The document provides guidance for a student to evaluate a digital graphics project they completed for a games design course. It instructs the student to write an evaluation using their blog posts to identify strengths and weaknesses of their design process. It asks the student to consider if their finished product achieved the project aim and any feedback. It also provides questions for the student to ask themselves to help evaluate different aspects of their project such as understanding the assignment, time management, use of software, and overall impression of their completed artwork.
1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production
Games Design
Unit 78 – Digital Graphics for Computer Games
HA3 – Transformation
Task 7 Review – Guidance
Write an evaluation of your project. Use your blog posts to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your design process. This is best carried out by
producing a conclusion to your production log and schedule. Try to establish whether or not your finished product has achieved the aim of the
project. Take into consideration anything said by interested parties.
Remember that you are trying to create computer game graphics to a technical quality that reflects near-professional standards following industry
practice, showing creativity and flair and working independently to professional expectations.
Your production log that you have produced as evidence for Task 5, should have explained clearly what you
have done and how you have done it. Your evaluation should allow you to make conclusions about what
aspects of the project have been successful and what you have learnt.
You need to explain what you would have improved and how you would have made this happen. This
information can be useful to you in the future.
In order to do this you must remember what the aim of the project was. I.e. what job you were asked to carry
out in the first place:
Scenario
Games studio Lazy Eye Media are recruiting for trainee digital artists. As part of the recruitment process you have been asked to
reinvent yourself as the main character within a new game. You will devise the setting, genre, objectives and storyline for the
game. Following this, you will produce a profile for your character and produce screen and print-ready concept art and marketing
material. You will be using yourself as the model for your character.
In addition to the final artwork, Lazy Eye Media are very interested in how you have made the work; your design process. This
means that you will need to evidence each aspect of the assignment carefully and publish it to your blog. They will be interested in
finding out which types and styles of games you enjoy playing.
This is your chance to apply the traditional art and design and software skills you have learnt to date. You will be using Adobe
Photoshop and Illustrator to produce both raster and vector artwork.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Did you read the assignment carefully?
I understood the assignment but I didn’t follow it exactly because I didn’t put any of my sketches on because
the sketches I did wasn’t that good so I decided that I’d do more work on the character. I followed the
assignment as best that I could follow it but I wasn’t too keen on my drawings so I didn’t add the drawings
onto my coursework. I used myself as the main character, and I used myself as a model for the character I
didn’t use traditional art but I used the software to try to make up for that art.
Did you understand the way it was structured and the language used?
Are you clear about how the Unit is mapped to the assignment tasks?
I understood the way the assignment and how it was structured. Some of the language I was a little unsure
about but I overcame it with assistance of my tutor.
Did you use the Moodle materials connected to the assignment effectively?
Yes they connected a lot which helped me a lot because Harry put stuff on the Moodle which really helped
because sometimes they provided guidance and aid from when I needed it. Like in at the start of the
assignment Harry put an example blog to from a different unit or something which gave us the basic idea on
what we needed to do.
2. Were you aware of the timescale for the project?
Did you manage your time well?
Did you set yourself short-term goals?
Did you plan ahead or simply work from day to day?
Think about how you used the schedule for the project and your production log.
I was aware of the timescale of the project so I tried my best to spread my time between all the task, I think I
managed my time well because I set myself short-term goals which made it so that I’m not spending too long
on certain stuff because if I spent too long on character profile I wouldn’t of had enough time to work on the
character. I planned ahead and worked from day to day because I planned on what I was going to do but then
after a while I just worked from day to day with work during the study days and at the end of the day. I used
the schedule for the short term goals and it helped me manage my time, but I didn’t work on the production
log too much due to the fact of I thought it would have been better to be worked on when I have more time.
Did your research and ideas generation help you to create a strong concept?
I think that the idea generation really helped when making the character and then it helped when deciding
what game genre and setting. It also helped me in making my character because it helped me generate ideas
for my character profile (task 3). From the idea generation it helped me make the names for the areas for
which you visit.
Did you feel confident in using the Adobe software, Photoshop and Illustrator? Were you clear about the
differences between them? Did you carry out the theory homework promptly?
I felt really confident using the adobe software because I was used to using adobe software previously, I
wasn’t that used on using illustrator because I rarely used the program in the adobe software package. I am
not the clear on the differences between them all I know is that one of them is raster graphic and the other is
vector. Vector is for illustrator which means it looks cleaner than raster which is pixels, and raster is
Photoshop.
Did you feel comfortable producing initial sketches for your character?
Did you carry out additional research to help you do this?
I didn’t put the sketches on because I felt like they wouldn’t help me out that great due to the fact of them not
being that good, I carried out a lot of additional research due to the fact of me not being that good at drawing
I took a photograph of me posing in front of a camera and then added stuff onto my character
Were you confident in using the DSLR cameras to take source images?
I was not that confident with the DSLR cameras because I wasn’t that good at focusing the camera and making
it so it had the right shutter speed. I think if I was to have more practise with the cameras I could improve the
image quality which could help me in the long run
Did you experiment fully with your photographs and found imagery using Adobe Photoshop before coming up
with your final composition?
I experimented with Photoshop and illustrator by trying to make it look better by layering on Photoshop so I
looks like the sword doesn’t go over the cape and with the boots so that the boots don’t go over the cape, I
trimmed the bow image so it didn’t looks like it was an image behind my character. The original image I used
for my character was over exposed which means it was too bright, but luckily I another image which I got the
colours from and because I didn’t use the image exactly I drew over it using pen tool.
Do you feel that you were you able to improve on your tracing skills when producing the final artwork using
Adobe Illustrator?
I felt like I did my best with tracing in adobe illustrator, but honestly it wasn’t the best but I tried my best. If I
were to have spent more time on the tracing I felt like I could have improved my work. During the tracing part
I did encounter some problems like making sure that my hand goes over the sword so that it looks like that I
am carrying the sword
3. What is your overall impression/gut reaction to your completed artwork presented on the template?
I was kind of surprised because I didn’t think I was that good at tracing using illustrator, I felt like I could of
done better on the background for example I could of added more clouds and make sure they all didn’t look
identical but due to time I decided not to put more clouds in because of time.