Major: Reflective Statement.

Looking back over the Past 3 years I can honestly say I’ve learned so much in the time I’ve spent with the course. It has been a very challenging 3 years, especially with lock down interrupting our 2nd year, but have found overall to pushed me to adapt to new working conditions to produce work that I am happy with.

Before becoming a student of CAA, the concept of being able to model something digitally was elusive to me as it was something I'd never done before this course; but was looking forward to trying something new and different. Through the multiple projects completed I feel I now have a firm grasp on the 3D Pipeline and will be looking to further expand on this knowledge in other projects that come after this course.

For me Major started with the concept created in Premise and has since developed throughout the Minor and Major projects. From an environment project, to evolving to an environment /character project with the addition of the Salvenger Unit Drones to help tell/convey the story of an abandoned town post-nuclear collapse as they move through the sets.

Due to adding the Droves the vast environments i intended to create took a hit as adding the Drones meant added time to complete them to be animation worthy and with rig problems putting production back, it meant that the final environments were not all completed. However, despite this set back I looked to having Main St as finished as possible filled with the rundown shop fronts, piles of rubble and vast amounts of foliage. Come the end I managed 3 Shop fronts, key stage props and foliage.

Through this, I have learnt new skills and ways to model different objects, in addition to using texture maps to my advantage to create the effects I was aiming for. This mainly seen in my foliage and the windows (through opacity maps). As well as in my Drones with the water tank bubbles through the use of a moving image sequence being brought in as a texture. Through this process it allowed me to get to grips with after effects more, enabling me to composite stock bubble footage and alter it to suit the design of the Drones and then exporting out an image sequence to then use in Maya.

During the texturing process I found the models to really come to life and embody that rustic, worn and damaged look I was going for. To texture I used a mixture of Photoshop and Substance Painter with a brief intro to Substance Sampler to achieve the look I was aiming towards. Using photoshop to create the graphics for each shop front and substance for the 3D Materials to enhance the graphics and design for each building. I found being able to actually paint details onto the models to be very effective as I found I could get details like moss, rust and dirt where I wanted them. This can particularly be seen on the Drones screen, antenna, pipe and arms (Drone 2) to accentuate certain areas of the Drone.

I found texturing the shop fronts I did complete; alongside the key props (truck/ flower cart), to be very enjoyable process as I finally got to get an idea and feel for the world I was creating. Having the shops really embody my concepts with a stylised real-world aesthetic I developed over the course of Premise, Minor and Major.

Reflecting on the sheer scale of the project I intended to submit was quite different to what I was able to produce. Looking back, it probably would have benefitted me if I focused on one environment and the Drones instead of over shooting in what I wanted to make. Trying to take on 4 very complex environments; a tiny world that expanded into something huge, was a lot to think about. The entire scenario itself was a very broad topic to explore with so many intricate ideas and visuals coming to mind it was hand to narrow down what to make, but despite this, I am very pleased with what I have made and looking forward, it would be nice to round off my sets and film and really see this post-nuclear world come to life.