Final thoughts and Evaluation.

We were very ambitious from the outset. We wanted to create a futuristic and realistic feel to the environment. We originally planned to build many more buildings in the environment. Looking back, I think we made the right decision to cut back on modelling to complete the project. Although this was one of many sacrifices we had to make I do not feel the project has suffered. In fact I feel we have accomplished our goal in producing a truly unique and consistent environment. We wanted the environment to be barren, desolate and isolated. I think we have achieved this with the environments large landscape of dunes and rocks. Although I was not entirely happy with the environment layer i created we had to make do with the programes available to us. Tom's use of lighting really improves each scene highlighting areas which we want the viewer to look at. The use of dust and sand layers add movement to the scenes. I am very happy with the visual style we have adhered to. Jared had concerns that we would not be able to maintain a consistency of style in the models we produced. However, through careful planning and co-ordination we managed to use the early concepts to our advantage and refer to them when building the models in maya.

Because we developed a storyboard early on in the project we were able to produce some sort of story which we could work around. Although a few of the scenes changed slightly the final product resembles the early sketches. Good planning has had huge benefits in helping us produce an environment which looked nice but also worked in a realistic sense. The good organization of the group and its commitment to the project payed off as we produced something which we set out to achieve from the very beginning. The group has had its difficulties but we have maintained a business like posture which has ultimately brought about the project's success. Another aspect which has been beneficial to the whole group is the fact that we have all helped one another when difficulties arose. That is to say that we have all had a go at different tasks whether it was lighting animating, texturing or modeling. The fact we tried different roles within the project means that we learnt a lot more than if we had assigned roles to different members. This also had a knock on affect on work flow. We did not have to wait for a team member to finish a job which would hold up production. Because we integrated with eachother as a team we assisted each-other to get the job done. This shows not only the friendship we had but the professional stance we had to the task in hand. Because we involved ourselves with different aspects within the project we learnt different techniques we otherwise would not have tried. 

The project itself was a huge learning curve as we had to combine many different skills to achieve a product which met the brief's requirements. We will take the aspects we achieved in this project and apply it to future projects. This is not limited to skills within specific programes but the way in which we conduct ourselves as a group when planning a project and participating in different aspects. Having a shared vision is key to the any project's success. The leadership of our director also played a huge role in bringing about the end result.

I am overwhelmed with the amount of work I produced while working on the project as well as its quality. I believe I have matured as a person as well as an artist that can convey the wishes of the director. My skills in various programs has improved ten fold especially within maya and zbrush. I hope to use these programs in the future when creating other projects. The project has allowed me to experiment with different programs and explore my artistic skills to a new level which will eventually be useful to an employer.

Although there were a few problems during production I am very happy with the outcome. The visual style is theatrical and immerses the viewer in an alien, hostile world. The sound effects and lighting enhance the moving images and bring new dimensions and weight to the environment. The work put in from team members has been outstanding and It would be a pleasure to work with such artistic and motivated people in the future. Thanks to Chris, Tom, Ben and Andy for all there hard work as well as encouragement throughout the project, nice one guys!

Sound

Once we had completed editing the scenes within after effects we then had to find approprite sounds to insert in the final film. This would add another dimension to the scenes and give some sort of weight to the objects within the environment. We acquired some sound effects from the sound effects hard drive from the shop. Many of the sounds were irrelevant to our project. However, we did find some ambient sounds like wind and sand. In order to find some more specific sounds we had to purchase them from various sound websites. Some sounds were costly, but sacrifices had to be made if the objects like the vehicles within our project were to sound realistic and believable. Although we purchased many sounds using money for our own pockets we acquired some truly awesome effects which we could sink to our moving images. This would enhance the environment as well as the story we wish to tell. We made the right decision in purchasing the sound effects as it has improved our work tremendously. 

Problems and solutions

The group had many problems rendering this week which was due to textures not being in the right place. We had to re apply textures for some of the scenes as some of the files were sourced on other group member's laptops. The problem was easily rectified. This was done by reloading the textures on the faces concerned. This hampered render time but the problem was resolved. We learned our lesson. In order for Maya to retain the textures when transporting files one must set the project within the maya directory otherwise the textures do not appear within the scene. This happened several times when group members transported files via memory drives. 

Once we had all the necessary scenes we then started to render the images as targas on the render farm. Targa files would enable us to display the scene as a layer within after effects. In after effects we could then edit the images and turn the static shots to moving images. We could also include smoke effects as well as adjust light levels and colours to suit our needs. We thought that by rendering the images on the render farm using cube we would be able us to quickly render scenes for their eventual transportation to after effects. However, we encountered many problems when rendering on the farm. The issues included files not being red properly by the cpus as well as the render farm taking considerable amounts of time to identify the files it needed to render. We also discovered that the render farm was only really compatible using mental ray. When we tried mental ray our scenes became very pixelated and unusable. To overcome this major setback, we decided as a group that we would render each scene on different laptops. The process was laborious but saved huge amounts of time. Whilst at home we could render of scenes and edit them during the day. By using all available laptops we maintained good, continuos workflow. This caused some issues when transferring targas and desktops became messy with files floating around.

I think we made the right decision by rendering scenes on our laptops instead of the render farm.

This was because as more people were using the render farm it became overloaded with information. If we had begun rendering in the final week, I think we would have struggled to finish the project. However, because of the teams good communication and Ben Keswick's excellent leadership we finished rendering ahead of schedule. Because of this, we were able to deal with any problems that arose in the post production process effectively. Although the quality of our work was reduced slightly because we did not use mental ray the work output was greatly improved. The decisions we made as a team enabled us to produce a film that met the brief's requirements.

we encountered some difficulties when it came to editing the targa sequences in after effects. These included loss of images because files were not named properly. I think if we were to do another project like thin in the future we will ensure that files are named correctly and were easy to find which would save time for other procedures.