review of the year

I think my first year has gone fairly well and I have learnt a lot in general although 3d is where I have learnt the most I guess because I had never used 3ds before coming to university. I am looking forward to the second year (if I make it) and I aspire to become a character/asset modeller after leaving the course, I think the first year has made me realise that I need to put more effort in to get more out, meaning putting more time into 3d and visual design will make me better and quicker therefore but also it means I will generate more work of an increasing quality rather than doing enough to get buy but not improving vastly.

Although 3d can be frustrating I do enjoy it, learning a new programme is always time consuming but looking at some of my projects near the start of the course I see errors that I can easily fix now but at the time didn’t notice or didn’t know how to fix which shows improvement, I wasn’t aware of how much I actually have learnt even though I’d say I’m still something of a novice.

Something I did find useful was the tutorial videos from Mike Pickton which were helpful when starting out and during certain projects e.g. the tree project, as I remember not understanding how to make an alpha work but after watching a quick video it was a lot clearer. Also the guru scheme was helpful as I did have good ones, I only say this because some other people I talked to on the course were not happy with theirs but that’s a different story. One in particular was very helpful and very approachable in the labs and i have asked for help once or twice, it is nice to know you have someone to ask for help as it can feel a bit daunting looking around at the 2nd and 3rd years thinking they wont want me bothering them with something which they probably find so easy.

I think something that would be a great help on the course is maybe having a video or audio recording of lectures so that we are able to go back to them after and maybe pick up on things we didn’t quite catch, this would be most helpful in game production as little things can easily be missed when watching the lesson on the projectors. I think this will also help with critical studies and visual design also as is it easy to forget exactly what is said during discussions and would help might help in year 2 visual design for lectures about colour theory etc. this is just a thought I had, I suppose it could be argued that we could just take notes instead.

I can’t wait for the second year I reckon it will be better because I’m no longer learning the basics and I can use what I have learnt this year about time management etc and carry it forward to next year to ensure I do better.