CAGD 495 - Sprint 3

 CAGD 495 - Sprint 3

Production Process

The production process for this sprint went smoothly, for the most part. Work was completed at a regular pace and there were no big slumps where work was stalled. Overall, this sprint went smooth and there were only a couple problems that arose.

We also conducted playtesting this sprint, but this was a little different from how we would usually playtest in other CAGD classes. We had our associate, Andy, gather play testers from the MMEM program who were already familiar with the shop. She recommended saving fresh play testers, people who have little experience in the labs, for future playtests once the VR experience is far more developed.

Lab Assistant Playtesting

We received some good feedback in regards to the build. For some people, it was their first time ever experiencing VR which made it really easy to see where we should adjust for motion sickness or other VR-specific issues. A lot of play testers could recognize the block out as being the different labs which inspired confidence that most things were accurate. There were some issues with scale and doorframes. The scale was a bit too large for the third lab building, so we'll have to go back and adjust that to better represent the actual lab. As for the doorframes, we'll adjust their height as they were too low for many of our taller play testers. Height was an unforeseen problem that we can now account for.

Issues/Problems/Solutions

This certainly wasn't a major issue, but I had to ask for an extra prop to work on as I didn't want to put the gas canister onto a single texture page as that would've been a waste of space. I do think we need a more solid idea of what needs to be put where in terms of texture sheets as many of the cards just say to have a textured model. We should develop a list of needed props and then organize them into sheets from there. This would make it so we're not scrambling to find out how to organize props or waste space with a ton of texture sheets for one or two items.

Sprint Kickoff

Sprint Kickoff went smoothly. We went down the list of tasks assigned for the sprint and called out if we wanted to work on it. If one person was accruing too many tasks, the producer would inform them of the amount of work they were taking on and suggest someone else commandeer it. Overall, the process was smooth and divided up work pretty evenly. I'll be using similar tactics in my own role as producer moving forward.

Work Completed

Most of the work I completed this sprint was modeling and texturing props that will be used in the scene. The first thing I worked on was the sink, sandwich, and backpack. I started off modeling the backpack which was carried over from last sprint. Modeling this was a bit tougher due to the organic shape. I used two free image planes with different angles of a black Jan sport backpack in order to get the dimensions right. From there I went through and made adjustments until it began to look right. The handle, back straps, and pockets are all separate from the original base. The zippers I could model and duplicate across the backpack. Since they were the same size, I only UVd the first one and duplicated it from there.

Backpack Model and UVs

From there I started to texture the backpack along with the aforementioned models. Most of the other textures could be found online through free use services like adobe community materials. To make the sandwich I had to use Substance Sampler to get some Sbar files from free use images of different parts of a sandwich. This went fairly smoothly and I could easily apply the textures in Substance Painter.

Sink, backpack, sandwich final textures

The next thing I worked on was the decals for spills. I used photoshop and messed around with different pattern brushes to the effects I desired. I mostly used the default brush to trace what patterns I made. I made the water spill first and then the chemical spill. I had some issues with the chemical spill looking a little too stylized, so I had to redo it a couple of times.

Chemical (left) and water (right) spill

Finally, I worked on the gas canister as well as the anvil. I used a revolve to model the base of the gas canister as well as the gas cap. The rest I modeled by hand using cylinders. For the anvil I began with the base and modeled upwards. I extruded the side of the anvil to get the metal part that juts out to the left. For textures, I used a lot of the basic metals I already had in Painter and generators like metal edgewear.

Anvil Model (left) and Gas Canister (right)

Work Incomplete

Some of the work I didn't get around to was documenting my creation process for assets. This was assigned to us mid-way through the sprint. I'll prioritize this next sprint so that the team following us can easily pick up where we left off.

Another thing left incomplete is the walls. I think this will have to be broken down further so that I can work on it in a digestible fashion.

Current Work

As I stated before, I'm currently working on documenting the asset creation process. I hope to get this done early next sprint.