Nearly There
Weekly Report 32: 5/13/2019 - 5/19/2019
This week has been focused on submitting the final product and the corresponding set up and summary for the final product. This finalized the largest project of the year and the work that has gone into creating the product. In addition, the week has been focused on making plans for final presentation night and making final tweaks to the presentation.
The main emphasis of the week has been on submitting the final product and the set up summary that goes along with it. The final product as a whole turned out quite well and showcases my skills and the techniques I have learned over the year. The write up allowed me to explain all of the portions of my final product in depth and show all of the specific steps that went into the development of the gun. In addition, I reviewed the presentation I gave at Pearson Middle School and made a few changes to my presentation as a result. Overall the week has been focused on finalizing the developments of the year.
In the upcoming week I have a final mentor visit in which we will be discussing the end of my final product and finishing any small pieces needed to showcase the product. Furthermore, the clear focus of the upcoming week will be on the final presentation night that will be taking place on Friday. As a whole the last few weeks have been going well in terms of preparing for the final portions of the year in ISM.
Almost There
Weekly Report 31: 5/6/2019 - 5/12/2019
The emphasis of this week has been on the dress rehearsal presentation that was at Pearson Middle School and a mentor visit focusing on working on a scope for the gun asset. These were both very important parts of the process of developing a final product and preparing for the final presentation night. The presentation was a good practice to have in front of a slightly larger group and a group of people I did not know.
The mentor visit this week was primarily focused on the modeling of the scope for the gun asset I created for the final product. The scope was based on a reference image that was dynamic and more interesting than a standard cylindrical scope. This scope is primarily made of a few rectangular panels and a pane of glass for the part for the scope. In the upcoming week, I will be trying to cut the UVs and texture the scope asset and get it ready for the final product renders. The final gun asset is the primary portion of the final product so the scope is just an extra addition to the gun which is very important. As a whole, the final product is progressing well and should be done in time for submission.
Overall this week went quite well and the work that was completed will be very important to finishing the year and setting up for the final presentation. In the upcoming week, the focus will be on finishing the final product and getting ready for the final presentation night.
Preparations
Weekly Report 30: 4/22/2019 - 4/28/2019
The emphasis of this week has been on the final presentation dress rehearsal and the mentor visit of the week. The final presentation was built off of the original work presentation and simply added more content to the presentation. The mentor visit was primarily looking at the development of the gun scope model and how it could be integrated into the design of the gun as a whole. As a whole, the week was productive and have been important in preparing for the final product submission and the final presentation night that is quickly approaching.
The mentor visit this week was helpful as I was able to develop a gun scope based off of a reference image. This adds another component to the final product I will be submitting and presenting and will also add more interest to the gun when the scope is added to it. In addition to the mentor visit the final presentation rehearsal was very important as a way to prepare for the final night. The presentation went well though I was a little under time which should be easy to fix. I will be bulking out the final product as it finishes in the next few weeks and will add more slides to the interview section of the presentation. These fixes should extend the time for the rehearsal I have next week which will allow me to completely gauge my presentation again.
In the next week, I will be going on another mentor visit to work on the gun scope and troubleshoot any modeling issues I run into. In addition, I will be presenting at Pearson Middle School to rehearse my final presentation with an audience. Overall the next week will be similar to this on in terms of the type of work I will be doing to prepare for the final presentation night.
Next Asset!
Weekly Report 29: 4/15/2019 - 4/22/2019
The focus of this week has been on rendering glamor shots for the gun asset that includes a background as an environment. The glamor shots work well to showcase the gun and make a more interesting final image that shows reflection in the wet background environment. In addition, this week has also been looking at the final presentation that will be next week in class.
The glamor shots are particularly important to the presentation of an asset as a portfolio piece. In this case, the environment was a wet road 4K texture that was used which worked out well to create interesting reflections from the gun and the Tokyo night skybox. We then worked with global illumination which adds a lot to a render shot but is heavy on the graphics card of a computer. As a whole, this visit was very interesting as it tied together all of the visits. In the upcoming week, I will be finalizing a glamor shot and beginning a gun scope to go along with the gun asset. This will add another asset to my final product and add a nice compliment to the gun asset.
As a whole, this week has gone well and has allowed for some progress to be made in regards to the creation of a final asset showcase. In the upcoming week, the focus will be on creating the next asset during the mentor visit and finalizing the renders. Additionally, the most important portion of the week will come when the final presentation dress rehearsal is given. Overall the upcoming week will be quite important.
