For five months, I had the opportunity to take part in a pop-up run by local film studio Treehouse Digital. Over the course of the internship, I tried an array of different roles across all stages of the pipeline, such as hard surface modelling, texturing and building environments.
Although the course I'm studying is game-focused and this internship was for film, there was a large overlap as Treehouse uses a lot of the same software we use on BA (Hons) Games Art and Design.
One big adjustment I had to make at the beginning of the internship was changing modelling software. Before, I only had experience in Blender, however Treehouse used something different. In the interview, I remember being told I needed to ‘hit the ground running’ and leading up to the internship, I felt quite a bit of pressure to do so. I actually surprised myself at how quickly I was able to adjust, and a contributing factor was the work environment and team, who were constantly there and able to provide support.
A normal day would consist of partaking in dailies, where everyone would gather around and we’d show our progress, get feedback and discuss what we were doing that day. Dailies really help you get back into the right mindset, and remind yourself of the work you've done previously. After these were finished, we’d spend the rest of the time working with the other students as well as the brilliant staff at Treehouse.
I feel blessed to have had an opportunity like this, as well as being able to have worked alongside so many amazing people.
Studying Games Art and Design has also been an incredible experience, with my favourite project so far being my latest, as it made me really look inward and assess what I wanted to do in the future. The first half of the project involved looking back at my old work and figuring out my current and desired skill set, then researching the part of the gaming industry I would like to go into. This research then informed the second half, where I was tasked with creating a portfolio-ready piece of work.
For this, I created a piece of character concept art for a world I came up with during my first year. This world is a post-climate collapse setting, where everything has been flooded and is primarily an ocean. The character was inspired by old diving gear, and I researched into old Soviet oil towns.
If I had any advice to give, it would be:
- Try to learn a bit about the roles around you. If you can understand what they need from you, it’ll make working in teams go a lot smoother.
- Try to branch out. Create something different, or use a different software or medium, as you might find something else you enjoy!
