Cultivating research skills

The on-site research team

Eight Game Design, Game Development and Digital Animation students were brought on a field trip on 20 February 2017 to conduct on-site research and visual data collection at the Sak Dato Temple located in Broga, Negeri Sembilan.

“It is important that students experience and practise research and data collection during the pre-production process for their game and animation projects. Without them, concepts and ideas will never be turned into great products,” said Faculty of Creative Industries (FCI) Deputy Dean for Student Development and Industrial Training and Centre for Immersive Technology and Creativity (CITC) Chairperson Aloysius Yapp.

The team was divided into two groups led by Yapp and FCI Department of Game Studies Lecturer Ang Kok Yew. They were tasked with taking photos and video logs of the temple and its surroundings.

On-site lecturing and practical training

Visual data collection in progress

“During the trip, I realised how far field studies and research go towards making our work convincing and sincere,” said Game Development student Lim Houng Vern. He also said the temple and its surroundings gave him inspiration for his modelling work.

Game Development student Law Huey Juan said the trip helped her to be more observant. “From the design of the temple to the roads and bridges, these details are very important in building my own model.” As a result, Law said she’ll always remember to conduct research before all her future projects.

Some of the temple’s features

The natural surroundings of the temple

Forty-foot tall statue of the Monkey King

The idea of the trip was conceived by a group of lecturers from CITC and the Department Game Studies and organised with assistance from Digital Animation and Web Based Solutions lecturers.

“Besides learning about research, they also learned the importance of teamwork in completing their given tasks. The organising committee hopes that this effort will kick-start more on-site research and data collection trips so that more students can gain real practical experience,” said Yapp.