For this assignment we were asked to learn the Unreal Editor tool set, produce an interesting level based around the concept of a museum and record 2:30 minutes of professional cinematic footage using the Matinee tool in the duration of a week. It was difficult getting a copy of the program and install it alone- however learning the tools and becoming savvy with the different options in the editor was made much easier as we could refer to the 'Mastering of Unreal Technology' book purchased online. I had to prioritise my work, spending as much time as possible working on the level while at the same time completing several other assignments for different subjects.I tried to keep my level simple, while at the same time still covering all the parts of the assignment brief. Not having used the Unreal Editor before, the majority of time working on the assignment was getting used to the program rather than concentrating on level concepts, narrative in the film and so forth. It was a challenge, although after four or five days I finally managed to create a convincing museum with objects inside to focus on during the camera footage.
To fill up my level with these objects I made use of the Static Mesh browser. The reason I used Static Meshes rather than importing my own custom models was to save time, only having a week to complete the task and learn the software at hand. Inserting the Static Meshes was a quick and easy process, moulding the size and alignments using the scale and rotate tools. I also added an audio track to my Museum level, 'Mall 3' taken from the 'Dead Rising Official Soundtrack.' I chose this music as it felt most like 'browsing' music to me out of all the tracks I have on my hard drive. Seeing as though my Museum was Egyptian themed however, maybe more Egyptian style music should have been in order.
When adding in cameras and recording the cinematic footage in my level I used a variety of different camera techniques to try and keep the 2:30 minutes interesting. For the camera paths, Bevel was used with a couple of places to give the camera more movement than simply travelling in a straight line. I also made sure to have the addition of fade-outs and camera shakes, the fade-outs making my footage jump from camera to camera more smoothly and the shakes added in when a camera fell from a large height. I added both to try and give the footage more variety than simply switching from camera to camera and moving down a straight path, looking at Target Actors.
I felt presenting the map in front of the group went as well as it could have. There were no technical problems (except of my pen drive catching a virus from the terminal, though luckily that did not effect my level files) and the audio track I added alongside my level played at a suitable volume. At the end of the presentation, Brian and the group gave constructive criticism that will help when working on future projects.
If I were to do the assignment again I'd make sure to try and spend time getting used to the tool set beforehand giving me more time to work on the level and recording itself when hit with the deadline. Camera paths in the recording were not as smooth as could've been and after seeing other peoples work in the group I could've approached the brief much more creatively integrating a unique idea in to the given assignment.
As a whole, the assignment was fun to work with, although extremely tedious at times and being difficult to get used to the program at the beginning. Now, being used to the Unreal Tool Set and receiving feedback from the group, I can hopefully increase the quality standard of my work in assignments to come.
