group project

So with the group project almost over with i thought it would be the best time for some reflection on it and how i think it went for me and what i learned.

So for starters throughout this whole thing my job within the group was one of the 'asset guys'. My job was to produce asset after asset needed for the scene and pass them up the pipeline to be textured and put into unreal. This consisted of things from major assets like stairways to trinkets like buckets and bins. I think this was a good experience for me as it gave me insight into how its done in the industry because of the fact the working envirionment i was under wasnt too far off the industry, small groups of assets with short deadlines. a toilet to be modelled, 1 day, 2 urinals, 2 days, the main stairs, 5 days, more realistic, very short deadlines unlike others like a bin, 4 weeks.

It was also insight into how the industry pipeline probably works. With my job being to make assets the majority of what i modelled wasnt textured by me. It was mearly modelled, UV unwrapped and then passed up to the pipeline to people whose job it was to texture the assets passed onto them. So in order for the pipeline to work correctly i had to make sure my assets were efficiently modelled so that anyone who took them wouldnt have to worry about importing or exporting issues, and the unwrapping had to be done properly so that the other person wouldn't get confused or have to unwrap the whole thing again themself. This sort of workflow and dependancy on each other to get their job done right and on time so it wouldnt give other people a hard time was the key to keeping our ship afloat so to speak, and was quite a difficult task sometimes.

This i think showed how important teamwork and keeping to the pipeline is, because like every person trying to do a group project for the first time it had cock ups. Like i was assigned the task of modelling the stairs and handing it up the pipeline, which was done a day late by me. So when it came to passing it on the person i was supposed to give it to they were supposed to do it the day before so they had moved onto other assets, meaning me putting the stairs on their list messed up their workflow. This meant in order to not mess up their workflow i took the stairs off their hands by taking it back to unwrap myself, which then meant my lateness had both disrupted someone elses workflow and given me more work to do. This was a but of a bummer but it showed how important it is to keep with the teams program.

so all of this has helped me even if just a little see into how it will probably have to be done when were all not at uni and all have proper jobs. As for the unreal stuff, i admit i havent learnt that much of unreal and im finding it dissappointing because it is definately something you need to leanr to get good at the inudstry. I mean all games use engines, evey one of them, so to know how to us an engine is as impornt as it can get i think. So over summer i reckon ill be fiddling about with unreal in my own time to get my skills up on that one. But apart from that i think it went well, ive sort of went bak to basics and learnt how o quickly and effectively model all the small assets that are needed to complete a room and make it look whole. So with that ill leave it......