Similar to other terms, I had some classes I enjoyed and others that made me want to yank out my hair (for stupid reasons, really). My cousin once told me that classes actually become easier as the level increases (for example a class titled MA123 would be tougher than a class titled MA259) and in my case, this is definitely true so far (note the SO FAR *knocks on wood*). I haven’t taken any classes higher than a 260 so I probably shouldn’t be talking…but anyway, last term was quite fun, but I’ve never pulled so many consecutive all nighters. Usually when I brag about pulling an all-nighter, I end up sleeping at 3:30 or 4:00 and then get a few hours of sleep before school starts (im not sure if those are even considered real all-nighters). But for last term I was pulling all-nighters around 2 times a week and almost the entire week of finals. All nighters meant working till 4:30 or 5:30 and then heading off to school at six with my eyes half-opened. My dad was afraid that I would get run over by a car while walking from my bus stop, but I am alive and well as you may see.
I might as well write a review for some of them. I took 5 courses per term, but I'll just review the more practical courses. I cannot for the life of me remember the real course titles, so I will refer to them as the way I remember it.
Drawing for animation- This course was such a BIG slap in the face for me. I always thought I was decent…or to be boastful, ‘good’ at drawing until I took this course. It really woke me from my daze and made me realized that I have an extremely long way to go. I had a tough time stepping out of my boundaries because im such a perfectionist. In the beginning I couldn’t loosen up and let go of this inner ego I had… I always felt like I had to prove my technical abilities. I always thought that a good drawing meant a pretty one and that was the only thing I aimed for. For years I couldn’t understand why my work lacked life, why everything I did was so dead and stiff. Through this course I finally learned that a pretty drawing does not equates to a good one. I can easily say that throughout ALL of my years of taking countless art classes, this was the only class that I truly learned something from. It completely changed my entire perspective on drawing. My instructor was an amazing artist and teacher, he was straight to point and honest, no beating around the bush or sharing useless life stories. Everything he shared with us would benefit us in the future and pushed us even further beyond our abilities. Everyone struggled in that class even though there were tons of good artists and the bar was raised especially high. I poured my guts into that last final and realized that hard work really does pay off. Im still nowhere close to being a good drawer, but im sure that class changed me in a way that would continue to help me improve. Just learning from this instructor made me believe that walking out of Ai with a 40,000 debt would be worth it.
3d design- One of the tougher courses I’ve taken through the year. This class required a lot of hands on work and abstract thinking. It made me realize that a good abstract sculpture can take a million years to get right. The work in this class was extremely time consuming and introduced me to a ton of medias and equipments I would normally steer away from or simply would not want to bother with. Stuff like saw and sanding machines, spray paint/primers, soldering irons and melting copper, sanding foam boards. I honestly thought I might have permanently damaged my hands by the end of this course. Especially for our final we had to sculpt and sand a 50lb salt block by hand. I became a caveman for days, hacking, hammering, chiseling, and sanding away like a mad caveman. For a few weeks, my fingers were all bandaged up, swollen or bruised. Not to mention it was also sore for weeks, but I couldn’t let it rest because the deadline was near. That thing was as hard as a rock and at one point I seriously wanted pour hot water over it, watch it melt into a pool of salt water, and turn it in as my 'organic' sculpture. Overall, it’s a tough class because you never know how long you may take on an assignment. Some assignments required around eighteen 3D sketches and I could take 4 hours just trying to get ONE done. It’s a great class for architecture and industrial design majors though.
My final salt block sculpture (process and final). It didn't turn out as organic as I had pictured...Thanks to course my studio is covered with salt and foam.
Drawing for animation- This course was such a BIG slap in the face for me. I always thought I was decent…or to be boastful, ‘good’ at drawing until I took this course. It really woke me from my daze and made me realized that I have an extremely long way to go. I had a tough time stepping out of my boundaries because im such a perfectionist. In the beginning I couldn’t loosen up and let go of this inner ego I had… I always felt like I had to prove my technical abilities. I always thought that a good drawing meant a pretty one and that was the only thing I aimed for. For years I couldn’t understand why my work lacked life, why everything I did was so dead and stiff. Through this course I finally learned that a pretty drawing does not equates to a good one. I can easily say that throughout ALL of my years of taking countless art classes, this was the only class that I truly learned something from. It completely changed my entire perspective on drawing. My instructor was an amazing artist and teacher, he was straight to point and honest, no beating around the bush or sharing useless life stories. Everything he shared with us would benefit us in the future and pushed us even further beyond our abilities. Everyone struggled in that class even though there were tons of good artists and the bar was raised especially high. I poured my guts into that last final and realized that hard work really does pay off. Im still nowhere close to being a good drawer, but im sure that class changed me in a way that would continue to help me improve. Just learning from this instructor made me believe that walking out of Ai with a 40,000 debt would be worth it.
