Sprint 6 Delivery

 

Contributions to the project: 

• As a Tech art lead, I worked with the other tech artists to create the visual effects of the project. I provided feedback and assigned tasks to make sure the effects made match our vision and serves its purpose. I am really proud of what my team was able to do and I hope I was able to help them learn new things.
• Star character: worked closely with our 3D artist to create the materials for the Star. Matched the look they had decided in the visdev and made sure materials are dynamic so we can key them in the sequencer wherever needed. Also created visual effects for the head and cape
• Level set dressing: Helped with set dressing the level with effects and making sure materials were working properly. Had some issues with materials and the skybox not showing up, worked on fixing those issues. Also created a material for the Sun.
• Transition VFX: Created all Visual effects where characters faded away or came back. Each scenario needed a different effect, so got to experiment and learn different ways of creating this kind of effect.
• Lighting: Worked on the final lighting for the characters. Made sure the lights were large enough to cover the characters when dancing and followed the characters correctly. Also made sure that the lights faded in and out at the right times. Fixing the materials also helped with the overall look of the scene

Sprint 5 Delivery

 This sprint I worked on the following parts of the cinematic: 

1. I placed some environmental VFX made by my teammates into the level. I edited the stars effect by increasing the shape location bounds and adding a sphere in the center so stars don't spawn where the characters are dancing:

2. Worked on refining the materializing/Dematerializing Effects. Made sure the transitions looks smoother and the particles don't look like big dots:

3. Helped other tech artists put their effects in the sequencer

Sprint 4 Delivery

 

This sprint I worked on the following things: 

Fixing Star Character Materials: I edited the star materials based on the feedback by the 3d artist. I created the VFX for the head to make it glow and made sure the materials were lit instead of unlit (since the unlit materials were not showing up). Additionally the cape was hiding the character clothes when seen through the cape so I adjusted the material to not do that. I will also be working with the 3d artist to fix the UVs of the cape so that the flowing stars flow in the right direction 

Materializing effect in sequencer: I had initially created an effect for the character to de-materialize and re-materialize. However, the effect would not work with the current setup since that would require 2 actors instead of 1 and the effect needs to be more art directable based on the scenes. Also, the fade in and fade out effects need to be separate and not attached together. The dissolve function I had created also did not work well in the sequencer (I had the same issue in my tech art project).  Due to this, I ended up creating a new effect for the materialization. I added parameters for the fade in and out which have been set up in the sequencer. The new effect is also in the sequencer where it is first needed. I will be editing that effect and adding it where needed next sprint

Lead duties: As a tech art lead, I checked up on my team members to see their progress and helping them improve on the things they are working on by giving my own feedback. I mainly helped improve the supernova effect by providing feedback and giving approaches to improve the effect. I also gathered references and involved more members of the team to work on this effect. We also decided to redistribute some tasks so I worked with the members to make sure they understand what they are working on and if they need any clarity on their tasks