Assessing Product Progress
Weekly Report 27: 4/1/2019 - 4/7/2019
The emphasis of this week has been on creating the textures for the science fiction gun asset. This has involved learning more about substance painter and setting up the rest of the model to be textured. In addition, the week has also been focussed on writing an assessment of how the final product is progressing.
The texturing of the asset is going well as the different pieces are coming together with a variety of textures that follow the same style. Thus far the metal textures have all been made using the same system. In addition to the base metal textures, there are some other additions that add more interest to the piece. For example, part of the gun uses emissive textures that add a plasma look to parts of the gun. This adds to the science fiction concept of the gun and adds more interest to the piece. The gun also includes some general decals that make the gun look more engaging and detailed. Overall the texturing process has gone well and is something that will be reviewed with my mentor.
In the upcoming week, I will be reviewing the textures of the rest of the model with an old peeled paint look and adding some detail to the gun. This will include some decals on the gun and some different textures on the sights of the gun to add some interest to the piece. In addition, I will be going on a mentor visit to discuss the textured gun with my mentor and to begin rendering the asset. As a whole, the week has gone well and has been a great way to learn Substance Painter a new software package.
Texturing in Substance Painter
Weekly Report 26: 3/25/2019 - 3/31/2019
The emphasis of this week has been on the mentor visit that was focused on creating the maps for the low polygon model through Substance Painter and creating peeled paint textures for the model. This will lead to the complete texturing of the gun asset over the next week and rendering within a few days. Overall this week has been very productive in terms of moving towards my final product.
The mentor visit this week was very interesting and primarily focused on learning the basics of creating textures in Substance Painter and creating maps in the software as well. Prior to this week, the model had been baked in Marmoset where there were some errors in the mesh. This was going to be solved using an exploded mesh so that the projection would only take into account the piece that needed to be mapped. However, in Substance Painter this is not needed because the software can use the naming conventions of the objects to create individual maps for each piece. I worked on naming every asset in the hierarchy of Maya with the suffix _low for low polygon assets and the suffix _high for high polygon assets. This made the mapping process much faster as the software was able to do the mapping without an exploded mesh. Following the mapping process, I created some peeled paint textures for the asset in some areas.
In the upcoming week, I will be focusing on texturing the rest of the model with a old peeled paint look and adding some detail to the gun. This will include some decals on the gun and some different textures on the sights of the gun to add some interest to the piece. As a whole, the week has gone well and has been a great way to learn Substance Painter a new software package.
Moving Forward
Weekly Report 25: 3/18/2019 - 3/24/2019
This week has been focused on making more progress on the final product and getting ready to work on tasks that are more focused on preparing for the final presentation night and for the year to conclude well. Some important tasks other than final product have been designing the invite for final product nigh and beginning to plan other things for the night. As a whole, this week has been going quite well in terms of working towards the goals for the end of the year.
The mentor visit this week was very interesting and was focused on baking the maps for the asset out in Marmoset. We reviewed the portions of the map that were projected incorrectly and worked to find out why they did not work. The error was caused due to the overlap in the pieces as the grip is clipped onto the handle. As a result of the heavy overlap and close proximity, the cage created in Marmoset overlapped at the inside corners of the gun. Solving this problem involves “exploding” the mesh or moving the pieces away from each other for the baking process. This can be done using a simple keyframe animation in Maya in which frame zero has the gun put together and frame one has the exploded mesh. Once the mesh is exploded it will bake correctly in Marmoset and the normal bake can be applied to the original gun through the UV map. This is something I will be doing in the upcoming week to have correctly projected maps for Substance Painter,
The week has gone well in terms of making concrete steps toward the creation of the final product. In the upcoming week, I will be beginning work in Substance Painter to texture the gun asset.
Week of Learning
Weekly Report 24: 3/4/2019 – 3/17/2019
The emphasis of this week has mainly been on making progress on the final product and preparing for future tasks. Some of the work this week has been analyzing the baking tools in Marmoset and learning how to prepare a model for Substance Painter. This is a new skill that I am working on learning so that I can create maps and textures for the models of my final product.
The assessment of this week was looking at the latest mentor visit I had with Mr. Chalk during which we focused on using the Marmoset Toolbag. Learning the toolset of baking in Marmoset is an important skill in the game industry as it allows for low polygon models to have a higher level of detail that is taken from the high polygon model. Learning about how to use Marmoset has also involved reading some of the documentation that details the uses of many maps and how they work and how they can be integrated into a texturing workflow in Photoshop or Substance Painter. This will be what I use to create the final textures and maps of the low polygon asset.
