WEEK 1b - PROJECT PLANNING

Now the concept has been decided, I put together a Trello board to keep on track of progress of development. This allows me to maintain the use of the agile methodology, allowing me to work iteratively on the environment. Below is the first's weeks progress of the module, checking this every day will let me know how well I am progressing in the module and will hopefully better my time management skills.

I started the project by breaking down the environment into groups and listing each asset within that group, which then allowed me to get an understanding as to how many assets will be required to complete the scene. Below shows the quick document I put together.

The first thing I began was the initial blockout of the level. I began to try and estimate the environments scale using surrounding assets such as the Bed and items found on the desk such as a Magazine File. I found the standard dimensions for said assets online and used them as a measurement in the scene. Once a scale had been estimated blockout assets were then created to fill out the scene; upon completion I then took it into Unreal Engine. I wanted to get into engine as soon as possible so that I could counter issues as soon as they arrive preventing me from wasting time in the future.

Seeing it starting to come together in engine so soon was very motivating, I was very pleased to have chosen to follow a piece of concept art as I did not need to worry about the layout/design of the level as the focal points etc had already been determined by the concept. Using this piece of concept will provide me with more time to spend on asset creation allowing for a more immersive densely populated scene. After completing this process I heard back from Fangzhou Hu, providing me with the dimensions of the level, so I then went back and created my final wall pieces, and made a small modular pack for the walls / ceiling.

Now knowing the correct dimensions of the walls and ceiling for the environment I can go into basic structure creation in week 2. For the structural assets I will be creating the window and window frames alongside the door frame and door, including a small skirting board modular pack. It's at this point where I need to consider what assets will use a trim sheet, the earlier I can get this sorted the better.

In Photoshop I draw over areas where I will use a trim sheet; Blue for Wood materials, Green for photo frames and yellow for floor tiling. A texture atlas will also be created for all of the books and scrap pieces of paper to help optimise the scene, in the future I will create a 4k texture map with every book cover and paper text etc; to then be placed onto a book and duplicated around the scene.