Now that I've reached the end of my DDA II course, considering the topics covered and all the projects created during my time in this class, I have to say it was all very much worth it and I shall miss it. Akin to my previous post, I have provided a visual map that while it is only marginally better than my last, shall suffice for my explanation. The course in its entirety even when broken down into its core units is rather lengthy and in depth, covering a wide range of topics from Portfolio creation and management to how to visualize, model, and animate a scene to advanced levels of quality. The course has gone through the modeling process, how to properly texture, edit, and apply materials to an object, and even onto how to effectively light, shoot, and animate a scene. In a sense it has taught all levels of development when it comes to the 3D animation industry. Overall, it has taught me the basics and fostered my growing interest in the field itself. I'd say that above all else my newfound intrigue and delight of the artistic aspect of the field has been its own reward. The countless hours I've spent in front of humming machines while diligently working to produce the best works I could was simultaneously the most rewarding and humbling experience this class has to offer. The pride felt real whenever I could come out of a solid week of trial and error all to be left with a single file of my hard work saved on my desktop, assured that I was learning real skills and had offered up my best. It's hard to pin down and describe, but in all honesty even after frustration after frustration, at the end of the day I could still look back and realize that what I was doing was real, and I was honing skills that I would remember and probably use later on in my life and career pursuits. It's rewarding just knowing that you're not wasting your time. In fact, even though I'll probably stick to my pursuits in 2D illustration and animation, these skills I've built on will transfer over and continue to assist me. I can say with clear certainty that from all my time mastering lighting and camera angles that these are skills I will probably continue to use into the future. Even the base concepts of 3D animation aren't that different from its 2D cousin, and its safe to say that most likely everything presented to me in this course has either created a foundation, or built upon skills I already acquired. In any event, I cannot say that I am at all dissatisfied with my time spent here. It has been a lengthy journey to get this far, and I hope I can continue to trek further. It's been more rewarding than I could've ever anticipated.
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Beginning my time in this pathway, I had expected to jump into the programming and design straight away, however, having taken my AGAD class for 3 years now, I can say that I am glad that that was not the case. Down below I have provided a simple graphic outlining the basics of my time, and admittedly while illustration is my strong side not graphic design, I'm sure it will suffice for an overview. Overall, the content ranges from dealing with real world careers and overseas markets, and how to work with a team of peers, to things like 3D design, A/V production, and then actual game design and coding in Unity. The most important takeaway is that no matter what, you never truly know enough to really get into game design, because game design itself is so much more than programming and asset creation. In all honesty I feel that every single unit has helped to contribute to my skills now, no matter how well versed I may have been beforehand. It's a lot of bulky topics and rushed deadlines, but between the seemingly arbitrary vocabulary and the nail bitingly frustrating difficulty of various assignments, you tend to notice how much it all pays off. In my opinion, no other class will better prepare you for what it feels like to stick to your own created schedule, how to manage your time and keep up with deadlines, and how to crank your brain for creativity. In a way it almost feels like you're halfway there to the real world. As terrifying as it seems, it certainly helped to realize my potential by leading me on with assignments where I'd perform excellently at tasks I'd never thought I'd be good with or consider to do. For example, my experience with the 2D world helps me to understand the 3D one, such as setting up bones and rigs, animation, and creating textures for objects after painstakingly arranging polygon faces piece by piece. Thus, I've come out a jack of all trades in a sense, operating on all levels of what could be considered game design, as it's proven to be so much more than coding and animating. I'm almost certain that my skills with handling my time, as well as my applicable knowledge of audio and video handling, 3D design, concept creation and planning, and my experience with Unity will pay off exponentially if I manage to stick to it all, and I'm certain I will. Being exposed to this sort of wide variety of topics and materials has certainly opened me up to so many possibilities that I hadn't even previously considered. Not only that but I feel well prepared in the sense that I could continue on in nearly any direction I wanted to, and with my skills and some good old fashioned dedication, I could progress onward into an industry of my choosing.
As I struggle to type these words out, I have come to the staggering realization that with less than 24 available hours left, with still no clear end in sight, I am struggling to complete a project that in the end won't even turn out. After struggling for hours on multiple critical failures, I have realized just how out of time I really am. I had begun writing this post on Wednesday night, and I am only now sitting down able to finish it now. I'm not even sure why I'm still writing this, especially with a timeframe so short. Maybe it's because I just want to desperately give up and I won't let myself, maybe it's because I already have. In any event, I have nearly cried forfeit. My critical failures refuse to be solved. This experience has rocked my to my core, and I am uncertain if I can get back up in time. Even now as I type with shaking fingers and red eyes I still consider throwing in the towel, and yet I know that despite it all I will continue to at least attempt to single out my problems and confront them head on. Is it determination and perseverance? Perhaps, but it's most likely apathy and defeat that fuel me the most at this point. I have given up on giving up, so I guess pushing foreword at this point is my only option. I cannot describe my current setback, as with every fix comes another problem that is left for me to solve, and I am running out of the strength to solve problems. I will be left with what I can conjure up in this limited time, and the thought of leaving this all behind is my only solace.
