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'SEASONAL DISCORDANCE'
FINAL MAJOR PROJECT
In March of 2022, I had been pitched my second Final Major Project. After looking through a few previous year examples our lectures had shown during the full-year presentation, It really made me think about how far I can push my creative abilities utilizing the many software I had grown upon over the past years.
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I thought I could push myself by integrating 3D with 2D to make a cinematic advert for a weapon skin bundle inside of a video game. I chose to base the skin bundle on Valorant. I chose Valorant because I really enjoy the art style Riot Games have set for the game, and also because Riot Games had already made cinematic weapon skin bundle adverts for their very own game!
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I challenged my workflow during this long 4-month project allowing me to boost my knowledge and experience, to dedicate my work time to get this specific project done.
STATEMENT OF AIMS
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Name:
Elliot W
Disciplines:
3D animation and 2D animation or video.
Project:
I am thinking of doing a short animation film project that would with music to showcase a location that I have built inside of a 3D program, or doing a music video project that will have a narrative inside along with music video techniques like camera angles and branding to go with it.
Rationale:
At the start of this level three course, I had no clue how to use programs like Adobe Photoshop, Animate and Premiere Pro, while I did know how to use Adobe After Effects I did learn some new tricks that I never knew about thanks to the lectures. I now understand and have a better understanding of how to use these programs. This is going to influence my choices toward my final major project.
The tasks in the units have allowed me to creatively practice abilities using these programs, as well as practice my English writing skills as analysed and reflected on the tasks. Looking back on previous work makes me motivated to continue learning and improving myself!
During this final major project, I am thinking of learning how to use the program Blender, a free 3D animation software that I can use for the project, or Cinema 4D, which I've been learning and using during this course. And while I am learning how to use this software, I will show the process of my learning with evidence like screenshots and recordings.
Project Concept:
While planning the concept for my final major project, I have to keep in mind that the finished result has to be finished in the timeframe we have been given. With this in mind, I would like to explore putting 2D drawings inside a 3D environment. This would be done in a rotoscope type of way, like glowing rotoscoped fire in a 3D environment with the glow reacting inside of the scene. I would also like to see how far I can push myself in terms of research and planning.
I am thinking my video should be an animated advert cinematic utilising both pleasing visuals along with loud, in-your-face audio to go with it. My advert will focus on a cosmetic weapon skin bundle, specifically for the video game Valorant that I will create myself for the game. This video game Valorant has already got cinematic trailers for their weapon skins which I can analyse for research as I would like to replicate these trailers in my way. A goal I will push myself with is an animated advert project to make the audience know that this bundle is all cosmetic and not at all to enhance your gaming skills or to seem 'pay to win', but at the same time make the viewer feel good whilst using this bundle.
I am thinking of doing 3D animation for my final major because it would be nice to pick it up again from last year when I used programs like Blender and After Effects to get an animated short film done. I hadn't used Blender in a long time before last year's final major so it felt like I had to learn the program from scratch as it had an updated user interface and I ended up getting the project done quite late in the assignment as everything clashed all at once. I feel like I am quite confident in bringing animation to life as I already know the steps and workflow of how to create an animated project.
For this project, I plan to record my progress through text on the 'Production Diary' page where I will post updates when we do a practical lesson or when I learn something significant toward this project. I also may record myself and explain everything to the camera.
During this project, my goal is to explore and present 3D animation professionally using the program Blender or Cinema 4D. I will try to capture the story, animation, colours, shading, materials, camera angles, camera movements etc inside the finished result. I am already a step ahead as I have been playing around with Blender for a long time now. Now that I have been creating throughout the year and have proven that I can achieve to produce an animated short film in the short time frame that I had, I feel more confident to try and push myself a little more as it is a fresh start.
I will get most of my research online from tutorials on YouTube that I would get tips on or follow as I think videos would be much more helpful when learning how to use such a complex program like the 3D software that I would be using. I will also seek research from my targeted audience, this will be through interviews and surveys to get a different perspective on the methods and decisions I should partake in.
