Week 30

Extended Reflection

Currently I am studying Game Art Design at DMU, this is in the hope that when I graduate I will not only be a better artist, but be employable for these skills.

My main aspiration is to become an Art Director or Lead Character Artist. However I have noticed some gaps in my arsenal, namely software like Maya or Z Brush. These are both software used regularly in industry that I have a very simplistic understanding of and I shall need to hone my skills on such to become more employable.

For instance, Blizzard are a renowned company that require both Maya and Z Brush as Proficiencies for a lead character artist position. Working on a stylized but semi-realistic title like Overwatch is a very real aspiration for me. Looking at my current standard of work, the hand painted texture look has been successful in my projects, whereas the more traditional photo realistic or grunge textures have been less effective.

My current standard of texturing has shown great improvement from where I was at the start of the year and my iteration is more focused, quicker and shows greater understanding of strong silhouettes pertaining to which of them I should advance. Because I have been able to get through this stage quicker, I’ve been able to paint over my work and study the compositions I’m making in engine closer; allowing a higher level of polish on my work.

I now know pushing my visual skills in Photoshop and my understanding of the fundamentals will ensure I am T shaped artist that fits movements in current industry. However there are visual skills I will need that must be learn off my own back to help me, painting over work to show my meaning and refined concepts are both things I need to work on off my own back in the coming year.

Concentrating on the skills I will need in the coming year rather than just the ones I have developed and refined while on course, I must become more confident and outsource my feedback on sites such as Art Station and Polycount. Without a larger, harsher feedback pool I will not progress at the rate necessary next year. This is because my finial year requires me to strive into industry slandered and achieve work that is worth putting into portfolio.

There comes a time when I have to accept that my head is full of tangents and loops, it just wants to tell you so badly about all the things that it kind of mushes them in an incoherent jumble of consciousness. This year I have learned how to decipher this illegible mess my brain wants to give you and place it into a somewhat coherent blog. Although in honestly the writing has gone well in comparison to last year, the confidence to post said writing has not gone well. Unfortunately I keep leaving myself chunks of blog to edit. While my university helper tries to help me decode my nonsense and is starting to feel real improvement when it comes to how coherent my work is; I personally do not have the same sense of achievement.

Looking back there wasn’t really a lack of time this term but last term I really struggled to find time and it is these blog posts that have suffered. If I was to redo the blog I think I would post smaller more summative posts and make them only around 500 words maximum each. This would mean I would be less nervous that my rambling where being read and my blog count would triple.

Although the blogs haven’t gone as well as hoped one major thing that has happened is I feel able to write by myself these days, something most people find easy but up until around two months ago was both scary and seemed implausible due to my lack of ability in writing and proof reading over my work. Have really helped me find my own way of reading my writing over and having more confidence. I’ve been trying to get small feedback from peers and this has helped me see the small improvements in my writing that are happening. 
Moving on to what has supported almost every project this year, my 3D has definitely come on leaps and bounds. Having spent some time over summer looking at characters, due to my interest in them, I was able to model things more coherently. I would say my current standard of modelling has now developed past coherence and is pushing into being proficient. Admittedly the things I have been most successful with have either been props or characters, which leads me to reflect on what needs to improve next.

I think one of my jobs over summer will be to start looking back in to engine but this time with focus. Because engine offers so much I think I should really hone my research and learning to aspects that will aid the parts of industry I want to go into. As such: particle effect, engine textures, importing characters, creating simple NPC animation loops and changing out the dummy for my own meshes are all skills in must invest time into learning.

One type of task that can be difficult to reflect upon in hindsight is group work, I can honestly say that my group work has been a very mixed bag. On one hand it went well for some of my first projects and the groups I worked with for the most part allowed me to reign in ideas and act as an art director of sorts. Most notably the Alice project where many assets are put past me before they enter engine; supporting this a lot of the consepts are painted over by me and the theme, atmosphere an overall look of the level where pushed by myself. I find this really exciting seeing it come to fruition and I’m very proud of the work that we’ve produced thus far. Here’s to hoping it is finished and works as well as well envision it working when it’s finally all in place.

 Even though my group work hasn’t always been fabulous I feel that having one good one bad and one downright ugly project is the best way for me to learn how to learn the skills needed for art direction. I need to know what not to do and I need to learn those lessons fast. Where better than, at university where I have a nice safety net for when it all goes wrong.

Looking at all the parts of my year and how I have advanced I can easily see where it is I need to advance further and where I need to balance my skills. My first plan is to use the summer to gain a better understanding of engine, character design and modelling and to really push my visual skills so they make me stand out as a strong candidate for future careers. Here I’m thinking of my hand painted textures, my Imagineering skills and my understanding of fundamentals. People need to respect you for you to lead as I wish to and there is a very simple way of getting that respect among artists, it’s quite simply to be really good at what you’re doing. In the third year I will create characters when possible and really push to direct projects where possible, focusing on painting over work and giving good quick feedback to people I work with. I will also focus on learning software I will need for the next stage, like z brush, 3D coat and Maya. This will not only aid my work and make it look better but it will make sure I am proficient in software used in the character roles I am looking at applying for after the course. After all if university is my time to do nothing but learn then I shall endeavour to learn more than just what is set out for me to learn.