Capstone Reflection

One of the major things that stood out to me was how much money capstone might cost me. I plan on doing something that will most likely not cost me much, but I would also like to have a few physical things at my presentation to be remembered by. If people sit down at a computer and play my level that's nice, but they probably won't specifically remember me. But if they see a big poster with things from my level on it, they'll remember that my presentation was that one with the cool poster in front of it. I still think that the cost shouldn't be too high for my capstone, but I know now that I should still budget for it.

Most of the other things that I talked to people about I knew for the most part. Since I've been going to capstones for the majority of the time I've been in college, I know what happens and how some people prepare and work. Of course that doesn't mean I'll be ready for it when the time come for me to present, but I feel I have gathered enough knowledge to be useful.

Capstone Interviews

Attend the Capstone presentations on Friday, Dec. 7, 4-8 p.m. in the IT building. Find 3 different capstone students to interview. Be sure to ask the following questions and post the entire interview to your blog.

1.      Why did you choose this for your capstone project?

2.      What are some of the changes that you had to make between your original idea and what you are presenting today?

3.      What is your opinion of the timeline for your capstone? Was it helpful or a waste of time? Why?

4.      If you could change anything about your capstone, what would that be?

5.     What advice would you give me in planning for my capstone?

Xian Guan

Xian did two highly detailed characters set up in a scene for her portfolio as her capstone.

1. Wanted to be a character artist, so she decided to model and texture two highly detailed characters for her portfolio.

2. Was going to do 3 characters and texture the clothes herself, but didn't have enough time so she did 2 characters and put procedural textures on the clothes.

3. She thought it was alright, but put to much in the timeline so she couldn't finish it, but she still got a lot of it done.

4. She would have made a layout so she could pose the characters better in the scene and waste a lot less time on that.

5. Start as soon as possible and watch out for scope creep.

Nate Moody

Nate made a digital comic for his capstone, and also had some concept art for a game he is working on.

1. The reason he chose a digital comic is to expand his storytelling skills.

2. There weren't many changes he had to make.

3. He liked the timeline because it was a good guideline and a way to gauge progress.

4. He would've liked more physical things at his presentation, but the cost was just too high.

5. His advice was to do something you're familiar with so you don't have to learn a whole new set of skills to complete your capstone.

Christina Chapman

Christina created an immersive world with a map, objects you would find in the world, concept art, and stories of the people and places in the world for her capstone.

1. The reason she chose the immersive world is because she has been doing storytelling since she was a child.

2. Originally she wanted a tent, but was told she wouldn't have enough space for one (later she found out she would be in a larger room which had enough space, but by then it was too late).

3. She said that the timeline is helpful for structure.

4. One thing she would have liked to have was posters surrounding her project.

5. Her advice is to overestimate time and money for your capstone, because no matter how much you set aside, you'll probably need more.

The answers are somewhat short and simple because I was trying to hurry through the questions so I didn't waste anyone's time. I felt like if someone that wanted to see their work and talk to them was there and they saw them talking to me forever, they wouldn't bother waiting, and I didn't want that.

Capstone Timeline

For my capstone timeline, what I did was actually quite simple. I just sat down one night, thought about the basic needs I had to do for my project, and divided them up based on how much time I thought it would take. I thought of the basic topics, like assets, then assigned a pretty large amount of time for it because I am not entirely sure how many assets I will be creating. Although for things like creating the map I assigned a little less time because it won't take as long, but I also gave myself a little more time than I normally would have since that part is in this current semester and I am working on other projects as well. I also made sure to give myself about a month of buffer time in case major problems sprung up, and if no problems come up then I will be using that time to add something extra to my game. The extra something will probably be either AI or Squirrel models, possibly both, depending on the difficulty of each and the actual amount of time I have left over.

General Category and Technology of my Capstone

My capstone will fit into video games, or level design if you want to get more specific.

The technology I will be using will most likely be UDK for the level, Maya for modeling assets, and Photoshop for texturing. Depending on how much I want to learn, I may also start using Zbrush as well.

Class Discussion About Capstones

One of the major things I remember about my discussion with another person about our capstones is that I learned a lot about the other person's, and they learned almost nothing about mine. The major reason is because I was actually interested in theirs and kept asking questions, and they didn't ask much about mine. Now the main question here is, were they not asking because they weren't interested, or were they not asking because they were to busy answering my questions? I believe it is more that they were not interested. However, I don't think it is their fault they weren't interested, I think it was mine. I didn't really describe mine well or even go into detail about the story (the thing I actually know is set in stone). I mostly just went through the kind of level I wanted to do in UDK and how I wanted to do it, and didn't present my capstone for what it was, an immersive environment based on a specific story. This led to their description being along the lines of "He's going to do a stealth-based level in an indoor environment", which sounds pretty boring as a capstone description. I think what I need to take away from this is stop relying on people asking questions to describe my capstone, and take initiative to talk about all of the contents it contains, not just the level design part.

Capstone Ideas

For my capstone I intend to create a level in UDK, basing it on the story I have been working with during my time in college. The story I have been working with is evil squirrels wanting to eradicate human life from Earth, and I hope to have material at my capstone telling that story as well. As of now, I am not sure how much of the story will be incorporated into the level. I'm thinking of trying to get squirrel characters modeled and put in, but I have to learn more first. Also, my level may be set up different ways, and that is what my ideas are for.

1. My first idea was a level based around stealth gameplay. I could just create the level for stealth, but I have also thought putting AI in to "patrol" might be a nice thing to include. That is another thing I would have to learn, though.

2. A standard deathmatch style level, where there would be (in theory) the good squirrels against the evil squirrels. It would fit in with the story and probably be simpler.

3. An adventure style level that would be based more around exploring the level. It would be a bit more difficult to fit into the story, but I believe I could make up a scenario where you would be scouting an enemy camp, building, or something similar.

What is a capstone?

To me, a capstone is a culmination of the experience you've gained during college. It is a chance to show your possible employers what you know, and your classmates what you've been doing for the semesters you've been working on it. It is also a chance to show that you can finish a project, that you won't give up on something that you're working on because it get's boring or hard.

What I am hoping to get from my capstone is all the experience I need that I can't find in classes. I know these college courses can't teach me everything, so during these two semesters I know I need to really work hard to learn as much as possible so my capstone does actually show that I know a lot about what I'm doing, and that I can finish a project. Otherwise, it will just show that I didn't work hard enough and will look like I don't even care about my work.