Ambitions and aspirations for year 2

Let’s talk Ambitions! I think I am at the stage in my life and degree where it is time to decide what I really want from the industry of design and where I see myself in it. It has been 3 weeks into second year and I am already confused about what to do, more so in my personal time. I guess coming back to the degree all of us seem much more prepared for the work at hand compared to the scary times of first year. But at the same time, we need to start building portfolios of work and this means personal work as well, because you do not want your whole portfolio to be full of work you only did in class. Ever. My current thoughts on personal work are cloudy because I have no idea where to begin and with what. Setting MEGA-AWESOME project briefs could take up months to finish but at the same time you don’t want anime fairy paintings you did in 5 minutes with no ‘reference’. Ah yes, I remember the times where it was a bragging right if you did something without reference, only to realise 99% of unreferenced designs will most likely be crap.   

Also I really want to get to grips with learning some new software, when I came here as a first year my initial thoughts on 3ds max was that it would take years to achieve anything half decent, but with the teaching and regular deadlines in this course I’ve picked up everything quite quickly. We also are always looking for tutorials and other artists work to develop our skills frequently. Software like UDK and Zbrush seem to be popping up in conversion regularly and looking at the 3^rd years’ work really does put things into perspective. As software is only a tool, like a pen, pencil, marker, or paint brush, it is something I am not trying to play favourites with, so learning something new isn’t some scary taboo act but instead a helpful resource to my current working pipeline. It will be important in this year to develop my 2D skills to a professional level or as close as possible. Things like making mistakes in lighting, perspective, colour theory and anatomy have to be corrected so ideas and concepts can become more alive and accurate to what I have in my head. This will mean trying to draw every day and just building a scrap book studying all these factors.

I read artist interviews all the time on http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/ and this is where it always motivates me to be working on something personal or on the side as a student because all these artists tend to have amazing portfolios that suggest massive interests in areas unrelated to their 9 to 5 jobs. After being asked about the industry most say that as students it was this unknown world everyone talked about but had never been to, and you would hear stories about it, but after being there you realise how small you are and your ego is thrown out the window as you find yourself giving your all for the content your employer wants, as a team. As the 2^nd year will unfold we will also have group projects which we never did as 1^st years, so this will also be interesting to work on something as a team with other peoples input and opinions. Good or bad, I’m it will be a learning experience so I look forward to it! I just hope that guy who does no work and never turns up to anything, you know that guy, who constantly lets the group down with minimal input in everything, I just hope I don’t get stuck with that guy, I will of course, try very hard not be that guy! Group project? Come at me bro.