I think learning and using the 3D programs may be quite a confusing and gruelling process as I know how complex both 3D animation as a whole can be as well as the programs used to make animations. Thinking ahead of time, I'm sure I should be fine with time as I am quite used to problem-solving and dealing with these types of programs, I can also rely on the whole internet to fix problems that tend to be popular.
I am feeling quite confident at this stage and excited to execute a fun idea as I can have all the creative freedom to do whatever I want. One thing that I might have a hold of but am currently not too sure about is rendered times. If I plan carefully during this project, I can have a lot of time to render the animation and in that case, allow myself to crank the settings to as high as I want them to be giving myself the best-looking result I can get. If not, I would have to deal with low settings just so I can get the thing done which after such a high amount of work, isn't ideal so I must plan for these render times.
I am already keeping in mind that my hardware at home would have to render the animation that lasts two minutes at twenty-four frames per second making up 2,880 frames which at the right settings, can be achieved easily over a period of a day at the lowest settings for example. I will have to experiment with the render times by looking into lighting and material engines inside the program I am going to use.
As I am looking at the timescale that we have been given to create this project, I think the production should be smooth sailing at the start as there is no pressure from the deadlines, but I'm sure I will crack down toward the end of the project when I start realising the time that we all have left. I can easily avoid time crunching by having my little calendar that visualises the whole timescale that we have that we will be shown every week.
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Evaluation:
I was thinking of recording my progress by recording a video of me talking into a camera and updating what I have done week to week, this is because it would be much easier and faster to get all my information out. But instead, I might just do frequent blog posts as I can be more clear and concise in how I go over and explain how things are going. This would take a little longer to do though, slowing down research or planning.
I plan to do most, if not all of the production at home as I have the up-to-date software as well as a powerful computer that will help massively when it comes to previewing, skimming and rendering. Also, the fact that I feel more creatively focused when I am at home.
Before I start the production of the final major project, I would like to understand what makes me focused and what makes me not focused. This will help me drastically when it comes to production. During the time we have toward this project, I'll post updates on the production diary on this Weebly page whenever I do something significant.
Proposed Research Sources:
A research source that I can use can be podcasts that include map designers and 3D environment building artists, YouTube for tutorials and tips and tricks
Equipment Required:
Computer with a graphics card, cameras for reference photos, and editing software. May need a drawing tablet and a sketchbook for the first sketches.
Resources Required:
References, references, references (photos). Already made examples to analyse. Capable computers with the software that I am going to use.
Skills to develop/learn:
The skills that I will have to develop and learn will be the software that I would be using. Software like Adobe After Effects and Adobe Animate would be programs that I would be developing my skills on, and software like Blender and Cinema 4D would be programs that I would be learning how to use.
Some more skills that I will have to develop and learn would be how to quickly and effectively back up and work on files that I can move from computer to computer. This would be so I won't be wasting time during production due to not having the latest and updated files on me.
Personnel and responsibilities:
My responsibilities that I have include not getting distracted to get this project done in the period that has been proposed to us, along with getting all the right research done so I do not get stuck so much during the production of this project.
Intended audience and context:
My audience would be both males and females within the age range of 13 to 24 that like to browse community maps inside of video games and/or animation creators looking to use an environment to start a project scene inside.
FINAL EVALUATION
What was your intention for the project?
My intention for this Final Major Project was to double my learning about the 3D programs that I am using from last year's Final Major Project and to create a weapon skin bundle and an ambitious cinematic advert for a video game that has similar weapon skin cinematics and bundles.
I wanted to develop my knowledge in the same fields of media that I chose for my previous final major project, this being animation, visual effects and video editing. My intention also was to open myself to learning and to start creating again, to hopefully get me motivated and comfortable to start making new projects and in the end result, something that I would be proud of and could put onto my portfolio.
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Why did you choose this?
The main reasoning behind me choosing my project is because AS this Final Major Project was pitched to me, it was mentioned that there should be a need to push yourself to get a result that you will be proud of. So I thought back to the previous Final Major that I did that featured 3D aspects and post processing effects, and thought to myself "in what ways can I learn inside of 3D?".
