I was very skeptical of this class for a couple weeks, but I soon realized the effort that professors were putting into the seminar to make it worth our time and to aid us in our upcoming years of study. The guests made me feel more secure and less worried for my future career, that things I want to do are possible and it will be okay. I was happy to see the work that came out of past students that attended this school. They were talented, and probably expanded on their abilities while they went here.
I look forward to my time here at St. Edward’s. Thank you for all your hard work to make this class work and manage such a large body of students. I appreciate everything all of you have done to schedule people to talk to us. I hope that it won’t be the last time I see you all, and I hope to make you proud in what projects I do achieve here and where I end up going.

PART 1: Faculty Presentation Responses

Hollis Hammond: I thought the work was very original and creative. It all followed this really intriguing theme of clutter that isn’t necessarily trash, and a kind of order in disorder. I loved that every piece contributed to that main theme. The idea itself seemed a little odd, but there seems to be beauty in chaos and it was all captured and illustrated somehow.

Alexandra Robinson: My personal favorite was the piece that had a beach and sand on one side, and on the other was cold and an oncoming storm. I feel like the installation pieces followed a theme since they used the same kind of materials (plastic, flowy bags) but I didn’t quite understand what it was. The drawings were also similarly bare, capturing very simplistic ideas and portraying them in a very minimalistic manner. I didn’t quite understand any piece without initial explanation of its inspiration, like the painting based on the chart of the house market that was tragically beautiful.

Tammie Rubin: I love 3D pieces that are textured, but she made sure that every texture varied and was important in its own way. Textures that were pleasant and enticing with colors, delicately made ceramics, it was almost like experiencing the pieces with more than just one sense. It made me wonder what it would taste like, feel like, etc. I’d feel weird but she said that was what she wanted viewers to feel. Her last piece was one I remembered the most. She made multiple cone-like shapes with eyeholes and decorated them. On their own, each was unique and even cute, but all together they resembled the faceless hateful masses of the KKK, or something ominous and foreboding that made me uncomfortable.

Bill Kennedy: I really wonder how he managed to manipulate each photo like that. He did say that there’s no way he can replicate what he’s done on each photo, but it’d be nice if he recorded himself doing so. It was all an interesting approach to photography. Each piece captured the feeling of what it was taken of, rather than capturing how exactly it looked visually. The titles were what helped the most.

Joe Vitone: I felt a lot of emotion in his photographs, as if they were part of history and how honest they depicted a slice of life in the country. I wish he spoke more about them.. his demeanor seemed cynical and a little harsh, his descriptions of each photo were very shallow. I felt like I wanted more words to describe the photos, but I feel like I experience more from them than he ever felt when he captured them.

A Five Year Plan (i guess)

First thing’s first, I want to graduate from here. I want to be fluent in French and at least three different programming languages. I plan to have a few internships so that my name would be better known and easier to get hired into a video game company. At least one or two years would be trying to get myself into Bioware Austin as a QA Tester or literally anything that my capabilities can cover efficiently. From there, I’ll be able to start saving up money.
Just for the plan’s sake, I’ll probably be trying to get into the company as a QA tester to begin with. Being trustworthy, reliable, and with useful feedback I hope to work my way up until I get to positions I’d actually want.. right now I’m not quite sure what that is yet. But I know I want to work at Bioware.
Another thing is I’d like to be working on my own personal project, using everything I’ve learned in university to apply to my own video game. It probably won’t be taken up by a company, but that’s okay with me. I need to be working on something personal while working for a company. Maybe it’s about self expression, but if the work I provide for the company isn’t enough for me to express my creativity, I’ll probably have something else at home.
I hope to be transferred to their main location in Edmonton. And, after a few years of working my way up and providing quality results, I want to be an important part of future video game projects. Maybe like a director, but someone in charge of approving and calling something in that my opinion is valued and respected and contributes.
But then again, it’s still a question of whether or not it’s all possible in five years. This is as close to a plan as I can manage, but, it is something.

