Final Thoughts

Overall, I think that both churches looked good and I was pleased with the outcome.
However, we seemed to be constantly battling against deadlines, which could have been improved with more realistic planning, if we could have foreseen how long some of the tasks would take. We did not get off to a good start due to snow preventing us from getting into college and so things were slow to get going.
I enjoyed seeing the way the project developed from our research and photographs of churches. I really liked my role of designing and modelling the old church interior and exterior. I learned to listen to feedback from the other team members when we agreed to give the church a sloping roof, rather than the flat one that I had originally wanted. The church that I was basing the design on actually had a flat roof, but I am glad that I changed it and could see that it was the right decision for the overall look of the exterior.
It was good fun to develop the lighting and I have learned a great deal as it was the first time that I had done this.
However, I found that Maya was very slow on my laptop on several occasions, which caused me some difficulties. I plan to buy a new laptop for next term as I want to make sure that I have everything possible to help me to work faster. I have also found a quicker way to shut down Maya, by locating a Task Manager on the Mac which I had not found before. This would certainly help in the future and has made me realise the importance of trying harder to look for new ways of doing things which could save time.
The group got on quite well generally but there were occasions when stress seemed to negatively affect some team members. It is important to support each other through what ever problems you encounter and try to work together to resolve them. I am not sure that this really happened on the last day when people were stressed and frustrated. I have also learned that for good teamwork it is essential to listen to others and to take on board any feedback and adapt my ideas.
Unfortunately it is not always easy for me to get into college or meet up at a weekend, as I have to rely on Sarah or my parents to be nearby in case I have a seizure. I did not always feel that this was fully appreciated by some members of the team. This has upset me, as I have really worked extremely hard on this assignment and tried to be a good team member. If unable to meet, I was always available on MSN or by phone and made sure to keep in touch, while obviously working at home.
I think that as a group, we felt a bit disappointed that we could have improved our final version that was handed in, if we could have had a couple more days. The problems at the end, rendering with very large files, was hard to have predicted given our limited experience but I am sure that we all feel like we have learned a great deal about how we would do things differently in the future.
Finally, I would say that I don't feel great about the way things ended for my group but I want to try to keep positive, as I always try to do, and to focus on the many things that I have learned from the assignment.