ASU1 - The End is Near

And so I have finally finished my scene for ASU1. I am extremely happy with what I produced and I am extremely happy with how far my texturing skills have come.
Just quick note for the scene: I rotated the lights so they are facing up. I tried one last time to do the glass textures, it's worked better than previous attempts - but alas trying to get the glass look within UE4 still eludes me.

What would I do next time?
If I was given another chance and more time, I would create more assets for the scene (making the entire kitchen) and also create a video using different cameras within UE4. But all in all, I am happy with what I produced.

RIPU - Research and Evaluation

As I'm currently writing, my essay and creative body of word are done. With the addition of my offline research pages - which I have now finished and converted into a PDF. However, I have got the majority of the transcribing done (literally only several minutes left to do now but probably take awhile to do unfortunately) of the first interview. It has taken way longer than it needed to be, so I've only decided to do only transcribe of one interview and the other one I shall refer to my interview recording.

Update: Due to the time I have left, I will not be able to fully transcribe interview and put a note referring to the rest of the recorded interview

Whilst I'm here, I going to write an evaluation of the RIPU project.
Though it has been times when I didn't like the RIPU project and other times when I have really enjoyed it, I have learnt a lot during the project. I did have a lot of knowledge on the subject beforehand due to the subject I am doing for RIPU has been something of a passion for many years and my BA research report was based on the same topic (I looked at pre-existing games have helped not how games themselves can form a therapy).
I also actually really enjoyed writing my main research report for this unit too and I honestly wished I had a bit more of a higher word limit, as this topic has a lot of potential and have many avenues of research I can go down. If I didn't have to worry about work and ASU1 project, I would without a doubt would of gotten more work done for this project. Which is a shame as I know there a lot more I could have done. But with what I have got for this project already, I am extremely happy with. I'm looking forward in expanding my work further within this area (Video Game Therapy)

RIPU - Research

This week I finished my essay and at the beginning of the week I managed to get more of the transcribing that needed to be done for one of my interviews - shan't transcribe the other one as it took far too long. I've found some more research that I am adding to my offline research papers.
Next week I'm going to proofread my essay and double check everything before I had in.

ASU1 - Weekly update

This week I focus redoing the UV maps, texture maps, bakes and upping the maps sizes for all of the assets. I also created some windows and skirting boards to be placed around the scene. Next week I need to add the second maps for walls (which I replace with another wall texture I created within Substance Designer) to use vertex colouring, fill scene with assets I have made (if I have enough time, I will create some more), package scene and take final screen shots for hand in next week. But what I have done so far and I really happy with. My texturing skills have improved a lot since practicing throughout summer and I am really happy with the results. Unfortunately, I can't do any more work within UE4 until I can get into uni, as UE4 doesn't want to work on my PC at home. 

RIPU - Creative Body of Work

For RIPU this week, I once again focused on doing some creative body of work. I haven't talked about it much in my blog, but I have got a lot more done for my offline research pages. A few more pages and I think I will be done for these. 

ASU1 - Weekly Update

This week I mainly worked within UE4 to make the scene look good. I also redone the arch, as it was suggested that I added more geometry to it. I added IES maps to the scene, played around with lighting colours and played around with the LUTs more until the scene looked the way I wanted. I also created a candle with candle holder, to help guide the eye around the scene - also adds extra light to the level, where the gas light didn't. 

I used Zbush to add extra detail to the candle asset. Towards the end of the week, I added a simple custom made particle effect - it took a while to do, but I finally got the best results. I was also recommended to sort out the UV maps and up the map sizes to make the textures stand out more. This shall be me task to do next week. 

I forgot to mention in last week's post is that I began to look at deferred decal in ue4 - with a few minor computer crashes, I manged to get them to work.  

ASU1 - Weekly Update

This week I decided to create more assets for my scene. I created table, table and cutting board assets. On suggestion, I also created an arch for the walls, to help break the hard edges of the wall assets and make the scene more realistic. These have been fully modeled, baked and textured. I also forgot to mention last week that I began to play around with LUTs in UE4

I used pre-existing Victorian cook book pages for the pages of my cook book asset. Due to time constraints, I wouldn't be able to ilustrate my own cook book pages so I used pre-existing ones.

Images found here: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/36/2b/6b/362b6ba9e3bf71a73293bfc7163bd048.jpg

https://wimshulcooks.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/dainty-dishes_new2.jpg

RIPU - Research

Quick post this morning:
I haven't done much for RIPU, as I've been focusing on my ASU1 project this week. However, I did managed to get another interview done for my project with a researcher.
I also managed to clean up some of my research pages I have done for RIPU - they were a tad messy to use the term lightly.

But this week I also tried to find this particular story about games, but couldn't for the life of me I couldn't find it (which is really annoying, as it was from many years ago and I thought it was from one place but it wasn't. So I was tried for a few hours to find the article), But whilst trying to find the original story, I did find another similar story regarding a similar situation that happened seen here: 6 Acts of Real-Life Heroism Made Possible by Video Games - this also shows how people helped others which was made possible by gaming.

I was also recommend during my interview to look at Nice National Institute for Health Care Excellence - this has all the latest evidence, research and models for treating mental health
Nice National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

RIPU - Creative body of work

This week I focused on getting some of the creative body of work stuff done.
I also managed to conduct an interview with a professionals within a mental health trust in Norfolk for my RIPU project.

This last image is a reference to the Butterfly project, which seeks out to using they symbol of a butterfly to prevent people from self-harming. This has influence some of my other creative body of work. Recoveryourlife.com - As seen here and I quote: 

'The idea is simple. The self-harmer simply draws a butterfly on their place(s) of self-harm and, if the butterfly fades without them self-harming, it means it has lived and flown away, giving them a sense of achievement. Whereas if they do self-harm with the butterfly there; they will have to wash it off. If that does happen, they can start again by drawing a new one on.' - Recoveryourlife.com 

ASU1 - weekly updates: UE4 Renders

Updates on scene within UE4. Also added text to the pots.