Evaluation
This page contains both the Pitch evaluation as well as the overall project evaluation, for the pitch I have added the video as well as documents with my evaluation of it and at the bottom I have added my Project evaluation.
Pitch
The pitch Is a video/presentation where I go through my plans for this FMP. Overall I believe I did ok with this presentation however Information and images were missing which in my opinion were vital to help people understand exactly what it is I'm doing but also how I'm going to do it.
Pitch Power point document
Pitch Evaluation
On Friday the 18th of march 2022 I presented my FMP pitch in one of the college meeting rooms, I showed the presentation to my peers and I showcased what my project was such as what I wanted to do, how I would do it and etc.. My peers at the end of the pitch gave me useful feedback to help me improve my project moving forward. The main outcome of doing this was getting the green light to continue the project but another outcome was to find the areas that I wasn't so sure on and in the end thanks to the feedback given I was able to see those areas.
At the beginning of my presentation I was nervous speaking in front of my peers but I was also worried no one would like my idea but during the presentation I gradually composed myself and was able to present I a more professional way. My peers seemed interested in what I was doing and at the end they all gave me needed feedback.
This experience has good and bad elements to it and they have helped me improve my work moving forward but this allowed me to see how presenting an idea in the industry would be like but it also allowed me to see what kind of response Id get from it as well so it had a good amount of payoffs. The flaws mainly stem from what didn't go well in the presentation, due lack of memory and time management not everything was on the PowerPoint or wasn't in enough detail such as a full swot analysis, timescale, research plan, List of high priority assets to low priority assets. However I managed to effectively talk about the project and areas that were missing but it isn't as good to just say it. I think the personation went well but areas could have been done better.
Overall things went the way they did as I focused to much on certain section and not others, one of the issues I had was finding names for the assets and that took up way to much time so I know now if it takes to long to find the name of an asset ill should just give it a random name but a name that is similar to whatever the asset is. with the feedback given to me its clear that my overall knowledge needed a little boost, some areas needed to be done and I needed the help to remember that, now that I do its allowed me to begin making the proper changes to improve my work.
I leant that I need to keep my cool and not panic as its only a presentation, I learnt that I need to spend my time more wisely when doing my work as If I kept spending ages doing one thing I'd fall behind and risk leaving out key areas of information. I need to take my time more when looking at what it is I need to do as I often just jump into the work without actually looking at what needs to be done. I need to look up more tutorials and practice more with ,modelling, UV mapping and texturing and due to the amount of spare time I have at home I am able to spend plenty of time doing this.
If I had the ability to do this presentation again I would depend more time gathering reference images as well as thoroughly plan out what I need to add to each slide, I would take more care with my work moving forward so that I can convey my ideas more effectively and clearly. My skills will improve as this method allows me to look more into time management and clear research, what I mean by clear research is that by taking my time and getting relevant information I can work better and to a level I wouldn't normally.
Pitch Feedback
After presenting my Pitch I received questions from my peers and lecturer asking me about areas of my project I didn't explain thoroughly or at all. The feedback showcases the areas I was strong in communicating but also the areas that need to be discussed and shown. Using the feedback I will make changes to my website showing what the assets I want to make are but also list them in importance ranging from most important to least important. I aim to follow and meet all the areas I can improve upon such as a time plan, how I will do primary research, what will the final output be and etc.
Project Evaluation
Over the course of these 13 weeks I have been working hard on the FMP this evaluation allows me to reflect back on this entire year but also the 13 weeks of this project. For my evaluation I will be using the Gibbs reflective cycle as I am quite used to using this method when doing project evaluations.
Description
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At the beginning of this FMP all of us were asked to come up with an idea we'd like to do for our projects we did this at college and received feedback on our initial ideas. Our lecturer helped us finalise our ideas and in the end after a lot of conversation I decided to create a Blacksmith/forge inspired by Ancient Japan, This scene would include the equipment used within these buildings but also some extra items such as the Katana and the Kunai. When I came up with this Idea I was sceptical on the ability to create this scene however after talking with my lecturer and doing some initial reference gathering I realised that making this scene was entirely possible. Overall I wanted to create something different from my peers but I also wanted to test myself and get more confident modelling as I heavily doubted my modelling ability.​ This scene would allow me to create assets I never would have attempted before and by doing this it would allow me to not only gain confidence it would allow me to create something I could actually look at and say I am proud of.
Feeling
Throughout this FMP I was feeling pretty worried as I was thinking I was falling behind or wasting time but after taking a step back and calming down I got my head on straight and maintained a steady and happy workflow, I still worried now and again but once I had the initial part of the project started I just continued to build from that idea and add to it. Before I started this project I knew it was going to test me but I became more irritated with myself as I had no idea on what I wanted to create, I didn't know what I wanted to do or how I would even attempt it, but after talking with my peers as well as getting advice from my lecturer I came up with the forge Idea and I gradually became more calm and focused. My peers also shared this worried like mind-set as they also didn't exactly know what to do, they had different ideas but didn't know how to make them a reality so at the beginning they also shared my mind-set. When the project was in the main stages of research and early production everyone became more focused and calm as they all knew what it was they aimed to create but also how to do that. My initial thoughts of worry became more thoughts of enjoyment as I wanted to test myself and make something cool, I thought the project was tough but I kept my head down and focused on the enjoyment I had as I wanted to create something that's rarely seen within games so after my initial worry I became composed and eager to make something amazing.