I was already a fan of the video game Valorant at this point and the cosmetics that are made and advertised inside, I chose this specific game because this video game has a very clean, pleasing and cartoony art style that I thought would be great for me to try and replicate as the art direction is something that I enjoy.
Which technical/software skills were you confident in before starting the FMP?
Technical skills that I was already aware of before starting this project were the two main operating systems that I would be working on, these being Windows and MacOS. Also the basic workflows that would be needed to get the bare minimum of this project completed, this basic workflow mainly being how to properly render the project into PNGs, import into After Effects, save complete backups of the project files for easy access whenever and wherever I would be working on the project, exporting and uploading online.
I was already confident with most of the main Adobe software due to prior usage and project in-which I utilized this software inside. This software are Adobe's After Effects, Photoshop, Animate, and Media Encoder. Some of this software were used heavily throughout this project.
An example of a program I was confident in is Adobe After Effects as I've been using it all the time making my own little projects ever since 2015. These little projects contained complex parts of the program meaning I have to incite into various complex parts of it allowing me to experiment more and be a lot quicker with making new projects.
Another example of a program that I was confident in is Blender as I've been using the program on and off since 2014. Blender is different though as I used to use it all the time back from 2014 to 2017 to where I used it on and off up until 2018 when it got a massive user interface change. Ever since then I have never really used it meaning this is a program that I had to relearn again.
Adobe Animate is one more software that I already knew in I didn't use in the final project but I did learn and that I could've used as a backup plan just in case I wanted to add 2D elements into my project or if I wanted to go full 2D.
Which technical/software skills did you need to improve or learn during your FMP?
Technical skills that I needed to learn and develop upon during this final major project were how to prepare a 3D model inside of Blender ready to become materialised and textured inside of Substance 3D Painter. I ended up learning how to achieve this process.
Adobe Substance Painter is a software I used that makes the process of texturing, materializing and painting onto 3D models so much easier to tweak and with really amazing results also. I began this project without any knowledge of what this program is or how it works so I used my secondary research in order to learn the user interface and how to get results done.
To prepare a model, the process was by marking seams inside of my 3D model so that the 3D texture could easily wrap around it without any stretching or artefacts, then converting the model into a file using specific values depending on the use cases of the model, so it then would be easy to easily imported into Substance 3D Painter. The main way I learned how to perfect this process was through trial and error with attempt after attempt.
​Another program that I had to improve my learning on is the primary piece of software in-which I used throughout this project Blender. This program ended up being the greatest program that I developed my knowledge inside throughout this whole Final Major Project. I needed to understand where lots of the properties lay inside of the program dependent on weather I was going to use it for my workflow or not, things like specific keybinds were important to learn also as they are big parts of the software.
What primary research did you undertake and how was this useful to your project?
During my final major project, the primary research in-which completed was the initial survey that I sent to my audience to collect more insight into how to properly develop a weapon skin bundle. Some knowledge in-which I gained from this survey was what professional example of game cosmetics look like inside of the games my audience are playing, if my audience enjoys LOUD designs over subtle designs, did my audience like jokey designs, how my audience started acquiring video game cosmetics (how was it advertised to them).
Another piece of primary research I completed was my focus group I utilized to check if I was in on track to complete my project to the best of my ability. This focus group was done in the middle of the production process and gave me insight by getting some student game designers' opinions on what they currently think about the state of my project. This turned out to be absolutely brilliant in developing my research because of the knowledge and ideas that stemmed from it. One great idea I gained from this research was the idea to do seasons for my weapon skin bundle and to develop the designs some more so they can better identify to be what they are (branches from trees).
The last piece of primary research I undertook was my 'sound in animation' interview with a professional lecturer named Trevor where I asked questions that intrigued me and would prepare me for the process of doing my own audio within my project. I learned quite a lot from this interview like the advice to record all audio in one sitting to avoid problems with continuity and how it is foolish to NOT utilize audio.
