Sunburst Express

Time Taken- 5 months

Role- 3D Environment Artist

Tools and Software Used- Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Substance Designer and Unreal Engine

Brief- The Final Major Project allows you the opportunity to make a significant contribution to a major project in a specialist role. In FMP Element 2 you will continue to work in teams to create a Production Blueprint and then go on to produce your Final Outcome. Though you will be part of a team with many shared experiences and materials your submission should capture your own individual experience of working on the project and how your skills and specialisms contributed to the outcome.

Process, Challenges and Solutions -
For this project I made around 40+ assets, some big some smaller in scale. However, I recognize that my time management skills throughout the start of the unit haven’t been as refined as I would’ve hoped. While there was some improvement compared to the previous element, there remains room for enhancement. The change I made to my project going from 6 whole compartments to 2 compartments came much too late. I decided to make the change as I remember right after the winter break which was much too late. I should’ve kept my goals realistic and realized at the time that my schedule was way too hectic and the compartments even if completed on time would be a lot emptier and not as good as they could be.

This shortfall in time management and poor decision-making did hurt my project as in the end I didn’t have enough time to fix minor and major lighting issues in my scene, hindering the attainment of desired lighting. Additionally, I didn’t get enough feedback from peers while making of the environment rather got feedback at the latter stages of the project, a realization that this could’ve been avoided if I had communicated just a little bit better. However, compared to the last units my communication with my tutors and those around me has increased greatly during this element I have sought after advice and critique at various stages and have tried my best to improve my scene based on the feedback. Moving forward, I am committed to having better time management skills and keep improving my communication skills so I can grow and improve as an artist.

As I navigated the complexities of creating a 3d game environment from scratch I encountered several challenges that tested the limits of my technical skills as well as my knowledge of more software-related issues. For example, the issue of the camera being out of focus during rendering, posed an obstacle at the end, resulting in some of the elements that I worked hard on being not completely visible and being blurred.
Similarly, my struggles with glass materials (not the glasses but the bottles mainly), particularly the Hennessy bottle, exposed gaps in my knowledge of material properties and setting up reflective material in unreal engine. Although other bottles came out looking translucent, the Hennessy bottle was blurred out due to the label not properly being visible making that part of the render inconsistent. I have an idea through which this problem can be solved though, and I am determined to fix it in time for the showcase.

Learning is not a linear progression but rather a dynamic one, considering how this project started I always knew the journey to the end was never going to be an easy one and that there would be ups and downs along the way, although I ran into a lot of problems I did manage to fix and learn from each of them and also trying out new techniques such as Ncloth, Xgen, blueprint creation(spline, camera shakes) not knowing if they would succeed or not (Some of them didn’t such as Xgen carpet which could not be converted into polygons or NURBS). Despite these challenges, I persevered, embracing the nature of developing an environment and emerging with a better skillset (although I look forward to honing it even further).

Working on 40+ assets made me realize I had to improve my organizational skills as well to not get lost along the way. Creating separate folders for modeled assets, substance painter files, Zbrush files, and low and high poly assets for baking. Also, just within Unreal Engine, I had to keep organizing my content browser and making multiple folders for each asset with mesh and texture maps. I also learned to keep changing and adapting to my schedule as I progressed through the project because, in the previous element, I did not do that properly.

Target Audience- AAA game companies

Tutor Feedback- Your 3D interior environment of the train, drawing inspiration from the opulence of the Orient Express, showcases a commendable level of visual sophistication. Your dedication to achieving high standards is evident in the quality of your work, reflecting a strong yet evolving skill set.

Throughout the project, you demonstrated effective self-management, although there were moments where the scope of the project seemed to overwhelm initially. However, your ability to adapt and respond to feedback by refining and scaling back the project speaks volumes about your resilience and determination.

Your proactive approach to seeking out knowledge independently underscores your commitment to personal and professional growth. While there are areas for enhancement, particularly in set dressing and lighting, the overall quality of your demonstrated skills remains impressive.