I want it all...

As the second year begins more "pressure" and thoughts about what will come for the future start popping in many heads.

When we were asked what skills beyond this course we would like to develop or learn loads of things get to my mind: 

• 2d Concept art: Get more techniques and opportunities to try a more artistic conceptualisation and speed painting. Colour theory, anatomy and other softwares that could help me develop more this skill. I still feel the need to change styles and learn to be more flexible in my styles. 

• 3d Modelling: As much as I admire and get more and more attached to Maya, I'd love to learn a more artistic way of modelling. Over the summer I did my best at trying using Zbrush; many tutorials and tips from other artist helped me to get started and understand the basic ideology behind the software, but I still find it a bit difficult to work with. I just installed Mudbox which should have much more compatibility with Maya yet I haven't had the time to get into bigger walkthroughs as I did with Pixologic's software. 

• Rendering or Game engines: I've seen other shows reels of processionals that develop amazing stuff in open sources such as UDK. Unity3D is perfect for me as I know very little about programming, so I wouldn't dare at this stage to get to a software that could be less user friendly, but I'd love to be able to experience a more powerful game engine. I've also heard so much about CryEngine and other AAA game engines that makes me curious to try them. 

• Photorealistic Rendering: As much as I love a cartoonish/ stylised way of animation, I can help to admire amazing cinematics and games that have high quality CG. I know it all depends on the team work, ability and budget of companies, but I'd love to learn to make textures of high standards, bake shadows, creation of normals, etc.

There are many other things I'd love to get my head around like the modelling and animation of hair and cloth, more controlled 3D particles (water, controlled light, etc) and also I'd like to know how to be more social in the media, but now that I'm reading all this is just clear that I feel like I want to do everything and know it all. Understanding this still makes me want to try a bit of all this, probably with the purpose of understanding more of things and at the same time to manage to narrow down the path that I want to follow and therefore train more in a more specific area.

Social Networks

I have to say... I'm not a very social human being...
Before coming to this country I completely refused to get a Facebook account and only had a MSN one which I rarely used. Networks like Twitter and My space seem to me like networks full of gossip and random stuff that would only help me lose my time.

After coming here, I had no option rather than get used to use Facebook and Skype to keep in touch with friends and family, but never took it too serious.
Starting this course, I felt oblige to open a twitter account but decided to limit it to only follow people in my field of interests.
After thinking about the industry itself and how to start getting immerse in it, I started using more frequently other media that allowed me to start making connections that eventually turned into a social turning point in my life.
Deviantart, CGHub, Pixiv, Tumblr, Twitter, Linkedin, Flickr and Blogger itself became my daily way to connect with loads of people, some of them in a working way, some others who I share interest, but all of them, in their own way, have keep me informed and awake to what's around me, helping me in this way, to keep going forward.

I realised that being in a Digital media environment requires spaces to share, publish and discuss with people related to it, and also to create links with other disciplines that will allow to expand my future projects.
As part of the rule of thirds to be successful in any industry, the social aspects complements and important part of it, complementing the showcase and professional.
Some of the steps I'm currently taking to improve my social aspects are:

• Be social
• Visit other blogs and comment
• Respond to comments
• Be generous
• Subscribe 
• Share
• Know what I have posted about myself
• Assume EVERYTHING is permanent
• Be a conduit
• Be original
• Create a news feed
• Credit my sources
• Use keywords (tags and labels)
• Interview somebody
• Post frequently
• Do not copy and paste
• Stick with it!!!

I am...a mom...

4th Oct 2011

We had our first lecture shared with other courses of the module Personal & professional practice (or PPP).
Being honest, I thought it was going to be a little bit boring and somehow pointless, but it turned out to be more or less more in a personal way.
It focused in how to describe myself in the professional environment, which is something I'm not very good at (in any language), so in someway I hope to make the most of this lecture not only for my professional development but also for my personal one.

For the first exercise we had to choose in between two columns of attitudes and reactions (or at least that would describe us the best) and at the end we ended up with four letters.
I ended up with ISFJ (Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging)
I got a Nurturer, the same result as Siobhan the way she could better explain/describe in one word our result was: "your basically a mom"...
According to the result I have a high sense of duty, I'm loyal, quiet, friendly and responsible. (all very true :D... but still, I'm not a mom )

The second exercise consisted in just giving some aspects of your life some value and put them in a graph... not very impressed with the outcome, but I believe the important parts that make me keep going on are in the right place :)

The last one was about going online (to the BBC website) and filling this 'child of our time' test.
My result ended up being:

• -Openness 4.1/5 (high) [imaginative & curious, exploring new places, cultures and foods, sometimes daydreamer]
• -Conscientiousness 3.6/5 (medium) [good work life, non a workaholic]
• -Extroversion 2.8/5 (low) [ suited to intellectual or studious pursuits]
• -Agreeableness 2.6/5 (low) [less likely to be interested in what others are feeling (not true!)]
• -Neuroticism 4.4/5 (high) [often feel tense or anxious, powerful work ethic, will to succeed]

in other aspects:
-Life satisfaction: 6/7
-Relationships: 3.2/7
-Job satisfaction: 3.8/7
-Health: 60/100
-Life Goals: economic

Somehow I see how many things seem to be reflected by the fact that I have to work a lot to achieve the same goals that many others get without any effort. Also, being away from home and not having many people I could rely on (emotionally) tends to be a little bit lonely, but I'm sure that it will change eventually and that at the end I'll be able to appreciate my achievements in a more deep way. (also, my life goals has nothing to do with money, other wise I would have just stayed doing architecture lol )

The module itself seems to be something I need to develop myself as a future professional, understand more the way I am and more important, to be able to express it correctly and make good use of my qualities when it comes to be part of a working team.