What secondary research did you undertake and how was this useful to your project?
One massive part of my secondary research was through the use of YouTube tutorials that were always easy to search for and understand. Some of these tutorials were really helpful in some ways because of how the practical would be taught, then demonstrated inside of examples in which I would sometimes gain inspiration from.
Here is an example of this scenario happening:
This is a tutorial that I used during my Final Major Project that shows how you can record your own cinematic shots in-game. After the information is taught, at the 1:23 mark the tutorial then shows examples of how to use and record these clips to create a result. This is where I gained quite a lot of motivation and inspiration during the production process.
Another massive part of my secondary search was the already made fan created examples that I had found on Twitter. This was a huge motivator and inspiration during the research process because it reminded me that a result that this is possible in the same program that I am using. I also learned a little from these examples also because of the audience reaction to the models being directly influenced by the 'gimmick' or the noticeable parts of the weapons.
One last example of secondary research which was useful was when I looked through already made professional adverts, this research was useful because I get to analyse and understand what an advert is supposed to look like. Here is an example of a professional advert that I researched and developed my advert knowledge on.
A piece of secondary research that I didn't utilize throughout my Final Major Project was this specciffic tutorial 'Fixing Baking Issues in Substance 3D Painter' that introduced me to the software. This research did NOT help because the explanations throughout were already too early for me to understand and get a hold of as a beginner being introduced to the software. Although it did help with pointing me in the right direction of actual beginner tutorials in-which I followed after.
Which technical/software skills have you used during your FMP?
One example of software skills which I utilized throughout my Final Major Project was finding out the best ways to complete my workflow through the use of tutorials. This was so I could be able to explore different ways to get my final result completed in the way that made more sense to me. This style of software skills allowed me to remember more easily the workflows that I completed so I can take it with me for my future projects.
Another software skill that I utilized throughout my Final Major Project was exploring the wide selection of Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks inside of After Effects. This process was trial and error with trying on filters, effects and other properties found within the plugin to make my results the best I could attempt. I would say that I would've loved to try a different selection of colour colourections within the program to find different results to try different themes if I were to attempt this project again.
Technical skills I have used during this Final Major Project were perfecting the speed and timings so the final advert could flow easily and to look as professional as I could. Without this technical skill, I reckon my project wouldn't of received the final audience result that I did end up having inside of my 'is my advert PROFESSIONAL?' question of my audience feedback. This feedback being an astonishing YES.
Another technical skill I utilized inside of my Final Major Project was to understand how to download and to backup the latest PORTABLE version of the main software in-which I used throughout this project, being Blender. Thanks to the latest software being available and portable through USB, I was able to go into the college's eSports studio and have my project easily opened with the latest version. I will acknowledge that this process was sometimes grueling as it sometimes came with a few problems like extracting the files onto the computer's 'desktop' or 'downloads' folder taking such a long time to process for unexplained reasons. When this happened, I ended up just either restarting the process or just was patient.
How did you use particular technical/software skills during your FMP?
The technical skills that I had used during this final major project would be knowing how to import plugins and external entities into the programs that I had used. The Blender examples being the external character assets in-which I used, importing community models, importing Substance Painter texture files into Blender etc. Also how to find and locate these community assets, this was mainly done online.
I used Adobe After Effects as a software skill to achieve the audio mix and edit all the different audio effects that I had used. Then utilizing Adobe Media Encoder to cut down the audio and to compress my final edit.
I also utilized Blender's own animation sliders and graphs to make the whole animation to the way in what I wanted. For example I made the camera movement feel 'smooth' in some of the cinematic segments, but made the movement fixed and 'snappy'.
I have always been using the Blender and After Effects software, particular technical skills that I used during this Final Major Project featured quite a lot of maths as keyframes had to be duplicated and lots of values had to be changed. For example, the materials, shaders and textures I built and utilised inside of 3D required a lot of technical 'blender nodes' which are custom values that can be customised to make the objects final material look the way that you want it to look.
