A Brand New Day

So where am I now? Well I managed to survive my first year on my journey to becoming a game artist and I am now taking my first steps into the second year where I am hoping to pick up the pace on collecting the skills and learning the tools of the trade which will make me a ninja god when it comes to making game art!

The first year was hard as the sheer amount of learning was quite intense; it really pushed me to use my artistic abilities not only creatively but also critically as well. At first I freaked out at the fact I was going to have to use this complicated 3D software package that I seemed to have the great ability of breaking just by opening it. But now after discovering it’s actually not that bad I found myself enjoying what I was doing, like solving the technical problems with making an asset in game to be efficient and on a budget as well as having to make good artistic judgments to make sure it fits the brief and the environment its supposed to have come from.

I’ve seen my drawing skills get better as I looked back at older work and then found when I came to do it again it seemed easier and found I was producing better quality images in a shorter space of time, allowing me to make more interesting compositions when I knew I wasn’t limited by a lack of technical skill or understanding what I was actually seeing in front of me.

Year 2 for me is where I want to start to find where I fit in the world of games and what I can bring to the table as well as further develop and flex my creative muscles. That being said I have come to the great realisation that I need to put a lot in to what I do to reap the rewards of being a good games artist and ultimately have fun with what I’m doing. I have the image in my mind that year 2 is the training montage in Rocky 4, the hardest fight is to come and only by working hard will you have a chance of making it through to the next stage. Well that and the fact as a student we are really broke like Rocky is in the film and we have to make do with the tech we have!



Where I want to go from here is really the next stage for me as the road I'm traveling down is a little foggy at the minute and I need to start finding that place I want to be In and have that goal to help drive my work and start growing my portfolio in the right direction.