Major Project Assessment #1

Name: Vivian Gan 091FGN2052

Project title: The Water Mirror

The Outcome:

·         A complete model and textured of a 17-18^th century sailing ship

·         A render of the sailing ship in brand new condition

·         A render of the sailing ship in broken down condition

·         A concept design of a character set in the same theme of the ship

·         A character render of the character set in the same theme of the ship

Theme or Content:

·         Storytelling: The main character is a young teenager travelling on a cruise ship on a holiday with his/her family when a strange storm strikes in the night. This causes the ship to lose control and drift near uncharted waters “the Bermuda triangle”. During the course the protagonist is thrown overboard in the confusion amidst the storm. The next morning the protagonist is rescued when he/she is fished out of the sea by a passing sailing ship. Later the protagonist awakens only to discover he/she is currently on board an old sailing ship that supposedly vanished inside the Bermuda triangle several centuries ago.

·         A model: 17-18^th century merchant, naval and pirate vessels will be used as possible inspirations or base as well as existing games and historical records for the ship.

·         Game: The main character will explore the unknown world within the Bermuda triangle as well as need to adapt to his/her new environment, unlock the mysteries of the Bermuda triangle and discover new things inside in order to escape back to his/her own world.

Creative aims:

·         The goal is to draw an empathic response from the audience through the accuracy of the representation of the sailing ship to create the illusion that it looks real from its 3D Maya model

·         To demonstrate a historically accurate presentation of a ship through thorough research and putting it into practise by recreating the results in a 3D Maya model

Technical aims:

·         Improve confidence and familiarisation of the tools within Maya

·         Demonstrate accurate technical skills in turning a physical form and transforming it in a 3D digital form

·         Usage of additional software’s to help with the recreation of the model perhaps Unity, Unreal Technology and maybe a combination of all three

·         Exploration of other techniques like hair creation and cloth technology

·         Improvement of concept skills such as drawing

·         Improve both confidence and skill in drawing physically

Who will be the target market/audience:

·         The ship model and character design will be used in a game that mainly targets audience that are roughly aged 20-35 gamers.

·         The targeted audience will play as the character and explore the game world and familiarise themselves with the ship

·         The target audience will also be able to learn the historically accurate features of the ship and its design

Your research areas:

·         Technical research: Maya tutorials on character, hair and cloth creation, texture research, drawing technique research from illustration to colouration. *Other software program research such as Unity or Unreal, static meshes for damage ships, billboards for environment props, sky box, mist, water creation*

·         Market research: Game designs that are popular among that age group.

·         Subject matter research: This will include the history behind the Bermuda triangle, the disappeared vessels and ships, 17-18^th century ship designs and their features. Detailed appearances of new, aging, wrecked, abandoned ships.

Success measure:

·         The completed project  results demonstrates my abilities as well as can be used as a good piece of work example within my portfolio that will allow me to secure a desired job within the industry once graduated.

*edits*