Dale-Walters In reply to LyneaFlynn [2014-09-13 02:42:54 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much thats very kind of you

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Dale-Walters In reply to XavierWard [2013-12-14 22:41:12 +0000 UTC]

thank you, also dude i saw your journal and just so you know im doing a games concept design course in stafford uni. i was like you and thought about going to FZD at one point. i know you've opted out of that decision. but in case you still wanted to get a degree in it its a nice place to go. not very high on party side of things but the content they teach is exactly where it should be. plenty of life drawing and instructors that know what they are doing. might be worth checking it out at least.

Either way i look forward to seeing some more of your work man good luck

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XavierWard In reply to Dale-Walters [2013-12-15 00:11:17 +0000 UTC]

hey! no worries, i had a look at staffs before but I wasnt sure how much 3d was involved- i wanted to avoid anything with 'game' in the title as they are often 3d centred and game engine centred.

i had another look at the syllabus and some of it seems perfect, but other bits looked a bit too far into 3d for my liking.

i think i may still apply there just in case, and have a look around some time. its getting late i just realised, but its between that or a foundation art course at LCC and then Gnomon.

how much 3d is there?

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Dale-Walters In reply to XavierWard [2013-12-15 00:58:56 +0000 UTC]

theres a module for it in first year which you have to take but its very simple that is just meant to give you a basic understanding to see if you'd like to train for it in second year.

You learn all the fundamentals here and you touch base with 3d sculpting software z brush and mudbox. you do character concepts and matte painting.

It has pretty much everything you would need to get your hands on to go for being a concept artist. the teachers have done well for themselves as well so they have a few contacts under their belt to help a bit too.

Its something i would honestly say you should look in to more. it provides the same things gnomon and FZD do except in the case of FZD it extends it over 3 years.

either way though man you wont go wrong with choosing any of them so dont go crazy over choice or anything  

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XavierWard In reply to Dale-Walters [2013-12-15 11:50:31 +0000 UTC]

ok, so not too much emphasis on it then, good

I was actually interested in learning a bit of Zbrush because ive seen that used really well in concepts, cant do any harm to learn!

the student loan is a lot more attractive than 10 grand in america straight up!

wow i never really gave it a second thought after i saw 3d but it actually sounds pretty perfect, im just not sure what I should be doing now- i was originally going to do a design foundation, gap year, gnomon- but now it may be 1 yr Foundation, 1yr gap year, 3/4 yr staffs which is around 6 years of art education!! hopefully all for free practically which would be niice.

what is the uni life like though? i read one review that was scathing of it, and others that said it was good- whats the night life etc like? 

good halls? also, I know its a bit of a silly question, but what is the guy/girl split like on the games design course? i would imagine predominantly guys? Ive heard the local area is a bit rough?

any help would be awesome because I need to apply by the 15th of jan!! i think i may see if i can decide what to do after my foundation year and buy myself some time. thanks very much for the reminder of it though, its a very real possibility i hadnt thought of

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Dale-Walters In reply to XavierWard [2013-12-15 14:55:46 +0000 UTC]

its cool man. the review is right on the night life, its pretty dull. that being in terms of the uni area. there's a couple of places to go in Stafford town but not amazing.  reason being is that the guy to irl ratio is very very heavy on guys in the stafford campus. you could by all means remedy this by going to the sister campus in stoke about a 30min bus ride which the uni has 2 shuttle buses that run off every hour to take students. the girls are pretty much all over there. only problem is that stoke is a shit hole XD. stafford isn't very rough i have to say. at least ive not encountered anyone trying to pick fights or try to rob me.

i started this course when i was 24 and with me personally im glad i started it so late because i can really appreciate all the content staffs provide and use it to my full advantage where as if i was younger i know i wouldn't have taken it as seriously. in one respect you dont get the student high life of parties but that's by no means saying you cant have fun here. i will say it does a great for work since there's so few distractions haha.

the stoke campus is pretty damn fresh. its got nice computers. nice eating quarters and is just generally a nice place to work at no issues there. the halls are 50/50 i personally liked them a lot some people got bogged down by the white walls and such but its noting a couple posters cant fix. the rooms in halls have a fairly big desk a single bed. a wardrobe, draws and a sink and if you pay a little extra you can get an on suite as well but i wouldn't recommend it since its 1000 extra and they provide 2 bathrooms in standard halls so you'll never really be out of luck when you need to go 

nothing wrong with taking a couple extra years to grow as an artist and in skill and then go hard at it in a focused direction. because you only get the government loan for 4 years so you need to be prepared to make them count and put the work in.

so to sum up

Night life- there's only a couple of clubs to go to unless you go to stoke. 

Course content is everything you need.

and the town isn't as rough as you've heard (at least im comfortable to go out at 2am-4am and get snacks and stuff on my own)

Halls and campus are a nice place to be- theres also tons of houses that are close to go to in 2nd year as well

I believe thats everything. any more questions man just feel free to ask. just know theres no rush in applying for stuff now. you got plenty of time whether you do it this year or in a couple years time or even longer lol XD

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