Henry Anderson
AND11185647
FMP Evaluation
At the beginning of my Final Major Project I had to come up with a proposal document which would explain what I was going to make and how I was going to go about creating it. In this proposal I had to come up with primary, secondary and tertiary goals. For this proposal I explained that I wanted to create an environment which would focus on the centre piece which was the Viking inspired long-hall. My Primary goal was to create the ground floor of the long-hall made using 3ds Max and Unreal Engine. My secondary goal I set myself was to design and place the second floor of the long-hall into the project and to create stairs or/and ladders allowing characters to move between levels. The third goal was to complete the exterior of the building and to texture the project. Also, for the third goal I added that if I complete the other goals I could add some interactive elements to the project.
After getting feedback from the proposal I started the first steps to creating my project, and that was to start gathering research of Viking buildings, norse mythology, other art work which depicted the Vikings and information on how the Vikings lived. This research came from different sources which was from websites and also from books. Examples of my research can be found on my blog. Some of the work I was looking at was people’s depictions of Heorot from Beowulf. The purpose of this was to help me come up with ideas for the next stage of the project for inspiration. My research never stopped at this stage of the project and I carried on gathering information and images all the way through the project.
The next stage of this project was to come up with some initial concepts and designs. I started off this stage by improving my drawing skills by learning how to draw using 1-point and 2-point perspective. Evidence of these are on my blog. I was drawing things which related to what I wanted to create later on in the project. So, I was using my 1-point and 2-point perspective drawing style to draw interior and exterior of assets and environments. Some of the assets what I was drawing was things such as tables, chairs, pillars, thrones and also the exterior of some buildings. This was useful to me because It gave me another creative tool to use outside of using programs on computers. After this I started to come up with grey blocked style concepts using the program Sketchup which you can find on my blog. Creating these concepts on Sketchup allowed me to rapidly come up with different ideas and designs for the long-hall, this also included basic ideas of what the interior would possibly look like. Using Sketchup at this stage of the project was beneficial for me because I could come up with multiple design ideas without having to spend a long time on each one. This aided me because it gave me a variety of initial concepts I could choose to further expand on and it also added another tool to my skill set.
After coming up with some initial concepts the next thing for me to do was to start creating some assets using my research, drawings and concepts as inspiration and a guide. I started this by designing assets which included pillars, walls, floor, tables and chairs on the program 3DS MAX. You can find evidence for my assets on my blog. This is the stage of the project that I spent the most time on and was the part that I had the most fun doing because it was the part where I was being creative designing and modelling assets. It was also the part of the project that I spent the most time on because It was creating the assets that was the bulk of my work. It was also improving my modelling skills on 3DS MAX and adding further knowledge and experience on another tool to benefit me as a creative person. After creating a few assets, I then started to place them into the program Unreal Engine. This is the program I was using to showcase my long-hall. I was using Unreal Engine because it is the program I have been using over my time at university to show my projects of games and showreels. My process to this was to import the FBX files from 3DS MAX into Unreal Engine and then use Unreal Engine to host my assets allowing a playable character move around inside the long-hall. After a while my Unreal Engine project was filled with assets I created and was coming together nicely. I also came up with a hero piece to add to my long-hall which was a Viking longboat chained inside of the building. The idea behind this was that the kingdom or village was that powerful and successful so they decided to show this off by raising the longboat inside to show their wealth and capabilities to newcomers of the area. I wanted this to be one of the things that catches the eye of people when looking at the long-hall. After many hours I had achieved 3 different levels inside the building which was filled with assets and had started to work on exterior of the building. I also created the rest of the environment for where the long-hall was going to be placed. In Unreal Engine I started to carve and model the area what was of a fjord. This was surrounded by mountains with a river which would lead to the sea. I came up with this because fjords can be found in Scandinavia the part of the world Vikings came from.
Coming to the end of the project deadlines I had a presentation to show my work to my peers and tutors to gain some important feedback. One bit of feedback I got on my project was that the scale of the long-hall didn’t quite feel right. It was suggested to me to add a balcony section on the second level of the building outside and to add in some human figures. This was suggested to me to help improve the scale of the building because it would allow people looking at the project to fully understand how big and grand the environment was. So, after this I did manage to import some figures of humans and scatter them about. This definitely helped show the true scale of the building and just made the building look much more impressive. To showcase this, I created a showreel in unreal engine that had a camera fly through the exterior and interior of the building. I then cut the video down using premier pro.
Conclusion
Looking back to the start of my project when I handed my proposal in I have managed to complete my primary goal of having the first floor of the long-hall completed and filled with assets. I have also managed to complete my secondary goal of having a second floor to the long-hall which is also filled with assets like wooden beds, barrels, rugs etc. And finally, the third goal I set I only managed to achieve some of the them. I managed to complete the exterior of the building which includes the out-hanging balcony. However, I didn’t manage to complete one of the third goals which was to texture my environment and assets. This does bother me a little because I feel that having my assets textured would bring some more life and detail to the long-hall but, I am happy that I managed to achieve most of the goals I set myself in the proposal. One thing that I would change if I could start again would be to better my time management skills. I could have done to have a better documented time schedule which would have allowed me to progress to the different stages of the project and could have possibly gave me more time to texture my environment. Although my hand in for this project Is coming up I am looking to carry on the project in my spare time. Some things which I will be adding to the project are texturing the environment, add trees and water flowing down the riverbed I created and to possibly add some interactive features. These interactive features could include storylines/quests to complete.
This project has been beneficial to me because for start It is my first major environment project I have done. I have also gained and improved on multiple skills. Some skills that I have improved on or learned are 1-point and 2-point perspective drawing, creating early concepts in Sketchup to rapidly produce ideas, improving my 3D modelling skills mostly on the program 3DS MAX and also improved my ability to use the program Unreal Engine. In Unreal Engine I can now understand some basic blueprinting, I managed to blueprint working ladders that allow a character to move between floors inside the building. While doing this project I have also learned how to better manage time through the different stages of the project through experience. Some things that went wrong and I have learned from are my time management skills and understanding scale and how this can affect the look of environments. Overall, I am happy of the outcome of my project considering it was the first major environment piece I have worked on and I have also learned and improved on a variety of skills which will help me If I manage to progress and get a job inside the industry.
(See Blog for images and progress of my project)
I Have a few updates that I’m goig to share for my viking longhall. First off I have created a fire pit in the middle of the hall. With this I have also moddeled a few assets that you would find with the firepit such as a couldron and other objects what you would need for cooking and eating. On top of this I have also added metal chains that will keep the viking longboat up on the roof. I have also moddled and placed bowls and eating boards and scattered them on the tables in a way which makes the hall look like its in use and not semetrical. I have also placed some assets on the top floor which are placed to show that the top floor is used as a storage area. I need to moddel rope which would allow the villagers to bring down objects from the top floor to the bottom.
Henry Anderson 