Over the past school year I had the opportunity to take Digital Design and Animation II, or DDA II, which is an entire course based around 3D modeling, using Autodesk's 3Ds Max. I have learned a lot over the past year from this class, and I hope that I can use the knowledge I gained in order to create some really cool things in the future, but my main take away from this class are not the skills I learned, but a newfound appreciation for people who 3D model professionally, I can't begin to describe the number of things I have messed up on while 3D modeling, despite having previous experience, it really gives me a sense of appreciation towards the people who do this for movies and video games, because detail driven and intense it can be. The most rewarding experience from taking this class was the opportunity to work in 3Ds Max, good 3D modeling software is really expensive, and to have the opportunity to work in a program that closely related to the industry standard, Autodesk Maya, is a really unique opportunity that everyone interested in 3D modeling gets to experience. I hope that in the future I can have more opportunities to practice my modeling skills again, as well as learn about the more detailed aspects of 3D modeling that were not covered in the course such as, fluid dynamics, ray tracing, or experimenting with more rendering types. Although I don't plan on pursuing 3D modeling as a career, I do want to go into the game industry as a programmer, so it is nice to have an understanding of the intricacies of 3D modeling so that I can, hopefully, perform better as a programmer when coding interactions the game will have with it's various models. I would like to conclude this reflection by thanking my teacher and my classmates who helped me over the course of this year get better at something that I enjoy.
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Over the past school year, I have had the pleasure of taking Advanced Game Art and Design as a class, and I have learned so much from it. This class was something I had looked forward to ever since my freshman year, and I can say it did not disappoint, from audio and video editing to creating 3D games, i have enjoyed every last bit of it. I know that I have complained in the past about some of the topics and applications I had to use in class, but that does not mean that I did not enjoy learning the new materials. AGAD has been an emotional and mental roller coaster for me, but it was the hardships that I faced in this class that, I think, have prepared me for what lies ahead, my main takeaway from this class is that things can and will go wrong, but it is up to you to be prepared for those situations so that you don't implode from stress or anything else. Although I learned a lot, the experiences I value most from this class are not any of the materials I learned, but the interactions that I have med with my classmates, the people in my class are some of the brightest, most creative people I know, and over the course of the year they have made me realize just how meaningful a second opinion can be, there have been moments when I have been stuck trying to fix a problem and someone will give me an idea to fix the problem that I had never even thought of, in addition to that, I am also really looking forward to what my classmates accomplish in the future because they are all really talented. In terms of the future, I know that the programming skills I built in this class will help as I try to get my degree in Computer Science in the next four years, and although I only have experience in one programming language, I believe that the logical thinking and problem solving skills that came along with my programming knowledge will prove to be useful not only in my pursuit of Computer Science, but in life as well. I am proud to have had the opportunity to have taken Advanced Game Art and Design this year, and I would like to end this journey off by thanking everyone who traveled on it with me for helping me realize that making video games is what I want to do with my life.
Over the past four years, from Sci-Vis to AGAD, my teacher Mr.B has never given up on me, even after failing his class sophomore year, and for that I thank him. Mr.B has encouraged me to grow over the past four years, and it is because of his classes that I have realized the career path that I want to follow in life, I want to program video games, and if it wasn't for Mr.B's class, I would have never figured out that I am pretty good at programming. I know for a fact that I was not the easiest student to teach at times and that I caused Mr.B a fair share of unwanted stress, but he stuck with me and helped me get it together so that I could get to were I am today. I may not always be happy with the amount work that Mr.B gives me, or the amount of time given to do said work, but I have always been thankful in Mr.B's belief in my ability to do the work, despite prior evidence not being in my favor. Although I may not be able to properly express just how grateful I am, I can undoubtedly say thank Mr.B for not only believing in me, but also for shaping me into the person I am today.
