Yr 2 Week1: A Reflection of Year 1 and Action Plan

The first critical studies task of the year had us not only creating these new blogs, but looking back over the previous year and discussing with small groups in our seminar some of the key good and bad points of the year.

Overall, we all seemed to share similar opinions, and most people seemed to have mainly negative criticism. However we have grown up in a harsh and critical society where we are told that we don't know enough, and that there's always more we can learn, which can be both good and bad; as we don't give ourselves enough credit when due, but also meaning that we never stop striving to achieve more.

I'll start off with my three positive points of the year, which were repeated quite often in the group:

• I passed first year!

• I learnt knew software to a point in which I am now comfortable.

• I feel like I am progressing to where I would like to be in the future.

I think the above points are quite self-explanatory. Positives were quite difficult to come up with, as it is easier to see the flaws in your own work than to see the good points, we are our own worst critics. But i think the first point, me passing the first year, sums up that I must be doing something right.

My negative points were:

• I had bad time-management.

• Punctuality.

• Wasn't too pleased with my grades.

The negative points are a little less self-explanatory. The point addressing time-management could be debatable, as I'm not sure it was that I didn't manage my time correctly, more so that I didn't have enough time to do all of the things which I wanted to do. Balancing university work, personal work, socialising, visiting friends & family back at home, relaxing and playing games is quite a difficult challenge, and I often ended up neglecting a few of these throughout certain points of the year.

I think the main point I would like to improve on is my punctuality. Although I complete my work in time, I am not often in labs, as I've always found it quite easy to sit happily by myself at home with a cup of tea in my pajamas doing my work there instead. I know I can function well in a group environment, as for two summers in a row now I have pushed myself to go into work every day apart from when I have been foricebly sent home by my managers due to illness, but I think I need to get into a routine where I am to go into labs at a certain time every day, and stay there until a certain time every day, even if I have no scheduled lectures or classes.

My action plan to improve my negative points consists of:

• Coming into labs more and spending more time in their as discussed above

• Learn new software and techniques such as zbrush, PBR and how to use normal maps

• More experimentation to push my design work out of my comfort zone to come up with more exciting and interesting ideas