Four Sketch Books, 25GB of project data and disconcerting amount of chinese food later and the first year of university is almost over.
When I came to university to study game art I knew what I
expected the course to be like as well as of university life as a whole. From
friends and relatives who’d gone before I’d received reports, recommendations
and warnings of what was to come. I came expecting to improve my drawing
skills, learn digital painting and how to make computer models but beyond the
course, I was worried; aside from the usual making new friends and living alone
for the first time I was worried about time keeping as I worked and many
aspects of student life; clubs, drinking, parties and the like either didn’t
interest me or had me downright scared. I had resolved to avoid them, though I
would say I made it to two night clubs in fresher’s week. I haven’t been back.
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| First Drawing of the year. The riverside was certainly cold in october |
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The first term saw working in 3DS max for the first time and
though the learning curve was steep and the software was unfamiliar the help
from the tutors was helpful enough that even with problems regarding the file
systems within the university where work would be deleted and lost I was able
to build a foundation in the unfamiliar subject. Though visual design is a more
familiar subject to me, I learnt no less in the first term. In fact I may have
learnt even more. The lectures on perspective, tone, drafting and so on were informative,
interesting and I came out of them thinking my ability had really improved.
In this first term I
was at university I was extremely homesick though I was managing with work
(Aside from some issues with 3D modelling software) I found myself often
miserable and the feeling of being displaced nearly had me giving up and going
home several times. If it wasn’t for Mike’s support through Critical Studies
and Game Society – a LARP and Tabletop society I joined during the Fresher’s
fair – I probably would have gone home and not come back. I came to realise
there’s no better cure for course related stress than going somewhere and
pretending to be someone else for a few hours (Even if that someone is a
Necromancer or a Half-Orc). I’d recommend joining a university society to
anyone.
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| D&D taking a weird turn as usual |
One of the best parts of the course, with Game production
was in mind, was the Guru and Grasshopper project – we were assigned in groups
to older students who took the time to teach us things we hadn’t learnt in
classes, review our work and offer advice. Not only were they available in the
allotted time during the week, but also on facebook and always in the labs.
Without the second and third years, our projects would have been a hell of a
lot harder.
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| Walking past this building in town it's hard not to wince now |
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In the second term the visual design teaching became even
more interesting. With life drawing becoming a regular fixture the time with
our tutors increased even more and though life drawing is something I’ve done
regularly since year nine of secondary school, it’s always useful and a great
environment to gain tips about observational drawing, shading and (Most
recently) colouring.
The only thing
spoiling life drawing was the fact that the models look very similar to every
other life drawing model I’ve ever had. I would have preferred some more
variety in the subject in fact my favourite lesson was probably the one where
we took it in turns to sit or stand for the class and the class would draw us
instead. Not only did this provide a diverse range of people, but also offered
the opportunity to draw folds in cloth in an environment where we could really
observe.
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| lifedrawing sheet |
In the third term I began to feel a little abandoned in Game
Production, though I was coming to a grip with the software, when we were in
scheduled class time, I couldn’t always find someone to answer questions I
needed answering and so on. Some projects saw me wasting a lot of time trying
to find a solution to a very simple question. Sometimes the tutorials were
difficult to follow or didn’t seem to contain all of the correct information.
We stated to notice this more in the more complicated projects towards the end.
Though we did receive help, sometimes we could have done with a little more
help.
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| The seaweed is always greener~ |
Overall I’m happy I chose to come to this university. I
don’t feel like I could have had such a positive experience elsewhere. Next
year I hope to participate in Guru and Grasshoppers again, this time as a Guru
especially as mention has been made that as second year we would be able to help
with visual design as well; since that’s where my real strength lies. I look
forward to seeing the new premises we are due to move to next year as I’ve seen
how hard the tutors have been working on them, however I would like to see
different life drawing models and have more help with 3D work.
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| I never want to see coral again, but this is my favourite piece of the year |
