Introduction:

Below is my rationale, a recount of all 12 Units I’ve done during the Games Design course. I will cover the different skills I have learned, what pre-existing skills I have improved and my overall thoughts on the course such as what I’ve enjoyed and not enjoyed. Finally,  I will go over my chosen career path and how the course has inspired me to go down this route.

Rationale:

I am an aspiring concept artist and although I am most comfortable in character and creature design, I hope to dabble in all aspects of the job. From environment to characters to machinery concept design. I am also interested in storyboarding which stems from my hobby of making short stories/animatics outside of college.

Although the Games Design course has been more accommodating to other parts of the pipeline such as modelling, texturing, etc. I’ve still managed to squeeze concept art into all my projects and have improved my artwork significantly from when I first started this course.

Although the art above isn’t related in any way – it’s clear to see that my technique and confidence when it comes to digital art has improved. During the different units, I have learned a plethora of new skills and techniques to help me when creating concepts.

In the Asset Pack project, I learned how to make colour palettes and how to utilise primary and secondary photo reference to create said colour palettes. During Game Dev, I studied a new art style, pixel art. I learned different methods on how to create pixel art in Photoshop such as converting a high res drawing and turning it into a detailed piece of pixel art.

It was also this particular project that I started to learn how to animate and got my first taste of storyboarding. I created an animatic short about the player character’s entrance;

Year 1 FMP is where I feel I improved the most when it comes to concept art. I tailored the project specifically to me and pushed myself to really get into realistic creature design. I learned about silhouettes, different ways to create sketches, basic routines concept artists have and how to create a large portfolio of concepts for a single character before cracking down on a final design. From reference collecting to sculpting my own physical reference out of clay, this project really emulated what it could be like in the industry as a concept artist. It’s a very special project for me, considering all the hardships I went through.

Silhouettes came into play again during the tank competition. This was the first time I’ve worked on vehicle design and it was really fun to do, if not a little challenging. Perspective and shape dynamic was very important for this project. Due to the short time limit, I really had to push myself in order to get it all finished. I’m proud of this project because I took risks and played to my strengths. Whereas my classmates went straight into modelling, I took the time to properly make a design sheet. It paid off in the end, I somehow came first.

TTIOT unit was really interesting for me because it gave us a taste of what it could be like working on a cinematic/trailer rather than a game. I made the storyboard and created the opening to our animatic that was part of my group’s pitch. On top of that, I designed, modelled and textured our protagonist. For this unit, I learned all about shape and colour psychology and how to best portray my character’s personality without them having any dialogue. Anatomy also played a big role in this project because it was the first time I modelled a humanoid that was going to be rigged for animation. I joined a life drawing class outside of college to help me with this.

As well as the projects above where I physically made something, I also worked on Units dedicated to what I’ll be doing after college and one all about a specialist study.

The ‘Where to Next’ unit was very valuable to me. It helped to improve my research and digital literacy skills but also gave me the push to start planning my future. As someone who gets a little freaked out by the ‘future’ topic, I tried to avoid the inevitable talk about what I’ll be doing after graduation. Thanks to this unit, I researched and decided that I’ll be going into University. Below are the portfolios I created during this unit and used in my Uni interviews. I applied for Leeds, Staffordshire, DeMontford and Canterbury. I got an unconditional offer from Staffordshire and will be going there in September. I don’t think I would have been confident enough in myself and my choices to have gotten this far if it weren’t for this unit.

Finally, for the Specialist Study, I continued down the concept artist theme and produced an essay around the question, “How important is a good narrative and characters when playing a game?” It was an interesting study and although the answer came down to personal preference. I got to learn about the different perspectives/sides of the argument, narratology vs ludology, as well as looked into the world of video game journalism and how a story can not only make a game playable but advertise able as well.

Overall, I’ve learned a lot during this course and I’ve met some incredible people. Although the organisation isn’t always that great, each unit and project has taught me something new and I’ve improved a lot as a result. I’ve always wanted to go into concept design but it was this course that made me want to explore all the different roles of the pipeline. Not only have my skills as an artist improved, my confidence and social skills have also. I’ve worked in teams for the majority of the projects above and through good communication, planning and teamwork in general. We’ve managed to produce some amazing work. I can’t wait to continue this trend and keep improving.

Although I won’t be in a team for year 2 FMP, I hope to push myself when it comes to digital painting and will be teaching myself a new art style. Not only that, but I hope to message and network with artists in the industry to get advice on how to further my work and portfolio. I doubt I would have been able or confident enough to do this when I started this course.