In the upcoming week, the focus will be on making larger strides towards the completion of the first science fiction style gun asset. This will allow for larger progress to be made on the completion of the final product. In addition, updating both the physical and digital portfolios will be important steps in the next week so that Mr. Chalk can review them when needed. As a whole this week has gone well in terms of learning how to create the final product and the upcoming week will be focused on making more specific steps towards the creation of the final product.
Learning Marmoset
Weekly Report 23: 2/25/2019 - 3/3/2019
The emphasis of the last week has primarily been on making progress on the final product and staying up to date with it. The main portion of this weeks time was spent at a mentor visit where we worked on mapping in Marmoset. In addition, since no work has been due this week another emphasis has been on updating the digital portfolio.
This week I had a mentor visit with Mr.Chalk and we worked on using Marmoset to project texture maps from the high polygon to low polygon model. This will allow for the use of maps in my texturing which will allow for a good base in Substance Painter. This week I spent a few hours working on the final product. This time has been focussed primarily on learning the basics of the Marmoset Toolbag. In Marmoset the focus is on projecting texture maps on to the object so that there is a map to paint textures on to. The two maps that are being made currently are the Ambient Occlusion and Normal Maps. This will create a black and white map for a basic shadow pass with the AO map. The normals map has an odd color because it lights the object from three angles using red, green, and blue color channels. This creates the odd colors in the final map that combines all of the channels. In the upcoming week the work in Marmoset will be continued and extended into other softwares.
As a whole the past week has been productive in catching up on some work and getting ahead by writing out an assessment. In the upcoming week the focus will be on Marmoset toolbag and learning the basics of baking the maps in the toolbag to then bring into Substance Painter. This will be an important skill to learn since baking these maps is very important for game assets.
UVs and Reflection
Weekly Report 22: 2/18/2019 - 2/24/2019
The emphasis of this week has been on creating the UV map for the science fiction gun asset that is a part of my final product. This will lead to the creation of texture maps such as normal and color maps in Marmoset in the next week. The other focus of this week was writing a reflection on the original work presentation and how I thought it had gone.
UV mapping the low polygon model of the science fiction gun asset will allow for texture maps projection and for textures to be applied to the model without any distortion. To cut and layout the UVs I used Maya’s 3D Cut and Sew tool with tan added plug in that unwrapped the UVs based on the seams that had been cut into the model. This allowed for a fast workflow for UV mapping within Maya similar to the traditional 3D Coat workflow. The other portion of this week was writing the reflection on the original work presentation. As a whole the presentation went quite well, but there were definitely things I wanted to improve upon for the final presentation .
As a whole this week has been productive in terms of making progress on the final product and the development of the final product. In the upcoming week the focus will be on the mentor visit that is on Thursday. During this visit the focus will be on reviewing the UV maps and projecting maps onto the model using Marmoset toolbag. This will lead into the creation of textures for the model using Substance Painter in the future.
Busy Week!
Weekly Report 21: 2/11/2019 - 2/17/2019
This week has been focussed primarily on giving the original work presentation and making some progress on my final product. The original work presentation built off of the research presentation and simply added information about my original work and mentorship. The progress I made on my final product was important and will keep me on schedule for the rest of the year.
The most important part of this week was working on my original work speech reflection that I presented last week. Through my reflection, I was able to watch the video of myself presenting and analyze the features that need to be changed and what should be maintained going into the final presentation speech. For the next speech, I will be adding extra slides to describe my ISM I experience to allow for more clarification on my work. Overall looking back at this speech was very helpful in understanding what I want to do in the future.
The other main event of this week was a mentor visit in which Mr. Chalk and I discussed the high polygon model I had made and the process of UV mapping the model. This was a very helpful mentor visit and I was able to learn a lot about what to include in a models low polygon geometry and what can be cheated through texture mapping. In the upcoming week, the focus will be on UV mapping the low polygon gun asset and beginning the texturing process in Substance Painter.
Final Product Begins
Weekly Report 20: 2/4/2019 - 2/10/2019
This week the emphasis has primarily been on drafting the product proposal that will affect the rest of the semesters’ work and determine the final product created for the year. In addition, I have been working on a high polygon gun model for my mentorship. This week has gone well in terms of the work I have created.
For the final product of this year, I will be creating a few models that are at production level quality for game development. These models will be created using Autodesk Maya for the modeling, and other softwares such as Marmoset Toolbag and Substance Painter for texturing, normal maps, and rendering. This will be reviewed with my mentor this week and will be the basis of my work for the rest of the year. In addition, to making the proposal this week has been focussed on creating the slide deck for the original work presentation next week. This has primarily involved adding the original work and shortening the research portion of the powerpoint.