Part 1: SpaceTime Studios is a small company of game devs that mostly focus on the mobile gaming industry. They were pleasant and didn’t spare any detail for when they first entered the industry to where they are now in it.
I thought everything they shared was very helpful, especially monitoring what goes on in managing an MMO (as far as cheaters and hackers go). It was somewhat intimidating however when they decided to share the excel sheets that determine nearly everything RNG (which is pretty much the backbone of an MMO’s code) as well as what do NPCs do when a player is near.
I talked with them after class and they were very kind and patient with my questions that I had trouble wording. They were much kinder and approachable than that person that came from IBM’s design team. I hope we see more game developers like them, or be like them.

Part 2:
(this one is for Hollis) Why do you mostly choose imagery of some kind of destruction or disorder to illustrate? Is it because of the small attention to detail? The process of drawing making it?

(for anyone) What is the one piece of work that you are personally the most proud of?

Part 1: I thought it was very interesting to have a person like Matt Lankes speak to us. He didn’t sugarcoat any part of his job which I appreciated, especially when he showed us a bunch of familiar famous faces but didn’t try to hide the fact they could’ve been the absolute worst to work with. Although he got many nice shots during filming sessions, he also mentioned the bunch of time spent waiting around for something to happen.
It provided a lot of insight for what people go through in that field, and also that he chose to not want to move to New York or some giant city to earn even more money; he lives comfortably and happily and seems to be comfortable enough to pass up some photo shooting opportunities like weddings, etc.

Part 2:

More than anything, I want to work for Bioware. However I wasn’t able to find Bioware specific internships and instead found internships for the company it is a part of: EA.
https://career4.successfactors.com/career?company=EA&career_ns=job_listing_summary&customFilter_filter1=[16177]
It seems they only have one opening this summer for a software engineer..
But, perhaps reaching a little further, here’s what the job opening page on Bioware’s site looks like.

Careers

Blizzard is another company that I highly respect. They don’t show exactly what they have for positions of internship, and it seems like the page hasn’t been updated (since it says apply for Summer of 2016), but they are my second choice.
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/university-relations/internships.html

Arkane Studio is another company I found that is located in Austin. I’m trying to stick with companies that have locations here, for a more realistic and obtainable internship.
https://jobs.zenimax.com/locations/view/3
However it seems they’re missing internships and go straight into job searching…

Here we go! Another internship opportunity clearly for this summer of 2017, but it is less specific to a game dev company. Instead, Unity focuses purely on the software development. Not quite what I would be going for but getting an internship with them would be enough to prove my fluency in necessary programming languages.
https://boards.greenhouse.io/unity3d/jobs/455028

What I’ve noticed about these big names in Austin is that they always have very few locations; austin being one of them and then all of a sudden their main location far away. Bioware’s location has their foot in austin, then their main location is in edmonton, canada. Blizzard is in austin, but also in irvine, california.
For whatever reason these companies chose Austin as the one place to have and invest a location in. I might not understand why but I’ll do my best to take advantage of that.

How planned is your future / how is it customized to you?
I think my future is somewhat well-planned, or as planned as I can get at this point in my education. I’ve set up my classes up to my graduation in fall of 2018, and I know I’m not going to start looking for internships until next spring/summer. The classes I am taking in the next semester will give me experience in coding and game design that will be helpful in my search for internships, which is why I was recommended to try to not jump on it yet.
All in all the internship is to get me established and favored at a game company I want to work for, be outstanding in my internship and hopefully be hired by them. I would be most hopeful to get an internship at Bioware Austin, then be transferred to their Edmonton location in Canada.
But this is all I have that looks like a plan right now.

If you could travel abroad where would you go and why?
If I could, meaning if I had any extra time or money, I’d love to study abroad in France or Italy for the sake of art history. I am extremely passionate about art history, although it may not be entirely related to my major now. But it would mean a lot to me to see the fantastic architecture and paintings I read about for years before.
However I still don’t see studying abroad as an attainable or sensible goal in these semesters I have at St. Edward’s. I’m aware that is what the school is prideful about and pushes for, but I just don’t have the money or time, when that time can be spent into projects right now or developing my skills further for some valuable skill. Going abroad seems to be possible only when I achieve a stable job.

