Wow it’s been long since I saw Wordpress’ dashboard. Holy shit.

As some of you may know, 2 months ago I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime (For a nerd):

I enrolled in a Videogame design and development school, which will keep me busy for 17 months and in the end will supply me with not only a full Master’s Degree in Videogame Art creation, but will also will prepare me with enough experience to rival the technical knowledge of many industry professionals.

But of course, all that comes with a steep price. Aside from the MASSIVE tuition, this is one of the fastest and TOUGHEST courses out there, and it is meant to be so for 2 reasons:

1. To weed out the useless little shits who think that making games is as fun as playing them (hint: It’s NOT. It’s a tedious, laborious, merciless, volatile industry that requires a lot of sacrifice and offers very little job security).
2. To make sure our knowledge keeps up-to-date as we graduate. Since this is such a technical, technology-dependent profession, spending 4 years in a program guarantees that hardware and software will experience drastic changes and upgrades during that time, so whatever we learn during the course can become outdated. So we go straight to the point, except that we do the same amount of work or even more than a full-fledged bachelor’s or master’s, in just a fraction of the time.

Right now I’m in my 10 day break between class modules (those last 8 weeks), and let me tell ya, if this is only the beginning I am gonna have to constantly walk around with an extra large bottle of KY, because we are gonna get FUCKED. HARD.

But hey, I’m not scared. Not only can I handle the workload -as proven by the many all-nighters pulled last week to deal with final projects and tests- but I sacrificed way too much for this to just flake out and drop everything. Unlike when I was in “La iUpi”, I actually love what I’m doing right now, so much in fact that even during my break I’m planning to do some work related to our next project.

Speaking of which, next term we’re supposed to build a 2D game using Torque X. The bad news is, Torque is a buggy, clunky little bitch (according to all Level Designers and Programmers). Being an artist I haven’t touched it yet, but I’ll have to face the beast in a couple of weeks so everything’s possible.

So, now that the first term has passed, how’d it go?

Fucking AWESOME. 2 A’s and 2 B’s to be exact. I could have done better, especially when certain professors should get off their fucking high horse and start using competent, rational ways to grade and evaluate their students (I’m not naming anyone since this is the Internet and everyone finds out about everything eventually), but I guess I’m asking for too much as it is.

Some awesome projects from this term:  Had to write a paper, but not just any paper. I had to dissect the allure of Street Fighter II in 500 words or less. What other school let’s you research and write stuff about Street Fighter II to your heart’s content? I love this place.

Fun Fact: Combos in Street Fighter II were actually a bug, not a feature

I also got to improve my art skills in ways that I’ve never imagined. One of our projects consisted of doing a portrait from any person, it could be a celebrity, friend, relative or yourself. I chose Gerard Butler, since originally I wanted to draw him in his “300″ drag, but hi-res pictures of him in costume were nonexistent. So I picked a hi-res image of the actor as he normally looks like and went to town.

You can track the progress of my portrait in ConcepArt.org, we were instructed to post our progress there from time to time.  Take a look:

Kaiser’s ConceptArt.org Sketchbook

I’ve done several other stuff, like art for our upcomming 2D game and some simple 3D models, but I’ll upload those later on. I even got to animate a catapult destroying an old castle in a foggy hill. How awesome is that?! In this place, they have pushed me like I’ve never been pushed before in my life. And this is just the first module. From here on it’s all uphill, no rest except for the breaks between class modules, and I’m fucking thrilled. This is the first time that I’m really looking forward by being  used and abused by classes. It’s a weird feeling, but unlike the other academic decisions I’ve taken in my life (Computer Science? Puta please), I really feel like this is what I was supposed to do from the start and I actually have the skills to do this and excel at it.

As for fucked up things that have happened here, well, I have a tale of drunken shenannigans that I have GOT to share with you guys (yes, all 2 of you).

Honestly I don’t know if I’ll be able to update my blog more than every 8 weeks until I graduate, but I’ll try to sneak in at lease a little “Hey I’m still alive!” every now and again.

I just keep wondering. If I do become an “industry professional”, am I gonna have to take down this beloved pit of festering contempt, bitchiness and unbridled faggotry?

I sure fucking hope not.

Posted in Big 'Ol Texas, Geek Stuff |

4 comments to “So Kaiser, what you been up to?”

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