The degree I am studying is changing a lot next year, and so after being shown the new modules for next year’s first, second, and third years, we were given the opportunity to suggest changes and improvements. The benefits of hindsight that somebody who has already studied the course has can help to give a different viewpoint on things than a lecturer might have.
One of the changes to the course I was most pleased with was the change to the first semester of second year. Studying a character modelling, environment art and animation module at the same time allows a student to decide which of these main disciplines most interests them, at a relatively early stage in the course. This gives the student more time to explore and practice the specific skills they will need for their chosen career. In turn, graduates from the course will already have more specialized skills which will help them to find employment.
Although my education has mostly been of a good standard, there have been modules which I have had issues with. The main one of these was Drawing and Visualization. I felt that a lot of this module was too seperate from other modules – for example, we spent almost an entire semester studying storyboarding and animatics, which won’t be used in other modules, whereas we had only a few weeks of character or environment design; the main focus of a lot of the course. I felt that the module would have been more useful with more emphasis on concepting, including things like character and environment design, prop design and lighting. Making the module more relevant to what most students will be creating in other modules will, I think, make more people understand the benefits of being able to visualize an idea in 2D.
