My name is Sophie Brown. I'm a current Game Art student at De Montfort University in Leicester. I'll be using this blog to show how I'm progressing on the course and developing as an artist.
I come from the North West of England in an area called Lancashire.Though for around 5 years of my childhood I lived in Italy, in a medieval walled city called Lucca.
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This was due to my dads work but now I feel very grateful for the opportunity of living in another country, learning its culture and language and still having close friends over there that I am able to visit, as its something a lot of people don't get to experience
I never really considered a job in video games until my teens. I've always loved animals and when I was younger wanted to be a Vet, mainly because of the Tv series Animal Hospital, but that dream was sadly cut when I discovered how dificult, gory, sad and how clever you truly need to be to become one. In the words of my biology teacher "doctors are just failed vets".
I started secondary school, it was well known for being quite a delinquent school but the 5 years I spent there were some of the best. I gained an even greater passion for art, my Italian came in very handy when learning Spanish as they are almost the exact same thing and eventually the Spanish overwriting the Italian. Things changed for me there. I was in an environment were I learned so much and due to that I left with 3 A*, 3 A, 4 B and 2 C at GCSE and was able to go to one of the best sixth forms in the country to do my A levels. My ideas for potential jobs changed by the day but I eventually stumbled across Krome Studios website and discovered the Jobs section. Reading through "concept artist", "Lead Animators" and "Environment Artists" and the specifications that they asked for, I then researched into university courses and the subjects I needed to take if I wanted to progress into that field.I was never very good at English but because universities often specifically asked for a B at GCSE I re-sat my English to ensure I wouldn't be hindered even by that.
My GCSE Art exhibition
At A level I took Art and Design and Computing as at that point I wasn't sure exactly what field to go down between Game art and Animation. And I also took Biology and Spanish which are quite odd subjects from each other. But like I said I love animals so Biology was a given and my Spanish was high level due to my Italian. I dropped Computing at As as I only got a D and personally found coding to be quite difficult and with the large amount of coursework it requires in the second year along with Art and Design coursework I don't think I could have managed them both.
My As Art Exhibiton
I then applied for De Montfort university. Though the facilities in comparison to other universities I applied for where slightly lacking the work the students produced was to a much higher standard. I felt so lucky to be offered a place after my interview and worked my butt off to ensure that I achieved the 260 Ucas points which was a B and 2 Cs. Which I managed to do with a B in my Art and Cs in my Spanish and Biology which I'm very proud of as they are such difficult subjects. I'm the first in my family to go to university.
My A Level Art exhibition
Now at university I can strive to follow my goal of becoming a Character Designer. Its a difficult field to get into but I've been really influenced by Tetsuya Nomura the main character artist working for Square Enix. He started off as a basic illustrator, then monster artist, then character designer and now a game director. Even if it takes countless small jobs one day I would like to climb the ladder like he did and make a name for myself. An example of the skills that a character artist for working for Eidos (who is now run by square enix) needs are:
Experience in character modeling with 3D programs and 2D art applications;
Excellent knowledge of the human anatomy, physiological reactions, body language and proportions in character conception;
Knowledge of animation principles;
Experience in hard surface modeling an asset.
Ability to adapt own art to our style and unique vision;
Good sense of responsibilities;
Excellent oral and written communication skills;
Be focused on achieving superior results;
Ability to work as part of a team;
Ability to think analytically and synthetically.
To develop for the future i think the areas I'm going to need to concentrate on the most are character modelling, more work on human anatomy, learning animation and hard surface modelling. Some of the other skills I feel confident in such as working in a team, being focused and in my oral and written communication but I will continue to improve them over the next few years too.
I come from the North West of England in an area called Lancashire.Though for around 5 years of my childhood I lived in Italy, in a medieval walled city called Lucca.
To this ------->
I started secondary school, it was well known for being quite a delinquent school but the 5 years I spent there were some of the best. I gained an even greater passion for art, my Italian came in very handy when learning Spanish as they are almost the exact same thing and eventually the Spanish overwriting the Italian. Things changed for me there. I was in an environment were I learned so much and due to that I left with 3 A*, 3 A, 4 B and 2 C at GCSE and was able to go to one of the best sixth forms in the country to do my A levels. My ideas for potential jobs changed by the day but I eventually stumbled across Krome Studios website and discovered the Jobs section. Reading through "concept artist", "Lead Animators" and "Environment Artists" and the specifications that they asked for, I then researched into university courses and the subjects I needed to take if I wanted to progress into that field.I was never very good at English but because universities often specifically asked for a B at GCSE I re-sat my English to ensure I wouldn't be hindered even by that.
At A level I took Art and Design and Computing as at that point I wasn't sure exactly what field to go down between Game art and Animation. And I also took Biology and Spanish which are quite odd subjects from each other. But like I said I love animals so Biology was a given and my Spanish was high level due to my Italian. I dropped Computing at As as I only got a D and personally found coding to be quite difficult and with the large amount of coursework it requires in the second year along with Art and Design coursework I don't think I could have managed them both.
I then applied for De Montfort university. Though the facilities in comparison to other universities I applied for where slightly lacking the work the students produced was to a much higher standard. I felt so lucky to be offered a place after my interview and worked my butt off to ensure that I achieved the 260 Ucas points which was a B and 2 Cs. Which I managed to do with a B in my Art and Cs in my Spanish and Biology which I'm very proud of as they are such difficult subjects. I'm the first in my family to go to university.
Now at university I can strive to follow my goal of becoming a Character Designer. Its a difficult field to get into but I've been really influenced by Tetsuya Nomura the main character artist working for Square Enix. He started off as a basic illustrator, then monster artist, then character designer and now a game director. Even if it takes countless small jobs one day I would like to climb the ladder like he did and make a name for myself. An example of the skills that a character artist for working for Eidos (who is now run by square enix) needs are:
Experience in character modeling with 3D programs and 2D art applications;
Excellent knowledge of the human anatomy, physiological reactions, body language and proportions in character conception;
Knowledge of animation principles;
Experience in hard surface modeling an asset.
Ability to adapt own art to our style and unique vision;
Good sense of responsibilities;
Excellent oral and written communication skills;
Be focused on achieving superior results;
Ability to work as part of a team;
Ability to think analytically and synthetically.
To develop for the future i think the areas I'm going to need to concentrate on the most are character modelling, more work on human anatomy, learning animation and hard surface modelling. Some of the other skills I feel confident in such as working in a team, being focused and in my oral and written communication but I will continue to improve them over the next few years too.
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