Professional Toolkit Evaluation (All Units Evaluated)

Sound Design

This project was certainly challenging. Whilst I have little experience with sound, and next to no experience of protools I defiantly learnt a lot within this unit. I have learnt a variety of skills with recording on different devices, as well as using the features on protools, to create a short sound clip to accompany the narration. I do think I could of done a bit better, but because I did not have as much confidence in sound, especially making mine own I think this set me back. However I know think I have more confidence with sound. I am more aware of it when making videos, and I realise how important it is when you want to achieve an over all high quality production.

Studio Shoot

Being the producer of previous projects being organised and creating a production pack was something that was not alien to me. However, studio shoot was still a challenge, as it is something that was a bigger scale and involved a large amount of people. As well as this, I had to take into consideration that we outsourced an actor, so therefore had to be as professional as possible at all times,

I took on the roles including creating shot lists and call sheet, schedules, as well as making sure the all important risk assessments where completed for the shoot days. I think the shoot days went extremely well. Because we had planned a very structured day we kept to schedule, more so that we had extra time at the end of our main shots to experiment with the actor more. My role on this made me realise the importance of the producer, not just for the crew, but even for the actor.

One main benefit from the studio shoot was it very much preparing me for the planning for the gallery. It build my confidence and communication skills with everyone in the class, which really helped me built a more of a leader when organising the gallery. Of course with every project, there was frustration with contacting people, and making sure people were attending studio shoot sessions, which is something become apparent to you when you are producer.

Overall I did really enjoy the studio shoot. It was something that I had not experienced before, especially with creating sets and outsourcing external actors which we had to find ourselves. In terms of becoming producer in the future, although I am an extremely organised person, the role of the producer is something that important especially in large budget productions and puts pressure on you as it is your job to make sure everything goes smoothly so that no time or money is wasted, and this is something I do not think I would find myself doing in the future. Despite that this was an good experience.


3D Modelling

My confidence levels were very low when first starting 3D modelling on maya. The programme was completely new to me, and I had never used any 3D software prior to these lessons. My first models were something I definitely was not proud of, however with practice in my own time I managed to pick up the basic skills to making a 3D spaceship, one that could actually be put into my unity game.

My best models included the second spaceship I made, as well as the UFO where I learnt to animate as well as model. My favourite part of making the models was actually creating UV maps for them, and then texturing them in photoshop, as this part can really change the other all aesthetics of the model.

I am glad I did the 3D unit as I think it really pushed my technical skills, and even though I am not amazing at modelling yet, it is something I would practice in the future and is something I would use to create art itself rather than just creating them for games.


Interactivity

Again like maya I had never used a game making software before. In terms of scripting, its something that I have seen and looked over in the past, however I have never tried to learn it as I found it very daunting. Although I have a long way to go in terms of understanding scripting, it was interesting to see how logical it was, and how different inputs effected my game.

The lessons were a great starter for making a game, and I really benefiting from them as I do not think I would of had the confidence to try and learn it on my own. However, I do think when we were left to add extra customisations to the game, it really pushed me to get a more in-depth knowledge of how code works, and even unity itself.

My favourite part of creating my game was customising the look of the game. This included making my own background in photoshop, adding new text and buttons to make it overall more aesthetically pleasing (and professional!). Although stressful at times, I think I will use unity in the future, as when I got used to the programme it became more enjoyable making my game.

Texturing the Space Ship

Because I had re-made my spaceship I decided to play around with textures in photoshop. Below are my outcomes.

I made sure to specular map the model, as the surface of it was too shiny. I made it so most of the ship was matt apart from the glass cockpit part.

I used the red spaceship in my game so it would stand out more against the background.

Unity - Customising my game

I did several things to improve the overall look and feel of the game.

In photo shop I created my own background using different paint brushes layer to create a galaxy like space scene. I coded it so that the background would move, so it would appear like the ship is moving through space.

Adding my own text

Main Menu

I created a menu selection by creating different scenes.

I used a manager (scene change) script and the button option which I attached the script to, which when pressed takes me to a selected scene.

 Ship Selection

 I made it so you can select a ship. The red ship is a custom model I made in maya and textured myself in photoshop.  When you press on the button it takes you to the game containing that ship,

Custom Asteroids

I added to the game controller so that a different asteroid can  be spawned in. The second asteroid I created was made in maya.

I changed the settings on the second asteroids to spawn in at different times, and be slightly faster. Because they are smaller and faster, they are harder to shoot, so I set the score to 10 points for each small asteroid you shoot.

I changed the texture to green so it can be easily seen against the background and other asteroids.

I also did other simple things such as change the music on the scenes.

Photography Inspiration 2 - XRAY

My second idea for photography is to possibly make my photographs almost xray  like. I still want to do hybrids however applying this effect to them will work better when working with light. It also will show the relationship of bioengineering and medical practices. 

Brandon Ballengée

Benedetta Bonichi Uses X-Ray Photography to Create New Species

Photography Inspiration - Hybrid Portraits

In terms of my photography one idea I have is to create human animal hybrids. I want to discuss the extent we will go to, to changing ourselves genetically, or eve transplants. The is current research and experimentation with growing human organs in pigs which can then be transplanted into humans.

"animagus" series by Erick Guzman

Unity - Adding audio and finishing the game

Adding sounds to asteroids 

I added audio to my asteroid by adding an audio component to the explosion prefab and then importing the specific audio clip in the inspector. Below I selected PLAY ON AWAKE so the sound clip would only play when the asteroid is shot.  

In the player controller script I added audio.Play();. This allows background music to be added to the overall scene. I selected PLAY ON AWAKE and LOOP so the music would play as soon as the game starts and loops until the game is closed, I can also change the volume and pitch in the inspector.

Score

I created an empty game object and to this I added a gui text called SCORE TEXT, this will show how many the player has scored.

In the script GameController code needs to be added to relate the text to how many times the asteroids are shot and destroyed.

After I added that code it then allowed me to add the score text by dragging it into the score text section in the inspector. This process was repeated for the restart and game overtext.

All text I put into quotation marks will show on the game as that, rather than restartText for example.

And there we are! My basic game is now finished. Now I will try and customise my game to make it a bit more personalised and to learn new game making techniques for myself!