Lots of stress this week. I feel like I haven't done a lot, but I've been doing a lot of management and meetings that have eaten up my time and energy. My Lighting and Rendering class has been really draining me Mondays and Wednesdays, and I fell like I need to figure out how to manage that before it knocks me out for a whole day.
Here's the updated film.
I've been working on the forest level a little bit using the critiques and suggestions from Rockstar.
This photo also has lighting and post processing on it, which has made me feel better about getting rendered footage for the final film. I'm more comfortable with post processing profiles and camera settings, so I've been experimenting a little bit with lighting. I think I will continue to set dress with the normal sky, and then once I'm further along I can mess with shadows and color grading.
The other work I've been doing for the forest level is creating cliffs. "Just shove it into the wall" has never resonated with me more. I have a ton of work left to do, but luckily I'm having a good time and it's not as grueling as I expected.
I finished the bulldozer, which is the last "required" asset that needs to be done for this game. I think the forest level is sorely lacking, and I'm not happy with the sparseness of the other levels, but I have to have enough discipline not to prioritize modeling new assets when there are things that still need to be done.
I've also done a lot of work I've been putting off for a while:
- I finished editing and uploading the dialogue lines.
- I met with my lighting and rendering professor to get help with my lighting and composition.
- I'm currently working on arm animations
- I'm getting the eyeblinks from the editor so we can use it in the first and last cinematics.
- I created a storyboard for the beginning cinematic so we're all clear with what it should look like:
I'm also changing the reflection dream. What we have isn't working, and there is a lot of dialogue that needs to be played during this game level. More importantly, this new scene wouldn't require us to figure out how to make the pools look good. I have some new cliff assets, so I think I'll create a 'hallway' of sorts that has assets from each dream thrown around in it. It still gets the point across, and I think my intentions are clearer. And then we can just throw in some cool effects.
This weekend will also be a weekend of random things that need to be done but haven't been done yet. Mainly:
- arm animations
- UI
- the first new reflection dream iteration so I can start getting some critiques on it
- there are a few models and textures I'm still missing for the apartment. Namely, the windows need to be fixed, blinds need to be modeled and textured, and the kitchen counters and cabinets need to be textured. They shouldn't be hard, but they've just been low on my priority list.
- Getting the melting furniture blend shapes done and exported. Don't know how to do those, but it's time to figure it out.
- finishing the forest set dressing
- editing critiques
- I have visualization sheets, but I think I need to go back with my new color theory knowledge and really nail down what I want the lighting and color scheme to be.
- (I should probably do my lighting and rendering classwork as well)
*We also might be getting a UI artist, unsure about that one but there are some mumblings.*
Yo, check out this bulldozer:
Conclusion: I'm not doing bad, but I think I've struggled so much (ambition is my folly) in the past that I'm anxiously waiting for something to go wrong. Unfortunately, things are bound to go wrong, I just hope that I have the mental strength to handle them head-on.
Comments