SofieGraham In reply to JoltChaser [2011-03-08 10:24:52 +0000 UTC]

hello! thanks!

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SofieGraham In reply to greengulpin [2011-03-03 12:16:10 +0000 UTC]

thanks!

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SofieGraham In reply to nenuno [2011-02-09 01:14:05 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Daniel, that's very kind of you to showcase my work! I'll throw a tweet up for your site.

Cheerio!

Sofs

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SofieGraham In reply to Destro7000 [2010-12-19 21:08:28 +0000 UTC]

Aha, yes only a person with a keen eye and good taste would notice 'thants'. I thoroughly enjoy all of the aforementioned shows. Well done sir!

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SofieGraham In reply to goldnlief [2010-12-11 17:01:21 +0000 UTC]

thanks very much!

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SofieGraham In reply to mrConceptual [2010-11-27 00:27:22 +0000 UTC]

Hey there Taz! Thanks! Life is preetttyyyy good I reckon, just very busy with uni and stuff, but it's all good. How's you? What you up to at the mo sir?

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mrConceptual In reply to SofieGraham [2010-11-27 14:09:48 +0000 UTC]

Yup, 3rd year's pretty hard work! I'm good thanks, just work atm really. Got this weekend off so just looking for inspiration to kick start a project of some sort. i'm thinking a couple of character and a load of concept art. really wanna get a decent portfolio together and get a job!

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SofieGraham In reply to mrConceptual [2010-11-27 20:28:15 +0000 UTC]

where were you thinking of applying?

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mrConceptual In reply to SofieGraham [2010-11-27 23:49:06 +0000 UTC]

i really dont know, i quite like character art and concept art but both are gonna take a lot of dedication. i haven't done any modelling since finishing uni which is pretty stoopid! buttt i'm still painting and sketching here and there so we'll see, im gonna do a lil' mixture of 3d and concept art and just tailor my cv and portfolio to whatever jobs i eventually apply for. as far as jobs go i'll work anywhere if it's a decent opportunity. you?

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SofieGraham In reply to mrConceptual [2010-11-28 11:55:34 +0000 UTC]

same really, just apply for any decent opportunity anywhere in the world and keep my fingers crossed. I shall look forward to seeing more of your work posted here on DA then yah!

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mrConceptual In reply to SofieGraham [2010-11-30 23:53:44 +0000 UTC]

yeah, i guess that's the way forward. i'd love to work and travel really. work shall be posted soon! tried a speedpaint the other day. failed miserably. gonna try again now, see what i can do in 30mins! =]

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SofieGraham In reply to mrConceptual [2010-12-01 00:05:53 +0000 UTC]

oo cool, well upload it when you're done!

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mrConceptual In reply to SofieGraham [2010-12-01 00:19:37 +0000 UTC]

haha, it's gonna be shit.

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SofieGraham In reply to Cique [2010-11-26 16:30:59 +0000 UTC]

ah yes I've seen this artist before, fantastic painting ability, but his style is one that I am less attracted to. I'm not sure why. But yes he's very good!

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SofieGraham In reply to greengulpin [2010-10-26 00:01:17 +0000 UTC]

no worries, it's nice to have comments to read

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greengulpin In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-26 10:46:27 +0000 UTC]

okay XD

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SofieGraham In reply to greengulpin [2010-10-14 20:28:55 +0000 UTC]

yes

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greengulpin In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-14 21:34:29 +0000 UTC]

thats what i thought, the name sounded familiar ^^

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SofieGraham In reply to Cique [2010-10-13 01:43:05 +0000 UTC]

ha yeah they are quite fun, what are you up to now then?

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Cique In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-13 19:17:11 +0000 UTC]

Not much >.>

Attempting to find work in all sectors, though seems pretty much impossible.
Got some work up as T-shirts and prints around, just keep trying different things to see if something pays off I suppose.
But yeah a bit disheartening when you can't even get an interview in a bar/factory/cleaner >.>

Doom and gloom etc

Apparently they started the 3rd year showing my work off in D&C3 to 'inspire peoples', lol They should have given me a first in that case

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SofieGraham In reply to Cique [2010-10-14 20:40:18 +0000 UTC]

you didnt get a first?? but he said 'and these are a selection of works from the people who got firsts' what a lying nincompoop.

