My New Blog and Life After FMP

This will probably be my final post on this blog sadly, but I do have a new blog over at hannahrjmcmillan.weebly.com/blog just to keep my portfolio and blog closely linked together.

I'm working on a new project right now which is up over there if you are interested in taking a look.

-  Hannah

Week 19 - Final Renders and a Quick Post-Mortem

It is over. It is done.

Here are the final renders of my project. Feel free to also check it out on my portfolio

Here is the final showreel from our year at DMU

Post Mortem:

For my Film-Noir Inspired Final Major Project, I decided to create a small environment and character, following the classic Film Noir tropes. Theoretically, in keeping the environment small, I would be able to polish it to AAA standard, which is the area of the industry in which I wish to enter, as well as being able to focus on the character detail as well. The “Noir” aesthetic is one I’ve always been a fan of, so having an opportunity to learn more about the genre and apply it to my own work was fantastic. I wanted a heavy focus on lighting, composition and visual analysis to show my fundamental art theory knowledge to potential employers, as well as to keep myself organised. The final outcome of this project would be a high quality environment and character, along with a series of film stills, taking from typical noir visual characteristic.

Originally, I was leaning towards a more neo-noir inspired environment, very Blade Runner-esque. However, I spent a large portion of my pre-production time researching the origins and theory behind film noir and studying various films to break down the shots they used. I documented all of this on this blog, which I used to keep myself organised. Kiss Me Deadly and Seven were the main sources of influence. I had decided early on that I wanted to create a murder scene for my environment, due to enjoying Seven so much, with either the killer or a police detective presiding over it; again this is playing off of typical film noir tropes. Originally I was unsure as to the environment I wanted to create, blocking out and alley way, hotel room, bar and detective’s office. However, the hotel was the one I settled on, although I combined it in some ways with the detective’s office. I wanted the environment to feel lived in, and tell a story, so I focused on trying to show the narrative through the assets I created.

We had a fairly long amount of time for the project itself, 19 weeks in total including the Easter Break, which was anything but a break. I chose to do a solo project, which looking back on I regret heavily, so it was 19 weeks of self- motivation, which can be tricky. To combat this problem, I set myself up a schedule which I tried my hardest to stick to. Originally, we had just 15 weeks for the project, but we received a very welcome extension so we could polish our work further. This was brilliant for me as my schedule was a little overambitious, which is a problem I have in almost every project.

I tried to split up my time into simple sections. I gave myself 3 weeks for pre-production, which was then extended to 4 for finishing touches. After that was the beginning of the development cycle. I assigned 2 weeks for environment work, 3 for character work, and then another 2 for environment work again. This was, at least in my opinion, my biggest mistake in this project, but I will get onto that further. Then there were 5 weeks or so left for polish. This time, however, was drastically shortened due to the surprising scope of my project. My schedule was treated a little more like guidelines and, while I didn’t stick rigidly to it, it definitely helped me manage my time throughout the project.

 So what worked well for me during FMP? That’s quite a difficult question because, looking back, there is so much I would do differently. There were a few different areas of the project, however, that I thought went well:

·         I was pleased with all the visual analysis I did during this project. I learnt so much about composition and lighting throughout my time on the project. I spent a large amount of time breaking down various shots from films like Kiss Me Deadly and Seven. I tried to understand them in terms of the typical visual characteristics of Film Noir and attempted to apply that to my own work, with some success. This visual analysis has also been improved through the iterations of work I’ve done. This is one of the reason why so much of my work took so long; I experimented a lot with different lighting set ups and compositions. Picking them apart and improving on them has helped me greatly.

·         The atmosphere I managed to achieve in my level is something I’m particularly proud of. Film Noir is all about the atmosphere, with film makers at the time making use of their immense creativity in the face of limited technology. The classic characteristics of film noir, such as chiaroscuro lighting, patterned shadows etc, are all elements I’ve included within my level and final renders. This took an incredibly long time to get, however. I’ve been working on it since Week 2 of the project, and the lighting set up has gone through so many iterations I’ve lost count. Of course there is always more to learn, but for the first time I’ve done anything of the sort, I’m quite proud of the result. 

·         My organisation has actually been one of my strongest point. My file structures, max files and engine file is incredibly smooth, making my work flow faster. Keeping my blog up to date has been a huge help as well. It was an easy way to organise my thoughts, and something I will continue to do further into the future on other projects. Although in more recent weeks I haven’t kept the blog as up to date as I should, it because there isn’t much to talk about other than “I’m working pretty much solidly”. 

Of course with all that went well during the project, there were some failures. However, it’s important to remember that art is always a learning process so, as long as I learn from my mistakes then it’s a success, not a failure. On that note, here are a list of my “successes”:

·         Time Management has always been the bane of my Game Art career and, while I’m definitely getting better, there is always room for improvement. Being in every day until 9 has done wonders for my work, and allowed me to continually iterate, but there are still ways I could’ve improved my speed and workflow, giving me more time for final polish.

·         On the topic of final polish, there are so many assets that I want to take further and polish more. Much of my texturing was done through tillable textures, masks, and decals, but there were a couple that I polished to “AAA quality” such as the bag. I wish I could’ve spent more time on the other assets in the level and brought them up to that quality.

