Week 1
During this 2 days I managed to have done my research about what the environmental artist is doing. I realise how much work is on the barks of this people. Its common for them to make assets by their own, fill a level with them and they have a lot of paper work to do.
Week 2
This week I decided what theme I am going to apply on my environment project, which is post-apocalyptic. I decided to choose this theme because I am a huge fan of apocalyptic vision of our world, I am collecting object related to it, like a gas masks and read a lot of books like Zombie Survival Guide or entire Metro 2033 universe. That’s why I decided to make my environment post-apocalyptic. I also have done my mood board for all three potential themes. I found it very enjoyable to make after a long break. This task takes me around 2 hours. Thanks to new way to open good new google images instead of this old bad one, I didn’t find any major issues. The only small issue I found was to create interesting idea for not interesting for me theme: fantasy. Results for my Si-fi/Post-Apo are in my opinion satisfying, I highly recommend to see it by your own. Another thing I done this week is registration to UCAS, now I have a account there to find a best University for me. I still need to fill my information’s out there, however I am not sure about some of them, that why I am going to finish it next week. In terms of work, I am going to create a map of my level next week.
Week 3
This week I learn about different types of the level like a Alley type where player have to go from point A to B through claustrophobic corridor or Maze etc. I also prepared photo of location I want to create, I decided to place my environment in real location, however I am going to change some bits or make them smaller to save some time. Photo below show how does this place look like. As I stated, its not going to be 1:1 scale, however I want to make it similar and possible to identify. 
I also learn how to create interactive environment in Unreal Engine, door on my test level require now pressing “E” to open, and I also created very basic system of keys. As an additional work, I created working interactive elevator, and I make the key disappear after the player collect it.
Back to the environment planning, I created the potential asset list. On this list there is large amount of potential props I could create to fill my environment. Entire list, and plan what should be where is in the separate post on this web page.
I also created asset rationale which was easy to make, and I filled my UCAS with my personal information’s.
Another thing we done is set up of the Trello, where I am going to see my progress. I am trying to keep it updated. I really hope to start my blockout next week.
Week 4
This week I started blocking of my level and adding a light into it. I started making my blockout week earlier because I finished most of the tasks faster. This week I realise what I did wrong. I used the wrong blocks to fill my level, I should use a geometry ones. I started replacing all the bad block into the geometry ones and I fixed a size of my level, everything was to small compared to the player model. Now I know how big the interiors should be compared to the player model. Now there is much more space inside, and all buildings and trees have more realistic size. Sadly I found the light placement a difficulty, and amount of boxes on the level is lagging entire PC. I hope to finish my blockout next week.
Week 5
I finished my blockout. On my way to achieve this task I’ve meet difficulties like limit of objects, bad auto saving and light problems, however I managed to fix all of them and finish my level. Currently I have three areas on my level, train station, bus station with parking and a park with old building in it. Train station was easy to make because the shape of this building is very simple, basically its just a box. Second area where the buses are was much harder to make. Size become my enemy. Some thing were to big, while others were to small. Now everything have correct size. Last area was also hard to make because of the object limit. There I realise how pointless is making a trees blockout. I removed most of the trees and my level feel a bit empty, but at least its working now. Every window have a dedicated light source, same with door ways.
Start making overdrawn concept art of my level. I decided to make overdrawn of three places around my level. First location I am going to create is Train station, this is a place where player is starting and it must be spectacular. I didn’t find any big difficulties with this task, I really enjoy making art in photoshop. I am using well known tools for me. The only struggle I had, was making a leaves, however later I found a special brush dedicated to making a leaves. All of them have different size and colour, and this brush also speed up my work.
Add light to every window and every doorway. I am also adding a directional light to every building because the scene look to dark sometimes.
Started making assets. First assets I created were bottle and a barrel because in my opinion this is the simplest assets to create. I am not the best at 3D modelling, that’s why some of my assets are looking bad and boxy, however I am waiting to add some textures on them. Textures should help my assets to look like actual existing objects.
