Evaluation

My Own Evaluation 

As per usual, I usually write my own evaluation on my blog. This isn't going to be a long evaluation. 

I'm very pleased with what I produced for this project and I've learned a lot in the unit. I think this unit was a great ending point for my time at NUA, as my last project fits into my first ever project at NUA. As you can see in the images below, my work has changed a lot. Also, keeping a tracker helped me, for the most part, keep me on track. I didn't have to pull all-nighters throughout deadline week or the week before. 

Is there anything I would change for this project? Yes, there is. I wish the focus of my project was on how can games help people get interested in museums again and make museums more interesting using games. I know my main focus for this project was looking at the female Spitfire pilots but I wish it was also focused on the Flying Nightingales. I wish I could add more details in the cockpit of the Spitfire. But other than that, I wouldn't change anything and I'm super pleased. During my time on the MA Games course, my skills have, without a doubt improved. I took the feedback from my final third-year project on my BA Games Art & Design degree and used it to drive me to improve my work. 

The only critique I do have on my own model is that the fuselage (the main body) could do with being slightly more narrow. But other than that, I'm happy with the asset. 

Any last thoughts? I'm looking forward to redoing the Spitfire in 3 years time to see if my skills have improved. I'm glad I've done the MA Games course and I'm kinda sad that my time is ending at NUA (don't really want to leave). 

Thank you to everyone who've helped me, not only on the MA but also throughout my time at NUA. 

Sketchfab

Today, I finally put my Spitfire asset onto Sketchfab. If possible, I'm hoping to have this on show for the MA degree show.
Also, to help with the professional practice there a bit on Sketchfab that lets you annotate it (will add screenshots below). I've added onto the asset my influence, the basis of the nose art and the squadron code (mentions Norfolk). I've also added annotations to lead the viewer around the Spitfire. I think this will help a non-specialized audience understand the meaning and why behind the project but also show them around the best sides of the asset.

Direct link to my Spitfire asset:
Sketchfab - Spitfire Mk IIb

Screenshots for annotations:

Hand in Week

This week I am basically just sorting out and cleaning up my project for submission and writing my critical evaluation. This will be a realativly short post, but I shall write my own evaluation on here the night before hand in.

To make this short post interesting, I've also created an asset sheet for the Spitfire.

Texture Transfer, turntables and final renders.

As predicted, when I tried texture transfer in Maya, it naffed up because of me. As seen below: 

But after a few hours trying to figure out what went wrong (human error) I managed to get it to work:

To quote Stan Lee 'Excelsior!'

It worked and now I know what I did wrong in the first place and what I need to do, I did this for all maps - minus normal map. 

I also added some more geometry on the front section of the Spitfire and on the tail fin. 

Though subtle, it looks way better!

Also, I redid the panels for the Spitfire (four times this week....) and updated the Spitfire serial number to another serial number (still a real one though) 

I forgot to mention that last week, I tried to make my own panorama backgrounds in Substance Painter but they didn't turn out well and the lighting didn't show.

I took my own photographs and try to sort them out in Photoshop. My experiments:

I also created a turntable in Marmoset Toolbag. The first version I duplicated the properties and turned the opacity down to make it look like they're moving. 

But I wanted to push myself, so with hep, I managed to animate the propellers and created a turntable for the new version. 

First version: 

Second version and final version: 

Final renders: 

Also, this week I sorted out the final renders for the MA show. I later decided to make the Spitfire look like it was turning so it looks more realistic, to break up the image so it doesn't look flat. Results below: 

Study and presenting research docs

This week, I wanted to start presenting my main research notes properly and make them look good.
I wanted to get as much I could this week so I can focus on the texture transfer next week.

Example of pages:

I wanted to make the research docs look like military documentation - in a similar fashion to what I did for my year 3 research document. 

As well as these, I did another study. From the tutorial from the other week, it was suggested to use nurbs in Maya to help create curves. Though I know it's too late to do this for the main Spitfire asset, I still wanted to try it out. This study is based on my Dragon Age Grey Warden ring. This turned out really well (at least in my eyes). I will use this for future models.
 Results below:

The 'Night Witches'

A part of the feedback I got for my presentation at the beginning of the month was to look at the Night Witches. 

The Night Witches: Who were they and what did they do? 

The Night Witches was an all-female squadron of pilots for the Soviet Union. The name 'Night Witches' was the nickname the Nazi's gave them as the Night Witches tactic during bombing was setting their plane engines to idle and gliding over targets when they dropped bombs and the only thing the Germans heard was the whooshing of the planes as they glided. These women were apart of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment.

These women ran bombing raids in very old wooden and canvas bi-planes that were meant to dust fields - none of these women were not under any illusions and were well aware how outdated their planes were. In addition to these old planes, they had no radio contact and up until 1944, they had no parachutes. 

