I ended up having a lot of fun workin on this project over the past six months. I definitely had some struggles, with my personal life and with my seeking to find a role in the project. But, the team has been supportive and fun to be around. At this point, we're all joking and having a good time, while occasionally making progress with our game (kidding, of course).
When I first joined the project, I was joining an already established team to work on an already established project. In my experience as a game design student, I had become used to starting projects from scratch, whether alone or with a team. I also had a lot of problems going on, emotionally, in my personal life. So, I had a hard time finding my place on the team, and finding an area that I could make major contributions towards. My personal problems were making it difficult for me to find my motivation in January and February, but the team and I kept in good contact. They would share with me how they wanted to see more from me, because they thought I was a good guy and knew I could contribute something valuable if I applied myself. Eventually, I realized that I could contribute animations to the project, as I had just taken an animation class, and was going to take the subsequent advanced animation class starting in April. Voila! I had something to contribute and work towards. My confidence and motivation skyrocketed from there, and I'm glad (and proud) to say that I've been the majority contributor of character animations to the game.
With my newfound role-to-be-proud-of-and-work-towards came another challenge: the team had been using the software, Blender, as their modelling, character rigging, and animation software for the game. My animation experience until then had always been in Autodesk's Maya. The software worked largely the same, but there were some fundamental differences that forced me to relearn how I navigated around. With the help of one of the 3D artist, Cole Funck, I was able to figure it all out and was animating just as swiftly in Blender as I was in Maya.
By the end, I had written the game design document, helped make some game design choices, and completed all the animations for the different characters in the game. I had a great time on this project, I'm proud of my contributions, and I'm proud of the Whole Crew for bringing it all together. :)
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