Newfound Motivation

I think it's important to start this blog by talking a bit about how i've been over the last couple of years. In terms of professionalism I just didn't care, I was in college for one reason....I didn't want to go to work straight from school and wanted to live as carefree as I could for as long as possible. During my 1st and 2nd years of doing animation at Ravensbourne I was very unmotivated and was lucky enough to even pass my units, even getting into the 3rd year I didn't have any goals or ideas of what to do after graduation, I was just along for the ride to have a good time hanging out with everyone, work was the last thing on my mind and the thought of a career was something I would dismiss straight away, but this has all changed now.

One day, about 2-3 weeks ago at the start of February, I started to notice that things were starting to bother me and I didn't know why...it hit me one day in college, after continuously seeing the amazing work produced by my classmates I realised that I felt inferior, I had wasted the last 2 years doing nothing, not even trying to push myself to improve my skills and that now I understood how far I had let myself fall. I know I am capable of creating great work just like everyone else, all I have to do is put in the time and effort and keep myself focused instead of being lazy and a bum. I went from spending a few days feeling like crap and not knowing why to actually finding the answer and now knowing what I want to do and how to achieve it.

So what do I want? I want to develop my skills as a digital environment artist and become part of a production team for a video game company. How will I do this? Practice, practice, practice!! For this role I need to be able to produce concept work as well as be able to model and texture in 3D. Through my GCSE's and A levels I greatly increased my artistic ability and have become quite competent at both traditional and digital painting, even so, I still need to draw and paint frequently to keep my skills fresh and to learn new things. For the 3D side of work I need to research, learn and practice what I need to get into the video game industry.

I went on the website for a London based video game company called 'Splash Damage' located in bromley, on their recruitment page they tell exactly what they are looking for in their employees for digital artists. This includes the type of experience and the relevant knowledge and skills required.

The image above is a screenshot of the job description.

This screenshot is for one of the projects set by Splash Damage to test whether you have the required skills before applying. You have to model and texture an object appropriately based on the concept image provided, if you can successfully do it then you know you have the right technical skills for the job.

Eventually I would like to to start applying to work at Splash Damage once I have the relevant knowledge and experience.