For the most part, I'd have to say that cameras have been my Achilles heel, if only for the fact that I am not as skilled with cameras in general when it comes to other parts of a scene's composition. Even after two years of digital media classes and working the camera just right is a skill I have yet to master, though that is not to say I am inept, as most certainly my experience with that class helps me to understand the cameras in 3Ds Max, as they have extremely similar functionality. For the most part, learining more about a camera's more common movements and executing fluid animation definitely helped to overcome this setback. I have an example video of this below. Despite all this, for the most part this unit has gone by without a hitch, even the most feared and loathed topics of them all: rigging. This may come as a surprise, especially considering the extreme technical difficulties I encountered when working with rigging previously, but I feel that is has been my favorite this unit. I would have to attribute this to my prior experience with creature conceptualization, and my general love for understanding various parts of animal anatomy. Once the basic bone structure is created, as long as care and precise observation is maintained throughout the creation of the rig, generalizing the basic muscle groups and attributing them to your 3D representation in your model's bones comes with ease to one skilled in the talent. In short: If you understand muscle groups, you more or less understand 3D bones and rigging. I have also gone into detail describing my prior experience with lighting and I can once again attribute this to my skills with 2D art and illustration.
In order to hopefully further myself in my endeavors, I have begun the process of reaching out to other popular content creators on the web, most notably ones whom I've seen are open to collaboration. I'm starting off small since I'm currently bogged down with my end of year projects, but hopefully I can build some relations over the summer and begin extensive collaboration. I am also looking foreword to the possibility of taking commissions once I get a payment system in place, and I hope working in this way can prepare me for the possibility of working freelance part time. Working in this manner may also help me with time management and meeting deadlines since I'm currently struggling with these issues now, however this is mostly caused by the volume of the work I have on my hands, not the content, and with the ability to control my workflow I believe I would have a better handle on my progress than I do now. So far I have only gotten responses from a small few, most notably those who associate themselves more within the digital art community. However, I am confident that work like this may help to boost my standing within online creator communities, and I presume this would reflect well in my portfolio. I have also considered tapping into graphic design for items such as stickers, buttons and clothing, as it seems like a fun and worthwhile opportunity to consider, especially with sites like redbubble becoming more common. In any event, becoming more recognized in the digital marketplace is a must if one seeks to make their endeavors profitable, and I may have to get into the habit of advertising myself on more platforms, as recently with my spike of work I have fallen out of it.
To put things into perspective, I have been solidly working on developing and programming my end of year game project since the beginning of April, and I am only about 20% done with the coding and that's being generous. That is coding alone, not even accounting for individual art assets and 3D models, nor any sort of particle effects or camera animations. Even if I were to work an extra 2-3 hours every night and during my AGAD period, not accounting for issues in code and other projects in different subjects I have been assigned, nor studying for both upcoming tests and finals, it is still very likely that I will not finish this project in its entirety. Adding insult to injury, to complete the majority of my work assigned starting from the second half of third quarter, I have had to sacrifice most of my free time and related activities, or to put it bluntly, my work schedule has reduced my ability to digitally draw and paint freely to the point where I have not produced nor finished a new piece in its entirety since January. To ask that I now create in detail fully colored and customized UI and sprite assets for this project is simply asking the impossible given the time I need produce said assets and my current time frame. It is disappointing to see all the plans for this project I had started with, as it now seems impossible to bring even the most rudimentary foundation to fruition. If I could describe my current state, I would refer to myself as desperate, either for more time or a way to escape it all. I am going through the crunch before I should have to.
Anyone who knows me well is acquainted with the fact that I have a large background in 2D visuals. Working with light in a 3D sense is relatively the same principle as far as the general end result. You have your mid tones, your shadows and your highlights, and once color gets involved you start dealing with color theory and your colored highlights/shadows... It can all be pretty intimidating, especially for new artists and designers. Fortunately though since I have been working with concepts like these for just about 5+ years now, I can safely say I have some experience up my sleeve. Painting on highlights and setting up virtual lights in a 3D scene are two vastly different things, however they operate on nearly the exact same principals. I am well acquainted with the concept of lighting types like spot/omni/directional in my own artwork and I am also extremely familiar with how an object's material will effect the absorbed and reflected light. However, I would like to say that I am the most skilled at recognizing how a light's color, intensity, direction, and falloff effect a scene. While I would say that this unit helped my understanding of how to set up lights in 3Ds Max, it hasn't really done much to show me how light behaves in a scene, just by the fact that I am already so well versed in the topic. That isn't to say that my experience wasn't enjoyable however, quite the contrary, in fact, it reminded me of how I used to help my parents with the theater lighting back at the school my mother worked in. One of my favorite lessons was setting up RBG lights on a theater stage so that when combined they'd make white light.
