Real worlds Week by Week Project Management

 Here is the link to my Gantt Chart -

Project Start -

WEEK 1-

In week 1 I was able to complete all of my SWOT analysis, Plot out my Gantt chart and start some initial faction research, visual research, observational sketches and mood boards for my research dossier. Next week i plan to get all 60 thumbnails done, perhaps doing some extra ones if i have time. This should take me no more than two afternoons [or one day in total to complete], i also intend to get some feedback on my sketches along with writing up some information on why i made certain design choices.

WEEK 2 -

In week two i was able to complete those 60 sketches [ creating an additional 30-40 in total] in the time i had planned out for myself the week prior, on top of this i managed to fill in the IP research section for the research dossier as well as get down some initial ideas for which game genres and benchmark games i want to research. My next step is to create some coloured sketches for the character orthographic and equipment to present to the client, these won't be finalized deliverables as i want to be able to make changes if necessary, though will be neatened up enough that i feel proud to present them to the client. Along with this i intend to write a brief backstory for each character. The rebs character sheet will take much less time to do than the marauders as i am more confident drawing humanoid characters in comparison to mechs, as such i expect the orthographics will take a maximum of two days in total to complete. The character back stories and genre research will likely take me no more than around 4-5 hours to complete. I still feel quite confident with my planning for this project's deliverables so far and i am on target to be able to complete things on time. So far the only set back i have had was a trip i took earlier in the week to London, though I will be able to make up for this day off from working by taking some time this weekend to get ahead on those orthographics or my research  [whichever i don't get finished in lesson on Thursday].

WEEK 3 -

This week i managed to make a start on the character orthographics as well as make some colour iterations for my Rebs character. I also had a little more of a look into the beat 'em up and looter shooter categories to consider how these genres might effect my character designs. I intend to get the two character sheets roughly drawn out, values placed down and colours added to present to the client. Once i have gotten some feedback on my designs and backstories, i will then neaten up the character turnarounds before getting started on the key art pieces. At this stage I don't have any equipment breakouts so i will need to make these additions to the character sheet before handing it off to the client for review, i predict this shouldn't take me any more than a day to do both.

WEEK 4 -

Following on from week 3, I finished off my orthographic of my rebs character as well as making the orthographic for my marauders character along with a 3D model which will come in very handy when making my key art. In both of these orthographic sheets i also included equipment/character breakouts, additional notes on functions of details, and colour pallets which will also be very useful for when it comes to making my key art. I was also able to finish the genre justification section of my research dossier justifying my reason for choosing the looter shooter / beat em up game genre for a videogame adaptation of Deadzone. My next steps are to consider some compositions and begin sketching out the key art for each of my characters as well as putting together some short backstories to explain their origins and reasons for being nemesis. I feel pretty confident about my position in the project so far and as i feel quite confident when it comes to 2D art i think i should be fairly quick at getting the key art sketched out and some rough colours lay down. Now that i have most of the writing out of the way i should be able to spend all of my time working on getting the 2D elements ready for feedback and submission.

WEEK 5-

This week I used the feedback given to me from the class critique last lesson to make improvements on my character designs. I ended up redrawing my Rebs character sheet and I am much happier with it now. Now that I have both designs somewhat finalized, I put everything together into a PowerPoint presentation, using the example on the now as a guide for how much information I should be presenting to the client, along with this I wrote up my character backstories and added them onto my PowerPoint. Just so I know I will definitely have everything on hand for the client review, I am going to upload my PowerPoint to my blog as well as google slides, I might also download a copy onto a USB stick so that i have several back ups in case something goes wrong. My next steps are to draw out some thumbnails/rough sketches for my character key art to put alongside my orthographics on my PowerPoint. So far I think I am still on track to get everything completed and overall I am feeling quite happy with my designs.

WEEK 6 -

For this week I have began working on the Key art for my characters. Although I haven't finished them, I have gotten the tonal values complete and completely finished the black and white digital painting on my Rebs character, and gotten around 50% done on my Marauders character. I chose not to finish them so that I can make any changes to my designs depending on what my feedback is from the Mantic Client. I have also made sure to add these two images to my PowerPoint so that I can show these to my client for feedback. Next week I intend to finish these two key art pieces with the advice implemented so that they will be ready for the submission.

WEEK 7 -

This week was the meeting with the Mantic people to get feedback on my designs, I had 10 minutes to present my ideas to them and receive feedback. I made sure to keep my explanations brief so that i could have as much time as possible to get some feedback. I wrote down all the suggestions they made for changes and implemented them as soon as possible so that i can stay on top of work ready for the next deadline. I am going to make some more changes to my key art during class on Friday too as I really want to fix the face on the GCPS soldier in the Katya piece. I feel the meeting went ok, i felt quite nervous but in the end I was relieved to hear that they liked my ideas. My next steps are to finalize my key art and begin looking over the work i will need to do next.