As a whole this week has been significant to shaping the rest of the years’ work and has gone well. In the upcoming week, the focus will be on giving the original work presentation on Tuesday and the mentor visit that is scheduled for Thursday. The upcoming week will be important as the high polygon model of the science fiction gun will be reviewed and the presentation will be a build-up to the final presentation.
Progressing
Weekly Report 19: 1/28/2019 - 2/3/2019
During this week the emphasis has been on a mentor visit and beginning a variety of other tasks that will build into the next few weeks. The mentor visit went very well along with the start of the final product proposal and finalizing the slide deck that will be used for the original work interview. As a whole this week went very well in terms of what was accomplished and the foundation for the next week.
The mentor visit this week went very well and I was able to learn a lot and plan for future work approaches. The visit was primarily based on high polygon modeling and normal map creation. The software that was new during this is the Marmoset Toolbag which is a software that is meant for baking normal maps and can also be used as a renderer. As a whole, the information gained from this mentor visit was very helpful and will greatly inform future work.
In addition to the mentor visit this week I worked on writing a mentor assessment and modeling the low polygon gun asset. The mentor assessment was over the last visit that was focused on creating the low polygon block out of the science fiction style gun. While modeling this asset over the last week the emphasis was on creating a variety of pieces to work form as a base for the game ready asset. In general, this low polygon process has not been extremely difficult but has been very informative in how future workflows will be structures.
In the upcoming week, the focus will be on creating the high polygon version of the gun. This version of the gun will be used to project normals back onto the lower polygon gun. The process will allow for the creation of various texture maps that will help create heavy detail later on. In addition, the week will also be focused on writing a product proposal for the final product of the year. As a whole, the last week has been beneficial in developing workflow and working with my mentor.
Beginning Mentor Visits
Weekly Report 18: 1/21/2019 - 1/27/2019
The emphasis of this week has been on the mentor visit on Tuesday which began the process of creating assets that will guide my learning for the rest of the year. In addition, this week was spent beginning to draft a presentation for the first week of February. As a whole, this week has been spent well and has been great for making a foundation for the rest of the year's mentorship.
The mentor visit went very well and was primarily based on working on modeling the basic block out of an asset. Through this visit, we began with a piece of concept art and then moved on to discussing how the asset could be blocked out in 3D. One significant part of the creation was based on how many pieces the model should be made in and how to decide when to have a separate piece of geometry. This was interesting as there are many schools of thought on whether models should be in multiple pieces or in one piece of geometry. After planning out the approach to the model we moved onto creating the model using various techniques. In future visits, the focus will be on different topics such as high poly sculpts, UV mapping, texturing, and various other areas.
In the upcoming week, I will be bulleting out the original work presentation and editing the slide deck for the presentation to add in the original work. In addition, the week will be spent finishing the blocking of the gun asset and scheduling another mentor visit to take the asset through the next steps and to discuss the final product.
Research Showcase
Weekly Report 17: 1/14/2019 - 1/20/2019
The main emphasis of this week has been on the research showcase that was on Wednesday at the Star. This has been a very important part of the week as it is one of the main events of the year. It was nice to present all of my work from the semester and original work and talking to my mentor about some future mentor visit possibilities.
This week I attended the FISD research showcase and discussed my research and original work with many people. This was a very interesting experience as I was able to speak with various people who were attending the event. I spoke to former teachers, friends and other attendees that I did not know about my research regarding the animation industry. I also discussed my interviews, mentorship and my original work with the people I spoke with. At the showcase, I displayed my character as it was the most complicated asset I created for my original work and was also the most interesting. This display allowed people to look at the entire model easily by tapping the screen. In general, the showcase went very well for me as I was able to speak with many people about my original work and my research on the animation industry.
As a whole, this week has gone quite well with the research showcase and staying in contact with my mentor. The upcoming week will be primarily focused on the original work assessment and a meeting with my mentor to begin learning more about modeling. Overall the upcoming week should be quite interesting and productive with Mr. Chalk.
Original Work Completed
Weekly Report 16: 1/7/2018 - 1/13/2018
This week has been focused on completing the original work and preparing for showcase which is on January 16. These tasks have been important as they have allowed for a continuous progress towards the completion of the original work the main work of the fall semester. In addition, to prepare for the showcase the digital portfolio has been updated and the presentation board has been finalized.
