Alas my time at the AUCB has come to an end. I have been a student here for five years and three of which have been studying Digital media production. A lot has happened in the final year, I have learnt so much and tried hard to create professional standard work. It has been worrying knowing that when all this is over; I will be out in the world trying to make a living.
At the very beginning of the final year I had been trying to work out what it really was I wanted to do. I wanted something that combined all my interests at once but seeing as this is reality it was impossible to find this non-existent dream job. I decided to work on what I thought I was best at, drawing. Before university started up again I had already gained a small fan base on www.newgrounds.com I wanted to expand my online profile and work on my artwork in general. With the help of a friend I started work on my own personal website. Having only just started on the site I decided to make it for my specialist project. During the pitch of my idea I mentioned creating an interactive comic as well to promote the site. However, Phil pointed out to that it would be far too much work for the time I had so instead I was told it would be best to make the interactive comic by itself and leave the website as a personal project. The time I had for the project seemed to run out very quickly and I was caught off guard near the end. Despite not quite reaching my initial expectations for the outcome, I was pleased with the appearance of the comic. The drawings looked incredible on the ipad and I was really happy with the professionalism of the comic as a whole. It was because of this that I realized that what was most important to me was the appearance of my art. This realization set the path for my final project.
The extended major project had worried me. I knew the final project had to be something that related to what I wanted to do in the future. it was of huge importance to me that this project represented something personal and professional at the same time, it was just a case of coming up with an idea. Being so pleased with the last projects style and appearance I decided on making yet another ipad program that displayed artwork, much like an interactive portfolio. It was around this time that I had been playing Skyrim, a video game set in a medieval fantasy realm. The game is massively in depth and really blew me away; I was inspired to create my own world with its own mythology. Keeping the ipad idea I chose to create a short illustrated story within my own made up universe, so I started to think up the world and the people in it. Drawing characters and places helped me develop the stories around them and I wanted to include versions of people I knew in real life into the story. It was in the early stages of the project that I created a character based around my girlfriend Katy Bringloe. I wanted to put her into my story as the main character. As Katy has a pet snake I named her character the snake princess who later became Thryyn, but even Thryyn is a reference to her full name Kathryn that was intentional. There is something about little real life inputs and references that I really enjoy and I have always wanted to do it myself within my own work. I started to work on the story creating more characters and locations.
Unfortunately it was around the second week of the project I had to send my laptop off to pc world to be repaired. Unfortunately to make the project I needed iBook Author, and my disc drive was not working meaning that I would not be able to install snow leopard and lion onto my laptop and by extension download and use iBook Author for my project. My laptop was hugely important towards my project for obvious reasons, and it certainly caused some massive problems being repaired for 40 days. However, despite not having it I was still able to draw and design in the mean time building up more artwork that could be used later on. Without a doubt the lack of a laptop was terrible set back, I even considered getting an extension, but in the end I wanted to prove to myself that I could mange my time and work around the issue. To me it seemed like yet another excuse not to hand something in on time and I didn’t want to be placed in with that crowd.
As soon as my laptop returned I was ready to create my story. I had a clear idea of the story and characters, I even thought of other stories in case I had time to make more. I started to put together the project and test-drive it on a friend’s ipad frequently. I couldn’t believe how good it all looked. I was really happy with the artwork and the smooth movement and interaction of the entire project. The longest process was the story writing itself and I still feel it could be better, but as I am so happy with the project as a whole I am definitely going to carry on making more and expanding the original.
I also helped Sam Grierson with his project; Sam was making a mockumentary about the fake band we created in the second year called ‘cattle grid.’ Obviously being a part of the band it was based on it was compulsory for me to appear in it, but I was happy to help. I also helped with sound equipment and transportation but I was mostly used for my actual appearance in the mockumentary. Although I wouldn’t call myself and actor I was fairly impressed with the video and I think Sam did a great job of filming editing the video.
Writing is definitely no strong point in my work. I really cannot stand writing in anyway. It feels like torture to me. on an emotional level I feel like an idiot with my constant spelling mistakes and punctuation errors. Needless to say I really did not enjoy my dissertation or my evaluations at all, and although I enjoying thinking up the stories I hated writing them down for my EMP. The writing was a lengthy process and as I knew it was my weakest I had several people proofread it. However time was running short so despite it being proofread I did not have much time to make the story as in depth as I originally wanted so the ending was fairly rushed and abrupt. But I will extend the story in my own personal time and try to get it published and available online.
This course has really helped me through out the years. This final year in particular has helped me realize where I want to go in life. My skills have increased in so many different ways; my drawings have improved greatly with each passing year. And now I feel I have reached a level where I am comfortable with selling my art and working under commission. My skills in different software are much more advanced than before. I find that I can easily train myself for new programs and I am most with familiar adobe Photoshop. I have learnt from others in my course as well taking in as much advice and help as possible, which in turn has developed my social skills as well. On a personal level I think I have been finding it much easier to reach out to others and communicate. This has helped me get a basic understanding of how to deal with other people in the future and the wide mixture of personalities I am likely to come across.
The future is looking a lot more promising. Despite the obvious uncertainty I feel like I am ready to go out into the world and find a career. I still have my same ambitions of becoming a recognized artist in multimedia but now it seems actually possible, less of a dream and more of a reality. I have spoken to other artists during my final year getting advice on where to start. I have heard tutors and students say encouraging words about my art and listened to their suggestions on where to go in life. I hope to get a job where I can be creative, where I can draw and animate and design new characters and world while still having time to work on personal work and art. I hope to broaden my fan base online and start working freelance as well as working for a company, whether its comics for marvel or concept art for Bethesda or even being a seedy tattoo artist, it doesn’t matter as long as I am happy doing what I love.
In conclusion I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the AUCB, especially in the Digital Media Course. I feel I have really grown as a person. The final major project especially has really helped me get a good idea of what I want to get a job in. I hope to show the world my artwork and my ideas and I hope more than anything that they are well received. I have learnt truly valuable skills and I look forward to using them in the near future. There has been ups and downs but all of it has helped contribute to the person I am today, I am not entirely sure that is a good thing but lets just hope it is. It was hard saying goodbye but university had to end at some point or another and now it has I feel unsure but excited by the future. I hope to keep in touch with everyone from the course including the tutors. Thanks to Digital Media and the AUCB the world seems like a much less scarier place.
