Final Thoughts

Weekly Blog Entry Research & Project Updates (14/Final)

The project, in its entirety, is now complete (link here & here)… and I feel quite good about it. There are, of course, things I wish I did differently. The seams on the vulture in the foyer for instance, I wish I reduced the normals for the walls a bit more, and I wish I had the time to fix blur issues with the marble material I used all throughout the scene. But for every thing I nitpick, I find plenty to be proud of, the curvature included in the halls, the model of the carved stone, finding a use for that fun painted skull texture in Substance Painter, the consistency in vision from weeks 1 to 14, the feeling I had when I saw things I had only ever seen in pieces this semester come together in Maya a few weeks ago and get hit with the thought “this is actually gonna work…”, there’s plenty to be happy about. There are also things I thought of way to late, chief among them, adding some dirt/grass in the Mausoleums (in the center area) and perhaps add some flower symbolism as well in those patches… live and learn.

Mostly what I feel… is tired. I am happy how the project turned out… but I went too big, too fast. I don’t yet know if it was all worth the exhaustion I feel now at the end (I certainly won’t be able to do this for 3 more semesters, especially if I try and go bigger). I’m okay not having a definitive answer to all that yet though, I’ll reflect on the stress and frustration during the break and maybe come back with some clear answers on how to proceed next semester. All I know now; I’d like to maybe tackle something more upbeat (the subject matter was quite intense this semester)… with a smaller scope that won’t require so many “All-Dayers” (that’s an all-nighter pulled in the day).

And with that, I’m wrapping up my blog for this first semester. See you in February!