Week 27 - Further Confusion, Essay Writing and an Action Plan

   I've been writing my essay recently; which is at the moment a bit jumbled up. Like my head. The hardest thing is finding relevant references. Largely due to the fact that I'm still not entirely sure what I want to do once I have finished this course. Up till this point I've been mostly looking at the things that have been inspiring me, and although I've found some useful things, I'm still in the process of looking. I've been trying to focus on what my personal strengths and strongest skills are, to examine which direction or career this may take me towards. The fact is there are many things that I would love to do.

   My dad showed me a video that has actually helped a lot. Not necessarily directly with the essay, although I would like to reference it, purely because it spoke to me and was of great comfort.

   This video is Tim Minchin addressing the 2013 graduates at the University of Western Australia. I love all the points that he made, however there are two that spoke to me the most. He finishes the speech saying 'Don't rush, you don't need to know what you're going to do with the rest of your life.' This spoke to me very personally because recently I have been panicking about the future, uneasy and unwilling to think about it because it seems so scary. I think getting caught up in these feelings had made me forget that I have a passion and really enjoy Game Art. Relevant to how I feel about this point is another point he made in which he said 'I advocate passionate dedication to the pursuit of short term goals, be micro ambitious, work with pride on whatever is in front of you. You never know where you might end up.'

   I'm trying to follow this advice, and try and feel less anxious about what lies far far ahead. I'm going to instead try and focus on smaller goals, and have written an action plan for the next few months. My first priority is to complete all of my work set for the University deadlines. I have already been working on some of the things in the plan, but here is the plan in full;-

   The first of these is the presentation. For this I shall need to decide the topic and research it, ensuring that it is interesting and has a point. From here I will plan the presentation then practice it.

   The next is the Extended reflective writing essay. For this I shall need to reflect on my progress over the past year, identify my career aspirations and include this action plan. I shall include references and spend time polishing this writing piece.

   The next is the Dichotomy character. For this I shall concept/review the characters features to make him appear more masculine. I will then remodel/topologise the character and improve his textures.
   The Off the Map project is majority underway, at the moment it's mostly making sure that everything is modelled/textured/in engine. Then I'll be writing a Post-Mortem blog, detailing how the project went.
   After this I will make best use of the last few weeks in the labs, and then the Summer by;
-Honing my skills and practicing what I have learnt in University.
-STOPPING being scared of learning new things. I am going to try and learn to sculpt as I have shied away from it for too long. I would also like to make myself more comfortable and familiar with UE4 and will start my own personal projects over the summer to encourage this, which will also be useful in developing work for my portfolio.
-I would like to spend some time developing skills in other areas as well and recapture my passion for Illustration.