The original work was completely finalized this week for submission. The final pieces of the original work were mainly taking some pictures and renders of the work to submit. In addition, the picture were tweaked in Photoshop to make some of the edges harder and to tweak some of the colors.
The digital portfolio has been refined in terms of pictures and has been updated to include all of the most recent weekly reports and assessments. In addition, there is a new tab for the mentorship to put in a preliminary mentor biography. The mentor biography is nearly complete and I will be speaking with Mr.Chalk to see if there is anything that needs to added and to get a picture to put on the biography. The digital portfolio also includes more information under the original work tab. The tab now includes a link to the gallery for original work and has information about the hours logged for the project.
A trifold board was made for showcase to use as a way to present work form the year. The main features of the board are the color images of the fully textured biplane and ship that are in the center. In addition, the board includes my guiding quote, mission, topic, mentor, and a section about ISM. As a whole the board is interesting and includes all pertinent information. In the upcoming week the most important event will be finalizing the board, website, and physical portfolio to prepare for attending showcase.
Mentorship!
Weekly Report 14: 12/2/2018 - 12/10/2018
The main focus of this week was speaking to Mr. Chalk about a mentorship and continuing work on the original work. The other part of this week has been working on the digital portfolio and publishing it on Friday. In general, this week has been quite significant as my mentorship and digital portfolio are major parts of ISM.
I had a follow up meeting with Mr.Chalk of Bonus XP studios and was able to get a mentorship. In the upcoming weeks I will be reviewing the mentor handbook with him and getting ready for the mentorship next semester. In the upcoming semester the mentorship will be significant in the upcoming semester as it will influence my work next semester and set up the majority of my assessments. I am looking forward to the rest of the year with my mentorship and learning from Mr.Chalk.
In the upcoming week the main work will be in setting up a plan for the display board and continuing to make progress on the original work. I will be modeling another vehicle and setting up a plan for texturing all of the models. As a whole the week has been quite useful as getting a mentorship has set up the work for the rest of the year.
Original Work Progress
Weekly Report 13: 11/26/2018 - 12/2/2018
The last couple of weeks have been mainly focused on the progress of the original work and coordinating a follow-up interview to request a mentorship. The original work has been progressing well and will be the main project for the next month. In the future, I will be focusing more on the mentorship and setting up for research showcase.
The original work has been very important and has been mainly working with modeling thus far. Low polygon modeling is something that is included in the project with the models that have been created thus far. The main models that are being created include a plane and boat thus far. However, other possibilities for major models include a Ferris wheel or merry go round as they involve heavy duplication and work with UV maps to create strong models. The modeling process is simple compared to projects completed in ISM I and the emphasis of the original work will be on the textures created for the models. These textures will be a new experience for me as in-depth texturing work is not something that I have explored previously. As a whole this week has been a good foundation for my future work int he program.
In the upcoming week, there will likely be a meeting to request a mentorship which will create the foundation for the rest of the years' work. Additionally, I will begin work on a display board plan and finalizing the website for publishing later this month. Overall this week has served as a good foundation to finalize the rest of the semester.
Programmer Interview
Weekly Report 12: 11/5/2018 - 11/11/2018
This week has been focused on the interview with the first programmer of the year. Additionally, this week has been spent on setting up a general timeline for original work. This will be critical for keeping on schedule with the original work so that there is high-quality work to show for research showcase. As a whole this week was very helpful and the work done will be a good foundation for the future.
The main focus of this week was the research presentation and evaluating the presentation based on the video footage. In general, the presentation went well and was engaging though there are aspects that will be changed for future presentation. Most significantly the future presentations will involve more visuals of the work created. This will help explain some of the concepts discussed in the presentation.
This week was also the first interview with a programmer in the video game industry. The interview was with Mark Diaz, a gameplay programmer for id software. He was very helpful and explained some ways to learn how to write code for games specifically. He also spoke about how to showcase work to show an employer for a potential job. As a whole, this interview was very interesting and different from most of my other interviews and should also be very helpful for future work.
In the upcoming week, I will be thinking about a possible mentorship which will affect the rest of the year and the final product. Additionally, the week will be spent on working through a tutorial for substance painter in order to work more on the texturing process which will be critical to the rest of the year. Overall the upcoming weeks should be very helpful to the quality of the work done throughout the year.
Research Presentation
Weekly Report 11: 10/29/2018 - 11/4/2018
This week was primarily focussed on preparing the research presentation and presenting on Monday. Additionally, the week has also been important for scheduling interviews and setting up a foundation for the rest of the semester. Overall this week has been significant to the presentation portion of ISM and the interviews that are required for the course.
