Post 4

Workflow/File Management

Task 1: Explain how asset management and file management are applied in the development of digital media outcomes

What is a Asset?

An asset is basically an element that is manageable within a particular application

What is a file?

A file is any document that has been saved outside the chosen application

e.g. A word document saved into our student sky drive/one drive

Assets

Outliner

In Blender we use a wide range of different assets/elements to be able to manage and correctly transform an animation into something completely new and different. This side-bar is called the Out-liner. The Out-liner helps you control each of the given attributes of your animation in a quick and simple way. Here we can see a few of the main elements that we use to help with the process, elements like the Lamp, this adds light for our animation so that when we go to render it (F12) we can see each of the different parts of our animation, here the lamp can also help us pick out any problems that have occurred with the structure and the main body and or magnify a certain spot of your animation. Camera, this element can help us and enable us to view the animation from different points and/or get up closer to the animation to fix any weak spots. Cube is the basic element that can help our animation become real, it comes with little assets like 'sub-divide' here we can evenly divide a part of the whole animation to help us design and create small parts of an animation, we could also delete a specific part of the character to enable a believable outcome. This is the process in which I had used to help create my animated character. Sub-dividing, deleting one half and then mirroring using the 'mirror modifier' this made things a lot easier and made it simple to get both side equal instead of equaling the sides slowly by ourselves, you could say this made things faster and easier.

Other assets that are helpful for beginners:

Properties: This function allows you to edit properties of whatever object you are set to be working with.

3D View: The 3D view holds all the objects you are working on/with. This is located on the toolbar below. This toolbar is also very important as I use this quite a lot for various things.

Mode Menu

Modes: The mode menu is set up to help enhance the modelling phase of your animating. They are shared View Windows. Here I used 'Weight Painting.' Weight painting also relates with the Armature, as this allows you to highlight a specific part of the animation with the bone, hence this will allow that bone to only control that certain part of the body and nothing else. This was very useful during my process.

Tool Shelf: (found on the left- subdivide) The tool shelf bar is useful as here you will find many key aspects to help model your object. On the Tool Shelf I used the 'subdivide' tab. The subdivide tab enables to to work with numerous sections on your object.

Axis

X- Red
Y- Green

Z- Blue

Axis: These given axis is not an object. The axis is basically conventions, or a compass that helps you remember which way is left/right etc.

Outliner

 Outliner: Blender can also help create a personal approach to your animation. Above is an example of renaming a particular asset that lets you rename a feature in the Out-liner side-bar. Personally I think this will be a great help as the given names can be complicated at times.

Modifiers

Add Modifier: During the period of creating and modelling our animation we can use the 'Add Modifier' tab to guide us with individual features, this feature can help you 'mirror' one side of my work to make this easier and simpler.

Duplicating

This is the example that shows the process of designing a figure. As you can see on the right side of the figure you can easily design and transform it and it has been duplicated easily onto the other side. This saves heaps of time instead of going back and redoing the other side, individually trying to perfect the other side to ensure it is a perfect match.

Transform Menu

Transform Menu: The Transform menu allows to add layers of transformation onto you animation but only in 'object mode'

Materials Bar

Materials Bar: Above is a screenshot of the materials bar. This can be located only at the properties section. The Materials bar allows you to layer any skin type/design amongst the surface of your animation. You are able to colour, shade and add images to the skin of your animation. Here I used the materials bar to add a deep purple colour to my animation. This can help you animation feel real to the viewer as you can add in images or different layers of textures found on the search engine.

Files 

Files can help you store and organise a set of resources fit for any topic or subject. Here I use folders to help organise my materials I have used or have worked on and have set them apart into different categories. You have the ability to change/rename a folder to help you understand or find it easily.  

Inside a folder you are able to store any type of resource. Here I used one of the folders to store the images taken for my walk cycle video, each of these symbolise a set timeframe of the walk cycle so this is very important to store and keep a hold of. This was useful as it stored them all in order so it saves me time instead of going through and reordering them. 

Task 2: Discuss the importance of effective and appropriate asset management and file management in the development of a digital media outcome

To be able to manage and correctly save significant aspects of a digital media outcome is extremely important, as it holds key characteristics that will ensure your digital media outcome will be effective. If poor and slack management is taken this may result in a bad outcome or an unexpected turn towards any digital media outcome.

File management helps you store information and important files in a convenient structure. There are many ways file management can be very helpful. A few things can be that you can create and rename folders to personalize and help you understand your files easily, it makes it look more tidier and cleaner as we can skip the struggle of time being wasted looking for files, this can benefit anyone as it ensures a easy way to understand your files you have created or saved. It is important to understand that without file management many things could go out of hand. Being a person that has experienced poor file management I know how significant it is to properly rename and sort out files into a correct and efficient layout. For one looking at a file that has no name or has a totally random name this can confuse me and hence I could just delete it without even thinking as this is a common mistake that many individuals make. If you have a correct and a working file management structure this will result in better products being made, for example the way in which for the walk cycle each little image Blender had taken was correctly saved into one appropriate file and had been sorted out in order, this benefitted me as the video outcome had every key characteristic present, because if I had lost at least one of the images my final product would look different and result in poor file management. 

An asset, in my opinion, is particularly different to file management. As file management is the way in which you sort your files and store whereas Asset management is the aspects of your digital media outcome that you anoint to help make the process either easier or of course faster. This is basically the main reason as to why we follow up on this process. The way I took on this process during my digital media outcome was way to slow and bumpy. The process was not smooth as I made too many mistakes,  this made the process of my digital media outcome rather slower then others and a longer duration of each step. For example, not being able to know or remember the shortcut keys were a major let down as this made me take the longer route of adding and transforming my digital media outcome, however I have come to realize that it is important to remember these methods as it will enhance a quicker and smoother outcome for my animation. Many shortcut keys can help you mirror or duplicate your animation as both sides should be completely equal. An example would be using mirroring the amateurs for the opposing side, duplicating you object would be a great start as there were numerous occasions where I had skipped this step (shift + d) then of course applying a mirror technique (ctrl + m) and then choosing the correct axis that your bones can lay upon whether it would be x,y or z and then lastly the most important step would be to press 'enter' as I also forgot to encounter this step too. I think that blender is a intelligent app that has attempted to try and make it easier for you to understand the different short cut keys for example the duplicate shortcut has the letter 'd' this could indicate to the user that the 'd' signals 'duplicate' as it wouldn't make any sense to the user if it were a 'g' or 'p' so I found this made the memorizing process a lot easier and efficient.