 A new year and new things

So I made it past my first year of universal at De Montfort doing Game art design and so I’m starting my 2^nd year. Already we have been set a project but this is a group project and there are new software and technique we have to learn.

This project is called asset swap. I and 5 other people have to create 6 different assets and put them in a scene, all in 1 week but we are not just picking 1 and just working on that. We had to work on 1 stage for all 6 assets and that way all the assets would be completed. This is so we can get a feel of what it’s like working in a team because no one in the game industry works on their own. I found this project very fun and a nice start to the start of the year.

This is the finale Silhouette and concept for the tankard I made. I did this digitally because I want to try and improve my digital painting. I then also had to make this in 3D after that I had to make the texture for the hog. I found the hog very hard to texture because I could not think of a way to get photo that I could use as a texture. So I had a go at trying to back by only using the tools in Photoshop. I found my end result was ok but it did not fit that well in the end scene. I do wish now I had taken more time to think of what I could have done to get the result that was really needed.

Then end scene look great the only thing that did make not look right was the texture for the hog that I made. It did get retextured but did still show a lot of the old texture. If I was to do this again I would look a lot more in to texturing, like maybe trying to digital paint it. I also could have spent a little less time on the concept part of the project.

So this year we are now using unreal 4 and wow it is funny. I have been playing around with it just learning very simply things like how to move and how to import models and textures but there are so many other tools I want to and I think what I may try and do is once a week try and learn a new tool in unreal 4.

So this year there are some software I really want to look into and learn, like Zbrush. I would really like to learn Zbrush because I think it would really help me with my work in the future. So for anything very complex like a high detail statues or character. Zbrush could help me make the high poly model and then bake it down into a normal map.

So in my own time there may be other subjects I would like to write about. So of the idea I have got are Good and bad level design, the history of competitive gaming, what make a level look good, and then maybe some reviews of game that have come out.

Well this first week was very good and I am very happy being back. It was a little hard at first being put into a group project and having to learn a new technique on the very first day but I think it was a good way to get be into the year after all these next few year are not going to be easy at all. So I need to keep pushing myself to be the best that I can be and then not to stop and keep going.

Thank you for reading