It has been do or die for me in this final quarter of the school year, I and think i have just managed to survive. Between trying to rig and animate in 3Ds Max and working in Unity, I thought I might go insane trying to get to the end of the school year, but I managed to keep my sanity intact and just scrape by. Although I do not enjoy rigging personally, I can say that I have a deep respect for those who do it professionally because every time I start working in rigging it feels like I can never do anything correctly, and if I do actually do something right it is only a matter of time before something goes wrong. Working in Unity is something I enjoy, but do to many tutorials being outdated I really struggled to get things done while working in Unity this time around, but that will not stop me from trying to improve my Unity prowess going forward. In conclusion, quarter four had it ups and downs, but it definitely could have been worse.
Looking back on the fourth quarter so far, I can say that, in terms of the content I learned, working with cameras was something I found extremely difficult. I understood all the properties of the cameras, but I had a really hard time learning a lot of the practical aspects of cameras such as the different movement types and modifying the FOV. I can't really say that I overcame these problems, but I did learn from the experience, so I hope that I will not make those same mistakes in the future. I also want to briefly mention rigging, although I already have a decent amount of experience with rigging, it remains a subject that I still have trouble with today. In conclusion, the most difficult part of this quarter so far has been working with cameras.
Shadow Fight 2 is one of my personal favorites when it comes to mobile games, as it was one of the first mobile games to truly hook me in. Shadow Fight 2 is a 2D fighting game were you plays as Shadow, the main character, as he tries to unlock the Gates of Shadows, by defeating six powerful warriors. The game's story mode plays out over seven acts in which you learn more about what is really going on in the story. The game play is actually pretty solid, with the controls being fairly simple and the combat being really fun, in Shadow Fight 2 there is a wide range of weapons, armor, and magic that you can equip to you character, but some of that equipment is locked behind a premium currency that you have to buy with real money, this issue isn't really prevalent in the special edition of the game,which cost extra, due to the fact you can earn the premium currency in game. The game does have some online content, but I am not well versed in that aspect of the game play, due to it not being in the special edition. In conclusion, Shadow Fight 2 is a really good mobile fighting game that still holds up today despite it being released in 2013.
In coming weeks I will be once again be rigging in 3Ds Max, and I am not excited. Rigging has never been on of my strong suits when in comes to 3D modeling and it usually frustrates me to no end, but I'm hoping that with my previous experience that I'll be able to survive the horrors of rigging. Rigging, for those who don't know, is the act of creating a skeleton for 3D models that will allow them to move, and if done properly, it can create something really cool, but if done poorly, weird things start to happen when you go to move your model. Although my past experience might give me an edge with rigging, my goal with working with rigging this time around is to just survive the impending frustration.
Despite the short amount of time spent on lighting, I enjoyed learning about lighting in 3Ds Max. It was interesting to see what the different types of lights did, as well as what happened when I played around with their respective settings. At first is was fairly difficult for my to determine how strong some of the lights in in a scene should be, but as time passed I found myself getting better at balancing the different lights in a scene. In conclusion, I enjoyed the time I spent working with and learning about lighting, despite the short amount of time I had to do so.
During third quarter i went through a lot of things that challenged my knowledge of various applications as well as my sanity. Working with UVW mapping in 3ds Max was probably the most difficult thing that I had to do this quarter, although 3D modeling may not be my forte, I am comfortable enough with it to get my work done, but UVW mapping is something I just do not feel comfortable doing. The highlight of third quarter would have to be working in Unity once again, due to the fact that I enjoy coding games. I look foward to fourth quarter as I will continue to be working in Unity, but I will dread my return to the wonderful world of rigging.
As we end our end our work in 3D modeling, I can say that I will miss it. Although, I found UVW mapping extremely difficult do to how detail orientated it can be, but despite my dislike for UVW, I do in fact like doing work with textures. When exploring the different materials available in 3Ds Max, I found myself playing with the various settings that different materials had just to see what would happen, admittedly I may have spent a little to much time playing around with the various material, but I don't regret it dot to the fact that playing around with those materials helped me gain experience with texturing. In conclusion, I am happy with what I accomplished with my time in 3D modeling.
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The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools
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