Hello, I'm Evelyn, one of the artists for The Case of Elias Granger. I worked alongside Kyra and Kylar in creating models and any other art our game required. Between the three of us we were able to create a significant amount for the game!

Models I created:

• corkboard
• mirror
• security door
• filing cabinet
• folder (Kyra rigged it later!)

2D art:

• 4 different polaroids
• dialogue box for UI
• menu art

All of the models were created within Maya and textured in Substance Painter. At first, I was skeptical about us creating custom models from scratch with the time we had instead of using premade packs off of Fab. While it was a challenge creating them with the deadline looming over our heads, I am very happy we went the custom route. There is something rewarding about seeing a model you created within a game! Shout out to Kyra and Kylar who made some amazing models, without them we wouldn't have been able to crank out as much custom models as we did!

I'd say the most challenging aspect of modeling for me was the program itself. Maya loved to crash on me and delete my progress. (Note to self...smash that save button as much as possible!) Despite the pain I felt losing progress, I am glad to have worked on modeling. I learned a lot, and being able to implement knowledge I had learned in my modeling class was very rewarding. 

Later on in our development, the narrative team gave me a list of polaroids they wanted made for the corkboard. Out of everything I created, these four polaroids are the creations I am most proud to have contributed to the game. They were so fun to make, and I found myself getting excited to just sit down and draw them. Honestly, enjoyed creating the main menu and dialogue box as well. 

Since we mainly used Miro, we didn't really track how many hours we were going to spend on each task. However, based off of everything I did I am positive I spent 30-40 hours on creating models and art. I do wish, I spent some time helping out with coding since we only had one programmer on the team, and honestly that's a lot for one person.  Even though all nine of us had our specific roles, I think in the future I need to make sure to offer to help out outside of the work I was given if needed. 

Overall, I think the main struggle we ran into was deciding on a game concept. There were many great ideas, and it took some time for us to settle on one that we thought we could complete with our deadline in mind. Eventually we were able to decide on one, and having the Miro board to keep track of what everyone was doing/ needed from each other was very helpful. Jonathan, our producer, did a wonderful job setting that up for us. Having nine people on a team means it can be harder to keep track of what everyone needs and having Miro to do that was very beneficial for our group.  Also, I just have to say, I am very impressed by how supportive everyone was of each other's work they contributed. It was a pleasure working with all of these talented creators, and I am proud of everything we accomplished together!