3D Games Art

Hi there! I'm Maxine and I'm a first year game art student.

I don't know how much you know about the course, but you should know that all courses in the animation department at Herts (3D game art, 3D animation, VFX, 2D animation) are all taught generally the same in the first year (2D animation splits off a lot in the second semester, though). As such, many of the assignments you'll do may not be ones directly related to games. You'll be expected to do a lot of both 2D and 3D work in the first year, and then you can begin to specialise into second year and beyond.

As for my timetable and how much work is involved, the course is, with all honesty, intense. My timetable is five days a week, usually 10am-5pm with an hour break for lunch in between. You will almost always have multiple briefs at the same time, with various different deadlines, so learning to organise and plan your time effectively will be something that will massively help you out - for instance, in semester A, there's a 3D brief which is set at the end of September and has a deadline and the start of January, and if you don't plan your time effectively, you might not have much of a Christmas break! I am working on coursework most weekends and evenings, as well, but it is very important to look after yourself in spite of intense workloads. If you ever encounter issues with the coursework, including feeling stressed from it, the tutors are very approachable and can offer support for it.

If you want to learn more about the course, feel free to DM me. Best of luck, look forward to seeing you in September!

Thank you so much for the info and for reaching out. I'm hoping on getting invited to an interview this week or next. I'll be hopefully going as an international student from the US, so understanding the timetable helps a ton since I'm still deciding whether I'll have enough time to do work-study. Would you say you get free time to yourself as long as you do the workload assigned right away or is it constant stress to get things done? Do you have advice for the portfolio interview? Again thank you!

If you manage your time effectively, I think it should be possible to have free time. The key is to try and do work for all briefs alongside each other, chipping away at everything slowly over time, rather than letting things pile up right up until the week or so before a deadline. I manage my time by setting daily goals of what I want to get done by the end of the day. If you're planning on having a part time job during the course, I should warn that you could find yourself short on time to do coursework, based on what I've observed of other students having to do that. I know that the tutors have before given people extensions if they have part time jobs, though, so it's maybe something that is possible with the right preparation. I would suggest emailing a tutor about it before the course starts to hear what they suggest.

Edit: Whoops, re-read and saw that you asked for portfolio advice. My biggest advice is to have 3D work in your portfolio and familiarise yourself with at least one 3D package before the course starts, especially Blender or Maya. The tutors want to know that it's something you enjoy doing before you start the course, and getting over that really steep learning curve to learning 3D before the course starts will mean you're not pressed to learn everything with a deadline. The tutors do teach software assuming you've never opened it before, but having a foundational knowledge of 3D will help you out so much. Furthermore, it's good to have some idea of what you're interested in doing in industry - are you interested in 3D environment art? Character art? Concept art? Tech art? Animation, etc.? I understand that you're an international student, so they'll probably forgive you for not going, but having knowledge of the UK games industry specifically will appeal to your interviewer a lot. They might also want to know if you plan to work in the UK after graduation or if you plan to go back to the US. Life drawing and perspective drawing are also a really good thing to have in your portfolio. Generally, the tutors prioritise 2D skills over 3D skills, but having both will look awesome.

There are a lot of international students on this course, so I hope you should feel right at home!

Best of luck with your interview!!