Week 1: Game production

Game production was essentially an introduction to the modelling programme 3DS Max. I have had a years worth of experience of Maya which I hoped would give me an edge on 3DSmax but I was quite horrified to find the interface was completely different!

We began by following our tutor step by step and making a basic table and accompanying chairs. I managed to grasp the gist of things but did fall behind a little and miss out a few steps. We then modelled a war hammer in a similar fashion (following step by step) but again I got caught up on one thing and missed a few steps, although I had started to get the hang of things.

Our stretch goal was to create a few low-poly weapons. I can comfortably admit that I was pretty nervous after our first lesson; I felt like I wasn't grasping the programme as quickly as I should be and thought that I was never ever going to understand it. After an evening of thinking it over I reminded myself that I felt exactly the same when I started using Maya and quickly picked that up.

This put my mind at ease and I knew I was going to have to concentrate and put in the time and effort to fully understand the programme. After a few unsuccessful weapons I came out with this hammer/mace/thing.. Not the most fantastic looking thing but I managed to grasp the basics and got something relatively okay looking out of it! With my new found knowledge I attempted a sword:

 

It's still not finished but I am finding myself much more comfortable with 3DS max! There's still a lot to learn but I know if I put in the extra time I will become far better at it.

Week 1: Visual design

My first day covered 'visual design' in various ways; my first class covered the basics of photoshop which I already feel pretty comfortable with so I was able to produce the 'shaded sphere' task and move onto creating some material spheres which was quite a fun task (although the lack of tablets in this lesson gave me a little nervous twitch). I'm really looking forward to doing more tasks like this though as it encourages me to work on rendering materials digitally that I wouldn't normally do.

I then had a life drawing class which I was particularly looking forward to as I had heard about the importance of it from various great artists but had never had the opportunity to go to any classes. To begin with we were taught how to use a pencil to measure the model and therefore be able to transfer her onto our page in proportion and without limbs not fitting on the page.

This approach was something that I'd never done before and I had a little bit of a tough time doing it as its much more technical than my usual way of sketching. Despite this I can really see the importance of this technique and intend to practice it outside of class so that I can then move on to mastering other things.

Two of my drawings from the life drawing class, done in 3-5 minutes.

We were only given 3-5 minutes to draw the model and I found myself probably spending more time than I should have getting my head around measuring with my pencil but I did feel like I was getting the hang of it the more I did it so that's always a good sign!

Our tutor also spoke about various things such as weight distribution in the body and encouraged the class to look at where the weight was placed which can make a big impact on the drawing. I found this really useful and insightful as we weren't just sitting and drawing what is in front of us we were actually learning important things about anatomy in general. Its also a wonderful feeling to trust your teachers and believe that they know what they're talking about and everything they are teaching you/getting you to do has a genuine reason that will help you to improve!

I then had a class on perspective in which we were taught the basics of one point perspective. Perspective has never really been a strong suite of mine and I was really pleased to hear we'd be going over things like this so I could really cement the basic understanding that I had and then build on that.

Some of my thumbnail sketches of the canal- practicing one point perspective.

We were sent to go and draw the canal and therefore put into practice what we'd just been taught and really get to grips with one point perspective and how it works in the real world. By being told to go outside and keep practicing the same thing (almost repetitively) genuinely helped me to understand perspective. After a few thumbnails I already felt comfortable with it and so I intend to take it to the next stages and start practicing two point in order to test myself further.

Overall I can happily say that I thoroughly enjoyed my first week, and although it was a little intimidating it encourages and inspires me to work harder to essentially achieve my potential!