Final Year... Complete

Four years of University Over. Now time to wait for my results!

It's been an interesting ride, but I feel I've learnt a lot during my time here. At first I thought I would regret my countless nights sat at the PC, working away at Digital Tutors Tutorials, or messing in 3DS Max whilst my flatmates ventured out to get drunk, but I now realise I made the right decision and wouldn't change it if I ever had the chance. I feel more confident in my ability than I ever have, and with more dedication and training a job in the film or games industry could no longer be just a pipe dream.

The final year was hectic. A lot of "stuff" happened that I feared would hamper my Final project and as usual I was a little too ambitious with my project proposal. However, I pulled through with the help of little sleep and a newly found addiction to tea. A lot of students do say they learnt the most during their final year, but I feel for me it was in a way the opposite, I spent 3 years prior to this practising programs, techniques and skills that would enable me to have a "trouble" free final year, I can't imagine anything worse than having the project delayed due to not having the right skillset or know how. I did however learn a lot about time management this year, and how quickly deadlines can loom. But with countless plans, tables, "to do..." lists and 3D marathons I managed in the end.

My Project

So, my project. I knew I would be creating something in 3D, and I wanted it to be very environment driven as this was my strength. Initially I played around with the ideas of a fight scene between two Norse warriors, clad in iron and steel, battling it out in a muddy forest. I came very close to actually starting this project, but after considering the amount, and quality, of animation needed, I decided against it. I'm not an excellent animator, and I didn't want the focal point of the project to be shifted from nice models, texturing and rendering to.. well.. choppy animation. 

After a few more iterations of project ideas I decided on an environment driven reel, however, due to my capability of creating good quality character models, I didn't want to exclude them from the piece. So, as an introduction to the reel I created a short animation that set the scene. My environment is based in a fantasy world created by myself, I really enjoyed creating the Lore behind the project, and I've had new ideas about future projects that take place in this world. Below is the final output.

I'm pretty happy with the final out come, although I would like to adjust some render settings and lighting, which I probably will do when creating my showreel. I did underestimate the render time once or twice, so I had to make sacrifices by removing lights and displacement maps to speed everything up.


What now?

It's strange having no deadline ahead of me to worry about, but at the same time it's nice having the time to work on the projects I've had to put on the backburner for a few months. Me and my partner move to York in August so whilst finding work to "to get me by" over the summer I want to do some more training.

I plan to add some new software to my skillset, Autodesk Maya and Zbrush being the priority. I'm also wanting to learn some more advanced techniques in Photoshop and 3DS Max, especially with an emphasis on different methods of texturing. I would like to explore some game engines this summer and I plan to look into creating a few levels for popular games such as Counter Strike and Half Life.

So a relatively busy summer ahead.This week I'll be working on my show reel and sending off a few letters to potential employers. I plan to update this blog at least once a week with work, random thoughts and ramblings, so check back soon!