Final Project Post Mortem

Overview of project

The original concept to undertake in this project was to create a 3D character, texture, rig and animate it to a professional standard, after a matter of weeks researching into how much work would be needed to complete this and having meetings with my tutors I decided to change my final project into something more manageable but just as challenging.

The new concept to undertake in this project was to create a 3D character model that would be created and textured as if it would be used for animation, while following the theme of the uncharted games, this boiled down to theme, assets, texture resolution and poly count.

I began the first half of this project solely focusing on male anatomy, poly counts of 3D characters and topology for animation. All of this boiled down to help me begin to create my own 3D character. I began with designing my character, focusing heavily on the main protagonist of the Uncharted series, Nathan Drake.

Leading up to the Christmas break I was able to do my research in male anatomy and topology for animation and I got a start modelling my character in 3DS Max, I wanted to create a base mesh in Max and export it into Zbrush so that I didn't have the challenge of trying to create a human form from scratch in a program I did not yet know how to use.

Following my project time line I managed to get my base model completed before the seminar presentation, this allowed me to show where I was in the project and where I was heading next, the feedback I received was that I may be going off track because my model was not looking how I set up in my project proposal, I was also told that I could have been further down the 3D artists pipeline had I followed it correctly, this is where I feel I could have saved a lot of time if I did the relevant research and stayed to it. Upon researching the pipeline I discovered a much more efficient method of creating my model, as my model was not going to have removable clothes the mesh underneath was not needed, which meant that all the work I had done beforehand was irrelevant. However due to me keeping with my time line I was at the exact point in which my model was meant to be finished, meaning that I did not lose any time to work on the next part of the project.

I didn't really encounter any hardships during the clothes sculpting, but I did learn a great deal about the software I was using, i discovered various tools that made creating clothes extremely simple in Zbrush, this helped a lot to boost myself forward in my time line which gave me extra time to work on re-topology.

Most of my most serious issues that I encountered came from UV unwrapping and texturing, these came in the form of, visible seams, broken textures and when exporting it to unity, a shiny model, all these issues were fixed with the help of the 3DS Max forums, experimentation and other websites with useful information detailing to 3D modelling.

What went well

• I have completed what I set out to do, create a 3D character model following the theme of Uncharted, fully textured.
• I have learnt new and more efficient methods of using 3DS Max.
• I have learnt the fundamentals and some advanced techniques of Zbrush in a short amount of time.
• I have learnt new UV unwrapping techniques.
• I have learnt how to create a texture for a face from a photograph.
• All problems encountered were fixable and did not halt progress on the final product for too long.

What could have went better

• Some of the choices I made in terms of creating my character could have been changed, e.g: Using a pre-existing mesh and manipulating it to what I want.
• More research of creating textures and more time into creating those textures.
• Overall more research before I began the practical.
• Clarifying my marking criteria earlier in the production of this project.

Final Thoughts

In the end, what I have created is what I set out to achieve, where there are some areas I wish I could have had more time in, or allocated time differently, I am happy with the final outcome. I put 110% effort into this project and I feel that it shows in my final product.

This entire project has helped me to see what it takes to become a 3D artist and what I need to do as a junior to excel into becoming a veteran of this work. I know there could be a lot of things that could have went better with this project as well as things that have went better than expected, I have learnt to have an eye for detail in anatomy and creation of assets as well creating organic models. 

At the end of the day I am pleased with the outcome of this project and it has only fuelled my desire to continue to create 3D characters and truly get better and better at this craft. 

- Jonathan Willetts.