The planning stage has prettymuch come to an end, and we've all settled into our roles well. I've updated the blog with the minutes from our weekday meetings as well as a separate page for the meetings in lesson with the tutors, if for no other reason than to make them easier to find. We also sorted out some minor group issues and everyone seems happier with where we're at now.
In terms of work, this week was whiteboxing week! Me and Morgan mainly worked on the whitebox, the original version was very large and the distances between the tents were huge! So we toned the distance down and tested it out, improving as we went. I sorted out the lighting to make it a little darker, and read up about lighting some more in UE4, especially regarding optimisation, so I'll probably change that again as we populate the level with assets. I'm getting a lot more comfortable now with working in UE4, and think I can happily do a lot of the engine work involved with the project.
I've also started work on some of my own assets for the level. I've started modelling the Ringmaster character and have a solid basemesh down for him. Next week I'll work on his outfits and develop his face further, but I'm happy with where he's going. I've whiteboxed my tent in 3DS Max and am pretty pleased with the layout, so I've wrote an asset list for my tent and am starting to work on the high poly versions.
I've tried to make it as important as possible that everyone gives eachother feedback. It can be difficult to criticise other people's work, especially when you don't want to offend them, but I'm encouraging everyone to just be honest about their opinions, and it's going well! Everyone is getting more comfortable with giving out criticism (I think, anyway). People are doing paintover's of eachother's work to show how they can improve and just giving fresh points of view. I did a paintover of Morgan's lion on his train, and Kara has suggested some important tweaks for my character.