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Evaluation
There were good and bad moment when doing this project starting with the bad. While making some of the assets some of them took me a lot of time to create some of them took me days due to their complexity I became quite frustrated while making the Katana and the Bellow box because of the shapes they had on them. This issue resulted in me not being able to UV map or texture all of my assets as the original plan was to model everything then UV map them to then be texture but due to the lack of time I had once all the assets were created I had to cut those two stages out. Another thing that was bad was the fact that my modelling software Maya would sometimes crash and wipe my save files while I was making some of the more complex models this happened when I made the Kunai, katana and bellow box it did set me back and did make me feel like giving up. Some of my research and pre-production took longer than originally planned but they were minor things that I quickly managed to sort out but the main issues came from Maya. Moving to the good parts of this project I enjoyed the research I gathered before starting the production as It allowed me to consider many options on things to include for this project, the research also allowed me to feel more confident in myself as I had made sure everything was relevant to what I wanted to create and this further allowed me to maintain a steady and effective workflow. Even though some models took more time than originally thought the final result was entirely worth all the struggle, the assets looked like they belonged within the setting Id chosen and after looking at them all I felt more confident in myself as I doubted being able to make them at the beginning.
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The research process went well at the beginning but I had a few stumbles now and again while trying to verify some of the information I had these were small issues and didn't cause much hassle and thanks to them I managed to get research that was one relevant to what it was I was doing, but this also allowed me to get research that was high in detail. The pre-production stage went well to as I knew what it was I wanted to add, by doing this It meant that when it came to the modelling stage I would be able to create assets that didn't differ from the references I had gathered meaning I was staying on task but also maintain relevance. The production stage went mostly well as my early assets went exactly as planned, I made sure to make the easy assets first then build up to the more difficult assets. In my opinion this allowed me to keep a nice mind-set but it also helped me raise my confidence level so that when it came to making something challenging I didn't just do I give up. There were things that didn't go well however like I stated earlier during the research stage some of it took longer to verify then I wanted but by it taking longer I had research that was accurate. moving to the pre-production there are some things that are missing that could have proven to be very beneficial such as a time plan, a time plan would have allowed me to set certain assets with a time limit and by adding colours such as green yellow and red I could have shown the progression of how the assets were coming along. I feel that by not adding this I missed out on some much needed work. Lastly the production due to assets taking way too long to create I missed out on the opportunity to UV map and Texture my assets this in my opinion takes away from a lot of the detail that could have been shown on the assets. I knew that some assets could be a pain however I did underestimate just how much. During this whole situation some of my peers were giving me advice on how to tackle some of my issues however it was my lecturer who I found to be the most helpful as he was able to quickly give me advice and help that allowed me to finish the assets I was creating. He sat by me and told me to use a range of tools that allowed me to then crate the things I was struggling with. ​​​
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Analysis
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I think things didn’t go as planned on this project due to me being too all over place I think that I focused my attention on things that maybe weren’t as important as others and as a result my work suffered from it, I think that with a better plan and pre-production my work may have been to a higher standard then it currently is. The areas that went well clearly show were my attention was focused and due to that It resulted in some good high detail work. By focusing on certain areas I managed to have work that was in great detail or work that was useful, by having the research I had I could properly think about my ideas and select what would fit the scene’s theme. In my opinion I think the reason some things went well is because I wanted to be safe than sorry and as a result in key areas of my work such as the theory and early production I managed to have a clear sense of what it was I was doing. Looking back I can see that I was to focused on parts of my work that weren’t as important as I originally thought and I know now that had I spent some of that time doing more pre-production and production maybe more could have been done. I think that having more feedback from my peers and lecturer could have helped me more to understand areas of my work that weren’t up to scratch when compared to others, had I asked for more feedback it would have improved my knowledge more which could have resulted in me making some changes that would have benefited my project.
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Conclusion
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From this project I’ve learnt a decent amount that being always have a backup plan even if you’re confident in your original plan, be realistic with your ideas, further improve time management and keep a consistent workflow. Knowing all of those now allow me to further improve me knowledge but by seeing the areas I failed in I can now look back on them with a sense of hope and joy as I can learn from it and improve upon it. I think this project could have been more positive for me had I had made improvements to my Pre-production, had I made extra plans and found other methods to help me plan out what I aimed to do I think some of the issues I face wouldn’t have been so bad. Moving forward its clear to me that I still need to work on my modelling skills but my attention should be mainly focused on working on UV mapping , texturing and improving my skills in Unreal as I need those skills within professional games company’s and right now I don’t have those skills. Another thing I could have done was ask my peers, friends and lecturer throughout the project if what I was making was relevant to my idea, had I have been more open and asked for some more advice and help maybe the project would have been a little bit easier for me.
Action Plan
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If I ever had to do this project again with the same ideas I would look back on the last year more thoroughly so that I can see areas that I previously needed to work on to help me further improve my production process during this fmp. Another thing I would change would probably be the assets I create, next time I would make some design changes but also I’d probably add some if I had the time. Lastly I’d try to make time to learn how to UV map my assets and then learn how to texture them. The skills I will develop will obviously be my modelling as I’d be attempting to make assets more in tune with my theme but I’d be also learning how to properly UV map and add textures to my assets so that if I wanted a realistic art style or a cartoon art style id have the textures to meet that theme. Next time I will make sure during the planning stages I take more into consideration such as a Time plan, workflow map and a few other pre-production items that would help me further show what it is I’m doing but also this would show how much I’ve considered for this project.