In Game Production this year I’ve been introduced to 3DS Max and however that it may have started out a bit slow for me I’ve really gotten use to it and produced a lot of good work I would say, though it seems no however good you think your work is there’s always someone to criticize it, but it’s a harsh reality.
My work has been a bit sloppy and messy throughout so I have had to come back and address things, at first I thought I’d just produce everything in 3D however I could get it done but after a while you realise that there’s no hiding from having to unwrap assets instead of mapping everything and that the mesh flow must be good and clean that that everything must be named and have the correct sizes! I thought it’s overcomplicating it at first but to be professional you must take the time to do it and not be lazy! I avoided the 3D work as much as I could at first because I thought it was hard to get use to and I’m sure we’ve all been stressed with it at some point but like I say you can’t hide and I have bothered to get myself into gear and do it.
I’ve now tackled my fear of understanding how to unwrap assets and model them efficiently, I have found myself asking for help quite a few times along the way though. Next year I’m not going to ask as much for help unless I really need it, University is about self teaching yourself so I need to do a lot of that, no one else can help, like we’ve been told countless times, this is not school or college and at first I treated it like college, but I’m a slow learner so over time I do eventually understand things! So I’m going to do that especially after basically being told by one of the third years to shut up and just do it, because critique is overrated and makes no difference according to him, being a third year I definitely believe him.
In visual design well what can I say? I’ve gone from doing pencil sketching to now being more confident in drawing much more complicated objects such as cars etc that a year ago I’d have never been able to do! Now I’m drawing all kinds of stuff and why is because perspective and going back to basics of drawing has really helped me a lot! I have a better understanding of colour theory and have become much better as a painter, I mean I can’t just always produce pencil sketches my entire life.
In life drawing I’ve gained a better understanding of the human figure and different forms of it, though I do need to practise it more, I can’t believe however how simple it was just to not look at the page your drawing on and just let your hand follow your eyes, my drawing of the figure have turned out a lot better this way though sometimes it doesn’t seem to work because of rushing things, I need time to plan my drawings and work out that everything is in proportion before I render so I mostly just thumbnail sketch everything because it’s easier and everything looks a lot more accurate! When we only get 20 minutes to produce a rendered sketch just isn’t long enough and I end up going wrong because of the rush, though I think this is something I need to address, GETTING FASTER! I’ve spent so much time doing one drawing after another on Photoshop and I spend way too long on the images I produce, drawing a banana took me 6 hours to do and it still doesn’t look right!
I’m not sure where things are going to go in the next year but I know that over summer I’m going to practise my skills and techniques in 2D and 3D so that I don’t forget nothing and be fully prepared as from now on it gets harder. I understand depth, composition, colour theory, perspective a lot more this year and I would say I’m well on my way to becoming a Game Artist pretty soon, my only worry is my grades but only time will tell.
I guess over the summer I will have to keep practising my skills in 2D and 3D and probably in the meantime it will be good try and download UDK because as I seem to have mastered the basics in 3DS Max we’ve all got to go back and learn the basics of a new program this October! Best get a head start huh?
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