Meeting Roger Chamberlain

   Yesterday I had the exciting opportunity to meet the Art Director of Dire Wolf Digital, Roger Chamberlain thanks to my Game Animation teacher Cliff. It was a real eye-opening experience and we were fortunate to get some critique on our portfolios and really take another glance at where we have been going with RMCAD and where we need to start honing in our skills. For me I had a lot of presentation fallacies particularly in the manner of which pieces were ordered. Roger explained how certain methods of presenting can make or break you when showing to potential employers- particularly in the 3D department. I know that 3D is my weakest attribute and I'm still struggling to decide where I want to see it develop if at all. (Considering what I love to do is mostly 2D its hard to say when I'm looking at graduation in a couple of semesters.)
   I like to visualize Roger's critique of the portfolio overall as being given a sapling--but first we had to cut down the tree already in place. By doing so we gathered what was useful and kept it as kindle then took what wasn't which in my case was my 3D and less powerful compositions and shred them. Then we talked about what wasn't present at all and tools we could use to make a better tree- so referencing and checking value with tools that won't lie to you like your eyes can sometimes. I intend to take this sapling and grow a bigger, more fruitful tree through the course of the next semester. Of course down the road we're going to have to chop it down again and continue the process. Chopping down a tree and watching it crash is not a painful thing if you make sure it doesn't hit your house- I feel the same about critique and while its a very scary thing to walk into walking out of it leaves you glowing and thirsting for more knowledge (because when you're not welcoming to critique it can feel like your home collapsed on itself. )
   I couldn't be more thankful to both Cliff and Roger for bringing back solid and honest critique back into my life. For a while I was beginning to miss it. Where I want to go with my art is a place nobody gets to without working really hard for it and I want to be able to show in my work has gone through that process. In the future I hope to be able to showcase work that's not only high quality but also proves my ability to produce accurately to given specs applicable to any studio scenario.