Final Blog - Group Contribution & Thoughts

Off The Map is finished!

Here I will discuss my contribution to the group and what I thought about the experience, breaking up my contribution into different areas.

Project Management:

I was in charge of managing the entire group, creating asset lists, setting up meetings and ensuring that people were doing there work that they were assigned. I liked doing this but it could be frustrating at times as I felt I shouldn't have to chase people and that they should take the initiative to do the work themselves. We also assigned the role of art director and brand director; even though I wasn't an art director I ended up creating the style guide, gathered most of our primary research at the beginning during the concepting phase and found assets that would be a base to focus on for the tri count and texture style. I felt that this was not my job but it wouldn't be done if I didn't do it.

Screen grab of the Style Guide I created

Screen grab of the asset list I produced (with the help of Harriet as I'm not good at Excel)

Perforce Bugs/Fixing:

Week 4 I had to fix our entire perforce level with help of other students outside of our group and tutors as it had not been set up correctly while I was in hospital the week before.

Modelling:

I produced nearly everything large and structural including:

- Modular Kit (Floors, Walls, Archways)
-Second Floor
-Stage
-Loading Deck
-Bar

This was fun but I would have liked to have been able to make some small intricate and decorative props and assets that the Victorians were famous for but I was unable to as no one else was doing the structural elements and I was also working a lot faster than most of my group, some members of our team worked incredibly slowly and inefficiently producing only one asset every 1-2 weeks, so I knew that if I did them myself then they would be done in time for the hand in at an acceptable standard. Also producing them all myself helped insure a house style, even though I shared the materials I was using as well as creating a style guide.

As I had to pick up the assets that other people weren't taking I felt I had to sacrifice on the level of detail and care that I took in both my modelling and texturing to ensure that we had a finished level by the deadline which was frustrating but I recognised that this wasn't the time to make a only few portfolio pieces.

In total I made around 30 assets solely by myself and then collaborated on 6 with Jasmine and then altered some of Justyna's pillars to fit the level.

Dressing The Level:

As I did the modular kit and structural elements I dressed/placed/created a very large percentage of the level with the exception of the bottles in the bar and some of the shelving backstage. I also placed a lot of other group members assets in the level once they imported them. I did enjoy this but I felt that I could have spent this time creating more assets instead of placing everyone's.

These screenshots show the level dressing, I would say that 80-90% of these assets were placed by me.

Creating Substance Materials - Vertex Painting:

-Wood
-Wallpaper
-Brick
-Vertex Painting

Decals:

Created some decals of scratches in wood to make the wood look more realistic and worn.

Lighting:

I started the lighting set up (extremely basic and minimal) with a basic colour and mood, adding a post processing volume and light mass volume, Beth then said she wanted to continue making the lighting which was great as it freed time up for me. I would drop in occasionally and add new lights or change a colour temperature but otherwise Beth did the lighting for the level.

Blueprints:

I recovered the first person blueprint from the start content and then removed the gun, person and cross hair from camera view but that was the most I did there.

I also created a flickering light blueprint/material which we didn't include in the final level as we felt it looked more horror-like and wouldn't fit in with a fully working theatre.

I would have liked to do more blueprints and add game play elements but as I was already doing so much I did not have time.

Lightmaps:

I insured that the lightmap density for the entire level was correct and green (with minimal blue areas). This was quite tedious but vital to ensure a good FPS.

Video Capture:

I created all the camera rails and sequences for our video, which Beth then edited into the final video. Me, Beth and Jasmine collaborated on which shots to take and I then made the rails for each area and captured the video. We had some issues with post processing auto exposure which took some time to work out.

Packaging:

I had to package the entire level which was difficult as I kept running into errors and finding solutions so these were difficult.