Today was hand in day, which is always quite a busy and stressful time, but despite this, and also the fact that I had quite a lot to do, including rigging and rendering my gladiator and my blog, I was feeling quite relaxed about it all, but I was hoping somehow that I would find the determination to get all my work done today.
The first thing I wanted to get finished was rigging my gladiator, as I really had to do this before anything else, and it was what was required from the brief. However, I couldn't really remember much about how to rig a 3D model. I have rigged 3D character models before, but the last time I rigged a character was around 9 months ago on my BTEC Interactive Media course, so I couldn't quite remember everything about rigging. However, Neil very kindly reminded me the basics of rigging, which I was really grateful for and by the end of the morning I managed to create a working "skeleton" for my gladiator model. However, this did take me a few attempts, and luckily setting up a skeleton doesn't take too long, but it was quite stressful working out what was wrong with my skeleton on the first few tries. The problem was quite noticeable, and it did take me a while to figure out what was wrong with it. The skeleton is supposed to be made from the waist, so that it can bend over correctly, and this is what I forgot to do. When I figured out the problem, and it did take me a short break and a bit of help from Neil, it was quite easy and quick to fix. I just had to attach the joint of the waist to the character rig, which was achieved by just a few mouse clicks in the animation tool area of Maya.
A late part of the process of the rigging of my gladiator. The skeleton is the green lines seen in the front and top views.
However, because I only really had today left, this was as far as I could go with my gladiator model, even though the brief would have liked me to have animated the model. I do feel pleased with what I have done, I really love the textures I have used, and even though this module has been very tough, I feel that this module has really improved my modelling and learning techniques and has really made me consider how to do my work in the future, and has made me realise in projects like this, I really need a strategy.
I feel that for future projects I will definitely need to manage my time more efficiently, and really super definitely try and understand more what is being asked of me in terms of research, as I found that part of the module, and getting feedback from that part of the module very stressful because of how unclear what it is I was supposed to research was, and to be honest I'm not sure if I understand the research I have done.
This afternoon I managed to get my reflective journal finished, which I had a lot to say in about this module, including today's entry. I also made a final render of my still gladiator, which is something, even though it is very simple, I always forget how to do, because if I wish to share and show off my 3D modelling work casually to my friends, I would just take a screen grab of the model. However, I do feel that I could probably now remember how to render models for the future from this experience. Hopefully.
My 3D gladiator in all his rendered glory.
However, I feel that over the past week, one thing that has really helped me to organise myself and has helped me to cope much better with my work is writing to do lists for work I needed to get done for specific dates in the week, and I feel that this skill is something I could really carry into fuure projects, and is a skill I have used in previous jobs and projects, and has really helped to organise myself and it also breaks down what I need to get done into manageable pieces.
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