Precision and defining the proposal

I recently discussed with my lecturer about making a set of ancient Chinese buildings out of modular assets for my dissertation proposal. He agreed that this would be a good dissertation as it required a variety of  skills but will focus mainly on the modular aspect of the models. This then gives me the inspiration to then explore and research into modularity in buildings within games as well as real life.

The next step he said was to come up with exactly what I want to be constructing these models for. This would also give him the marking criteria needed to construct this dissertation. Are the models to be constructed for an in-game cinematic or the within the game engine itself? If so, which one? Do certain game engines have specific requirements or limitations? Set myself some generalised polygons limits to work with which would be suitable for the engine. What type of perspective will the player see these buildings? First person, third person, isometric and so on. All these will need to be considered and researched to help me define a challenging and rewarding dissertation.

To work out if this dissertation  proposal will be challenging enough, I was advised to have a go at modelling a Chinese building in modular assets to see whether it will be challenging enough for me. The complexity of ancient Chinese architecture is relatively high and so I feel that this proposal will be a challenge for myself. Which is exactly what I need for this dissertation. I have done 3D modelling before, however I'm not fluent and consistent in all the techniques in the industry. From this dissertation I hope to pick up some of these skills through my learning process

So over the next few days I will trying to construct a small untextured mock up to see if it will be possible to design and construct these buildings from modular assets over the whole year.

The next piece of research I will be looking through is an article on Workflow Techniques and Modularity by Lin, Lentz, Sturgill, Reed (DemiurgeStudios). This will be to prepare me for making the mock up models of the architecture.

Links

Workflow and Modularity - Epic
 http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/WorkflowAndModularity.html