About me...

About me and what I intend to achieve from the course:

My name is Elliot and I’m currently undertaking my first steps in Game Art design at De Montfort University. I am one of “local lads” on the course being born in Leicester, and currently living at home in the Pork Pie capital, Melton Mowbray.

The reason I have chosen to come to De Montfort University to study Game Art is that I’ve got a real love for games and the industry behind them, as well as a huge passion for creating artwork. Both assets are stated in the course, so why wouldn’t I come here. I’ve also noticed over the past year or so, with the help of research into the game art world, I have seen games in a way most people don’t see or don’t care about to be honest, and that’s how their made, how long did it take the designers, what software do they use and how’d they come up with all these concepts? Those are the questions I can begin to try to answer over the years to come.

I have two major hobbies, apart from creating art and obviously playing games. The first one is football, which is weird for a creative person, because I don’t know many artists who like or play sport. I’m a massive Middlesbrough fan, don’t ask why! Because frankly, I don’t know, I think it’s mainly to blame for picking a team when you’re younger, who were then in the premiership, who weren’t Man United, Chelsea or Arsenal etc. So I’ve stuck with them over the past 6 to 7 years now, even though the matches are different, travelling to places like Barnsley compared to Old Trafford or the Emirates Stadium. My other hobby is playing the drums. I’ve been playing the drums for about the same amount of time, stated above; I’m now studying for my grade 8 exam, which should be around Christmas time, I really enjoy music in general, it’s also a creative art, so It ties in well with a creative course and way of life. Lastly, I forgot to mention, I’m a big metal head, I listen to anything that you can’t understand the lyrics to really, I just think most of these type of bands shout/scream about things ranging from personal problems to challenging the perception of society, I think it’s actually a clever genre of music, so I’d say never judge a book by its cover when it comes to the heavier side of music.

My past experiences with art started at an early stage in my life, through last years of primary school, I discovered that I was better at drawing than most people, which became the nudge I needed to follow down the path of becoming an artist of some sort. Most recent education has been Graphic Design and Media Studies at A-level and a Foundation year in Art and Design which have all given different approaches into the world of art. Firstly studying graphics was a major role in wanting to study Game Art Design. The graphics I studied wasn’t very digital based at all; it was more of a fine art course. My big project was all about comic books and how the style of art (Film Noir) was portrayed compared to modern techniques. My exam project, on the other hand, involved the creation of a new CD album cover/art to one of my favourite bands (Parkway Drive – Metal band from Australia); this project did contain a lot more photography and Photoshop/digital technique work than I was comfortable with, therefor coming out with only a C at the end of the course. My Foundation year was one of the best years of my life, in terms of social events, and more importantly finding my feet and my own unique style of drawing, with the addition of discovering a real passion for pen work. The start of the course was a shock to the system with the introduction of observational drawing and especially LIFE DRAWING! Both assets were daunting at first, but with everything in the art industry, it became easier by putting a lot of hard work, hours, dedication and patience into it. There were set tasks probably about every other week, which was a mixture life drawing, observational, and own personal briefs, involving skills we’d learnt over the weeks/months. The most interesting thing was to be free to do whatever….well okay not that free, but to be able to create briefs with personality and passion in them, compared to structured assignments such as the nature of A-levels. The grade I came out of the foundation year with was a high merit, which I expected to get. That mark, although didn’t compare to getting a distinction for example, was still a well accredited grade. The project I did for the end of year show was to create landscape images in a mixture of pen work and acrylic, which were taken from observation, but matched the writing of the book “Elidor – By Alan Garner” as closely as possible. A lot of interest occurred at the show from students’ parents and other teacher’s etc., commenting on my pieces and saying things such as; “The atmosphere he has is very dark, the lighting brings a sense of belief within the picture and a landscape like that would be well suited in the games industry” or something along those lines, its hard remembering the exact words. But that definitely set me up for continuing my development into becoming a Game Artist at DMU, hopefully, for the next three/four years.

I think my dream job would to become an artist of any sort within a games company such as Bethesda or 2K. For example, 2K has had major success with the game “Bioshock” as well as “Bioshock 2”. This has to be one of my all-time games I’ve played, I just love it, everything from being set in an under-water city, situated in the art deco period, which can be visually seen everywhere you go, to the interaction of characters and weapons and trail of destruction you can leave behind. I think the game story line is brilliant on both games, because in the second one, you swap your role from being an inferior plane crash survivor to becoming one of the most prominent bad-ass characters there is in the game, the BIG DADDY! 2K have really inspired me to work for them, especially now they have that experience of creating such visually pleasing and enjoyable, yet changeling games.

At the moment, there is a vacancy at Irrational Games who are owned by 2K, for an environment artist, however there is a huge list of duties which any applicant must have before even applying, here are the details:

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Have an understanding of and ability to create meaningful combat/tactical spaces and elevation changes that obey a proper architectural hierarchy.
• Take a level from the initial brief to a compositionally pleasing white-box state complete with design requirements in mind (i.e., elevation changes, miscellaneous gameplay/narrative beats, tactical/combat space, etc.).
• Work with atmosphere and lighting to enhance mood and create visual depth.
• Work with environment modelers to create the required building sets, props, etc., to take a level from white box to completion.
• Gather references applicable to your specific level/time period.
• Ability to create compositionally pleasing spaces/moments as the player travels from zone to zone.
• Ability to work and contribute effectively in a team environment.
• Collaborate with the Art Director to lead the creation of consistent, high-quality work.
• Meet project deadlines and milestones.

REQUIREMENTS

• 3-5 years of experience with UE3 editor.
• Ability to work cleanly and efficiently when constructing your level.
• Outstanding communication skills.
• Ability to work within technical constraints and generate top-quality art.
• Clear understanding and implementation of technical guidelines and constraints.
• Ability to effectively collaborate with other departments.

I think that this dream job of mine, isn’t too far out of reach for me, yes okay it is now, but after graduating with a good mark, this is something I’d consider, especially it being in America, that might help swing me into that direction. But overall I will try my very hardest to achieve to work at these requirements or higher by the end of the course. The skills I will learn over the next three or even four years will be vital to achieving anything close to this job role, I hope to develop basic awareness of tone, light and dark, have a good grasp of digital work as well as a great understanding of the software 3D Max. If I succeed with all these assets under my belt, not being too vain, but I should land myself a dream role within the games industry with not too much hassle.

I’m just very excited about learning, developing my skills and knowledge and building up an industry standard portfolio and maybe even a substantial list of contacts in game art/production. I’ve waited a long time for this chance to come along, so there’s no way I’m missing this chance to become who I want to be.