Through the gate final week.

   When I started this project 3 weeks ago, I intended to work through and produce a good environment piece for my portfolio. But somewhere along the way I got caught up in learning new programs, including sections of programs I have previous experience with. This slowed down the progression of my environment piece, and inevitably left the project slightly unfinished. Knowing that we have a final week of polish and work at the end of these 3 projects, I knew that learning these programs now, would benefit me more than finishing the project will, especially as I still have time to finish it as well.

Learning about Zspheres.

   All the critique we've been given throughout the project has had a great impact on my project as a whole. More so with the final crit I was given by Mike K on Friday. I now have a decent list of specific things to work on for the final hand in to improve my grade. Things such as, work on the water, lighting, blend in the rocks to ground more, avoiding harsh lines between the assets, "muckying the place up" and general texture improvement on specific assets.

Friday morning before crit. (unfinished)

After Mike came round to give some feedback, I has a short amount of time to tweak things before the actual hand in time. So I set to work on some of the easier/quicker things he suggested, the lighting and water. I managed to come up with this as my final hand in environment.

Friday afternoon after crit (still unfinished)

   Easily a huge improvement over the previous version. The water is a lot clearer and doesn't look like "blue paint" anymore. It also has a more realistic depth to it and water illusion. Along with this I added some basic lights in the stone lanterns, with an omissive colour which Josh showed me how to do. But the main change is the lighting which just tops off the scene, the dramatic shadows break up the large spaces and give a better sense of realism, all while overlaying the existing colours causing them to merge together well.
   Although the project is still unfinished, I feel this project has taught me a great deal about the programs needed on future projects along with planning as well. I feel it will also serve me well as a portfolio piece, when its completely finished that is. All in all I could have planned the project a little better including time for learning the programs I did. But aside from that I feel this project has been a very educational one and a good eye opener for me.