KNB110 Writing reflectively
Showing critical reflection in your Production Overview Document
A strong reflection…
1. Helps the reader to understand skill development by showing:
• Intentions (What were you trying to achieve? What was your purpose? Your intention & outcome may not always align but this doesn’t mean failure, it can mean learning!)
• Influences & reasons behind choices (How & why were you making the choices you made? Your reader will not automatically know this)
• Problem solving & challenges (Creatives rarely experience pure success, they learn from trial & error. Tell your reader about how you had to change, adapt and course correct as you worked towards an end result)
• Results/outcomes of actions (Explain the results of decisions. Were they predicted, unexpected, pleasing or something you would like to improve in the future?)
2. Uses specialist terminology and components with explanations (not just lists)
3. Uses clear, formal writing style.
Example
When I was looking for references for this project, two main key elements came to my mind: a Nordic forest and a stone house. The main focus of this concept art is the stone house, and it is the contradiction between the stone bricks and the moss, together with the fog and reflection from the water, that really makes it stand out.
…The construction of the house is simple, with wood and stone bricks. Since the audience would mainly see the bricks rather than the wood, I decided only to model the bricks and used Megascan wood piles to build the inner structure.
…I used the Foliage tool inside Unreal Engine to paint over my terrain and assets, allowing me to deliver a sense of overgrowth. Also, it is important to consider the reason why these foliage elements are at the positions they are. For example, grass will mainly grow on mud and thrive under trees, while rocks and branches will gather by the river. These considerations make everything appear more natural and bring life to the scene.
…Moss is crucial to building up the atmosphere, as it is the main source of where green comes from in this scene. While the moss tiling material on the bricks worked well, it was not green enough and not a universal solution for all assets needing moss. So, I came up with an easy way to have moss covered on all kinds of assets. First, I created another vertex painting shader with two channels: one for pure transparency and the other for the moss material. Then, I duplicated the assets and scaled them a little bigger to cover the original ones, painting on the cover where I wanted moss to grow using the new shader.
…Sometimes, certain surfaces may be too far from the original asset, creating shadows beneath them. To address this issue, I toggled the create shadow option which worked perfectly for wood piles and bricks, but was not so effective for trees..
…Since I don't have a powerful machine with a 4090 graphics card, I cannot rely solely on directional lighting to illuminate the scene effectively. Instead, I use numerous rectangle lights to help brighten up areas that are either too dark or require more intensity.
Now look at a reflection with scope for improvement
Avoid leaving the reader guessing or inferring information. You can do this by following the actions to do on the previous page. Here are some common mistakes that writers make when writing a reflection that lacks critical insight:
• Lists actions or steps without explaining reasons behind choices, or changes both made & needed
• Focuses on successes without analysis of approaches, challenges, changes, adjustments
• Has no links between outcomes/final product & conscious decisions/practices
• Doesn’t explain technical components
• Uses an informal style. and has an over-reliance on the use of ‘I’ (I did this, I did that)
Example showing scope for improvement
Beginning with blockout, I used blocks together with Megascan pieces so that I made it look as close to the concept art as possible. I placed those trees that had clear lighting and textures in the scene. Also, I roughly sketched the terrain using a terrain sculpt tool. I made the main hero asset, the stone house, using several blocks.
I started building the house by placing the wood piles to replace the white boxes. Then, I began laying bricks on the wood piles, and I divided them into 6 groups for painting. I made a shader myself, and I mainly used the R and G channels to blend the brick surface and moss. Also, I merged the Baked Maps with the tiling materials. I carefully played with the brush strength and then categorized the surface into three levels. These different statuses helped me add more details to the bricks which I hand-painted. I’m really happy with the result.
I am grateful for everyone who helped me along my process of creation, and I will keep creating stunning environment art, and I will be glad if my work inspires or helps anyone.
Notice the example:
⛔Uses repetitive sentences that state the actions they took (I did this, and I did that)
⛔Doesn’t explain any of the reasons why they did things
⛔Has no explanation of how they achieved their results
⛔Doesn’t link actions to outcomes (what were the results of their choices?)
⛔Uses some informal language (‘I’m really happy with the result”)
⛔Implies they did a great job because they knew all the steps and they didn’t learn much