The first slogan for the Night Witches was 'you are a woman, and you should be proud of that' as quoted by Irina Rakobolskaya.

After all of their missions, only 30 women died in the Night Witches. If they were shot down, they walked backed to their HQ and continued their mission (regardless if they were hurt).

The most famous Nigth Witch was Nadezhda Popova. In one single night, she flew in 18 bombing missions. 

Research Links:

The Night Witches and World War II

THE NIGHT WITCHES OF WORLD WAR TWO

The Little-Known Story of the Night Witches, an All-Female Force in WWIINight Witches: The Female Fighter Pilots of World War II

The Night Witches The True Story of an Incredible Group of Women

Aditional Research this week: 

How Stuff Works: Supermarine Spitfire

To get the context to what the Spitfire was up against, I wanted to look at the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter plane and the Stuka

. 

The Messerschmitt was the most produced plane for the Luftwaffe and in total there was around 33,000 Messerschmitt produced. Also out of all the planes, the Messerschmitt took down the most Allied planes than any other plane during the war. The longevity and success of the Messerschmitt were credited to the fact the designers made sure the plane had the biggest engine with the smallest frame. This made it easier to produce and repair (unlike the Spitfire, which was harder to repair). The first flight of the Messerschmitt had a Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine that was imported. 

How Stuff Works: Messerschmitt Bf 109

Plane Encyclopedia: Messerschmitt Bf 109

Acepilots.Com: Messerschmitt Bf 109

The Aviation History Online Museum: Messerschmitt Bf 109

The History Learning Site: Messerschmitt 109

The Stuka (Junkers Ju 87 Stuka) was a large angular monoplane and always managed the strike fear due to their dive-bombing. 

The first Stuka flight was in 1935 and by 1939 began to bring terror to people. 

Note: Also, whilst research the sound people associate with a plane flying straight to the ground doesn't make the sound we instantly think of. It was only the Stuka that makes that sound the 'Stuka Scream'. The 'Stuka Scream' was because of the noisy engines. Whilst designing the Stuka, German's ended using this to their advantage and added fans in front of the landing gear and made the sound into a siren - Basically to scare the hell out of anyone who heard the 'Stuka Scream'. 

How Stuff Works: Stuka

The Sirens of Death – 11 Amazing Facts About the Ju 87 Stuka

The Sound of World War II Planes

Junkers Ju 87 Stuka German Dive Bomber of WWII

ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA: Stuka

Ju 87 Stuka

Texturing

This weeks post will be put across two posts

Note: I really like the way this render looks as it looks like an old photograph. If I can, I'm gonna make the final render for the MA show look like this.
I finally finished texturing the cockpit and on track for hand in, in a few weeks (hopefully).

During a feedback tutorial, it was suggested to use texture transfer in Maya to transfer the old textures from an old UV set to a new set. This means I can make the UV shells bigger for the outer section for the Spitfire and not needing to redo the textures from scratch again (something I don't wish to do with not long left for hand in and wanted to get everything done this week). Also, it was suggested to turn down the bumps I have on the metal painted bits of the Spitfire.
I'm not going to settle for less so I will try this as I want the Spitfire to look as good as it possibly can! Also, it was suggested to connect the wings to the main body. This time, I hope I can do it without causing crashes in Maya again.

New game plan:
Re-do UV's so I can do the texture transfer in Maya. I'm going to layout the outer UVs across two UV sets instead of having one - this will make the textures stand out way more.

Backup plane:
Get the old Spitfire ready and make sure I'm happy with it so I can submit it, just in case the texture transfer doesn't work (aka I screw it up).

Additional research:
Whilst watching YouTube I can across a channel called Simple History; Bitsize videos about history. But two of their videos stood out to me.

One was a British Spitfire ace who actually had no legs. He was also stationed at RAF Coltishall in Norwich for a bit. It's actually pretty amazing despite no legs, not only could he fly a plane (even more amazing once you know you have to use your feet to control the rudders in a Spitfire - Found out this from watching one of the Spitfire documentaries at the beginning of this project) but also to become an ace pilot, now that's amazing!
In further research into Sir Douglas Robert Bader, he was also a Prisoner of War (POW) and whilst a POW he made so many escapes attempts the German's even threaten to take away his prosthetic legs.

Simple History: The WWII Flying Ace with No Legs (Strange Stories)
The smile of a stern-faced hero: Rare footage of WW2 fighter ace Douglas Bader walking with false legs shown for first time
Missing Both Legs, This RAF Fighter Ace Took Out 22 Germans Planes, Then Escaped Multiple POW Camps

Also another video by Simple History, there was a video about a WW2 British soldier nicknamed "Mad Jack". Why was he given that name? Because he fought with a longbow, sword, and bagpipes instead of guns. You can understand the nickname.
The Man who Fought with a Longbow and a Sword in WWII
Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Churchill
The British Soldier Who Killed Nazis with a Sword and a Longbow "Mad Jack" was finally

Note: As stated in an earlier post, I've been using Grammarly and I've been testing it on my blog posts. It's actually been really helpful with my writing as being dyslexic it hard for me to write sometimes. I think I may use to help me with my critical evaluation.