WEEK 8 -

This week i finished up my final key art for the Hogg and swine as well as implemented some feedback given to me from my tutor on how to improve my two key art pieces. On top of this i completed a brief analysis on my composition choices and techniques and how my art pieces tell a specific story. In preparation for the formative next week I am going to finalize my analysis on my compositions and perhaps refine some little details such as the gore strings on the Katya piece and the gun smoke on the Hogg and swine.

WEEK 9 -

This week I made sure everything was ready for the formative on Sunday, making sure all my artwork is put on my blog and that i have finished off any written work i was working on. I have also made some slight changes to my gantt chart with tasks i will need to do for the next half of this project, I don't predict this is going to change much with my schedule as the only task i have added is making moodboards and mindmaps [i might also do some observational sketches if necessary] which will likely only add 1-2 days onto my plan, looking at my gantt chart, i have a lot of time between my final task and the final deadline, this buffer is useful so that i know no matter what i will be able to get things done on time.

WEEK 10 -

This week I re-evaluated my gantt chart to update the tasks i have already done, and the tasks i have yet to do. I have now spread things out a bit further meaning that although i still have a lot of free time until the deadline, i have now got a few tasks to do each week which is much better than lumping all the workload into such a small timeframe. I also began working on the second part of this submission by creating mood boards, thumbnails, gathering some feedback, and completing the IP research section of my dossier. I intend to implement my feedback over the coming weekend, then begin orthographics and colourways next week. I am still feeling very confident on getting everything done on time, and whilst i will be taking a short break over Easter, I will still try to get some work done so i am not stressing about it last minute.

WEEK 11 -

This week i created some observational sketches of brutalist architecture to help me when creating my final design for my buildings. I also went back and studied some Gatling guns and re-evaluated how i created my gun design for the Hogg and swine. On top of this i also created some pose studies for Katya just to get a better feeling for her character as a whole. Finally i implemented my feedback into my thumbnails and selected a design that i am going to go forward with for my hero building. Next week i am going to hopefully start my colour iterations, create my 3D model for my main building, and do a final coloured reference for my building.

WEEK 12 -

For this week I created some Colourways for my main hero building and gathered some feedback on which textures and colours looked best for my purpose. I then created a top down orthographic for my hero building which i used to create a 3D model. From here I then made the final coloured reference for the hero building along with adding some annotations and a small scale to the sheet. I then made some Orthographics and 3D models for my street furniture ready for assembling everything in Maya and figuring out my composition. Before I make my final piece, i would like to have a look at how destiny lays out their maps so that i can figure out the best placement for my assets to fit with my game ideas theme of looter shooter/beat em up.

WEEK 13 -

Aside from assessing what work I have left to do for this project, I did not make any more art for Real worlds this week as I decided to focus on 3D toolkit to make sure I was caught up to date on that. Despite this, I still remain confident I can get everything done on time for the submission, I only have the map layout, composition considerations, and 3D draw over left to do. As i have done 3D draw overs before, I am feeling quite confident in my process and I am excited to get it completed within the next few weeks.

WEEK 14 -

This week i did some visual research on looter shooter maps, my main inspiration being destiny 2, and identifying what features make up these layouts. Using this information, I put together my 3D scene using all the assets i had made for this project along with repurposing some older models that I made for building alliances, I then used my 3D scene to take some compositional shots and create a top down map. I then decided to annotate my map to explain my reasoning for my layout choices before getting some feedback on my compositional shots and some advice on some artists i should look at to complete my final piece. I am feeling a little nervous about the final piece as i will be trying out a new technique, however i am excited to give it a go and hopefully learn something new in the process. I should be able to get everything done on time and ready for submission in a few weeks.

WEEK 15 -

This week i managed to finish my final paint over following some tips from my benchmark artist Feng Zhu. the final paint over did take me less time than i anticipated to be honest, I only spent 1 full day drawing and then around half a day implementing feedback. Overall I'm really happy with the outcome and still feeling quite confident about submission next week. All i have left to do is write up my evaluation for this project and then i should be ready to hand in.

WEEK 16 -

For the final week, I put together all the main pieces of artwork i have created for this project and wrote up my evaluation for Real worlds in its entirety. Focusing in on my time management aspect in this post, I think I did a good job of breaking down the brief into it's main tasks, and allocating time to each task based on how long i think it would take me to do them. Throughout this project I've felt quite good about getting tasks done on time and I've been able to enjoy the process while getting work done on time. I've really gotten a lot of use out of gantt charts throughout this year as a whole across all three classes, and the ability to that percentage bar slowly increase over the period of the project has been a really rewarding motivator for me. Going ahead into next year I will definitely be using gantt charts again and even in my own personal projects, this year has really highlighted this as being a good time management tool for me.