The day started up bright and early as the year sat down for the introduction talks setting up the structure for the day. The day was to be divided into 4 time periods where you could choose to attend one of three different time classes in these periods. This was a fantastic idea because it meant that you could choose to tailor the day to your own needs and maximize your growth in the subjects.
My first session I attended was called "Learning From Your Peers" in which some of us first years got an opportunity to hear what the course was like from a third and second year perspective. We got to explore how the course has changed since we came and talk about the effect moving to a new faculty and building had on the community. This gave us a chance to understand more about why this course is good because we share ideas in a studio based environment. I've come to the realisation that I really do need to spend more time in labs on the higher floors so I can get more opportunities to learn from fellow students who have already gone through my plight and learnt so much.
After that I attended a "Have a Go" session where we got to review our blogs and do some more posts. I took this opportunity to finish some drafts of posts I was writing (see my digital painting post). One thing that also happened out of this was that I got a chance to look through other peoples blogs which I hadn't actually seen before. This put what I was doing in perspective and gives me a benchmark to use. This has affected me and I'm now going to follow more industry professionals blogs so I can see what is out there, what to work to and what I've got to become better than if I want a job.
Next session was another informative period where Chris and Mitch (VD tutors) took us through an exploration of our critical thinking skills. We looked at the art direction of The Last Of Us and saw how the creative language provided to the concept artists helped shape the game visually. This jumped out at me because I was always unsure how producers and publishers who are sometimes extremely un-artistic might plan and pitch games which could have such amazing visual meaning behind it.
We then applied the skills we just talked about in a group exercise where we evaluated stills from movies like Aliens and... Blade Runner (good thing I just evaluated that). This was a fun practise of using verbal communication to describe the visual side of something.
Next we had to verbalise key words in 30 seconds and then describe a scene for the future Last Of Us film.
My one was the idea of having two figures in the foreground on a sun-baked road in a city where the evening sun cast long shadows from the dark dilapidated buildings. A light sky contrasts the dark purple/blue shadows. On the side of the road there is a ruined signpost that is being engulfed by trees and or weeds that entwine themselves around the metal and block out the name of the city representing how the civilization of man is lost now and nature is reclaiming it. Trashed cars show how man has abandoned the old lifestyles and gone to live in the wilds. Ellie and Joel are now walking through this ghost town.
What was crazy is that my description got chosen to be visually interpreted by Mitch who turned it into the coolest concept art! Check it out!
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| Remember this was made by Mitch Small I was just the art director. |
I really thought the day was a well constructed day with plenty of things to learn and because of the choice you felt like you controlled your learning process and not like you were being leaded along. I would really like this to happen every year and If possible bring the other years into it more so it becomes a real mixing learning together situation. Also it would be great to see If any ex-students turned professional could come join in with future ones and eventually make it like a proper conference.
Make way GDC here comes GAC!
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