Game Art Conference Day - Personal Response and Follow Up.

Yesterday was Game Art Conference Day. A full day in the Library, with the whole year group, focused on improving our blogs. We chose what seminars to attend ourselves. It worked really well!

And some worked better than others. My blog feedback advised me to be more critical, so here goes.

The first one I attended was 'Learning from your peers.' I chose to attend because I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn from the other years and gain some foresight into any hurdles I may run into in the future.

Interacting with the other years is a rare thing and it was very positive to have some face-to-face time. Unfortunately not much learning took place and it rapidly became a discussion along the lines of 'why is there so little intercommunication between the year groups?'

But perhaps this was the purpose of the session. I hope it was a productive discussion for the tutor and it will lead to more interaction with the other years.

As far as actually learning from your peers is concerned, it was argued that we have Facebook. I feel this is, at best, a poor substitute for actual interaction. 

At worst, Facebook can have a devastating impact on a students learning experience, creating a negative feedback loop that impacts focus, moral and confidence. This is mainly due to the algorithm which Facebook uses to organize its news feed which you can learn about in the video below.

The other session I attended was...something Visual Design. I can't remember the name, it was really long.

The session though, was fantastic! We analysed some game and film stills in small groups; encouraging use of descriptive language. We were then advised on how to implement that language in our blogs. The three tutors were awesome throughout!

To round it off, we all wrote a description of a scene, one of which would be illustrated over lunch by our tutor. I was so inspired; I painted my own over lunch as well.

I've got a long way to go and I don't mind at all. This was a lot of fun.

Overall, it was an epic day and a huge thank you to all the tutors that made it happen!