Well everything in life requires an intro....

Hey there, I'm Dom. Before coming to De Montfort I lived in Cheltenham, and prior to that- Australia, Oman, Colombia and France, to name but a few places. So yes, I have seen a fair amount of the world. Whilst doing Art in Sixth Form, I always wanted to do something graphic or illustrative in the future, but while searching through UCAS and finding Game Art Design, I thought it was too good to be true. My experience as a gamer began when I received my GameBoy + Pokemon Blue for Xmas when I was 7 and since then, I have moved through the ever evolving Nintendo and Sony consoles and games of my favourite genres (and to this day, I still collect the Pokemon games, and I'm not afraid to admit it!).

Outside of gaming and now study, I do enjoy cycling and swimming. Prior to coming to De Montfort, I joined my dad in the Yorkshire National Park to keep him company on the Three Peaks Challenge trek – 25 miles! At home in Cheltenham, we occasionally do stretches of the Cotswold Way, so I’d add hill walking to the list as well.

After looking into the course itself, I was fully aware that it wasn't just about gaming, there's always a catch! Following some consideration I took a year out to do Art Foundation which proved very beneficial for me since I tried out things I wouldn't have normally done and the life drawing was very useful as it was the essence of GAD and in several cases it made my work easier to compose. However, as much as I spend most of my spare time in front of a computer, I never really used software to edit or enhance my work. The reasons for this were twofold; I never really understood most of it, and I wanted to keep my work authentic. These are the main reasons why I expressed interest in the course. Ideally I want to improve my 3D software skills so that they match my skill level in life drawing by the end of year one, so for the remainder of the course my confidence will have been boosted. There are times when my creativity is challenged, when I lack that 'spark', so when tasks I receive involve such things I hope to be able to produce ideas sooner. I also want to improve my writing skills and look forward to interesting tasks and challenges linked to GAD which will test me.

In terms of possibilities beyond GAD I have yet to decide which path I might follow. Having only been introduced to the world of game design, I am enjoying all of the aspects of it. From what I have read in game art related job applications, it feels like a self assessment, asking you to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses and so forth. My impressions of the course from a first years point of view is that I shouldn't choose to specialise in 2D or 3D just yet, but to try everything out in balance and leave such choices for the second year. After my first week, I feel that I've understood the basics of 3ds Max, yet there is much more I want to learn from it so in future I don't get stuck once too often. I have always been used to drawing from pictures in the past and yet from drawing from life has proven far more beneficial.

So yeah, having been bombarded with information and other people’s views, I'd got the idea- this course will be as fun as it is demanding. So bring it on!