Final Year Project

jcb33 · 18 Oct 2008 at 11:03

Hey all,

I am now in my final year of a university degree. We have only done one unit on 3D however that has convinced me that I work with 3D modelling as a career, now obviously I have not had a great deal of experience yet and am still learning.

I have to do a final year “Project” which consists of research into, putting forward an argument, detailing the production of an artefact, and producing an artefact. This must be “15,000 words worth of effort”.

I proposed that I look into the limitations of current hardware, such as the Nintendo Wii, and develop a low poly character model based on the limitations I find. Then to research into techniques of making the model look better, and to apply them to the model, to demonstrate the effects. Overall determining which method is best, Z-brush normal maps… etc

However they say that while this “Sounds interesting” it is not a solid enough idea, and the artefact requires further development. Therefore I am looking into developing my idea into a sound project, that will be interesting, and will teach me new skills within the 3D realm, while still being possible with the skills I currently have.

Any advice, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jcb33.

Ripper · 18 Oct 2008 at 11:30

Your thinking about it too much. Just do something good that will be easy.

jcb33 · 18 Oct 2008 at 12:41

Ripper said:
Your thinking about it too much. Just do something good that will be easy.

Can you realy think about a project to much?

gumbald · 18 Oct 2008 at 12:42

jcb33 said:
Can you realy think about a project to much?

Yep. Any supervisors or such you can speak to?

jcb33 · 18 Oct 2008 at 12:50

Yes, my supervisor is the one that told me I need to develop the project more, his suggestion was to get it running on a wii + 360, however I don't program in C#/C++ nor do I have 1.5k to spend on the Wii development kit...

ozzy · 18 Oct 2008 at 13:00

As a 3d modeller myself, I think your original idea sounds better than their suggestion. The fact that you can take a 3d model and 'get it running' on a Wii is irrelevant really, unless you are doing a programming course.

What degree is it that you are doing?

jcb33 · 18 Oct 2008 at 13:23

It is Computer Games Production, so basicaly the creative/design aspects of creating games, so 3D, Game Design Paterns, Human Computer Interaction, and then this year the more profesional stuff + project. The problem with our course is, that it is new, and most people involved in it (Lecturer wise) like their programing.

E1mo · 18 Oct 2008 at 13:34

The Microsoft XNA development kit allows you to develop games on the 360 for free. Obviously you don't have the ability to cryptographically sign the code and distribute it, but this shouldn't be necessary for your final year project.

ozzy · 18 Oct 2008 at 13:59

jcb33 said:
It is Computer Games Production, so basicaly the creative/design aspects of creating games, so 3D, Game Design Paterns, Human Computer Interaction, and then this year the more profesional stuff + project. The problem with our course is, that it is new, and most people involved in it (Lecturer wise) like their programing.

Ah ok then, their suggestion makes more sense then.

However if you're not competant enough programming I would steer clear for the simple fact the final project is tough as it is, let alone learning something as you go along.

PinkFloyd · 18 Oct 2008 at 15:18

Your original idea sounds almost identical to what a huge amount of my mates are doing on our course. Things along the lines of researching the hardware limitations between current, and last gen consoles, and making models for each.

Myself I'm going for an investigation into complex mechanical rigging, with it designed so it is easy to animate! No idea how to word the title without it sounding silly though

Jono8 · 18 Oct 2008 at 16:55

I just have to compose 20 minutes of film music for my dissertation

Darg · 18 Oct 2008 at 17:10

Have a look into XNA, I'm doing my final year project in XNA.

Basically working on creating a MMORPG or as much of it as I can. Main goals are a persistent universe, large 4km*4km areas(more then one) and some sort of resource gathering, item production and building production.

Right now though I'm still working on the engine itself, basic physics, thread timing and so on.

You can create a single threaded renderer pretty damn easily though. It's all C# so easy as heck to pick up so long as you've done any kind of VB or Java before. Thousands of tutorials around too. If you have a 360 I'd definitely look into it.

Most colleges now should have 360 development kits and all the software you'll need.

jcb33 · 18 Oct 2008 at 23:03

We do have 360 development kits, but I do not know what I am doing to use them... let alone getting a character that I can interact with onto the system...

Chaos · 18 Oct 2008 at 23:25

PinkFloyd said:
Myself I'm going for an investigation into complex mechanical rigging, with it designed so it is easy to animate! No idea how to word the title without it sounding silly though

You might be interested in the Houdini technical rigging dvds if you dont know about them over at 3dbuzz.com

PinkFloyd · 19 Oct 2008 at 00:10

Chaos said:
You might be interested in the Houdini technical rigging dvds if you dont know about them over at 3dbuzz.com

They look like they'd be really interesting. I just don't have the time to learn yet another 3d piece of software (know 3dsmax - learning maya, plus wouldn't have the support from lecturers that I will in using 3dsmax. Not to mention I've got 2 years of experience in 3dsmax anyway.

Will likely look at the piece of software some time purely due to interest in this area though.

jcb33 · 20 Oct 2008 at 13:05

Ok having a think about this, what do you think sounds better:

1) Creation of low poly character + research into hardware limitations, and methods to improve model, which is best?
2) Creation of next gen character + research into limitations of video game modelling/hardware, vs movie standard modelling, and what is the ultimate technique to make video game models nearer that of movies...

Taking into account that I have not made anything above 3000 polys when it comes to character modelling yet...

Thanks,
Jcb33.

jcb33 · 21 Oct 2008 at 01:36

Ok, so what do you think of this?

"Graphics Optimization, Can Low Polygonal Models Look Next Gen?"

Video game graphics are constantly pushing the boundaries of hardware, for example Crysis was unable to run as intended on most hardware upon release. Therefore would it have been able to run better if the developers had spent more time optimizing the graphics and not trying to kill graphics cards?

Basically I will look into next generation graphical techniques, texture, shading, lighting, normal maps etc and apply them to models with poly limits of last generation hardware, and see if the lower poly models can look next generation. I will have a group of people evaluate them, see which techniques they think look better, and whether or not they would class them as next generation.

The artefact’s I will create are:

Low poly character model
Low poly environment

Each being tested with the different techniques I research into, and renders being produced to show each.