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Cique In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-14 21:58:35 +0000 UTC]

Nah, got a 2:1, 3%ish off a first; Herb implied that I would get like 98% on D&C3 and quote 'there is nothing you could do to improve this' but I got 78%, which is still pretty good but obviously there WAS stuff that could be improved upon.

I guess 78% is a first in D&C3; just not one overall. Apparently the university only likes the non-challenging TEH PRETTIEZ PIKTCHORZE in the personal project, so yeah only a bit bitter about it lol

I have a large essay somewhere of complaints about the university and the marking system , though the university has apparently changed some things cause of one letter I wrote to them; so I guess not all bad.

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SofieGraham In reply to Cique [2010-10-15 10:20:36 +0000 UTC]

Ahh well 3% off is ok I suppose. I'm swamped with work right now, but hopefully I'll do well...unless their marking system bites me in the ass...

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Cique In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-15 12:09:58 +0000 UTC]

Well judging from your latest work I'm sure you'll do great.

I suppose in summary of the 3rd year I would suggest don't do the Animation module unless you want about 6 times more work, do Game Futures where 100% of the mark is a 3000 word essay (whereas 10% of Animation is a 3000 word essay); in Games Development be the team member who does no work as everyone in the group gets the same mark and the exact same feedback despite each person having to write an individual report; and lastly do a main project along one of these lines - 10 pictures of the quality of your call centre one, or accurately model yourself or your room... do not do games design, a design document, or any concept art, especially do nothing original as the university won't have anything to compare it against, and don't write a 25,000 word report or your tutors will get bored or not understand it, write around 12,000-15,000.

They are some of the traps I fell into, it seems me and a few other people I know have found that even if you work hard all year and to a high quality it counts for nothing in a lot of cases due to the marking system, but there we go.
I hope that helps somewhat... at least you know not to do what I did

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SofieGraham In reply to Cique [2010-10-17 17:46:23 +0000 UTC]

Games Futures involves a 50% groupwork this year, some kind of presentation, so I'm avoiding that. As for games development, I have a really great team and I intend to boost em up as much as I can by working hard at that module, we really want a first for that one. I take it you had some bad experiences with that module? Nigel Kitching is my tutor and he seems to understand my project pretty well, essentially it will be based around PRETTY PIKCHORES, but with game design as well, but I'm gonna keep it simple so the markers can understand it. Sounds like there's a lot of traps to fall into!

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Cique In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-18 11:45:12 +0000 UTC]

Well like I said they said they will have changed some parts cause of angry letters and council meetings from me so there could be less traps now sounds like Games Futures had changed at least.

Well for Games Development I enjoyed it in the main and it was a good experience but there seemed to be just as much work for that module as there was for the final year project when I did it, it didn't help that all the programmers quit so it left 2 artists and 2 designers to program the game
I suppose the thing was that our team leader was great and he took on a load of extra work, like learning how to program flash from scratch, while I actually finished all my work for that module by only working on that 1 for the first term, so doing all the concept art, all the modelling sheets and all the 3D animations, plus logos and other art assets; so a lot of work. However when the programmers literally disappeared from the university I then had to convert every frame and angle of the 3D animations into a sprite to put into flash, which took a frustratingly long time, and taking more time away from my main project. Meanwhile the other artist in my group actually complained when he had to re-do something that took him 20 mins to do and 20 mins to fix.
I guess I'm pissed cause I had the most work in the group to start with, then when the programmers quit halfway through the year my work for that module doubled, while the member who had the least work to do at the start with actually got less work to do when they quit due to the roles that were assigned to us, and then he goes and complains about 20 minutes of extra work.
Then when we wrote our Individual Reports we all wrote about what work we did what other work others did, positives and negatives of the team members, and checked them all as a group, and we all expected to get different marks based upon each of our work, efforts and report. Some of us thought something along the lines of Team Leader - 85%, me - 80%, other designer - 70%, afore mentioned annoying member - 50%. Instead we got about an average of 70% given to each of us with word for word the same feedback, I'm pretty sure they didn't even read the individual reports, and I'm very pissed about the fact all the weeks of work I put into it served to give me a lower mark in the end and carried the worst member up like 20% (because of which got him a 1st while I got a 2:1, because he didn't do the Animation module and did his main project in the last month, very fair).

