Week 24 - And so the curtains draw to a close

Well it has been an exciting year for me. A big thank you to my lecturers and fellow course mates who have helped me learn so much in such a short amount of time (this year feels like it really flew by… I can’t believe I’m going to be a 2nd Year soon). Despite the slow and rough start (lack of labs), I love the course and feel that I have grown and developed my skills, learnt to discipline myself a bit more (the Wednesday morning talks were extremely helpful, thanks Mike) and would like to further this even after the end of the teaching weeks.

What I would like to see more is more interaction between both tutor and students, and students among themselves. What happened to the “Game Art Speedpainting” that was so popular amongst the First Years last year? Doing fun group activities such as that will benefit us to learn faster and from each other. It would be great if our course can continue this activity next year.

People from game companies who come and give us lectures have all emphasized that the industry seeks artists with strong traditional skills. It’s great that we do life-drawing in pencil, charcoal and graphite, and I think it would be beneficial if a wider variety of traditional art was taught. Doubling traditional art teaching sounds good too.

Now that we are a bit more familiar with 3DStudio Max, I would love to start some group speedmodelling activities. This sounds fun.

I think blog tasking is an AWESOME idea! It's a great way to exercise our communication skills, and has really taught me some things I never knew about before... such as what exactly a game engine does and game technology.

So, these are just some thoughts and ideas after going through what we’ve done throughout the year.

On the whole, I have enjoyed the course very much. Not only have I learnt a great deal, but also I have met and befriended many amazing and like-minded people.

Week 21 - Reflection

What do I want to get out of the three years at University?

The obvious answer to me is, “To possess the skills needed to find a good career after graduation.”

That, plus learning so many new exciting things at university. Doing a Game Art course has opened my eyes to 3D. About 2 years ago, I was very naïve (well, I know I still am, but I’ve learnt a lot since coming here) and didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I had a long list of things I enjoy doing and would think of going into them as a career, some of which are rather embarrassing (including… doing comics… argh). The thought of doing 3D never crossed my mind, even though I did enjoy looking at some cool 3D models on the Internet a lot.

But anyway. As I was saying, if I had not chosen to do this course, I would not have discovered how much I love 3D modelling. It’s something that I’d do not only for our university projects, but I enjoy just making random things in Max in my spare time as a hobby.
2D is another passion for me, it’s something that I naturally do in my spare time. Doing Chris’ university projects has helped me improve a lot, I find it a lot easier now to do observational drawing than before.

Going to university is greatly helping me grow and develop as an artist, allowing me to learn and socialize with those around me who have similar interests and goals. At the moment, my ambition is to be successful at what I do.