PRODUCTION LOG 12

FINAL THOUGHS / EVALUATION

For this assignment I was set out to plan, document, and build an original real-time 3D environment based on my own game concept. The environment, Sanctum Bunker, focuses on three key areas including Hydroponics, Command Centre, and Med bay, and effectively demonstrates my skills in environment design and storytelling. I believe the final result is appealing and the scene conveys the narrative of a self-sufficient underground bunker in a post-apocalyptic world.

Working on this project has been both, really fun and also challenging. It was an opportunity to experiment with new programs and techniques, as well as to further improve my creative and technical skills while working on a large scale environment. Some of the technical skills that I believe have improved include keeping consistency from the blockout throughout the production stage; modelling, UV mapping, and texturing have also improved a lot due to constant practice, learning new techniques by watching many online tutorials from artists that I follow; lighting setups and post-processing effects have seen major improvements since other previous projects that I worked on.

Overall, the process of creating this environment went well. The pre-production phase was thorough, well planned and executed. Designing concepts, researching on the theme and main inspirations provided a strong foundation for the project. The detailed planning ensured that each phase of production was efficient and focused.

Like many positive things that come with working on projects of this size, there were also some minor issues that I have encountered, and I believe that is okay they happen as long as you learn how to overcome them and learn new things while trying to fix them. One issue was related to lighting. While constantly testing the environment, there were instances of light leaking through edges, particularly in the ceiling. The issue was initially challenging to diagnose and fix. Eventually, with some research on the Unreal Engine forums, I found that changing the Shadow Map method to Virtual Shadows in the project settings fixed the problem. This was due to directional light leaking, as I was initially using this light type to simulate sunlight coming through the ceiling vent (opening). However, at some point during the production stage, I decided to use a different light source for that, this time a spot light with increased intensity which gave me a better result.

Another aspect that caused minor issues was balancing detailed models and texturing with other aspects of the project, such as lighting and material setup. Certain elements took a little longer than I anticipated and this caused short delays for other tasks. I could say that this caused me to go a little over the allocated time for each task, and as I was close to the deadline there were still a few things that I wanted to make or add in my environment, things that definitely had to be done earlier in the production phase.

Looking back at the project, I could identify some areas for improvement. One of them is assets details and variations. Increasing the number of unique assets and adding more detailed props could further improve the overall look of the environment. Regarding the lighting and post-processing, further refining the lighting setup and using more advanced post-processing effects could enhance the atmosphere and the mood. This might be just a personal opinion, as I would always find things to change and improve, even though feedback on lighting has been mostly positive for this project and previous ones that  worked on.

If I had more time, I would expand the bunker environment to include additional areas. However, taking the decision to change the project scope and narrowing down to a smaller scale, than initially proposed, was the right choice, otherwise I would have failed to produce and deliver more than three areas in the same amount of time. 

While there are aspects that I hope I had further develop and polish, I am happy with the final result and I what managed to achieve over the past couple of months, in parallel with other assignments.