With the end of the third quarter already here, I must brace myself for the oncoming project that I have due at the end of the year. For starters, I'm turning my attention to my awaiting GDD, and what I hope to accomplish with that. Currently I do not believe I have a solid enough Idea to prepare a GDD at the time but I am getting closer to having a more solid idea of what I want my final project to look like. For starters, I'm thinking of creating a card game/rpg style game leaning towards the simpler side when it comes to mechanics. I'm trying to focus mostly on the gameplay aspects and programming for a change, not the art and aesthetics. At most, I'll create a simple battle scene without an overworld, as this is mostly an exercise in what I can program, I already know what I can produce artistically. As for the cards/characters themselves, I'm planning to have all characters to be based on cryptids/urban legends/mythos/folklore etc. Basically any fictional creature that’s semi mainstream and isn’t copyrighted (For instance I won't/can't use any characters or monsters from creepypasta, or anything originating from a recent work of fiction.) In the actual game scene itself during play, the creatures will be represented by low poly figures in the scene resting on top of their respective game cards. And by low poly, I'm leaning towards N64 Styled graphics, I'm not looking for any super advanced 3D models, especially when my primary focus will only be the battling system and programming that lies ahead. I already have a few creatures in consideration for possible use, and I've created a few stylized sketches so that when It finally comes time to model their simple figures, I have a better idea of their body movement and fluidity,
If you had to ask me why I prefer working with 2D, I'd probably give a simple yet vague answer. Something ambiguous along the lines of "Oh well its not as complicated" or "Oh well 2D assets are so much easier to make than 3D ones". Truth be told, while that statement about asset creation still holds true, I'm beginning to see the appeal in 3D production. Sculpting 3D terrain, while not as fun as working with tilemaps, is still wildly appealing and rather enjoyable. Sure, floating islands and nostalgic 16 bit landscapes are impossible, but perhaps there is a compromise. Say for example in the case of the original Mario RPG for the SNES, while technically a 2D game, the isometric view gives it an appearance of being 3D, all in 16 bit glory. In a sense, combining these two polar opposites of detailed sculpted 3D landscapes and meticulously plotted 16 bit fantastical scenes can exist in harmony, albeit with a bit of programming and camera magic. (and presumably a grid based map to account for the simple spritework) In any event, I'm slowly running out of excuses to not peruse 3D work, outside of personal preference and experience with creating 2D assets opposed to their 3D counterparts. Especially with my newfound experience with 3D game development. At this point, I firmly believe that the only thing holding me back from full 3D development is just my nostalgia for 2D pixelized handheld systems, and my inability to 3D model as well as I can create 2D spritework. The more I program these 3D games the more I realize they have just as much versatility, especially with isometric settings. They can be just the same as any 2D game minus the 16 bit graphics.
So in my firsthand, personal opinion, working with 2D is much, much easier, as you typically only have to concern yourself with two planes of direction rather than three. On top of that, I much prefer the creation of simple 2D art assets as opposed to having to 3D model everything. (Though that very likely will change once I can have a spare minute to fugue out Z Brush.) And call me old fashioned, but anyone who knows me is likely to realize that RPGs are my favorite genre of games, and I much prefer them with pixelized, 2D graphics as opposed to their more modern 'Dazzling' 3D versions. (Sprite art just has way more versatility in my mind.) Besides their artistic merits, working with 2D unity programming is a bit simplified, at least when it comes to your Vector 3s and your coordinate mapping, since for me, having to think of rigid bodies, triggers, and hit boxes in three dimensions tends to... complicate things a bit. There's also my preference of tile mapping over environment molding, as tile mapping is more akin to painting on individual 'squares' of artistic assets, unlike environment molding which is more similar to digitally sculpting clay. (However it certainly seems far more appealing over character modeling) As for camera and scene views, well, I much prefer only having to map out and see how everything looks from one angle, rather than all of them, as 2D scene mapping typically only needs the user to analyze everything on a single 2D plane. For instance, one of your colliders is causing your character to clip off the environment, and the collider you need to change needed to be moved up slightly but you couldn't see that due to your current camera angle.
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Creator InfoThis is a blog for a Game Art Design class. Future programmer and currently an artist and writer. Archives
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