This year has been pretty okay. Not only is it my last year in high school, but it's also my last year of Game Design. In the beginning, I had a pretty basic grasp of the industry and the things that went into it, but I didn't really know much about the various careers associated with it, or the legal aspects tied to said careers. This all changed over the first quarter because of the units associated with both topics, and through those I learned a lot. The lesson that had the biggest impact on me as a game design student was the personal project unit. This is because it was entirely unstructured and left it up to you to utilize your skills and bring them together to create your own game. I liked this unit a lot because I feel it's indicative of working in not only the games industry, but industries such as graphic design and video editing. As much as I learned from the career practices unit, if I had to pick one to be removed from the course as a whole, that's the one I would choose. I feel like getting right into coding, modeling, and Unity would be extremely beneficial, especially for students (like me) who hadn't actually done any over the summer so they could get their muscle memory back on those programs, instead of letting their knowledge of them deteriorate with time. In order to better prepare students for a future in the game industry, the course can be improved in stressing the independent project more, and maybe even making it something that's started much earlier in the year. Having something big like that to work towards does something to a student's motivation, and as mentioned earlier it gives them experience with working with deadlines in the industry. Since I'm not going to be here for Advanced Studies, this year has helped me prepare mostly for college. From my "reliable" sources, I've been told that college is similar to how things work in here, more or less. You're given an assignment, as well as a deadline, and you're basically told to go wild. There's none of the hand-holding that's been so prevalent throughout high school. Instead, everything is left up to you. If you get something done great, and if you don't, oh well. Also, the fact that there's no powerlunch associated with this class helps to drive this point further. You don't really have anyone else to blame but yourself (and Unity) for the grade that you get in the class, which I think goes a long way in preparing students for the real world. Course Map for the Year
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I've found the video editing assignments to be really easy, mostly because they're the same ones that I did in freshman year. The story video, which would've taken me a week and a half three years ago, now only takes me a few hours to complete. I've learned a lot in the past three years, not just about Premiere Pro and how it works, but also about editing. Doing most of the editing for the Blackspace documentary last summer taught me a lot when it comes to editing a professional project, and I've gotten some additional experience from the various assignment videos that I've had to make for various classes. Even though my main interest is in writing, I still recognize how invaluable having editing and cinematic experience is, especially for something like self-promotion and marketing. Instead of paying someone to put together a promo video for me, I can just make one on my own, and alternatively if I really wanted to, I could charge people to do that for them once I get a video portfolio together. I think the biggest roadblock for me at the moment is technical difficulties. Things not sending, files corrupting etc.
This channel really taught me a lot when it comes to editing and cinematography: https://www.youtube.com/user/everyframeapainting One of the first videos that taught me how to use Premiere Pro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzO3vrFaPRU |
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