OJT

26-27 May (Tues, Weds) OJT - Game Effects (Trainer: Miyazaki-san)
We were given a list of 10 effects to be completed by Friday using PA's Particle Editor. Unfortunately, the tool for converting the effects onto PS3 was confidential and could not be release to us, so we could only preview on the PC. Should we need to export to PS3, we would have to call upon Miyazaki-san to convert the data for us, then go over to her desk to view the effects on her terminal.

It seems that PA does not have a very organized way to create effects. The artists are given short descriptions of what the FX should be, and then expected to come up with something on their own. Hence, the instructions given to us were vague, and even when we pressed for details, the instructors would not have a lot more information to give us. The workflow seems to be: create something, tweak it til satisfaction, show it to the FX lead, get feedback and then either re-do or tweak it further until approved. A lot falls upon the art lead to give instructions and directions, and the FX artists seem to be lower-rung operators given complete creative freedom until the tweaking starts.

While the Particle Editor tool was not difficult to learn, I felt lost creatively at first, but eventually managed to get back on track to improve the quality of the FXs given to us. Ironically, the FX lead Ito-san asked me to reduce the sharpness of the my new textures to match the rest of the graphics, but it's a sensible choice since a consistent level of visual quality is very important.