Gurus and Grasshoppers

As 3^rd years, we have been given the task to help the new first years with some side line projects. This is to help really throw them into learning these new skills and putting them to the test. We are in charge of setting them projects and we write up the brief and requirements ourselves. We hold meetings too however the turn out hasn’t been too great. I

We set a couple of brief’s, and marked the first one. However, the turn out of the first years work handed in wasn’t 100%. The actual turn out to meetings was less than a quarter of the group. We tried

our best to make them understand how valuable extra tuition from 3^rd years would benefit them, yet for the majority it fell on deaf ears.

Here is the first page of my brief. We each took a turn in writing a brief up.

We asked them to make a simple c;aw machine, We gave them additional tris, to make one of the toys you'd win in the machine, just to try and tie them together and give the project a theme. The student that did take part seemed enthusiastic about the project and I did see some of their progress. 

Later on in the year I had a first year ask for some tips on digital panting. I decided to put a PhotoShop file together that took them through a step by step guide, for the basics of painting in PhotoShop. Below are the pages, I also gave them a couple of simple tasks to do.

Unfortunately, nobody showed me any work based from this. However is wasn’t compulsory, but I felt my efforts were a little wasted, but I do remember being in first year and avoiding grasshopper projects like the plague. I think that’s hindsight right there.

If anything, being a guru helped with reassuring myself of the knowledge I've learnt during my time at De Montfort myself. This was always a good thing for me to do, as you can easily get caught up in where you're at now in the 3rd year. So looking back and being around first years really helps with realising your own progress as a game artist.