The preparation for the presentation involved working on the slide deck that is the audio visual aid of the research presentation. The slides are focussed on showing various visuals of what I have created and what the specific things that are created are. The focus on visuals will be engaging and not too distracting for the viewers and will also be significant to the things I am speaking about. As a whole the presentation went well and lasted around 10 minutes. Some of the main improvements that will be made for the next presentation are the slides, and the focus on preparation for the longer time period. As a whole the presentation went quite well though there are some areas that I want to focus on improving for the original work presentation.
In the upcoming week, the emphasis will be on the first interview with a programmer. The interview will be conducted with Mark Diaz, a game programmer of id Software. This interview will be my first interview with a programmer and will be very important for the work I complete in the future. This week has been important and the upcoming week will likely affect the work done in second semester with final product.
Original Work Planning
Weekly Report 10: 10/22/2018 - 10/28/2018
This week has been focused on planning for original work following writing up the original work proposal. For original work, I plan on creating a series of models and texture that will end with game-ready assets. In addition, this week was also focused on writing an assessment of the creation of low polygon assets. Overall these skills will be beneficial in the future and will help create a cohesive original work.
The planning for original work began mainly in the form of deciding to write an assessment over low polygon modeling. This will facilitate the creation of game ready assets for the original work and will be a useful skill to have for the future. Additionally, this week was also focused on beginning to collect material for the research presented in early November. This presentation will look at all of the interviews I have conducted along with all of the research and synthesize the information into the original work. Both the original work and the research showcase are important parts of ISM that began this week.
Overall this week has gone well though I have only completed three interviews. The upcoming week will be focused on following up with all of the professionals that have been previously contacted. In addition, I am waiting on responses from a few of the contacts from Alexis List. As a whole, the week has gone well and upcoming weeks will be beginning more interviews and mentorship process.
3D Painting
Weekly Report 9: 10/15/2018 - 10/21/2018
As a whole the past week has been primarily focused on working on a research assessment over Substance Painter a 3D texturing software used for various game assets. This has been very important as this software may be part of the basis for my original work proposal. In addition, this week's secondary focus has been on getting more interviews by contacting people as suggested by Ms. List.
The focus on Substance Painter has been very important as this software is an industry standard for asset creation in the games industry. Though a series of tutorials I was able to learn the basics of the software and apply prior knowledge to the new software. Most importantly Substance Painter is quite similar to Photoshop in some ways and simply adds a method for 3D texturing. This 3D mode makes texturing more natural and is less focussed on the UV mapping done prior to the texturing process. Overall Substance is a good software that allows for a strong texturing workflow that incorporates hand painted texturing and procedural styles of texturing. Learning Substance Painter will definitely be helpful in the future and will influence work done in other software packages such as 3D Coat or Mari.
Along with learning Substance Painter, this week was also spent reaching out to more professionals for more interviews. Ms.List was able to provide a few contacts at id Software which will be very helpful in the future as they include a combination of programmers and artists. In the future, interviewing programmers will be very helpful as I want to look into the other side of the game development industry.
The upcoming week will be focused on setting up the physical ISM portfolio and writing an Original Work proposal which will create the foundation for the rest of the semester and the research showcase. In general, this week has gone well and the upcoming week will be significant to my work over the next year.
Thinking About Future Work
Weekly Report 8: 10/8/2018 - 10/14/2018
This weeks focus has been on the interview with Alexis List and writing an assessment over the interview. Additionally, this week has also been spent on starting to think about goals for the rest of the year and possible original work concepts. As a whole, this week has been very interesting with the interview and beginning to work on tutorials for Substance Painter.
The interview with Ms.List was very helpful and interesting as she spoke about various portions of the games industry and the importance of technical skills and soft skills in the industry. Based on the information gathered from this interview I plan on working through some tutorials for both Substance Painter and Substance Designer as they are both important pieces software in the texturing portion of the art pipeline In addition, to speaking about the importance of procedural textures Ms.List discussed the importance of newer techniques in the industry and how these techniques are affecting the industry through changes in production time and the detail added to games.
Overall this week has gone well, though I want to schedule more of my interviews in order to have them done and be able to move on to working on my mentorship and original work processes. The upcoming week will be spent on scheduling interviews, writing a research assessment over Substance Painter, and beginning to draft an original work proposal. Looking to the future some of my goals include: having the interview process completed by early November, and then being able to begin working with a mentor more throughout the year.