·         Another problem I had with this project is that I decided when writing my brief I wanted to be a character artist, only to realised about 3 weeks into the project that character art was not what I wanted to focus on. I love Environment Art, making props and assets is far more enjoyable to me, and something I can see myself doing throughout my life. So, throughout the project I put off working on the character. Really, I shouldn’t have written a character into my brief, especially not one that had such a massive focus. However, it was a little too late for that, so what I really should’ve done was tackle it head on. By putting it off, I wasted time unnecessary assets that I didn’t need, when I could’ve been polishing my character or final hero assets of my scene. The character herself wasn’t terrible, and from what I can get I managed to fulfill the part of my brief that asked for “anatomical accuracy”.

The project itself changed quite drastically from my original vision. I wanted to produce a neo-noir level that was set in a back alley somewhere with robots and prosthetic limbs. Instead, I went in an entirely different direction. Researching into original film noir and neo-noir, I found a real love for the 1940s classics; The Maltese Falcon, Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Sleep. All of them were fantastic. The chiaroscuro lighting and 1940/50s setting were definitely appealing to me, so I ran with it. With concepting not being my strong suit, having such fantastic reference for the props was really useful as well.

I also aimed to have the character be the focus on my level, due to the fact that I was still under the illusion that character art was the direction I wanted to take my career. When I quickly realised it wasn’t, the character became very secondary in my planning. In fact, at one point I was entirely ready to cut her out of the project. I’m glad that I didn’t in the end because I learnt a lot from her creation, but it came very close.

There are so many things that I would do differently given the chance to redo this project. I imagine I could get it done in half the time with, easily, double the quality, but I’ll give you a quick list as to the main issues and how I’d fix them:

Better planning is incredibly important and I would actually spend more time in the pre-production phase getting everything perfect before starting on with the development stage. I feel like that would give me a better edge going into the project, especially if I’m working on my own. I would spend far more time on the concepting, which is something I’m not so comfortable with, really getting the look nailed down.

Speaking of working on my own, I feel like, if I redid this project I would want to work within a team. I would feel like getting a second opinion on the composition and lighting constantly would improve the quality of the work produced, and would let us produce many times the amount of work I did in the 19 weeks. I tend to work better within a team than I do on my own.  I learnt a lot from working on my own however. Self-discipline is incredibly important and something that I didn’t have much of until this project.

I would also cut out the character from the project. It was unfortunate that very early on in the project I realised taht Environment Art was my passion. This caused me a lot of stress, trying to get a character done at a high level of quality. I would much rather have focused more heavily on the environment. I do, however, feel like the character really brought to life the environment itself.

As much iteration as I did with this project, there is always room for more. Constantly iterating ideas would really help me improve the composition and lighting within the level. More paint overs would mean I’d be pushing myself to be more comfortable with concepting, which is something I struggle with. This means that I would have worked more on the lighting setup, which I think would’ve improved the level further.

The most important thing would’ve been to change up the order in which I worked. I made the stupid decision to create all of my assets before texturing them. I feel it would’ve been better to do them in batches; create the hero assets, texture them. Then priority 1 assets, priority 2 assets and so on. This would have been a far swifter and more efficient model, and would’ve have allowed me to iterate on my designs and compositions easier because I would’ve had colour and value ranges to work over and I think would’ve encouraged me to work more, as the result would’ve been more complete.

Also I would have bought a computer for my flat earlier. It was invaluable in the last few weeks of the project.

In conclusion, everything worked out quite well. I’m fairly happy with the level and I feel like I stuck to the brief as closely as I could with all the changed that were made. However, were I given a chance to do it again, I would change almost everything about the project, from the order of my workflow, to the amount of people I was working with. I think I would be an interesting project to redo a few years down the line. I feel like, however, I’ve learnt an extraordinary amount in the last 19 weeks. My jump in quality of work has been, at least in my opinion, brilliant and I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished. Going forwards with this project, I would like to polish the environment assets further, perhaps creating a small, concentrated diorama with AAA quality assets, textures to the same standard as the bag I produced. As much as I did like the character, I don’t feel she is at a standard that is hireable, so I would have to go in and polish her further, if I wanted to go into character art. But overall, despite the flaws, I feel this project was a success. 

Week ? - Lighting, Lighting, Lighting.

I've been looking a bit at lighting today, playing around with some techniques.

Really great video. Been researching around other lighting techniques. I've borrowed a book, Stage Lighting Design, so I'm gonna read some of that over the weekend.

Still need to fix up the lips and eyes and such. Playing around with the concept of flags, lighting the eyes and some back light stuff. Still not happy with the intensity of the blind lights. I'll need to fix that up later, soften up the edges of the shadows.

Got the dead body in, retopologised. Need to fix up the light maps and bake everything down.
Its all getting there.

- Hannah

Week ? - Character Updates

Its been a while since I've posted anything, mainly because I've been grinding this character out. She's been polypainted, baked and rigged. Now it's just the finishing touches to the textures.

Basic hair blockouts trying to figure out which one is best.

