Sunday 17 April 2011

Come dead child, sit on uncle Tom's lap and tell me what you wanna be when you "grow up".

Where do I want to go and how do I get there? To be honest that’s quite a weighted question. It’s no longer as simple as it used to be. When I was younger I wanted to be a palaeontologist whatever the stakes. I assumed that I would go through the education system and once I graduated from university, someone would wave a magic wand and I’d have made it. My naive mind thought university automatically = success and dream job. These days however, every blind monkey with a stick has a degree in all manner of ridicules things.

I’m a little bit more clued up on how things work now though. I no longer want to scour the world to make the next big pre-historic discovery and get my name on it, but rather to be a game artist, a job I’m probably equally if not more passionate about. Specifically I would rather be a character artist than anything else. Characters and drawing organic things have always inspired me so much more than anything man made ever could. Even today I don’t understand why someone would rather have a Photoshoped cityscape on their bedroom wall over a forest clearing with god rays breaking through the canopy at sunrise. In any case, modelling organic assets always allows me to play a lot more with topology which is probably my favourite part of being a 3D modeller, and as an Artist, drawing people is what I enjoy most, even if my skills are still somewhat to be desired. In terms of designing characters, as a 3D artist, I would have little involvement with it but it would still be something that I could enjoy should my career take that path. I’ve always enjoyed from a young age, designing characters, thinking of their heritage, what close they wear and why. What trinkets they would carry with them or any traumas they’d had in their lives. Equally though, if I was to start in environment design, I wouldn’t be working in malcontent. I’d be happy where I was until I felt I had gained what I could from that side of being a 3D artist. Character design is my ultimate goal.

Pretty much the only way I can achieve this is the blatantly obvious. Aside from going through the motions of getting my face and my work out there, and making the effort to make myself stand out from everyone else on our course, nothing short of bloody hard work will get me to where I want to be. To become a better game artist requires practice and patience just like any other discipline, and that’s pretty much what I must so to get me where I need to be. And we can start by not failing the second year.

No comments:

Post a Comment