Task 12: Personal review of the first year

Over the past year i feel like i have really settled in at De Montfort and
onto the Game Art Design course.
When i first started the course i was excited and optimistic, looking forward to learning about the techniques and skills that are necessary in order to venture into the industry and to secure a job. At first i found the course very challenging in the 3d module of the course, i had never used a 3d software before coming to university therefore i struggled a lot to get to grips with 3ds Max, i found myself being left behind by the rest of the group. I found the Gurus and grasshoppers activities very useful and was very reassured when i had a crash course in 3ds Max from the third years, these lessons really help me to be able to start using Max up to standard and to be able to efficiently create assets, this allowed me to catch up to the rest of the group. it felt like i was thrown in at the deep end from the start, which was, in the end, a good thing as it was a real eye opener into the work i had to do, therefore i have adjusted to a comfortable work rate.
I went into the visual design module fairly confident as this is my strongest skill, the lessons were very interesting and i feel i have learned more than i have ever learned previous about drawing techniques and i feel that my drawings have improved drastically from my original standard. I feel more confident about approaching a challenge, and i think that this new found confidence shows in the pieces that I'm producing,
for example: previously i had always dreaded and stayed away from landscape sketching or scenery drawing, but with the techniques that i have practiced, i am more confident in attempting to create these scenes. Character modeling, that i also have never gone into before, was very enjoyable. I have learned a lot about creating an armature and then applying Sculpy to create the character models, looking at the models i have created i am very pleased with how they both turned out.
I have enjoyed the critical studies module because i found the lessons very enlightening and interesting, everything that i have been taught this year, i have never know prior. learning about the process that game companies go through in order to create a game was knowledge that i know will be applied to my future ideas and suggestions.
In terms of next year, i would very much like to experiment more with human anatomy, i believe this would be vital skills involved in creating and producing well revised character ideas and would enable a higher quality of rendering skills for concepts and accurate action shots. I also plan on improving my speed paint skills and general use of Photoshop in order to produce better quality of textures and colours for the assets that i produce in 3ds Max. I'm thinking that Zbrush would be a worth while tool to use and also one of the digital 3d sculpting software to create higher quality of models, but a focus on raw materials in 2d would be very beneficial in improving fine art skills.
In summary, i think the first year has gone very well, i have learnt more than i could of imagined and am looking forward to continuing into the second year.