Then the base model was completed.

After that I did a poly paint. The lingerie will be texutring using substance.

The head test in engine, baked down onto the low poly with some minor texture adjustments. I need to fix the hairline, some of the lip and such.

Some paintovers trying to figure out the final look of the character.

Its been a busy few weeks.

On to assets. I need a break from the character for a bit.

- Hannah

Week 12(?) - Updates Galore

I've been unbelievably busy with my project recently. Some updates for you all.

Tilable materials are a go. These are just a few of them.

Some screenshots of the level.

Finishing off the character at the moment, sculpt is nearly done. Then all the texturing will go faster.

Some quick concepts.

- Hannah

Week 11 - Character Work

Even though I've decided I'd like to be an Environment Artist, that's no reason to ignore my character. So this week I've been working on her.

Just some in progress shots for you.

And some paintovers.

The character can be fairly simple, seeing as she is just a prop. For the male, I'm toying with the idea of him being killed execution style in the back of the head, with the bedsheet over him and an arm and legs sticking out. That means less work for me, and more time to polish the things I like working on.

Work smart, not hard :)

- Hannah

Week 11 - Render of My Suitcase, Finally.

I think it's Week 11 anyway...

I've been working on a piece for my portfolio now we have the extension time, so I've polished the suitcase in my scene and created a quick turntable for you all to see.

Renders on the way.

- Hannah

Week 10 - Extension Time

We've been given an extension, which is fantastic. That means that stuff will actually get polished.

So a quick update on where I am, and what I'll be doing next week, so I don't have to do a blog post on Monday, and can just throw myself into work.

• I have removed the bathroom, for times sake. I will be keeping the basin, which will be in the room. This means that the final area will be far more polished. 
• The room is being extended slightly on the right side. This means that you won't trip over the guy on the bed, and there will be a second reveal of the detective's wall. 
• The base meshes are done and ready for scuplting. The characters are going to be great. I'm going to do some design work on the hair of the female, maybe some quick paintovers to iterate.
• I will be playing around with sounds in the level, to add more atmosphere, which is the most important thing. 
• I will hopefully be getting my friend to write and record a noir themed voiceover that will play throughout the level. 
• I've been playing around with the lighting. It looks cool.

Next week, I will be continuing on texturing, I just need to get everything textures quickly.

If I continue on with my project as it is, I'm looking at a 2.1, but if I can get the character sorted and everything finished, I'll be hitting a First, which is awesome.

- Hannah

Week 10 - Busy Old Me

I'm crazy busy at the moment. Lots of work to do, and lots being done. Not much to say other than the base meshes for the characters are done, and paint overs have begun.

Texturing is happening, slowly but surely.

Everything is on track.

Thought I'd post up the paint overs I'm currently working on.

 I am in love with her.

- Hannah

Week 9 – Schedule Evaluation: I Prepared For This…

I’m sure it’s not a surprise to hear I’m behind schedule. In fact, I actually planned for this. I gave myself 4/5 weeks of polish time. This means that I know I’ve got some spill over time, but I still need to get working faster. I should have the character done by now, and as you can see, that’s not happened. Not being able to work at home is not helping, so I’m looking forwards to that new computer I’m going to be buying soon.

I’m going to be setting up a new schedule here, to help me get everything in order over the next few weeks, which will be hectic.

Week 9 –

• ·         Base textures created (wood, metal etc.) and the base room textured.
• ·         Texture the larger assets (bed etc.)
• ·         Lighting pass

Week 10 –

• ·         Character base complete
• ·         Body complete
• ·         Texture smaller assets

Week 11 –

• ·         Character textures at least begun
• ·         Continue on with texturing smaller assets
• ·         Lighting pass again
• ·         Quick paintovers

Week 12 –

• ·         Character polish
• ·         Environment tweaking
• ·         Particle effects begun
• ·         More texturing

Week 13 –

• ·         Polish environment
• ·         Further character polish
• ·         Particle effect polish
• ·         Looking at final screenshot composition and flythrough ideas
• ·         Lighting pass

Week 14 –

• ·         Final polish
• ·         Flythrough put together
• ·         Lighting pass
• ·         Post processing
• ·         Presentation

Week 15 –

• ·         Post mortem before final presentation
• ·         Post mortem after presentation

Sounds manageable, right? 

I also did a quick paintover of the desk area, just getting and idea of what will be going on the wall. 

"Who is she?" is the cheesiest shit ever and definitely will not be going on the wall, but you get the idea. 

Anyway, onwards and upwards...

- Hannah

Week 9 - Assets... Assets Everywhere.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been making a lot of assets. I bought a journal at the beginning of this project and it's honestly been my lifeline during the past few weeks. Keeping track of everything has been so much simpler, so I wrote up my asset list of priority 1 and 2 assets.

As you can see, exciting stuff. So, I popped everything in engine and got a couple of screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

Lots to work on, various paintovers to do and I definitely need to play around with the lighting, making it more dynamic, making sure everything is casting shadows etc. I’ll be doing some visual analysis based around Jack Vettriano and his paintings as a source of influence for my colour schemes and such. 

Isn't it beautiful?

- Hannah