How close did you stick to your original Statement of Aims idea?
I stuck very close to my original statement of aims idea. I had always had the cinematic advert for a Valorant weapon skin bundle but I hadn't thought at all about the contents of the weapon skin bundle yet at that point. I mentioned in my statement of aims that I wanted to have the advert capture animation, colours, shading, materials, camera angles and camera movements in which I would say that I did!
I mentioned in my statement of aims that I was thinking doing most of the production at home, in which I was wrong because of me starting to use the college's eSports studio with powerful computers that were perfect for my use case. I also mentioned in the same paragraph that I felt "more creatively focused when I am at home". I realized that my focus isn't only exclusive to being at home where the environment is quite isolated and quite, I ended up working quite well inside of the more public areas as long as I got started on the workflow of the project.
If you changed your Statement of Aims – why did this happen?
As I set off to start this project, I wouldn't of known the immense amount of research and energy that is needed to this finalized result that I am happy with, as I came into this project knowing as much about Blender as the knowledge I had a whole year previous for the Year 1 Final Major Project.
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One example of me NOT sticking to my initial statement of aims ideas was as during me going over the concept where I mentioned that I wanted to "create an advert that utilises both pleasing visuals and loud, in your face audio". This was quite ambitious to put into a concept with the other criterias that I was trying to hit like "pleasing visuals", I ended up have audio that I was pleased with, but not the ambitious "loud, in your face audio" which I stated. I never achieved this because I just didn't have enough time to focus on the audio element of the project.
An example of me sticking to my initial statement of aims ideas was needing references to get the project completed, references were extremely useful during my Final Major Project and was great practice into the workflows of a professional CGI designer.
Another example of me NOT sticking to my statement of aims idea was needing a drawing tablet to get my project completed. This is because I never ended up adding 2D elements to my final project.
Another challenge I faced during this Final Major Project was the little burnout that I faced as I was converting the 3D model into a file to then be converted into Adobe Substance 3D Painter. This burnout happened because of the immense amount of times I had attempted this process which was already quite tedious with me having set up the model in the first place by marking tons and tons of seams and have wait times be quite long also. I had gotten through this process by being resilient and continuing the grueling process, to then eventually resolving my problem and learning from it. I ended up having a long break after this experience.
​How did you meet any challenges on your FMP?
I knew going into this project that opening myself up to the world on 3D animation would be a long and gruelling process due to how much I would need to learn and how complex the whole subject is.
One of these challenges that I faced was rendering out the scene quite often to see how a material or the lighting looked. Either by using the real time render or just rendering out an image to see what the camera will see in the final result. This ended up being a main workflow of mine as I would need to see what the lighting looked inside of Blender at given times.
Another challenge I faced was following and experimenting with the complex shading nodes that Blender has. These nodes can drastically change how a material on an object looks. An example of me taking use of this was making the leaf assets seem much more colourful to better match the look of everything else. I got through this challenge by giving myself time to understand the math that was going through the nodes.
What problems did you face for your FMP?
An example of a problem that I had during my Final Major Project was me constantly forgetting the millions of key binds inside of Blender due to this software being complex in nature, I understood that it would take time to understand the many keybind found inside of the program. These were needed to learn as it makes the workflows to work efficiently and fast.
Another example would be me getting distracted by something and taking long breaks during my session time. Also my time management throughout the project was a problem because it made the deadline seem much later than I was expecting which had me speed up the pace at which I worked at at some times. I ended up completing my final piece the DAY before the exhibition which was quite good in my case as my memory was still creatively fresh, allowing me to put lots of creativity into my exhibition.
One last problem that I faced during this project was losing progress and not knowing how to get it back, a way I overcame this issue was by creating constant backups of the project files. Allowing me to append from old backups if required. These backup files would've come in handy also if one of the main files corrupted also.
Which skills have you improved during your FMP?
I have definitely developed my knowledge on the programs and the workflows that I completed during this Final Major Project. Software like Adobe Substance Painter is a great example as before this project started, I had no idea how or what this amazing piece of software was. This project has allowed me to use these programs in-which I wouldn't ever discovered thanks to the research that I have put in.
