Evaluation

My main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were:
I wanted to come up with a design that captured a spooky mood while also challenging myself by building an accurate representation of a house from multiple photographs.

The methods I use to develop my ideas were:
I experimented with various different lighting techniques to create a ghostly feel to the house. These included using fog and volume light with different light types. I looked at various existing, spooky looking houses and found one called the Carson Mansion that had many different photographs taken of it at different angles. Looking at different board games of the same theme helped me develop my design.

I took a risk by trying something new.
Experimenting with different lighting techniques was new to me and took up a lot of time trying to get the effect just right. I also looked into using Vray to see the kind of effects I could get. I found that it creates nice renders but they always seem to be in perfect sunny surroundings, which is useless for my haunted house.

Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were:
I didn’t realize how long it would take to create the house design I chose, as the complexity was underestimated. Also the rendering took allot longer than I initially expected and I have taken note of this for the future.

The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were:
There wasn’t really much I could do to solve these problems, as I wanted to keep the quality of my design. To keep the same quality of work and also have it in on time, I used several computers at one time to render the visualization, as well as stepping up my work flow to the point of spending many sleepless nights modeling.

The most interesting or challenging thing that I achieved was:
I enjoyed building the house from different shapes and watching it slowly take shape. For a long time at first it didn’t look like a very good representation of what I was modelling. I stuck at it and after the main bulk was done I began with the details and finally saw it come together.

The things I have learnt from this particular project were:
I learnt that I need to calculate how long things are going to take based of this experience. I’ve also got the grasp of how lighting can materials can create an effective mood. I used volume light for the main light source to give the design a fogy appearance and volume fog on the ground for the mist

If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently:
If I were to do this project again, I would calculate how long this are going to take and manage my time more effectively.

A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe:
I’m thinking of going in another direction as now that I’ve achieved what I wanted from this design, I wouldn’t mind testing my skills at modelling concept cars or alien worlds.

I have achieved the following learning outcomes for this module and my evidence is:
I’ve learnt many different 3Ds Max techniques that show my personality in my work. This can be seen in the spooky fog and volume light effects as well as the attention to detail when modelling and mapping the haunted house.
I’ve understood the importance of time management when deciding on how long to take on certain areas and how long this will take to render. This can be seen in my reflection of my work.
I can see my self becoming more confidant when approaching 3D design briefs. This can be seen in the complexity of my work compared to my last project.