Final Thoughts for the Course

Group Working Mode

At the very beginning, our idea had already been set to show some traditional stuff, like Japanese paintings, and we quickly agreed on highlighting the five elements in Chinese tradition. This is the first time that I work in an “international group” though I have been a sophomore, so the discussion language needs to be English. I was concerned if the communications can be effective and efficient enough, and it turned out everything is much better than I thought. Our group members quickly found a lot of similar ideas and passion. We were efficient and had fun in each discussion. For the working mode, at first we simply planed a strict timeline and assigned individual works each week, but unexpected situations and schedule change disturbed the plan. Thus we beginned to collectively work on each other’s “individual” work. For example, Ken’s computer didn’t have enough storage and his work was gone overnight. Without computer he could not do anything. Vicky helped with Ken’s scene. And also Lavendar and I also exchange our scenes assignment. Lavendar were more efficient in using particle system, thus the earth scene which is originally my work was passed to Lavendar, and I took partial of her work as well. Also since our schedule were quite different from each other, Vicky can have time in early weekdays and the rest of three can only have time available on Tuesday. Most of the time it’s Vicky working in daytime and we three kept working in the afternoon and the night on Tuesday. This working mode works for almost the whole process of the group project. And also with the deadline came near, we four spent more and more time together in 826. 

Hard Times

We have a group chat called “LVCK”, each time the heartbeat stopping moment is to see “guys, bad news”. I can not count the hard times that we have gone through, no matter it’s the sudden breakdown or it’s the unsaved great changes. The most recent issue was that Vicky somehow lost her metal scene animation file on her computer and she cannot export the video. When we want to try on different computers there’s always other problems come out. The metal scene even failed to show up in the final class. We took turns to work on it and it was Dave who pointed out the issue finally. When we successfully started recording we were happy to jump. Also today hours before the IMA show, we urgently fixed pixel issues that we just found when testing in the darkroom. Dave was asking for final version by 2pm, and we submitted right at 2pm. 

Learn more than Unity

Unity is the tool that we are supposed to learn in this course and project. At the early satge of the project procedure, I personally learnt a lot from Dave’s workshop, online toturials and group member’s help. While I do found that Unity is not the only thing that is time-consuming and needed to be put emphasis on. For example, the projecter testing, video resolution and quality issue, computer differences, etc. Actually for the last few weeks we spent more time on these else-Unity work, which needs more real-time collective work, that required us to show up at the same time. Unexpected issues happened a lot during this working period, but anyway we still made it. 

Fiiinal Thoughts

This is the moment right after the IMA show. I just took my first IMA photo, which is my first one but the last one on Century Avenue campus. People are leaving from 8F, and I finally got a sense that this course is going to the end. I enjoyed, from the class time to the show time.

Vicky is always passionate and helpful, she spent the most time in 826, we really appreciate her. Ken is a busy IMA person, but he can always show up when we need him. Lavendar is a nice and cute girl, her suggestions are always construtive, and she’s also proficient with video editting. I generate ideas and the storytelling details, and I can follow up with the “solid” issues. LVCK is really an awesome team!!

Classmates have been good friends. At the beginning it never occurred to me that during the show the four groups can be one big group, we appreciated each other’s progress and joked “look how huge changes you’ve made in the last minute” right before the show. And we congratted each other after the show saying “good job!”  People of the whole class have been good friends. I remember the nights when we chatted and worked in 826 staying up late. We know each other’s project a lot that we can even distinguish them only by sound. Dave also helped a lot. Everytime we ask questions on unity or any issue, he always told you the reason why this happen, instead of directly helping to fix the problem. And I also remember the night right before the final presentation, when almost of the class member stayed up in 826, Dave was with us together, answering questions and played guitar besides. That night was hard but at the same time romantic and unforgettable, that moment I know the reason why I am IMA people, again.