Getting into 3D is something I've been looking forward to for a long time and I think I've done reasonably well with it. Last year I taught myself enough 3D to do a small project, and looking at the difference between this year's and last year's results I'm really proud of how far I've come in this area. The quality of my models is much higher as well as more efficient, and I feel I have a much better understanding of the 3D process than I did at the beginning of this unit. Even looking at my work from the initial weeks, I can see how much higher my skill level is, although I'm aware that I still have a long way to go before I can produce something AAA-standard.
2D is still something I want to focus on, but having seen what 3D can do and finding that I actually enjoy it, I think that whichever I choose to specialise in, I'll be keeping up the other in my own time. Having a better understanding of Zbrush is something that I think will be really useful in the long run even outside of 3D, for concepts, paintovers, etc. Maya also, as it's really quick to set up perfect perspective with a Maya scene to work from or over later.
As far as my overall thoughts, one of the things I've noticed a change in between this unit and BA1a is my time management skills. In the last unit I often found myself working up to the deadline and some of the work looks very unfinished, and I realised that this hadn't happened this term, or at least to nowhere near the same extent. In addition, I've found myself a lot more inclined to do additional work, I think because I've stopped segregating my projects into "personal/fun" and "school/forced" internally, and now view most of my projects as just "work," and I find it all rewarding. I still have 'personal' and 'work' projects, but I don't really approach them very differently. I've started doing a lot more work for the sake of improvement, like timed studies and practise pieces, instead of trying to make everything a finished, perfect piece.
Looking at my final pieces I can see areas where things could be more polished, like areas which could use more geometry to support my high-poly detail, or places where photo textures might have been useful, as well as at least a few other things to improve on in the future. This unit has shown me how to build on past projects to improve in the next, however, so I'm confident that if I can keep going with this I can get to a good standard. That said, I still want to try to learn new areas, like the rigging and animating that I started a little earlier in the unit, to widen my skill set further, and so that I can draw on that understanding even if I don't use it. I've found things like knowing how to build a 3D model are really useful when drawing 2D concepts, because I can consider how it would have to be built, what design elements are practical, and how much work building it would entail. Things like this are, I think, really important when trying to find a job in the industry, because it makes you a better part of the pipeline when you have a knowledge of how the other sections function and can be considerate of that.
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