In other words I feel the whole of university was a waste of my time because of luck over hard work. If I had taken Games Futures or Special Effects I would have got a 1st, silly me thinking all the optional modules would be equal, if D&C3 didn't give me contradictory feedback I would have got a first, if Games Development had been marked fairly I would have got a first, and if I hadn't tried to do anything original for my main project I would have got a first. Any 1 of those 4 things would have easily raised my mark by 3%.
I'm not just annoyed for myself cause I don't mind that much getting a 2:1, but I'm very annoyed by those getting a first when they didn't even work for it, just seeming to luck into it. I know 2 people who got firsts and did no work most of the year and what they did wasn't difficult, or even that good, just accidentally ticked the right boxes (arbitrary boxes that you can't see), while I know 4 people who got 2:1s or 2:2s whose work was better and who worked harder for it.

The whole system just seems unfair.

My project was mainly about pictures too, being concept art, and I thought my tutor understood it well also :/ and I even saw my second reader a few weeks earlier at Expotees and explained my whole project to him and he was really interested in it and even gave me his number, but then when I did my project presentation he said he had never met me before... which was nice, and then he goes on to say how he doesn't 'get' my project and seemed to be confused about whether the work was mine or not? I wrote many times through my report what I was trying to achieve and referenced every source I used... it was really weird, again I'm not sure he even read my report, or only skimmed it at least. My best friend had a similar problem, he was told by his tutor to do his report one way, which my friend disagreed with and thought he should do it another way, but he still did it as his tutor said, then in his presentation his tutor and second reader said he did his report in a strange way and should have done it a different way (the different way being the way my friend wanted to do it in the first place); and they too asked him things in such a way that implied they had only skimmed the report... they just all seem like idiots :<

An even longer reply, I think that's probably long enough
Sorry about all that :/

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SofieGraham In reply to Cique [2010-10-20 10:14:44 +0000 UTC]

I've heard a lot of bad stories about lame tutors and unfair marks and peoples marks being dragged down due to nonsense, and on the other side I've heard of people doing really well in say 3 modules and failing poorly in the 4th so the uni just don't count that last module because they feel that 'something must have obviously gone wrong' so it doesn't count and those people end up getting firsts over all. The whole thing is ludicrous and I will smite any tutor who stands in the way of my grades, but unfortunately I am a slave to the system and can only keep my fingers crossed...

LAME!

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Cique In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-20 16:42:43 +0000 UTC]

Yeah at the very beginning of the year we had to go to a lecture about grades and how like you say if you do badly in one module it doesn't count, if you get like 68% overall they round it up to 70% so you get a first, and stuff like if in second year you got over 70% you only need like 65% in the final year.

When I complained about all the things I previously said they just sent back a letter about how the tutors and moderators are infallible and how the university doesn't make mistakes and refused to do anything.

So yeah, lame

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SofieGraham In reply to Cique [2010-10-22 16:03:27 +0000 UTC]

eeeep. I'll just have to keep my head down. I just found out that Herb is my second reader, which is lame because he doesn't 'get' video games and will thus not understand my design project...

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Cique In reply to SofieGraham [2010-10-22 17:34:12 +0000 UTC]

Hmm, well Herb was pretty good in general I thought while I was there... but maybe I'm biased cause he liked my pictures
From what I could gather the second readers that people thought would be bad were good, and visa versa. So that's kind of positive

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