Recently in class we've been working with modular design, which is modeling each part of a whole, of which is repeated within that whole, as individual pieces that are later put together. For example, walls, windows, and staircases are often repeated within the design of buildings, so when modeling buildings it would be helpful to model each once and reuse the same model whenever they need to be placed in another area. The same can be said for game development, if an asset is used in various places throughout a game, it can save a lot of time to model it or pieces of it then assemble it when needed. Having individual parts modeled allows for unique combinations to generate separate structures without having to actually model an entirely new structure. Prior to working with modular design I've always wondered how open world RPGs created all of the buildings and cities to be seen without spending an absurd amount of time on them, because after all there are usually hundreds in these games. Now however, when I play these games I can see the use of modular design in order to create buildings and reuse pieces in a different order all around the city, to make it appear as though the player is surrounded by numerous unique buildings, when in reality it is the same pieces arranged differently. I greatly appreciate the amount of time that can be saved with the use of modular design, and now I'm not so worried about modeling the assets my team needs for our game, as I'll likely be able to use this new knowledge to save dozens of hours of modeling. I look forward to working with modular design more in the future, especially when it comes to texturing, which has always been a hassle for me.
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I've had my phases with art, though I've never been too passionate about it until there was nothing better to do after ten weeks of staying at home doing nothing. Even now I wouldn't exactly say I'm passionate about art but it is definitely something I've been doing more of to help the time fly by. School has been pretty easy this year which means I've had lots of free time to practice my drawing skills, though most of what I do is on paper so I can't post all of it on here. I am by no means a master artist but I have noticed that my skills have been getting better, and as I've branched out I've started to find what I prefer to use when making art. The combination of taking a digital art class as well as a 2D art class has great synergy, allowing me to take the concepts of one class and apply them to the other. For example, my inspiration for bringing life to some of my sketches through the use of Paint.net or Blender initially comes from adding our own perspective when drawing images in 2D art. I've never been a fan of art or willing to do it, but through practically being coerced by school to do so I've found out that it's not always terrible. I have learned some things at least, such as the fact that consistency is not my strong suit. Whether I'm doing 2D art or digital art my products are always vastly different, some look like they could have been made by a five year old while others leave me in disbelief that I could have ever created them. That's actually what I find most fun about art is never knowing what the end goal is or how good it will be. Even with my inconsistencies I have noticed that my artistic skills and will to do art have noticeably grown over the years, and now with even more time at home it's become even more clear that my skills continue to grow day by day.
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School this year has been extremely different than what everyone is used to... and I love it. For the first time in my life public education has become entirely an online process, for now at least. The transition to online has been very difficult for many teachers and students, but even so it hasn't been entirely unsuccessful. The attendance may have been wacky and everything may have seemed to go wrong within the first weeks, but now that they are over we have learned what works and how to use the tools we have to be successful. I'll admit that attending only first, third, fifth, and seventh periods on Mondays and Thursdays but second, fourth, and sixth periods on Tuesdays and Fridays is pretty confusing, but the fact that we have Wellness Wednesdays to get our work sorted out clears up all of the confusion caused by the days in between. Even with such a wacky schedule we're only attending 40% of what we would normally attend during a normal school year, but I feel that asynchronous time makes up for all of the time lost. Teachers have been doing great ensuring that their students learn and understand the material they must learn, and honestly online class has only helped with ensuring all students are on the same page. Emailing a teacher is just a click away at any time during the day, and because the classes are so awkwardly silent asking questions is a breeze. Taking it all into account though, sure online school has its disadvantages, but it has a nearly equal amount of advantages such as working at any hour of the day (which I absolutely love), doing work weeks in advance, being home the instant any period ends, and seeing all of your assignments in one spot so you know what you have to do and when. I may be biased because I'm very lazy and I specifically dislike the student population of DSA (so being at home is quite a blessing), but if we just look on the bright side we can see all of the advantages that online school brings, despite the minor setbacks we run into when getting started with it.
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AuthorMy name is Andrew Prichard and the this is my first digital arts class, I look forward to a good year with lots of hard work. Archives
May 2021
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Last updated 5/14/21
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