Ok so here goes, as Ben-Kenobi once said “You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” This is in fact my first attempt ever at creating a blog. So please let me start by telling you a little about myself, my early years, what inspired me and the adventures I’ve been on until now.
Being brought up in a very creative family through my learning years it became clear at an early age that I certainly wasn’t going to be a mathematician or the next budding scientist. Growing up in a generation when imagination is what you used to immerse yourself into fictional worlds…long before the supreme creation that is the computer game and did it all for you.
I always enjoyed drawing as I grew up, entering competitions in school, and illustrating stories for school projects, even though my dear English teacher didn’t request it and often resulted in me being told “You need to spend more time on the essay Christian and not the drawing”. But hey ho I had fun nonetheless!.
But what really got me into drawing was the now almost obsolete game called ‘Dungeons & Dragons’, a board game like no other, forget ‘Monopoly’, forget ‘The Game of Life’, this was a game which had no limits.
Dungeons & Dragons: Designers Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.Published: by TSR, Wizards of the Coast. Publication: 1974
‘Dungeons & Dragons’ was a structured yet open-ended role-playing game. Played indoors with my brothers and a bunch of my mates we often all huddled around the kitchen table, stacked up with rations (ie. a packet of bourbons and a cuppa tea) as the adventure took place. Tiny metal miniatures placed on hand drawn maps with dice at the ready and character sheets poised in-front of you as you prepare to scribble down your new found treasure and experience points.
A typical character sheet, your minature or hero and the many dice needed to play.
As geeky as it sounds ‘D&D’ was what really got me into drawing, I often found myself imagining the worlds our characters ventured in and exactly what our characters looked like and the enemies we faced like Orcs, Dragons, Ogres etc. I began drawing everything and found myself being inspired by so many fantasy artists at the time, such as Frank Frazetta, Alan Lee, Ian Mcaig, Paul Bonner, Simon Bisley to name but a few. I found myself buying so many comics during this period, 2000ad being one of my favourites at the time, no sooner I’d have my pocket money it was gone, I found myself taking on more paper rounds to feed my habit.
2000 ad Comic: 26th February 1977 to present.
Art and illustration from here was where I wanted to go, so from the moment I was able to choose my GCSE’s it was art all the way. Always out and about on various art trips and living near the countryside I was never short of things to draw. As much as I loved to draw fantasy scenarios with goblins being decapitated or magic missiles blasting there way through doors my art teacher informed me of the importance of drawing from life and to draw exactly what I saw if I was to improve any.
Around this time the home computer was something of a marvel too, the first of which my brothers and I shared was the ZX Sinclair Spectrum 48k. The Spectrum was among the first mainstream audience home computers in the UK, similar in significance to the Commodore 64 in the USA. The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware for the machine, the effects of which are still seen, some credit it as the machine which launched the UK IT industry.
1982, The ZX Spectrum, Generation 8bit.
Times were changing fast, computer games simply rocketed onto the scene, technology was growing at such a pace, it was tough to keep up. Nonetheless I had the fortune of seeing all this happen growing up through this generation was simply amazing. Coming from a time when the games I knew were all on a board or from a book to something that was in full colour and I could play on a TV screen.
Time swiftly moved on and before I knew it my A-levels were upon me, deciding that art was what I truly enjoyed and my new found love of computers and the boom of the games industry I decided to channel my interests into the relevant qualifications needed. After an arduous two years I managed to pass, and so began my first steps of being an adult. With the basics of drawing under my belt, I continued to draw on a regular basis, with any spare time I had building a portfolio for yet another interest I pursued.
It was a course at college which specialized in multimedia, here I would learn industry knowledge taught by some fantastic tutors. Learning the fundamentals of video editing through back then U-matic videotapes and how to film with video cameras and the principles behind it. Finally taking our filmed footage and laying down soundtracks manually. Alongside all this we learned how to storyboard and prepare a script in correct format. What I learned here albeit now slightly outdated when it comes to the equipment used, but essentially the core skills still apply today making it such a valued experience.
U-matic is an analog recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969.
After this fantastic course and with my love of multimedia at an all time high I decided to take things further by going to university to study Graphic Design. With the Apple Macintosh now gaining popularity within the design industry, I felt this could be yet another string to my bow incorporating traditional hand drawn design elements with the computer software used in the industry. Then, Adobe Photoshop 1.0 used for photo manipulation and freehand or Illustrator used for vector based imagery.
Apple Power Macintosh G3 (Minitower)
Studying the history of design was truly an eye opening experience for me, understanding the whole thought process behind design, white space, typography, balance, rule of thirds, colour theory, all principles that makes for good practice when designing an idea. Here, I also had the chance to learn new methods and design techniques, continual line drawing, silk screen printing to name a few. Designing logos and corporate identities, page layouts, business cards, multimedia websites, were just a few things I had the opportunity to learn here. At the end of three years this was a great grounding in preparation for the industry.
Finally, I finished university and was lucky enough to land a job in a small design studio, which to my surprise taught me so much more about the industry. Deadlines were my first lesson….Never miss them!! I learned that one extremely fast. It was a brutal wake-up call but one I’m thankful for now. The turn around for work was really something else, having a day if you were lucky on some designs and hours on another. Having the interaction with the clients was also a priceless experience, it was like having mini critiques on a regular basis, their feedback essential to answering the set brief.
With two big contracts for the National Ice Hockey League in the UK, I was part of a team that was responsible for all the designs for promotional and advertising memorabilia for the teams. Aside from this, it was nice to quite often get opportunities to design promo packs for independent companies, where you had free reign on ideas etc. With all the design side came the knowledge of print and how it worked. Learning how two and four colour presses worked in combination to CYMK breakdowns was truly fascinating and an art in itself. Being shown how to process film and learning a dying art of stripping in film when required and processing to plate before it hit the press was really a start to finish job.
And so I bring you up to date now some years on…. where I felt it was time to complete a dream I had all those years back.
I am currently in my 3rd year of a BA Computer Animation Degree at The University of South Wales. I specialise mainly as an animator but have sufficient knowledge in rigging and 3D modelling also.
I primarily use Autodesk Maya, Mudbox, Motionbuilder, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe In-Design. QuarkXpress. I also have some experience with Autodesk 3Ds Max.
Having been lucky enough to have done illustration and graphic design in previous jobs prior to this degree, I thoroughly enjoy the whole process of design, from the initial thumbnails to concept, storyboards, to final rendered idea. Taking this from paper to the computer is really what I enjoy most, with my newly acquired skills in 3D I am able to take my ideas to another level, incorporating all the principles and experience I’ve picked up along the way.
I promise faithfully I will update as much as possible ‘cough’ with various pieces of university projects and personal work I am currently ploughing my way through. I hope you enjoy the journey.
Y’all come back now.
Christian
christianfletcherstuff.wordpress.com 