Are you part of a student group? what kinds of extra-curricular activities would you like to see?
I am not part of a student group. I live very far off campus and commute every day which is why i’m somewhat hesitant to join one and commit.. but I would love to see activities such as rollerblading around campus. For activities relevant to my major, I’d hope for get-togethers for discussion.
I’m not terribly fond of the idea of a game club, as predictable as that’d be for my major. The thing is, the video game industry has many audiences it appeals to, but the majority of it can be these kids fresh out of high school whose insensitivity to existing misogyny and serious notes IN the market we’re going in to are not taken seriously.
I love games, that’s why I want to make them. I do not, however, have time to babysit.

Abbas Deidehan: An Art Director and Designer from Texas that is now working with bigger companies and agencies in large cities such as Los Angeles and New York. I’d probably have more to say if the skype call was successful.

Camille Dollins: Designer and Artist living in Austin currently, also identifies as an entrepreneur. Luckily she had plenty to show us in what she had designed, and what designs had brought attention to her to lead to jobs.

Who did you most relate to? and why?
I probably related to Camille the most because of how seriously she took her end project for Visual Studies. She poured her heart into it and even went extra miles just to learn how to make the other things in the box. That sounds like something I would do: completely go above and beyond what is expected to produce a product that is extremely professional quality, despite not being an expert in all aspects it took to create it.

Who surprised you? and why?
Abbas surprised me because of how often he left home to go work in the big cities. Big cities is where competition is high especially for graphic designers, but he forced himself in and based on his website, has been doing very well. I’m a little too scared to put myself into such large cities; a new city, sure, but New York and/or Los Angeles? I’m okay.

What was the most valuable piece of advice you heard today? 
Probably what Camille said about trying to be hired by a company or agency that isn’t at your feet. If they’re asking for you directly, then they’re probably desperate. Be careful who you work for. It made me think about how often people in this profession are taken advantage of and not given the proper credit.

For each class ask yourself the following:

1. My greatest strengths in SCIE-2320-07 include: My ability to communicate with my group partners to complete a project in due time.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Not cram last minute for quizzes.

1. My greatest strengths in IGST-2325 Audio include: The determination to have the best end-product cinematic and self-teach myself the program.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Practice more with the actual program and not procrastinate.

1. My greatest strengths in IGST-2399 include: Asking questions in class for best understanding, note-taking.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: READ THE BOOK

1. My greatest strengths in French-1311 include: My prior knowledge and want to learn and understand this language.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Do more practice in the homework and do exercises that are not graded.

1. My greatest strengths in VISU-1100 include: Paying attention, asking questions or input in a class that doesn’t really seem very interactive.
2. For greater success in this course, I need to: Probably stop doing my blog posts an hour before class.

Computer skills:

1. My computer skills include: Understanding of Photoshop, Illustrator, Word, Excel, C++.
2. I still need to learn: Javascript, Audition, FLStudio, Blender.

Research & writing skills:

1. My greatest strengths as a researcher/writer include: I type fast and make notes I understand, but I can still provide reports that are readable and easy to understand by the person reviewing it.
2. I need to work on these aspects of research and writing: Do it little by little overtime, instead of all at once and dealing with 15 tabs open.
3. I learn best & accomplish most when: I am truly interested in the subject, or the subject has something to do with creativity.

ACTION PLAN

Choose one class that you are struggling with or are not doing as well as you could.
Now make a list of 10 ways you could improve your performance in this class.

IGST -2399, Intro to Video Games
1. Read the book.
2. Do not try to read all chapters of the book the night before quizzes.
3. Do not try to watch a whole documentary the night before quizzes.
4. Finish the rest of the participation in discussions, they’re graded.
5. Try to finish discussion posts or necessary videos/articles asap.
6. Ask more questions for clarification.
7. Go back and organize notes.
8. Read through notes while organizing to make sure they make sense.
9. Read the book.
10. Ask a question relevant to the topic being discussed that day, but would still further my own curiosity thus making it more engaging.

Photoshop, 2015

Photoshop, 2015

1. What was the goal of the assignment? Or what was the question posed by this assignment? The goal of this assignment was to design a movie poster implementing foreshadowing and a couple more terms about focus of a piece.
2. How did you go about reaching this goal or answering this question? I foreshadowed a bit literally using the wolf’s shadow to depict the gruesome creature it actually is and turns in to for the remainder of the film.

Part 2: Self-Critique (I’m going to go ahead and critique the above image, my first work in Photoshop.)

