Final Presentation Notes - Project Evaluation

With the matinees rendered out, video editing completed and the project brought to what is basically a close,it was time to create the final presentation to showcase progress, design ideals and overall provide a full breakdown of the project itself. The criteria was as followed;

"You will be examined on your ability to

·         Research and implement the vision of your chosen theme, including, look, lighting, composition

·         Design approach in conversion to real-time game environment

·         Research  and implementation of real-time rendering processes  applicable to the project

·         Scene deliverables, workload, and research and development schedule

Marks will also be given for the successful artistic and technical implementation of the following elements in your final cinematic:

·         Lighting

·         Cinematography, camerawork and in game direction and editing

·         Materials/ Shader application

·         Texturing techniques and their application

·         Appropriate real-time modeling techniques

·         Dynamic/animated elements

·         Post processing and visual effects 

" As quoted from the module Handbook.

The hardest part of this presentation was to try and cram all the past 12 week's progress in to only 10 minutes and in doing so, had to focus almost entirely on the PBR texturing and workflow alongside the UE4 implementation. Covering jut the problems faced and how these were resolved seemed to be far more trouble as enough issue arrised in the project that I had to transition from an animation and blueprint focused project to full study on the PBR workflow and alternative software suites. I was able to take a lot of slides from prior presentations to show alongside each topic covered in the video and this gave it much more focus.

After watching the full 10 minute example video on UDO, i took notes on each area covered alongside the video time management although one thing really stuck out. There seemed to quite the lack of content, focusing on nothing but re-rendered matinee camera pans. All required information seemed to be covered although without reference to back up what was being said, it wasn't possible to take in/ fully understand his work methods.

After writing the full script for my presentation, I had multiple students read through it first to review the content. I had to make a few changes when it came to terminology but it came across as content complete and easy to understand.

To bring the presentation to life and provide a bit more context, I recorded screen grabs and new matinees to showcase every point I spoke about. This may have not been entierly neccersary but it solved a huge issue I was having with prior presentations. As creating my new texturing workflow took me through multiple software suites and failed a countless number of times; attempting to explain the Substance node graphs as well as both the good/ bad points of node based texturing, it was far too complicated for someone who hadn't yet touched the software suite.

I feel this was essential to showcase my main node graphs in both Substance Designer and UE4 as having it visually there gives the viewer a reference point for every point i make without me having to go in to very specific details.

A screengrab of the Sony Vegas editing file;

I quite like the video presentation format although im not too sure if i prefer it over the normal, spoken format. Video wise, it ensures you can cover every point without worry and without hardly any stress/ anxiety but on the other hand, it takes much longer and if you're a perfectionist, finding, timing and adding suitable media is far from a quick task.

Overall, i very much like the final product although the texturing skills and new workflow are far more benficial than anything else i could imagine. The asset itself is simply a byproduct of this; a way to trial and put the new methodology in to practise. With my new knowledge, i hope to further improve my texturing ability and create more original MadMax vehicle concepts in the future.

Before the project, i barely understood the differance between a metalness map and roughness map. Now ive taken the one skill that i had been struggling with since the PBR transition and i believe have made it one of my strongest assets. I find many people focusing on simply how to create an end result that buffers their grade but personally, the assets we produce whilst at university are all part of the learning experience. Some should fail and we should learn from these mistakes, not take easy alternatives that teach us next to nothing beyond the time efficiency of taking short-cuts.

Personally, i don't value the vehicle anywhere near as much as the knowledge. The point of this project turned out to be; "Create a new and effective PBR texturing workflow", the vehicle being a proof of concept will find a place in my portfolio and showreel for now but it's still very much disposible and there will be very little love loss when it comes time to replace it. Until then, i'll use it as a texturing and modelling benchmark that needs to be improved on in future projects.

The full video link; (Also submitted via hand-in)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D9ZewgHjPM

The final vehicle renders;