In this evaluation I will be looking at all of my work from Unit 8 and will be going over how I think I did in the project as a whole and what I think I could have done better. I will compare what I had planned in my proposal to what I ended up producing, looking at what stayed the same and what was different. I will look at my initial research and go over how effective I think it was to my progress to a final idea. I will also look at my initial ideas and go over the techniques I used and say if I think I should or shouldn’t have used more to come to my final idea. I will look at my final presentation boards and say what I like or don’t like about them and what I would or wouldn’t change about them. Then I will look at my progress in the project as a whole and say what I liked about my chosen profession and whether or not I want to change it for future projects or whether I will stick with it. I will also look at my peer reviews and how they helped me stay up to date with my work leading up to deadlines.
In this project, I chose to approach the forgotten them by looking at it historically. In my research into the theme I looked at different historic events and eras to give myself a better idea of what I could do in the project. I looked at ancient rome and the world wars. Here are some examples of the research that I did into history:
Roman Armour
Architecture
While I was doing this research, I was particularly interested in roman armour and roman architecture. I liked the idea of creating some concept art linking to ancient rome.
This research is what informed the development of my initial ideas. The idea that I went with in my initial idea was to create two roman character concepts that would go onto 2 boards, one of them would have been the characters in black and white, and the other would have been the characters in colour. That way there would have been a clear representation of my development process for the characters. (I stuck with this black and white/coloured concept board idea in my final idea.) I was also going to create a monument scene with greek architecture that would have went onto 4 boards, the monument in the scene would have been a monolith. 2 of the boards would have been the design process of the monument and parts of the scene like the patterns for the walls and any other objects that will be in the scene. I later changed this idea in my proposal.
In my proposal, I changed my idea from 6 boards to 4 boards of concept art. I said that I would create 2 roman soldier inspired characters, a shrine object, and a monolith concept in a cel-shaded art style. And that I would display each concept next to a black and white version of itself to show how I came to my final design. I changed my idea because I thought that if I stuck with the environment boards, it would be more time consuming and I might not have been able to get it done in time. One other thing I changed were the colours for the monolith and shrine concepts. I did this simply because I thought that the colours I chose didn’t look very good. This idea links to the theme as it is concept art of roman soldiers which are historic so in a way they are forgotten because they aren’t around anymore. The shrine concept links to forgotten as it is roman architecture which is rarely used anymore, and its meant to be a tribute to a fallen roman soldier. The monolith relates to the theme forgotten because it is of unknown origin with a script in an unknown language.
In my developed research, I looked at some examples of cel-shaded art to give me an idea of what I should be going for when creating my concept art. I also looked at different development techniques like photo-bashing and silhouetting. I also found some examples of concept art designs and some reference images for any photo-bashes I would do. I also went around some of the classrooms and took pictures of previous exhibition boards to give myself a better idea of how I could layout my exhibition boards for final presentation. This research informed the development of my ideas as I kept referring back to certain videos and pictures to help me with the techniques that I used when creating my test pieces. In my ideas and tests, I think that I managed my time mostly well. I created checklists for each week so that I knew what I was doing and when.
Then at the end of the week I would write a small paragraph going over what I think went well that week and if I had any outstanding work that I set for that week.
I would also create a small checklist at the beginning of each lesson organizing what I would do in the time that I had. I did this so that I would actually have a plan for each lesson instead of just doing everything in a random order as I went along. I used a variety of different development techniques for the production of my test pieces and ideas. This helped me to develop my ideas quicker ready for the development of my final pieces. In my development log, I used the same project management techniques as I did in my ideas and tests. I think that I displayed the production of my final pieces clearly, although I think that I could have used a bit more screenshots. The management of my project went well with the planning for each week so that I knew exactly what I needed to do each week. I think that I could have done more planning for my exhibition boards because I didn’t have a lot of time to get it done, although I think that the turnout of my exhibition boards is good and they clearly show what I have done in the project.
Throughout this project, I have learnt how to effectively use silhouetting to come to a design, I have also learnt a few more techniques in Photoshop that I didn’t know before. I think that the turnout of my final pieces is good. I like how they are all unique and have a nice colour scheme. I found the cel-shaded art style difficult to create, although if I put in a bit more time, I think that I could have done it better. If I could do it again, I would choose a different art style and maybe do four characters, rather than two characters and two objects. My peer and tutor feedback throughout this project has been helpful. I think it was helpful to have a review from someone other than a teacher. Because that way they will say things that they see outstanding in my work. It was helpful for me as it let me know what I needed to add to my work and let me know what I was doing well. In my next project I plan to change my area of profession to something other than 2D art.
Level 3 Games Development 1st Year 