Production Diary/ Reflective blog

 

Throughout my programming assignment I feel that I have made a lot of progress and learnt a lot.

The first thing I did for this assignment was looking through tutorials and learning about both of the programs Maya and Unreal Engine 4. I felt that throughout the project I have learnt more and more about these two pieces of software.

I used Maya within my project for the modelling and animation, which was useful because it helped me with making my walking animations for my character and the modelling of my house, pool hall, pool table and cues.

 

The first thing I want to reflect on is my modelling. I think that this is a good starting point because most of my progress I feel is during this part of the project. The first thing I modelled for my game was my pool table. With my pool table I first made the main bit of the table and then extruded the table legs and finally made the cushions and the pockets. Overall, I feel that this was a good model because I took my time and made sure that it looks professional and as accurate as possible by having dimensions similar to a normal table and making the pockets a normal size so that when I import the pool balls and the cues for the table it will look realistic.

 

The second thing I want to reflect on this year is my animation. I feel that this year my animation has improved, also Maya is a new piece of software that I have only started using this year so both modelling and animation this year have been completely new learning curves. I feel that I have improved because I have made ball animations and walking animations which is good practice and as the year has gone on I personally feel that the quality of my animations have improved. Overall this year, I have enjoyed animations because I have worked with various different objects and even characters that I need to animate. This has been exciting and enjoyable because I have learnt about all the physics behind the animations and how to include and import them into my games.

 

The third thing I want to reflect on this year is programming. I feel that this year my programming skills have got better because I have been using a new and more advanced piece of software to do this called Unreal Engine 4, which is a game engine used to create games by various different game designers. I feel that my time this year using Unreal Engine 4 has been useful and enjoyable because I have learnt a new platform and have learnt new techniques such as bridging two materials together and various others. This is useful because it widens my skill level and knowledge of different programming code and will help me in future projects with being able to adapt to using new/ unknown software faster so that my work can be done more efficiently as time moves on and I practice further.

 

Overall, I feel that this year has been a success in my progression with different knowledge and creation of different projects. I feel that this year has been a success because in modelling I have made a variety of different projects using Maya which is a piece of software I haven’t used before and the models that I haven’t made before such as; plant pots and plants, a house, pool hall, pool table, pool cue and various others. This has made me feel more confident because everything that I have modelled this year has been a success and came out the way I wanted it to.

I feel that this year has been a success with animation because I have been using Maya which I have only used this year and have modelled and learnt new physics within animation increasing my knowledge of this. The main animation project that I have done this year is a ball rolling and character walking animation. I feel that these animations are useful to me because the game I am creating is a Pool and Snooker game which the ball rolling animation is useful because it will be used with the Pool and Snooker balls in the game, also the walking animation will be useful because the character will not only be walking around the table but will be walking to his house and walking around other places also.

I feel that this year have been a success with animation because I have been using a new piece of software called Unreal Engine 4 that I haven’t used before therefor using this and new pieces of code has improved my knowledge on programming and has helped me throughout with the aid of tutorials and classwork I have been able to learn new skills such as AI coding, random movement for AI, interaction with different characters and Pool/ Snooker physics which have all aided me with my game project and have allowed me to make my game more advanced.

 

Overall I think my work this year has been a success because I have been using new software and skills in both programming, animation and modelling to overcome obstacles, making my game better and more professional while also using tutorials and lessons to improve my skills in all three of these fields and also getting to know more about the different professions and jobs you can have in the games industry such as; Journalist, programmer, animator, designer and various others which has made me more intrigued with making games and experiencing new and more advanced ways of improving my skills and abilities and I hopefully make more game and increase my knowledge of the industry further.