1. What is the strongest aspect of this work? I think I did a good job at stylized drawing within the shadow. The creature itself morphs and the lines used mimic a kind of free-form as it flows between the different monster forms.
2. What is the weakest aspect? The shape of the shadow itself is crude. Although it is just a design, the space implemented could be more interesting and take up the page in a different way.
3. How can the project be strengthened conceptually? Conceptually, I could redraw the free-forms in the shadow to be more indistinguishable between the different monster forms. The lines could then illustrate the monstrosity appearing at the end of the film. All in all, re-illustrate the mess of lines into something more of an abomination.
4. How can the project be strengthened technically? Technically, I can change the actual plane the shadow takes up so it mimics spreading out over a surface, instead of just taking up 2/3rds of the page flatly. Then I could adjust the drawings inside the shadow according to distance, meaning lines closer are thicker and further apart, lines further are finer etc.
5. Additional notes. As my first Photoshop design piece the design implemented succeeded in foreshadow of the plot, but drawing the viewer’s eye could be done better just by adjusting the point of view and having the shadow mimic spreading over a real surface instead of being flat.

Student Presenter 1: She is a photography major who had a bit of trouble articulating, but that was mostly because she was just nervous. Her photos are extraordinary, especially of national forests when the seasons are just changing. I felt some of us saw more beauty in it than she did with how fast she was going through her slides.

Student Presenter 2: She is a graphic design major. Her projects looked very well and finished, especially the snowflake one. It looked like something in a target or wal-mart catalog.However I feel somewhat underwhelmed by her work. I feel like she has so much better things to offer, but we only saw what she had recently done.

Student Presenter 3: Art major? I thought her work was very interesting, and her warning about balancing a double major was helpful. But once again I wish there was more to show.

Student Presenter 4 (and 5?): Interactive Game Studies majors. The both of them are in my major and I was expecting something a little more organized. Since it is my major too I have a lot of questions to follow up about the upcoming years. If anything, I’m a bit nervous for the future, more so than I was before.

——-

Neat Website Designs

http://www.disney.com/
Disney always has very neat and proper website layouts, probably because they want to make it somewhat accessible for kids as well. Backgrounds are solid and topics are easy to read.

http://www.whitelotusaromatics.com/
For some reason, this website looks as good as it probably smells. It draws from a very simple but effective color palette, and the text is pleasant. Once again usage of good layout, with all the social media at the bottom for people that are looking for more content.

http://www.starbucks.com/
Pleasant to look at because of the color palette, while also having an urban vibe. The organization of the tabs makes looking for a specific drink pretty easy. That’s probably the only reason why you’d go to their website, right?

http://cloudsovercuba.com/
Unlike the other sites, this one focuses completely on a documentary and transforms the website into an interactive and informative movie-like page that walks you through the points the documentary makes. You are able to access the timeline and explore for yourself the events it records, all at your own pace.

Annaluigia Boeretto is an artist born and raised in Italy. She is known for making works of resin that replicate the effects of splashing water. There is a moment when rain hits a puddle or something falls into a pool, but she fully captures the moments the walls rise up and create this clear, oddly formed but beautiful piece.

Here is one piece I got from her own website. http://www.annalu.it/
Things may be hard to read since 75% of it is in Italian. She doesn’t provide any kind of meaning or drive behind her works, just a peculiar name and that is it. This specific one is called The Sound of Silence. By only giving a title, I think she lets the interpretation be up the viewer. The piece is somewhat small, it’s dimensions being 30cm x 40cm x 15cm (all less than 12 inches).

There are a few things she’s created that she didn’t include on her own website, but on her instagram. Her instagram has some that are more peculiar-looking, in that they no longer look like water but some kind of biological substance, such as tissue. She still does not describe them much or what inspired her to create them. Before learning the title, she lets viewers look upon her pieces and take from them what they thing it is. As I’ve said before this looks more like living tissue we’d see from ourselves or plants.

Here is her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annaluboeretto/
The name of it is Hagakure, which is Japanese. A rough translation is “hidden by the leaves” or “hidden leaves”. Now that I have the title, I can see aspects of a tree in the piece (the roots, instead of being nerve endings). I think its similarity to both those kinds of living organisms goes to show that the beauty of this make up lives in us as well as the world.