Business Symposium
Weekly Report 7: 9/30/2018 - 10/8/2018
The focus of this week has been on the business symposium, writing an assessment on the interview with Kai Webb, and writing a topic proposal. The business symposium was the first of three major events for ISM and went quite well overall. The topic proposal will guide the rest of my work for the entire year and allow for some confinement in my research.
The business symposium went quite well as I was interviewed by one professional and got to network with many other students. In addition, most of the day was spent speaking to ISM I students. As a whole the symposium was helpful and some of the contacts that were made may be helpful in the future. In addition to attending symposium this week, the emphasis was on writing an assessment on my interview with Kai Webb of Gearbox Softwares which was very interesting as she demonstrated substance painter. Lastly, the topic proposal was very important as it will become the focus of the rest of the year and will help guide the direction of my original work and the work done with a potential mentor. As a whole this week has been very important and helpful in solidifying a direction for the next few months.
In the upcoming week, there is an interview with Alexis List an 3D artist from id Software which should help as she is an artist who began working in Maya. Additionally, this week will also be the beginning of working through various tutorials for Substance Painter which will create the foundation for the next research assessment. Overall the upcoming week should be good as it will give me a way to prepare some new skills that can be used for the original work.
Preparing for Symposium and Interviews
Weekly Report 6: 9/24/2018 - 9/30/2018
During this week the focus has been on the interview with Kai Webb of Gearbox Softwares and the information gained from the interview. Additionally, this week has been important in terms of preparing for the Business Symposium next week. As a whole this week has been very helpful as I have been able to learn a great deal of information regarding the video game industry.
Through this interview with Kai Webb many facets of the game industry were discussed. The most helpful portion of this industry was a demonstration of Substance Painter a texturing software that is used by many texturing artists in the game industry. This is a software that is used for similar purposes as Mari in the animated film industry and is good for vertex painting tools. Additionally, she spoke about the importance of blocking in the major shapes of a model prior to adding the details. This is particularly important for ZBrush which makes it easy to add detail early on even when the large shapes have not been blocked out. As a whole this interview was informative and will help create more possible questions for future interviews.
Overall this week has been very useful through both the interview and preparing for the symposium. In terms of preparation I have printed a few extra copies of my resume so that I can hand them to professionals to review. Additionally, during symposium networking will be very useful in order to speak to more professionals and expand the amount of people I can speak with. In addition, to symposium next week will be used to make more cold calls so that I can set up more interviews.
Interviews
Weekly Report 5: 9/17/2018 - 9/23/2018
This week has been mainly focused on an interview with Austin Chalk of Bonus XP who is a 3D modeler and visual effects artist. Additionally, this week was also focused on editing and refining resumes. Overall this week has gone very well and has been a good foundation for the upcoming weeks.
The interview at Bonus XP was very interesting and was very interesting as Mr. Chalk spoke about his education and his experience in the industry. He was originally an environment modeler, but has worked on more visual effects recently depending on the project he is on. He spoke about his work experience, how programmers work with artists, and how a video game pipeline works. Overall this interview was very helpful and also provided more contacts that I will be reaching out to in the future.
Another focus of this week was editing my resume and reviewing other resumes. As a whole the current resume is good. However, a couple of changes will be made to the resume to make it flow better and make easier to scan. Mainly all of the sections will begin with my role rather than the class or program name. This will clarify what I did and how that experience is relevant to this year in ISM.
As a whole this week has been very successful and has been important to the interview process. In the upcoming week I will be working on an assessment over the interview with Bonus XP. Additionally, there is an interview with Kai Webb at Gearbox Software Scheduled for next week as well. This will be particularly important as Gearbox is a larger studio in the Dallas area.
Interview Scheduled!
Weekly Report 4: 9/10/2018 - 9/16/2018
This week was once again focused on cold calling and working on more assessments along with trying to work ahead. However, this week was a shift from previous weeks as an interview is now scheduled with Alan Chalk of Bonus XP for next Tuesday. Addiotionally, this week was the start of creating a new website for this year and finalizing the color palette and resume for the year.
The main accomplishment for this week was obtaining an interview which is a major milestone for this year. From the interview with Mr. Chalk I should be able to gain a lot of basic knowledge about the game industry and how the art department in a studio contributes to the project along with how artists work with programmers to create a complete product. Additionally, this interview may be able to provide me with more contacts that will allow me to obtain more interviews in the future with other studios and professionals. Therefore this interview will be a good foundation for the rest of my interviews throughout this month. Another major part of this week has been learning about 3D printing and its importance to the creative industry along with how to prepare for prints. As a whole this week has been very interesting in terms of learning technical skills, gaining interviews, and beginning to work on the digital portfolio.