Week 6
Gained some feedback about my level. Overall reaction is positive, however most of people complained about the darkness surrounding this level. Now I am highly motivated to improve that part of my level.
created at least 3 assets for my game, started making a bus however this task become to complicated for now. I started from trying making a bus out of the box, later I was trying to make it out of plane. Finally my teacher said I need to scratch this idea and make this out of plane, but different way, using the blueprint. I decided to give up on it, and start again next week.
I created some smaller assets like a bricks, tire, sand bag, bottles etc. I started to create body bags, however this asset is harder to create that I through. Human shape is harder to make than I through, however I received some tips from my teacher and I am going to improve my body bags next week.
Week 7
This week I managed to create modular walls, this task become easier than I through. I created walls, walls with widows, door way, floors and even columns. Overall this week I created most of the assets for my project. I even created a bus out of the plane, to achieve this I used the youtube tutorial where a man was making a muscle car in the 3ds max. I managed to create bus and additionally a upgrade pack for it containing window cover, heavy machine gun and spikes to convert a bus into battle wagon. My body bags are also ready to be used in my level. Head of them are a bit to big however as I stated last week its hard to keep human proportions. I created many smaller assets like a tents, bricks, sand bags or bottles to fill my empty level with some content. I feel so good with it. I have a lot of assets and there is still a lot of time left to finish them off, texture and include in my level.
Week 8
This is a week when I really want to finish my assets and start to implement them into the engine. I have some problems with them, no matter what I am doing, they are to small. There is still texturing in front of me, however I don’t think its hard, on Monday lesson I managed to create barrel texture right. I also updated my workpress because I forget to update it after every single lesson like I did few weeks ago.
Week 9
I used this week to update my blog, and improve previously created posts and web pages. This section was improved a lot compared to others, I improved my weekly reflections by adding my goals for next week, and some more detail explanation of what I did every single week.
Week 10
In week 10 I learn how to unwrap the the asset and later how to texture it. I found this task extremely hard, I repeated entire tutorial around 5 times because of my silly mistakes, which result in completely failure. To achieve this task and learn, I created new asset (all the failed attempts were made on my already existing asset). Wooden barrel was easy to make, and as I later realise, much easier to unwrap. I still had some struggles, however I managed to cut the barrel right. Then I moved to UV Editor, where again I found a problem. My catted parts had problem to be straight. To make them right, I used a tool allowing me to pull vertexes to what direction I want, and managed to make them straight by hand.
After I finished working with asset I moved to Photoshop, and with tutorial I managed to create a texture for my barrel. I been playing with colour levels, shadows and I added detail with brush to my texture, which I later apply to my object in 3Ds Max.
I had a plan to start unwrap my other assets, however because of broken PC, i am moving to other things like updating blog posts, making screenshot of my work and uploading some of my assets to the engine again. I still haven’t find a solution to have them bigger, however I am still trying. I was looking at exporting options, exporting selected. I am still trying.
If I could make something again, I would like to improve my barrel texture, I made some mistakes with cutting, and there is to many not used polygons.
Week 11
This week I started to unwrap my assets, and uploading some of them to the engine to see how does they work. Small assets are working perfectly, however I have problem with walls, from one side all of them are invisible. Also I made mistake with a size of my walls. I realised how big my walls been in block-out. Wall with textures show 240cm, while the wall without them is around twice of it. Now I understand how big walls should be. That’s good knowledge for next project.
I also implemented assets like barrels, carpet, brick or photos into the engine to see how unwrap look, and to see the size of my object. This week I found out how to export assets the right way. I didn’t know you need to use metric system while exporting.
I am trying to improve my wordpress.
Week 12
This week I did same thing as previously. I unwrapped and exported all the basic assets, and uploaded them into the engine. I also started to put them into right places, and finally I created a level made of my assets. I had a lot of problems with sizes of the assets, moving cross being to far from the asset etc. I fixed this problems by reaploading them, because I exported them wrong way. This simple solution fixed all the problems I had with my assets. I also started to create my evaluation which is on separate blog post where I writed down everything I have done this year, and evaluate it. I have done around half of it in school, however there is still a lot of work which need to be done at home.
Game Design 