Another skill I have developed during this Final Major Project was my academic skills. An example of these skills being my English Language developing throughout this project showing in the way in-which I articulate my thoughts and findings as my project was progressing.
One more skill I have definitely developed as this project progressed are my social and research skills, these skills going together perfectly as I would ask lots of my peers how they think their work is going with them sharing ideas and giving feedback BACK onto my work. This peer feedback is something that I shouldn't of took for granted during the project as it played a great part of my ideas and creative decision making.
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​One skill that I think has improved during my Final Major Project
I am happy to say that I feel I have around doubled my learning and understanding from this project since the start of this project. and that is mostly coming from the research that I had put into it. This research mostly consisting of YouTube tutorials and audience feedback. As I look back on March and April, I now understand the amount that I hadn't of known about the practical sides being the programs.
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I feel have definitely seen myself develop my animation skills the most as that's what I had the most practice in. My time management skills were put to test and I'd say I did quite well spending my time for the deadline. If I were to complete this project again, I would definitely create a schedule much sooner to get a big scale of the time we have left.
Another skill I have developed over this Final Major Project was speeding up my workflows so I would be able to create more projects like this more quickly and efficiently.
​Which part or parts of the FMP did you feel worked well?
One part of my Final Major Project that I thought went well was the colours of the project. This part I spent a long time experimenting and testing out different ranges of the MILLIONS of possibilities of colours found digitally. I made sure to make my weapon skin designs JUICE with colour. After Effects helped with showcasing the colours as the plugins were great at brightening up the colours of the designs.
​The whole visual aspect of the final video. I'm talking about the parts that make the video look so realistic like the materials, lighting, texturing and reflections. But also the convincing environment that I managed to create using grass planes, sky planes, tree and bush planes and some tree models which in my opinion make the result look really good.
One thing I didn't think went well about my final piece was the amount of spinny action found within the advert. As I was going for a style, I went a little too far with some parts where some areas seemed to spin too much. This is something that I would change if I was to complete this project again.
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What challenges did you face on your FMP?
One big challenge that I faced during this Final Major Project was getting too far ahead of myself during production and then forgetting my original plan idea. Here is an example of me showing current designs of my weapon skins, and then evaluating how I ended up doing so at the time (at the 3:05 timestamp of 'WORK IN PROGRESS').
How did you overcome any problems on your FMP?
I overcome the challenged by managing and planning ahead with my time and searching for answers whenever I was stuck with a problem that I was unaware of. I slowly overcame myself getting distracted going into a habit of quickly identifying when I have side tracked and got back with the project. A big distraction I identified early was during my research on YouTube where I would search for whatever I would need, and then start clicking through the wide array of video found on the site. I would constantly notice sometimes 30 minutes through doing so and would have to apply a discipline to stay focused and on track so this doesn't happen.
At the start of the project, I felt as if I was scared to start the project. This was because of the ambitious things in-which I was aiming towards. I overcame this issue by dedicating more time toward practicals and by doing more secondary research so I was more prepared to start. Peer feedback helped this process out also as people would spring up ideas.
What might you do differently?
If I were to re-do this Final Major Project, one thing I would do differently would be to change my workflow inside of the production process. This specific part I would do differently would be to change how I completed each weapon variant. The way that I completed the weapon variants was to duplicate the models that are meant to change for the variants, instead of just finding a way to change the material of just one model. This method ended up working in the end, but was highly tedious when the weapon variant were to be changed and animated as it became a whole process to do so.
Another thing in-which I would do differently if I were to re-do this Final Major Project is to make a low polly/low quality version of the project in 3D before dedicating to the final piece, this is because there was so many changes during the 3D and production process and because of this, the project became more and more demanding on the hardware that I was using. Making a low quality version of this project would've made the production process easier AND it would've been reassurance if I wouldn't of completed the project in time as I would always have the low quality version to show off instead.