Final evaluation

Now that my project is complete I have learned a lot during the process, not just about 3d max but about managing work load.

The story does not match my storyboard produced early in the semester, I have had to skip the whole pier part of the story. The uncompleted pier can be seen in the background of the bar scene. This is because I kind of planned to do too much. I had never worked on a character when I modelled, boned, rigged and skinned myself.

I ran in to so many complications with the characters on the way that I eventually ran out of time to build the rest of the scene. A large part of the problems was that when something went wrong, it wasn’t until a lot later that I noticed it I would end up having to back track 20 or so steps to correct it then re do all the work (I had to set 3d max’s undo limit to 30 just to make sure). This, however eventually worked in my favour as constantly doing things over and over meant I learned it very well, especially as I had to do it with 3 characters of different builds (man, woman, child. All characters are duplicates of those 3 models). I think if I were to do character animation again it would go a lot more smoothly due to this.

Looking back I realise now that I perceived quantity as meaning quality when realistically quantity actually hindered the quality. Next time I take on a project which involves new elements I think I will keep the amount of the new element limited to give me more time to refine it improving the over all quality.

Wit regards to the rest of the scene (what is finished) I am really happy with the way all the materials and lighting came out.

Over all I have really enjoyed this module and learned a lot, but it has by far been the most time consuming module yet with scene rendering taking hours (putting my computer out of action for the duration), my sleeping pattern now revolves around when 3d max is rendering (hence the reason this was posted ridiculously early). the one thing I didn't enjoy is adding the sound, if I am honest I find playing with sound mind numbingly boring.