ARTEFACT CREATION

The Brief

The client for the brief is the Natural History Museum, They want me to make an original artefact to promote the establishment.

The targeted audience for the artefact is between the ages of 16 and 25 years old.

The Client

The Natural History Museum is a charity-based museum located on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, established in 1881. The NHM primarily focuses on botany (study of plants), entomology (study of insects), mineralogy (study of minerals), palaeontology (study of dinosaurs) and zoology (study of animals), as well as a bit of astrology.

Meet The Team behind the Artefact

Brynmor Soper

Scripting, UI Interfacing, Level Design and Particle Effects

https://c97912277.wixsite.com/gsbrynmorsoper

Reece Langsdale (Me)

3D Modeller, Texture Designer, Mathematics

Nathias Laidley

3D Modelling, Environment Design, Art and Sound

https://c86233572.wixsite.com/portfolio-of-nathias

Word Document for Artefact Preparation

Strengths

I am good at 3D Modelling and Texture work, using software such as Maya, Paint.NET and Photoshop.

Weaknesses

I am bad at coding and game design, so I'm mostly avoiding using Unreal Engine.

Opportunities

The computers at Confetti have the resources I need to complete the brief.

Threats

I have MASSIVE issues with procrastination, and the software I use can potentially crash.

Results from the Topic feedback survey

Before we started work on our project, we put out a survey to ask our classmates what we should do for our Artefact. We had 4 different choices, in line with the Natural History Museum's main topics, being Space, Dinosaurs, Sealife and Wildlife. These were the results of that survey.

From the topics below, which one do you like the most?

This was how we decided on what topic we were going to make the artefact about.

Why did you like this idea?

Same as the previous one, but in Excel format and also compiles the reasons people liked these topics.

Do you think this topic would be fun for others?

This was how we determined if the topic chosen was going to be fun for other people.

From the topics below, which one do you dislike the most?

This was how we decided on what topic we were not going to make the artefact about.

Why did you dislike this idea?

Same as the previous one, but in Excel format and also compiles the reasons people liked these topics.

Does the idea fit the brief?

We asked our classmates if the topics chosen would fit with the requirements of the brief.

Does the idea fit with what the Natural History Museum offers?

We asked our classmates if the topics chosen would fit with the rest of the attractions the Natural History Museum had to offer.

Does the idea work with the targeted age range?

We asked our classmates if the topics chosen would fit with the target age of 16-25 year olds.

Do you think this topic can be made into a prototype?

We asked our classmates if the chosen topic could be made into a prototype.

What would interest you about space? What environment would fit a space theme?

We asked for ideas for space themed topics and environments that we could turn into a prototype.

What would interest you about dinosaurs? What environment would fit a dinosaur theme?

We asked for ideas for dinosaur themed topics and environments that we could turn into a prototype.

What would interest you about sealife? What environment would fit a sealife theme?

We asked for ideas for sealife themed topics and environments that we could turn into a prototype.

What would interest you about wildlife? What environment would fit a wildlife theme?

We asked for ideas for wildlife themed topics and environments that we could turn into a prototype.

What we're going to use for the project.

Brynmor is the one working on the game itself, so he's primarily going to use Unreal Engine, a free game creation software provided by Epic Games through their PC launcher.

With me and Nathias given the task of creating 2D assets for the project (textures and UI sprites), We primarily used Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is tied to Adobe, which is subscription-based, but it provides a lot of applications, such as Illustrator, Premier and Animate. As part of the college course, Adobe products are free.

For the lesser complicated textures and minor touches to the final assets, I used Paint.NET, which is my personal preference for texture creation, due to it being free donationware and easy to use.

Lastly, all 3 of us used Autodesk Maya at one point, to make some models for the final product. Autodesk Maya and other Autodesk products are part of a paid subscription that was provided for free thanks to the college.