Working on a Steampunk group project allowed me to develop a variety of new skills in technical, artistic, and organizational areas. Roos and I maintained clear communication within the group and focused on creating a cohesive style. I gained valuable knowledge in setting up large scenes in Maya, managing files across multiple people, rendering files for compositing, and lighting the scenes. All of these skills will prove useful in my final project, where I plan to concentrate on lighting and compositing the scene. Despite the challenges and stress of the past two months, this project confirmed my strong interest in becoming a Lighting Artist.
I find the ability to give a 3D environment an artistic touch and completely transform it to be the most enjoyable aspect of the lighting process. In my next project, I plan to research more about stylised lighting as I think it is a considerably important part of the job. My aim with lighting has always been to enhance storytelling, keep the audience interested, and maintain the scene’s style. I believe I achieved this through the use of bounce lights, which was the most transformative part of the project. I feel that my Personal Project could benefit from this technique. I also enjoyed giving subtle animations to light props as it adds life to the scene.
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to manage large files, particularly when it came to swapping out textures. I found myself using the Script Editor and adjusting general settings more frequently, and paying closer attention to naming conventions. However, without using Elements, I wouldn’t have been able to complete the project due to the immense size of the Maya files and my laptop’s limited capacity.
For me, the most difficult aspect was rendering. Although I learned a lot in this area, I realized that I could have been more organized by conducting more rendering tests and testing them myself in Nuke. I only conducted basic tests in Nuke to check if AOVs were working properly. In hindsight, I should have completed the Lamp test suggested by Gonzalo earlier. This would have helped me avoid the rush and mistakes that occurred in the last two weeks.
Working with my group has been a pleasant experience. The team members were highly communicative, organized, and professional. I particularly appreciate the valuable assistance provided by Roos in terms of contacting group members, problem-solving, and working on the renders. Without our organization, we would have faced numerous issues. Moreover, receiving all the necessary assets before the second half of June has been especially helpful, enabling us to identify any major issues at an early stage.
In general, I am satisfied with the outcome, but I feel like we needed an extra week to make the render perfect. Therefore, I intend to redo the entire scene with modified AOVs and better render settings to make sure it looks excellent for my final showreel in December. I am pleased with what we accomplished, and I don’t want to undermine it with a hurried render and compositing.