Can Video Games help Museums?

Thinking about photogrammetry and what I could do next. One thing that came to my mind is to use it for museums. I know some museums are now digitizing their collections. But what about making it interactive using games technologies? Or perhaps, using photogrammetry they can create models from their collections that aren't on show to the public (i.e. too valuable to put on display). 

According to some articles, the museum numbers are going down. Is it because they just don't appeal to the average person? Too expensive? Too dull? I know I'm proposing a lot of questions, but wouldn't it be interesting to use game technologies to make museums more interesting.
This could make it not just interesting to kids, but attract people who may not otherwise go to museums.
Furthermore, this also could help dyslexics as the most common way for a dyslexic to learn is via experience, being shown or being hands-on. Note: I can confirm this from my own experience with having dyslexia.
Also, read an article from the BBC, some studies even say that video games help people children with dyslexia to read. The link: Video games 'help reading in children with dyslexia'

One prime example of using games to make museums more interesting is the discovery mode in Assassin's Creed origins. Using the base game map from the main game (they change it so there's no violence so kids can play) and they have interactive tours and players can interact with the environment, participate in activities and explore ancient Eygpt, whilst learning. This is basically an interactive museum.

Note: With the base game alone, Ubisoft used Historian but they had additional historian for the interactive tours.

If museums do this online, so people can get interested they are more likely to actually to go to the museum to learn more. Better yet, if they do it in museums they can attract more people there and kids will be more interested to go too.

Note: I kinda wish I had this idea as I started this project, as I would base the project around this. Unfortunately, it's too late to implement this idea in the project beyond the idea phase.

 But as I also said, museums could use photogrammetry and digitize their collects (even ones not visible to the public) as people can get closer to the object without damaging the real thing and they could digitally curate it. Not only this, it could serve as a catalog for the museums, as this would archive their collection and could digitally lend their collection to other museums or for further study. They could even find stuff they couldn't before as they don't have to as careful with the digital version as it's, well digital.
Also, if this was done with a game company, not only would a museum have more resources and specialist working with them, games could get something out of it too, they can use the research for their own games. Also, given that the games industry has grown massive in the last decade, this could also lead to more jobs as there could be a museum cross game development studios and make museums popular.
This would be an interesting field to go in and if I could would pursue this further in a future career.

Research Links:
Major London museums see visitor numbers plummet
British museums and art galleries hit by 1.4m fall in visitors
The drop in museum visitors reveals a nation without aspiration or hope
the decline of Britain public museums
Test for Dyslexia: 37 Common Traits
Action video games to fight dyslexia
Neither action nor phonological video games make dyslexic children read better
Here's One More Reason To Play Video Games: Beating Dyslexia
Video games tested as treatment for dyslexia
NHS: Dyslexia
Common characteristics of Dyslexia
FAQ: DISCOVERY TOUR MODE OF ASSASSIN'S CREED: ORIGINS
Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Discovery Tour lets the beauty of Egypt shine
Assassin's Creed Origins' 'Discovery Tour' mode turns history into
Assassin’s Creed Origins’ new educational mode is a violence-free tour through ancient Egypt
We give access to a lost world': Assassin's Creed's new life as a virtual museum
Ancient history shines in Assassin's Creed's new Discovery Tour - but it's the gaps that are truly thrilling
ASSASSIN'S CREED ORIGINS - DISCOVERY TOUR Q&A WITH HISTORIAN MAXIME DURAND
Museum games: the kids are all right
Interactive Games Make Museums A Place To Play
Victoria and Albert Museum announce London video game exhibition
Videogames museum will show 'gaming is not for sociopaths'
University of Helsinki: VIDEO GAMES AND MU­SEUMS
Journal: The Introduction of Computer and Video Games in Museums – Experiences and Possibilities
Gaming for Museums
The Art of Video Games
Digitisation: a simple guide for museums
Digitisation
Digital archives: making museum collections available to everyone
Digital collections programme
Digitising Collections – breaking through the museum walls and opening up collections to the world
Natural History Museum CIO David Thomas digitising collections and the visitor experience
3D DIGITISING MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Virtual reality at the British Museum: What is the value of virtual reality environments for learning by children and young people, schools, and families?
How Can Museums Use Virtual Reality?
Virtual reality vs museums
VIRTUAL REALITY AT THE MUSEUM
https://qz.com/quartzy/1162533/more-museums-are-succumbing-to-virtual-reality/
AR and VR could be educational — and profitable — tools for museums
What is Museum VR and Museum AR ?