Critical Evaluation

At this time I have just about finished this assignment overall and it has been an amazing experience for me to see my idea grow over the whole year. Even though this is the end of my second year and this project, I will be continuing on this in my own time because I feel as though this concept is only the beginning of a game idea that could be great due to its themes and underline meanings. I am unsure it I will be taking this idea onto the 3rd year and continuing because I want to challenge myself again to ideas which I have been working on in my own time.
This term has felt strange compared to the others because of the personal nature of using all my previous work and turning it into a portfolio to promote myself rather than the game. In saying this, I believe this to be one of my strongest terms because of how my portfolio has turned out. Though I still have a little more to add, it seems to be very easy to manage.
My portfolio, I have tried to convey a sense of who I am from the backgrounds, drawings and how the interaction works as the viewer would progress through it. I have tried to make it enjoyable from easy to follow instructions of how to use, simple hover features to see the work and keeping every page stimulating to look at which out over being powering. I believe it to show myself as an artist and promote my game concept in one. The portfolio itself contains a large about of idea for the game concept but also I included other works I have done both inside and outside of University so I can show my flexibility for this design work and styles. Overall I am very pleased with my portfolio because I have taken a lot of time in designing everything so I can get my points across without any words. It also is a triumph for my skills as an artist too, seeing my work skills improve from image to image and giving my confidence a boost in the right direction.
My blogging skills however still need to be improved. I have tried blogging many times before and yet still find it hard to keep on top it. This time around I know I manage to keep up somewhat may however I did have to back log some parts. It is always a learn curve and getting myself in the habit of doing it and I did find it enjoyable to do once I got into the rhythm of it. The only problems I have with blogs from a personal point of view is talking about my ideas because I have very protective of my creative process. Much the same with this game concept, I was unsettled talking about it on a public site however learning about Creative Commons calmed the mind down a little. This is something I have to get used to. Mostly the blog has helped to keep on track with setting myself deadlines and keeping track of everything that has been missed out or forgotten about. Benefits of blogs are will be helpful.
One thing I know that was a big deviation was my progress compared to my learning agreement. I did change quiet a lot because I felt like the path I was on would not get me to the best possible outcome. My learning agreement did not seem to reflect myself creating a portfolio of my work but rather another part of the game which was not a part of the brief. In doing so, I believed I made the right choice because of the finished product I have. I would of liked to done some animation of some kind but because of changing my ways, it did not seem like the best choice of action and would not fit in with the portfolios overall theme.
One part I was unclear about was doing more research and how that would be presented. This is because I felt this term was not based around research because of the last term which was heavy on the development stage of the game rather than this terms personal portfolio. Research I did manage to do was mostly Artists for inspiration or new programs such as InDesign which I created my portfolio in. Research key elements and how to use it was the most of it. This was all documented within my blog so I am hoping this will not drastically affect my mark. This is because personally, I did not feel the need for more research because of the nature of the assignment and my content with the games concept up to this point.
If I was to take this concept on to next year, I believe I would focus my attention on the narrative and 3D modelling. I tried my hand at a few 3D mesh over the year and a piece for this term which felt very much like the begin of a larger development for my concept. Enthusiasm is the key and I know I have a lot for this game concept and do hope to take it on further at some point in time whether it is next year or as something else later on in my career.
As a whole, I believe it to be a success. I know from over the past year and this term I have become more confident in my idea and creative abilities to express my thoughts. I am very excited what next year has to bring and hoping that my next project will be as enjoyable as ‘The Dawning’ has given me over the past year. With the small drop in my grade for last term, I am hoping with the effort, overall presentation of my portfolio and the amount of emotion I have shown will give me that push for high marks.

PDP Interactive

Even though it is coming up to hand in, with the success of my portfolio, I think I will add some buttons to make it easier to select which part to go to straight away.

Progress...

I am really enjoying Adobe InDesign. I don't understand why I did not take the time before to investigate this program which had been on my computer for a while now. My portfolio is looking great and I am extremely happy with it. I have tested a few PDFs on the uni computers and they work fine so I have everything crossed that the more interactive parts will work fine.

Portfolio Progress....

I have decided to use this image of the wall frames as my main navigatation page to my different works. It is linked into the game concept I am working on as originally it was going to be used later on in the portfolio just showing concept work. Now it is the main page, each frame will have different works in them, examples like:
Frame 1 = The Dawning concept work
Frame 2 = The Dawning Finished Concepts
Frame 3 = 3D work
etc

Everytime you click on a frame it will bring up another frame which will contain the first image of that set. Along the side will be smaller frame with the other images. Click on them to send that image to the main frame to view larger.

PDP

Finally my PDP is up to date, not finished as such but it is all organised now in the parts instead of scattered in folders. Had to do a bit of back logging but I am happy with it for now.

InDesign progress...

I have been learning a lot from Adobe InDesign today and have learnt some useful tricks. I have learnt how to make buttons and like them to other pages and also how to create a rollover effect. So with this I can use my wall frame image by adding the rollover effect to bring up the images in a larger space. This is mostly done with learning how to use 'States' action box and asigning behaviours to a 'HotSpot' button to activate a hidden layer which would be the larger image. What I am wanting then is to click on the larger image to return to hide the image again. Hopefully this will work.



-Image above of my practice with buttons and rollover elements-

Carbonmade

I am not happy with using Carbonmade for my portfolio. I have seen others peoples who use iPortfolio or something on there MACS, but because I am a windows user I can not use it. It is very limiting and extremely dull to look at. I have tryied looking for other online sites but it is very difficult to find any. I have not idea where to start when it comes to building a site and I want my portfolio to really stand out and look great. So, I have decided to kick out Carbonmade and investigate an offline portfolio using other software like Adobe product.