It’s now a few days after we delivered our end of pre-production presentation. Since then there has been a time to think about the past few weeks along with the feedback we got during the presentation as well as thinking about the coming weeks ahead.
The presentation itself went better than any of us could have expected and the feedback we received was more than beneficial and useful. Though some comments in regards to the standard of the work in relation to ‘next gen’ felt a bit out of place. None the less, the rest was useful for us and I feel that the whole group was able to walk away knowing what to do next. The prototype that we demoed during the presentation was a good talking point and something that we were proud to show off. Sadly, we were unable to get all the features and elements in that we would of liked but that can’t be helped. This included the custom rig and meant that we had to go forward with the placeholder rig and animations. This wasn't to much of an issue however as I was still able to showcase the rig during the presentation. Putting the rig into the Unity scene will now be a top priority for myself and Joe in the coming weeks.
Additionally, the environment animations were not implemented in the prototype again due to time constraints. The bridge however, which was one of the main focus points of the demo and the environment animations was put in and handled by Joe through some creative use of code. The result was impressive and gives me a starting point for the later animations. Myself and Joe plan to sit down to discuss how to handle all of them be it through code or key-frames animations. This also applies to the character and bosses with cloth and hair simulations. We need to discuss and test the best approach to these. What I have started to work on in the last few days is the animations for the sword and shield that Monika created as part of the initial level. Initial plans for the animations pitched to the team have shown a good response and the rig for these objects is already created. The rig however, is simply one bone placed within each of the objects and then parented as needed. It ensures that when animation I have a continuous point of origin and pivot.
The sword and shield created by Monika with a simple rig applied
The last few weeks have been a roller coaster ride as I’ve continued to deal with an ongoing and ever growing amount of tasks and stress. What I've learned most importantly however though is even though there is always a lot to deal with at any time, how you manage them is key. Though being ill, even still now, caused the greatest disfunction to my work I continued to maintain organisation where possible. Walking away from these past few weeks and into the next I already know what and where I need to improve and focus my time and energy along with what I’ll take away. Education is crucial to anyone and now more than ever I need to focus on that. The dissertation draft submission deadline is soon and therefore I’ll focus time on that to ensure a successful submission and utilise the chance for feedback. After that it will be clear sailing on the development of the tasks I have for Game 15. The group are due to have a meeting in the coming days to discussion the feedback and what we have all got to put forward now a few days later after time to reflect. It’s an exciting time ahead of us and I’m very keen to get working to a higher standard than ever before.
With the player character rig to be rebuilt and finished along with new features added, the bosses to look forward to rigging and a whole set of animations for all to be key-framed. There is a lot to be done even for myself. Furthermore, I’m still passionate about completely a few personal projects for my portfolio and those will need to be factored into my time management. From here on out one thing is clear. If I want to keep on track to reaching my learning outcomes and laid out goals then I need to step up my game and recover at great speed from the time lost during those weeks of illness. It’s also clear that I as an individual need to continue to push myself to develop myself further than ever before. It will be a busy, hectic and challenging few weeks ahead but ones that will push, test and develop me more than ever before and that is something that I’m extremely excited about. The prospect of creating a new foundation to my skill set that is to a much higher standard, one hopefully at a level of employment is very motivating.
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