So...."I'm a lover and a fighter, a villain and wrong righter"

The title ^^ is from a rap I wrote a while back entitled "Who am I?"  Well now you’re asking! I’m Amy Gilbert or Amy G if I’m round the Working mens club circuit... I’m 20, though according to Facebook my mental age is 6…  If you see me around campus I’m the loud lass in the trilby.

As you can see from the blog title I’m from a friendly little place called Saffron Lane Estate...otherwise known as ‘The Saff’, in Leicester. So... this makes me the Game Artist from the Saff (see what I did there?). I thought it would be cool to name my blog this as if I can go from my background and where I live to working in the industry I think that’s pretty amazing. The background of the blog is graffiti from my previous place of work (Goldhill Adventure Playground) which is just over the road from my house. Oh yeah, and I can also point out that I am half American (dad’s a yank) which I blame for all my stupidity and daring, luckily I have the British in me to balance it out...

So why Game Art Design? Well, I came from a performing arts background, put all the work in, did the national dip and then realised....whoa there is NOTHING you can do with a performing arts course. So yeah, I realised I was also quite the artist so did a First Dip in Art and Design and then an Access Course in media which brought me to university level. I’ve always loved technology, and I am really passionate about art – the Game Art Design course brought these (and the massive amount of hours I’d blasted away on all my games) together perfectly! Also, I wanted a challenge - and after this first week boy can I say I got one! On my last courses I’d pump out work way ahead of deadlines and it was all too easy...I am loving the fact that we are in ‘’boot camp’’. I want to be challenged, I want to be stretched, I want to learn...and that’s why I chose this course.

After the first week, I can say my ambitions for the year are basically to get my head around 3dsmax. It’s one hell of a program, and at the beginning of this week I’ll be honest I did really panic. It reminds me of my course last year where I’d never touched  the adobe suite...though by the end of the year I was flying through Photoshop or In design  so hopefully 3ds max will follow suit as the Dalek project about killed me!

My ambitions for the course are to get through it; though really well. I usually set very high expectations of myself which gets me epic results. I am a very ambitious person, so hopefully this and my drive will help me complete Game Art Design to a high level,

I’ve always loved the Beat ‘em up genre so ideally in the future I want to be designing the characters for the next Tekken or Soul Calibur...though to be honest as long as I’m in industry at the end of the course I’ll be happy. I’d really love to work outside of the UK also, and travel a bit. On my last course one for of my FMP’s I created an Xbox game cover – ‘Duel the way of the sword.’ we joked that after designing it all I needed to do was create the game...who knows? Maybe I will.

Other than games my interests are mainly musical – I’m a singer and to fund myself I sing around the club circuit under the name ‘Amy G’ using my own full PA system etc. I also sing with rapper ‘Lacky C’ and we write/record our own material – soon to be performing at the Loughborough Christmas lights 2010 woop! Other than that I love to socialise and I have already joined a number of clubs and societies at Uni – from the demon gamers to rowing (which was brutal but I’m hoping to shed some pounds haha) I’m a very outgoing person and I like to have lots of activities and things to do I get bored.

So what are my ambitions after the course? I checked out some GAD jobs online just to see what they were expecting…

http://www.blitzgamesstudios.com/blitz_academy/job_roles/art   -  looking at this site (Blitz games studios) I found 2 jobs entitled “3d Modeller and texture artist” and “Concept Artist” these are the two fields I would really like to get into (if 3ds max doesn’t kill me first).  Quoting the website the roles and responsibilities are for the 3D Modeller/texture artist: “The 3D artist's working day consists of creating objects, characters and scenery in three dimensions. Most of this work will usually be achieved in one of the major 3D software packages, such as Maya, 3D Studio Max, Softimage XSI or Light wave among others.”  This sounds pretty daunting to me as I am just getting my head round one of the programs let alone that long list! This means over the 3 years on my course I’ll have to work really hard mastering the software and put lots of time and graft in, which I will. Although there is light at the end of the tunnel as Blitz also state that: “Though this all sounds rather daunting, the ability to model and texture well will get you through the door - after that the rest will come as you learn on the job.” Yay! At the moment 3D is my toughest challenge, although I am sure via practising tutorials and backing that up with visual design work I will develop better skills. It’s kind of like learning a new language – and I already speak fluent Photoshop so it’s all good…

Ultimately to get my dream job I’ll have to do pretty much the same thing I’ve done on my other courses, though much more intensely (which I relish). I am ready to put the time and energy into all of my work and just like all you guys I’ll progress I think the Dalek is a great example of this. At the beginning of the week I was terrified, but after 3 attempts, doing the research and putting the time in I got it done to a pretty good piece and I’m proud!

 So come on Game Art Design, bring it!

Later

 PS: to anyone that wants to read the title rap among others go to - http://gilbatronsp63.deviantart.com