Week 1

Well I am officially struggling to get into the habit of this whole blog thing. As this blog has been started a few weeks into the course I decided that it may be a good call to do a few brief posts outlining what I have learned each week so far. So, our first week was our introduction to 3D Studio Max. As a 3Ds virgin the program did look somewhat intimidating. SO MANY BUTTONS.
After a quick tutorial on how to create a basic 'blocky' church we set off on our journey to '3Ds Enlightenment.'
Using a simple box we extruded faces to create a basic structure of a church. Admittedly as this was a relatively easy task, naturally we grew quickly bored of this and started to experiment with the program, making our churches more intricate and even making other simple block shapes - like ladybirds and even a goblins head. Pretty amusing really, whether this is what Heather intended for us to do - I don’t know. Either way it helped me to quickly understand the basics.

Our next task was where Heather threw us in at the deep end. Our week brief was to create a 3D model of a Dalek. Our limitations were that it had to be fewer than 1500 triangles. Looking back, this was so intimidating, and seemed like such a challenge, as it was only our first week. I guess even just 6 weeks in, now I already feel so much more confident with using 3Ds Max. However intimidating this task was I was enthusiastic and threw myself at it. I managed to create 2 Daleks in the week we were expected to do this in. Once I started to get used to the layout and the tools in the program and with lots of help, I felt so much more comfortable with the program.
This was a pretty successful first week in terms of Game Production, I had a little bit more hope that I will actually be able to create nice 3D models as I was initially worried that I would be completely useless. I think what made me feel most confident was the amount of help available. If you're ever stuck just ask anyone in the room, whether that be a tutor or a fellow student. Everyone has been so friendly and happy to help!

So, onto Visual Design, the first week we went right back to basics. Apparently these were basics I never covered at any point in my past education. Seriously, I don't actually know what I've been doing for the last few years. I was always aware of stuff like one point perspective, horizon lines and vanishing points. But I never actually recall going over them properly in the past. So our first week focused on one point perspective, setting up a scene properly and getting the composition correct. We went down to the canal running by my halls, all got comfy and produced a series of images of the canal considering perspective.

I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. After looking at my first image from the week to the final A3 image. I could see so much improvement. My perspective was much more correct and even my rendering techniques improved somewhat. I found myself experimenting with different ways of shading, different ways of setting up the composition, and always using the techniques that Chris had outlined to us.  I was pleased with it but could still identify problems that were there (being my biggest critic and all that jazz.)

After our first week of work I felt really enthusiastic and so happy with my choice to do this course. I had learnt so much even in just one week compared to say a few months on courses I have done in the past. A lot is expected of me, but I feel like the workload is manageable. At this point I was looking forward to the next project to get cracking with.