Self-SWOT Analysis

Developing Meaningful Research

Audience

Practical Work

Come down to Butterfly Circuit! The first race of the the Grand Prix. Butterfly Circuit is a traditional symmetrical racetrack with repeated turns and a cross-section, it gets its name from the humble butterfly a small yet beautiful creature. A perfect track for beginners and pros alike. 

Evaluation

How does it meet the brief?

My original aim for my final major project was to create a scene within Maya to develop and showcase my 3D-modelling skills; following my initial project proposal, being a continuation of the previous racing game unit, my ideas of what I wanted to do narrowed down into a 3-dimensional diorama set in the world where "Fruity Kart" takes place.

My plan for my scene was to create a racetrack for the six characters I drafted in the previous unit. During the planning stages of the project I had brainstormed various ideas for the racetrack including an urban, mountainous and even amusement-park themed track - unfortunately these ideas did not leave the planning stages as they were a little too ambitious for the project and I instead settled for a more traditional racing circuit I named "Butterfly Circuit" after its shape being symmetrical and resembling butterfly wings.

I would like my target audience to gauge a sense of what Fruity Kart may look like as a finished game when they see my diorama; I want them to feel enamoured by the cute low-poly style of the scene.

In response to the global chip shortage I decided to challenge myself to create a work of animated 3D art that can be experienced by anyone on any device, Including mobile devices. When it came to uploading my sharing my project this meant that Unreal game engine was not a viable option to contain my scene as it could not be experienced by nearly as many people - after some planning I came to the conclusion that assembling my project in Maya (instead of importing assets to Unreal) and uploading it to present on Sketchfab would be the best as Sketchfab is accessible on multiple devices including mobile phones and laptops. This also gave me the added benefit of being able to easily showcase my project to friends and family who I could receive more feedback from.

Feedback & Game testing

Feedback of my FMP from my peers

Sam -  "I find the animation part of your project extremely impressive. The karts go round at a good speed and are spaced differently, giving it a very realistic effect. I love the low poly style so it was cool seeing it featured in your FMP. I definitely like the additional trees you added and feel it really made the project come together. I also love how in post-processing you made it look like it is set at sunset/sunrise as it really adds to the chill vibes to it.
To improve the project, I think you could expand the track and potentially fill in some more of the empty space. I also think it would be cool to experiment with having the diorama on an island rather than a flat plane."
Sam's idea to have the diorama on an island is something I never considered and I love the idea! I am very happy that he  has given me such positive feedback.

Devin - "Overall I really like it my only complaint would be that the scene is a bit empty in places but overall. 8.5/10"
I agree that the scene is empty in places and given that the scene ended up becoming a diorama to observe from all angles in hindsight I would  include more, however my in my initial plan you would view the track from the kart's perspective meaning that the observer would not have not seen that space.

Sky -  "This is an extremely well put together project! I love the low-poly look of the piece, giving it a cute charm, and the little blimp flying around is an extra detail that I really like. Obviously, the most impressive part is the animation, whilst seeming simple, covers the track loop perfectly, without any cuts to the collision or stops.
To improve, I would suggest a change of speed in some parts of the animation - what if the cars slowed on corners, and accelerated on straights? Honestly, though, I love this, and think it's very cute!"
I really agree with Sky's feedback, animating my project was something I experimented with towards the end of the practical work and I am really glad I included it as I feel it really completes my project; I reckon that changing the speeds of my karts on corners and straights would be a good touch, I would just need to teach myself how to use keyframes in Maya to achieve that. Given that  I went into this project having little to no animation knowledge I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Feedback from eSports students
We collaborated with students from the eSports course in order to gain a fresh review from people who play games that up until that point had not seen anything from our project. Personally I found this very insightful and enjoyed sharing my brainstorming, models, and game environment.

Positives -
- great brainstorming
- well thought out theme
- the vehicles and map are super interesting
- the effort is visible
- vehicle physics were great
- the character profiles and their backstory

Critiques -
- the map was empty and could've benefited from being filled up with more assets
- some obstacles in the track would be nice additions
- maybe include some non-binary / male characters? [(brain-storming)]

Reflection on my feedback

After receiving this feedback this has helped me to realise that adding more assets to the background of my track it would ultimately become more interesting, this inspired me to create models such as my blimp and  locations like the garage as I originally foresaw them being visible from a racer's perspective.
I somewhat agree that my all-female cast did not fully represent divergency in the way that I had originally foresaw. Following this feedback I brainstormed several characters existing in the world of Fruity Kart with non-female gender identities.

Professionalism

When modelling non-organic assets for my project I have been a bit of a perfectionist. I stuck to exact and precise measurements as well as keeping them symmetrical.

Meeting a deadline is a key skill I have learnt from doing this project. It certainly helped breaking up our project time into smaller deadlines to meet.

Week 1 Context
Week 2  Project Proposal
Week 3 Research
Week 4-8 Practical Work
Week 9 (final week) Evaluation and Reflection (where I currently am now!!)

Issues

One issue was interpreting a traditional-style racing circuit in the style of my game concept, Fruity-Kart, the game is pitched a a very colourful and bubbly environment so trying to fit something inspired heavily by something from the real-world was a little difficult. Something I did to tackle this issue lies simply with the shape and name of the circuit. I started out by looking at traditional figure-8 circuits before realising that I could create my own variation of a figure-8 circuit and that was a symmetrical butterfly shape.

Successes

Three things I like about my project are my:
- world-building
- animation
- assets
-animated interactive 3d diorama that works on any device

I am particularly pleased with incorporating motion paths for animation into my final scene. I had to learn new skills from the internet about how to draw motion paths and constrain an object to them as well as ensuring they are in the correct orientation (not straight) and so that they would turn to follow the curves of the track with the front of the object turning with the bend before straightening up.

Progress and Learning

I have learnt how to:- draw organic paths in Maya (racing track)
- animate objects on a motion path in Maya
- texture landscapes in Maya
- manage deadlines within a large scale project

If I were to revisit this project with the new skills I have acquired I would create something more ambitious with more exciting assets like I had originally brainstormed. Possibly I would create multiple micro-scenes showcasing a series of smaller environments with simple tracks each with a unique theme.

Self Grading

Research/Planning
Initially planning my project I knew that I wanted to further expand the world I had created in the previous unit though it wasn't clear from the start what I would produce in order to do that. However I do feel as though that without my planning I would not have gotten to this end result and believe that and I am grateful that I had given myself that flexibility from the very start as well as brainstorming several other good ideas I may want to pursue in the future.
Product
After showing my diorama to fellow classmates, friends, and family I am reasonably confident that my final scene is worthy of a distinction. Given that I  believe I have successfully showcased the skills I have acquired in previous units as well as the new ones I have picked up along the way (animation, motions paths, etc...) I genuinely feel as though I have accomplished something to be proud of. If I had more time I could have resolved the feedback from my classmates.
Evaluation
It feels as though I've spent a lot of time on my evaluation and most likely rambled on a little in places. My goal of my evaluation is simply to reflect upon this project from start to finish and I feel as though I have covered the key bases that I needed to address. I would like to say that my evaluation is worthy of a high grade though there is something that I believe is missing from my project and that is a production diary. A production diary is something I could have wrote entries for at the end of each week to document progress on my project.

Feedback on my peers' projects