Showcasing My Work

Here's a fern! Some progress on my island. Anyway, it's student showcase night at uni tonight. This is what my two years at AIE has come to. Well, not really, but it's a chance to show my work off. There's the video of Weeping Willow on my home page (which you should have seen, unless you came straight to my blog). There are still some touches that I want to make on Weeping Willow, so I'll get another video up when that's all done.

I remember last year when I felt so overwhelmed doing this course. I wanted to drop out, and thought that I was just wasting my time and money being here. Then I thought to myself "I wanted to leave when I was doing my apprenticeship, but I stuck with it and became one of the very few people at the workshop who became a fully qualified mechanic. Just keep on going, and you'll graduate one day". And now, I love it.

There was a lot more creative freedom in year two. Out first module was a gaming environment that we had six weeks to do. I made Weeping Willow, which I worked so hard on. I would work on it every moment that I had. I'd go home from class or work, and just keep on modelling the evening away. I revisit the models though, and cringe a bit over the texturing and topology, but everyone looks back at their work a few months down the line, and thinks "Yeah... nah".

One golden rule that I learned during year two is "Just get it done!". Instead of spending an epic amount of time trying to perfect one asset, just get it modeled, and slap a texture on it. I can always come back later and fix it up. Something is better than nothing. But it's about balancing the ol' "Quality vs Quantity" maxim. You don't want an environment with lots of assets that all look like shit, yet you don't want an empty environment with just one good looking environment.