In the upcoming week the main emphasis will be on the interview with Mr. Chalk and writing an assessment on it. Additionally, work will begin on the website and more of the design will be completed. As a whole this week has been rather successful and has created a good foundation for obtaining more interviews.
Continuous Cold Calls
Weekly Report 3: 9/3/2018 - 9/9/2018
The emphasis of this week has continued to be cold calls though on the technical side there has also been a shift from general sculpting technique to anatomical sculpting technique. As far as cold calls go there is still not a scheduled interview though next week the focus will be on calling local universities and following up on more calls. Additionally, this week was also important for the creation of an updated resume which will be useful throughout the year.
The assessment of this week was focused on anatomical sculpting which is an important part of learning how to create 3D concept sculptures in ZBrush. Since most sculptures in ZBrush are made for an organic mesh such as a character learning anatomy is particularly important for sculpting. Furthermore, anatomy knowledge creates the same base mesh for all characters that is accurate and is also a good place to build up from. While learning anatomy is important the more important part is practicing it through sculpting. Thus part of my assessment for this week was sculpting an expression on a head to practice facial expressions and anatomy. However, in the future there will be more focus on the anatomy of the body. Overall, my skill in ZBrush has been growing and it is a skill that I will be able to use in the future.
The main focus of this week has been on continuing to cold call professionals and follow up with interviews. While I have not yet been successful there are a few professionals who are emailing me about possible interviews. Another important task of this week has been updating my resume from last year and adding new details and courses. In general this week has gone well for learning more about ZBrush, updating my resume and for contacting more studios.
Off to a Good Start
Weekly Report 2: 8/27/2018 - 9/2/2018
This week has been mainly focused on learning the basics of ZBrush sculpting and making cold calls to various studios. Learning ZBrush has been interesting and is something I plan on continuing to work on throughout the year. My cold calls have not led to any confirmed interviews, but I have followed up with a couple of emails to different studios.
The main focus during class has been cold calls to studios. Thus far I have called Gearbox, Game Circus, and ID Software. Additionally, I have contacted many other studios without a response. In the upcoming week I will be following up on cold calls and trying to contact specific people using email. My main goal for the next week or two is to get an interview and get some more contacts. My main obstacle with cold calling has been either getting no response or automated responses. However, in the next week I plan on calling more studios to have a higher chance at getting an interview.
In addition to cold calling the main focus of this week was working through a tutorial on the basics of ZBrush sculpting. This was extremely helpful and in the upcoming weeks there will be more focus on learning concept sculpting along with anatomy. Through this tutorial I was able to refine what I had learned over the summer in regards to sculpting. Overall, having a good understanding of ZBrush will be very helpful in the upcoming year and will allow me to focus more on refining concept sculpts rather than working on more time consuming models in Maya.
In the upcoming week I will be focusing on cold calls and getting an interview. Additionally, ZBrush concept sculpting will be a major emphasis along with writing an assessment on 3D printing. Following assessments on art projects I will be incorporating more programming with my work. As a whole this week went well even though I did not get an interview.
Second Year Begins!
Weekly Report 1: 8/16/2018 - 8/26/2018
This weeks primary purpose was to discover my topic of study for the rest of the year and give my first presentation of the year. In addition, I selected a guiding quote and a mission statement that will guide me through the rest of my year in ISM. Overall this week was very productive and I was able to create a good foundation for the rest of the year.
This week I developed the following mission statement which is meant to answer the “why” behind my choice of taking ISM and deciding on game design as my topic of study. My mission is to fuse animation with computer science by exploring the game design industry through the Independent Study and Mentorship program in order to ultimately achieve my dream of entering the game design industry to make something new that will bring people joy. This statement represents why I am in ISM for a second year and what I plan on working towards through the year. Furthermore, my guiding quote for the year is, “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” Aristotle. This connects strongly to the concepts behind formal critiques in animation and playtesting in game design which are both things I want to work on this year through the concept of rapid prototyping. Rapid prototyping was a major focus of my intro speech this year which went well. However, in the future I want to work on tweaking my conclusion so that my presentation ends on a more meaningful note. As a whole my presentation went well and I was able to accomplish a lot throughout the week,
In the upcoming week I plan on compiling more contacts for my contact log before beginning to cold call various game design studios in the area. My goal is to have an interview scheduled by the first week of September. Additionally, I will be writing my first few assessment of the year by working on some small projects that I will be working on such as a rapid prototyping process or 3D printing. These are parts of the game industry that interest me as I plan to be working on both art and programming this year through ISM.