Week 3, Year 2: Film Room Project.

As of writing this, there is less than one week to go before the Film Room Project deadline. We're a little bit behind schedule but I'm confident it will be finished on time and look great when it's done.

The to-do list for this week seems endless but so far the group has taken everything in it's stride. This past week, we've worked especially intensely on the physical model. 

I think it was very beneficial, at that point in the project to have something we could work on as a team, that did not involve sitting around a computer. As a mid project exercise, spanning several days, it came as a welcome, real-world distraction in those times when digital tasks become irritating.

Anya and Lewis working on the physical bathroom model.

At first, it was difficult to find the motivation to work on something that did not seem like a priority. I personally, had doubts about the benefit a physical representation of our scene would provide to our project, given the time it would take to create one. 

But during the models construction, problems were revealed that we may have overlooked had we not built it. In the end, the process itself was beneficial, both in terms of problem solving and overall group sanity.

The group worked really hard this week and I'm very pleased with the finished model. And although the process is more important than the final product, I think it looks pretty damn good!

Close enough.

On the digital side of things, this week I've mainly been modelling and unwrapping the lights and tinkering with Unreal Engine.

The triangle budget on this project is very generous, however we allocated our tri's very conservatively to begin with. As we've progressed, we've repeatedly re-evaluated our budget to make sure all the models in our scene look beautiful without being excessively resource heavy.

 Low-Poly Lights and Switch.

I've also been experimenting with high to low-poly baking, so far most successfully with the light switch. I intend to make the tile-able floor textures this way as well, but so far it hasn't worked quite as well. But there is still time and I know I can make it work.

High-Poly Light Switch.

Last week, I wrote about keeping things in perspective and how I was struggling to prevent myself from overworking. Happily, this week I've noted a definite improvement and I've been able to maintain a healthy distance from my uni work. I even found time for some personal work.

Evening sketch.

Maintaining personal projects, large or small, really does seem to be worth it. I feel much better for it and I produce more overall work as a result. 

This week is going to be a crunch week but hopefully, I'll keep it up.