3d design- One of the tougher courses I’ve taken through the year. This class required a lot of hands on work and abstract thinking. It made me realize that a good abstract sculpture can take a million years to get right. The work in this class was extremely time consuming and introduced me to a ton of medias and equipments I would normally steer away from or simply would not want to bother with. Stuff like saw and sanding machines, spray paint/primers, soldering irons and melting copper, sanding foam boards. I honestly thought I might have permanently damaged my hands by the end of this course. Especially for our final we had to sculpt and sand a 50lb salt block by hand. I became a caveman for days, hacking, hammering, chiseling, and sanding away like a mad caveman. For a few weeks, my fingers were all bandaged up, swollen or bruised. Not to mention it was also sore for weeks, but I couldn’t let it rest because the deadline was near. That thing was as hard as a rock and at one point I seriously wanted pour hot water over it, watch it melt into a pool of salt water, and turn it in as my 'organic' sculpture. Overall, it’s a tough class because you never know how long you may take on an assignment. Some assignments required around eighteen 3D sketches and I could take 4 hours just trying to get ONE done. It’s a great class for architecture and industrial design majors though.
My final salt block sculpture (process and final). It didn't turn out as organic as I had pictured...Thanks to course my studio is covered with salt and foam.
Intro to editing- This class was a breeze for me… well… I ended up with a ‘B’ which im extremely regretful about. I didn’t really take this class seriously because the program was so ridiculously easy to use (Final Cut Pro). Learned some interesting and informative stuff about editing, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t learn on my own. I didn't really bother studying and it kicked me in the butt cause that 'B' pulled down my GPA...but I don't have anyone to blame except for my own laziness.
Graphic design- Wasn’t tough because it was a beginners course. It finally gave me an opportunity to learn to how to use Illustrator (YES!) and Indesign. I can say that after this course, I am official a pro at photoshop (well, I would like to believe I am). I thought I could just breeze through this course as well because I’ve been using photoshop for years…but to my horror our instructor made us do homework that requires following every single instruction on a ridiculous photoshop tutorial book. There is a reason why I avoid all kinds of tutorial books on using computer programs. They tend to take you through a series of steps that requires 10 pages of reading when you can really achieve the same result in 10 seconds. Thanks to that wonderfully efficient book, I spent hours making something I could’ve done in 5 minutes if I were to do it my way. Not to mention the final results shown in the book all looked like the work of a rejected self-proclaimed graphic designer.
Anatomy and movement- Learned the basics of human anatomy. I believe I almost failed all of the quizzes because I didn’t bother studying. This class requires A LOT of anatomy drawings, knowing all the muscles and bones of the body. Writing short essays on how the human body moves and with what. Not only memorizing the terms and location, but being able to draw them out as well. Looking back, im not quite sure how I managed to survive this course with my laziness. I’ve forgotten about half of what I previously memorized, but the rest are still fresh in my head. Learning the human anatomy definitely improved my understanding of the human figure. I can draw figures without reference much more accurately than I used to. It’s a must-learn for every artist who wants to draw realistically, especially animators…
3d modeling II- Since the previous course, 3D modeling I, almost made me age ten years, I thought I would go crazy in this one as well. It actually wasn’t as tough as the first course, mainly because I’ve become much more familiar with Maya. There was more freedom in this course because we were able to create something of our choice. On the first day, everyone almost had a heart attack when the instructor showed us what we’re going to turn in for our finals. None of us believed that we could create a façade, an environment, and animate a character within 9 weeks…but guess what, all of us managed to survived and turn in something decent. I believe we were all amazed by what we were capable of doing. Our works weren’t mind-blowing, but it was beyond anything we thought we could do. I can honestly say I poured my sweat and tears into my final, 130+ of work resulted in a 39 second video…and here it is. Character BLOKE belongs to Ai.
I can't say im super proud of it, as you can tell there are a few glitches and I accidentally lit his mouth instead of the light bulbs (everyone got a good laugh out of it). The store wasn't lit correctly because I could not figure out what the heck was wrong. I didn't have a clue as to why his mouth lit up, but the light above his head wouldn't lit *facepalm at my own stupidity*. Didn't have time to ask for help so I ended up turning it in. Oh well, it was only a beginners class so im not too bothered over it.
Trying to set up an official portfolio with my own domain, but I can't figure out how to use the one that our school provides for free...too confusing, maybe ill figure it out later. My HTML skills are rusty as well.
Will do picture blogging on a separate post...
