Understanding the importance of presentation

So it has been a while, while my duties as a carer is the same with the now added record keeping and daily health optimisation, the 3D Artist side of me been suffering from the lack of mental exhilaration. A while back I tried to kick it up by joining a Polycount monthly challenge while I started off optimistic, I just did not have any time to do it! And it’s really frustrating when you really want to make something and just unable to due to circumstances beyond your control. So now here we are….again, writing down as if anyone cares, but alas, this is more for me than anyone else, it’s so I can set an anchor to remind myself where I am and where I need to be.

Right now I’m in the process of learning about FX stuff in UDK, this covers a wide range or areas, but mostly particles and post process stuff. This is stemmed from my lack of presentable work, “aside from not finishing and texturing, what else am I missing?” I asked myself, and it became clear that I don’t have and experience in boosting the presentation value of my own work, if I look at current AAA games, they use many FX to make the game you play look beautiful. This ideology is similar of that in modelling, if you make an amazing 3D model but your textures are bad, the final result will look bad, so in the same respect, if I make a good looking textured 3D model, but my presentation is bad, then my overall work will just look sub-par  and it is these chains that I want to break! I will learn how to be an excellent modeller and texture, but also learn how to present my work like that of the AAA industry games standard to greatly boost my overall quality.

A good example of an AAA game which uses FX to  boost its presentation would be mass effect 3, it was made in UDK, and it runs on home consoles and PC. The effect used in this one in-game screen-shot are:
-Vignette
-Optical Lens Flare
-Colour Correction
-Depth of Field
-Bloom
-Film Grain
These are all post process effect which is run on top of the game so the player can perceive it the way the artist wants them to.

Most of these FX comes from different use of lenses under different light conditions, so I hope to also research further and look into EXIS DATA and ISO SETTING in photographic cameras and try to replicate them in the engine. And with the addition with DX11, there are more FX that I can produce, from higher particle counts such was demonstrated in the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo, to Bokeh light FX inside a Depth of Field FX.

I've only started learning the basics of Cascade, which is the particle system in UDK, you might be thinking “but you were talking about post process effects”, while yes I was, particles are also used for its camera facing nature, such as Optical Lens Flare is made using Cascade, and that is why I’m learning them. So here is my current noob level progress, I made a simply particle emitter with the ability to control colour over life, and at a high light values causing the bloom effect, while it might not look like much, trust me, in motion, it is mesmerising!

What do I hope to learn by the end of all of this? Well, Cascade for one thing, a deeper understanding of the powerful material editor, a better understanding of lighting in UDK, and obviously, post process to tie them all together, with these areas covered, my work should look better than ever before! 

And with this rant, I feel much better, because while I knew what I was doing before, it wasn't as clear as it is now, this truly is an anchor for me to pivot on, so I can see all that I am trying to achieve.